Plusnet or BT - ADSL ?????

[deejayburnout]

Peeps

Moving home in the next month and currently with sky.

Due to my new house being more rural than my existing house, sky say they cannot give me the same unlimited broadband package as I have just now so they are cancelling my contract early. (how nice of them)

Now I need to move providers and only Plusnet and BT are the only two who can offer me an unlimited broadband package.

Who is best to choose.??

BT are offering speeds of up to 6MB
Plusnet are offering up to 16MB
Sky did say that if I stayed with them with a limited package I would get speeds of up to 9MB. (not that I am).

I am under no impression that I will get faster from either of them, I just think all will be around the same speed. I am looking at more quality/service/stability/throttling and range/power of wireless routers.

I am coming from a 18MB package from sky, so a bit gutted about the speed drop but the house is nice.

My new exchange is under evaluation for fibre so hopefully soon it will have it.

My biggest question is that my flat and my new house are about the same distance from there respective exchanges yet my flat gets 18MB and my new house will about 6MB? What's up with that?

Any help would be chumtastic.

[Rob_B]

I think both will offer an upgrade to fibre as/when it arrives. What's your exchange?

Strange that the estimates are so different, you're right that you should get the same from both.

Congrats on the new house, moving up or down?

[deejayburnout]

My new exchange is Kinglassie.

Thanks Rob. New house is 3 bed semi. Cannot wait to move away from this flat of mine.

[Rob_B]

Nice, enjoy the space!

No LLU or anything on your exchange
Pop round mine for big downloads as I'm getting Plusnet fibre next week (~55Mb, not rubbing it in or anything )

[deejayburnout]

Whats LLU?

[Rob_B]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local-loop_unbundling

For us users it just means cheaper BB

[deejayburnout]

Lol. I Google after I typed the question.

Whats plusnets gear Like. Good quality?

[Rob_B]

No idea yet, they provide the Technicolour 582n which isn't anything special but it's provided for £5.99 postage so it'll do!

[peterb]

I think both will offer an upgrade to fibre as/when it arrives. What's your exchange?

Strange that the estimates are so different, you're right that you should get the same from both.

Congrats on the new house, moving up or down?

The cable distance from the exchange may be different, or the cable may be older/poorer quality. Is there a significant difference in the age of the two properties? Newer infrastructure may have better performance.

[BobF64]

BT are offering speeds of up to 6MB
Plusnet are offering up to 16MB

I'm surprised by that.

To get 16mbps the exchange must be ADSL2+, and Plusnet is a BT subsidiary as well as a BT line user, so I'm wondering why you get 2 different max speeds for what will be the same underlying system.

You might want to ask BT to recheck the line based on Plusnets quoted speed.

But, based on you saying its more rural, 6mbps might actually be the speed you get, even from Plusnet.

[rharper83]

I can vouch for Plusnet's service. Have been with them for a couple of years now, and not had any problems at all.

They stated that we'd get around 11Mb, and we do, so they are pretty accurate. Having said that, BT said we'd get the same, so I'm also a bit confused as to the different max speeds that you've been offered?

[MrJim]

I'm currently with Sky, but I'm thinking of moving to another unlimited ISP once my contact is up. I've not used this ISP before, but I came across it via a Topcashback ad. Their prices are keen, & they're...er...unlimited:

http://www.primussaver.co.uk/fibre-broadband-38mb.html

[badsyntax]

Yeah it's the same TG582n as BE offered (and Zen and others). £5.99 delivered so if you want a default/backup then it's OK. If you need one later then you can pick them up unused on eBay for low prices too.

I moved from BE/Sky this month to Plusnet and it was painless. I did pick up a static IP for a £5 one-off charge as it's handy for a few things I use.

I didn't use the TG582n here, I just waited for the activation SMS and changed my existing router to the new settings, rebooted and it's all good.

Remember and do the referral thing if you go to Plusnet. They've got a mobile-friendly 0345 support number too. I know the new law changes support lines in June but Plusnet are ahead of it.

[scaryjim]

... (~55Mb, not rubbing it in or anything )

Good luck with that I'm rarely seeing more than 20mbps download, despite estimates being north of 50! That's what I get for living in Manchester, I guess - heavily congested exchanges

The Technicolor is a great ADSL modem router, but I'm not sure I'd want it on fibre - it should work, but I doubt it'll be anything to shout about speed-wise (and you only get 3 LAN ports because they've repurposed one of them for the WAN link). When I went plusnet fibre they were still doing nice Netgear boxes for vDSL customers. It's probably worth seeing how you get on with it, but I'd definitely consider putting some cash aside for a new router...

[badsyntax]

Speed-wise I get 19-20 on an estimated (speeds up to) 21Mb service with Plusnet ADSL.

I'm not a huge fan of the TG582n, The only reason I got one with BE was that my new phone at the time wouldn't see the WiFi on the previous router. I called and they swapped it out FOC.

However, I never found it to be as stable for me as the previous BE unit and I replaced it with the third party one that I'm still using now. I seem to remember something about the wireless signal strength on them too but I'd need to go and rummage through the bookmarks.

Edit: some comments here might apply.

Edit 2: OP - if you do go with the TG582n and run into wireless problems, I found that some of the stuff over here was very useful.

[Rob_B]

Good luck with that I'm rarely seeing more than 20mbps download, despite estimates being north of 50! That's what I get for living in Manchester, I guess - heavily congested exchanges

The Technicolor is a great ADSL modem router, but I'm not sure I'd want it on fibre - it should work, but I doubt it'll be anything to shout about speed-wise (and you only get 3 LAN ports because they've repurposed one of them for the WAN link). When I went plusnet fibre they were still doing nice Netgear boxes for vDSL customers. It's probably worth seeing how you get on with it, but I'd definitely consider putting some cash aside for a new router...

They said estimated 55mbps +/- 1mbps which surprised me so I'll have to wait and see!

I don't think any freebie router is ever amazing, I've heard tales of getting a few more mbps with a different one but for me that isn't worth buying my own. I only need 2 ports so I'm safe there as well