Features - QOTW: Has free footy convinced you to switch to BT Broadband?

[danroyle]

Energy suppliers do not send you a bill then tag on a rental for the gas or water pipeline or a wire rental for your electricity supply.

I suggest you check your gas and electric bill mate as you are charged a daily standing charge on your gas and electric you pay X amount per unit then a daily charge of anything from 10p to 50p a day on top of the unit charge.

I wont be joining Bt vision as i dont think its that good a deal i like to keep my phone and broadband seperate from my TV package so i can get the best deal for me.

[kingpotnoodle]

Moved house in December, no Virgin on the development so it was TalkTalk, Be, Sky or BT. TT was an instant no, Be had been going down toilet at my old flat, I don't watch anywhere near enough TV to pay up for Sky so it was BT. Just upgraded to Infinity 2, real world speeds 20-25Mb down and 2-4Mb up, sadly I'm not that close to the street cabinet (several hundred metres). Happy anyway , that's enough internets and latency is solid. Didn't get Vision, there just isn't enough time in the world to need more than Freeview for me, I'll download the occasional series or film from an online service. I'd rather do some gardening or DIY on a Saturday than watch yawn inducing sport and football.

[watercooled]

Agreed, it should be part of the fee and advertised as such and not be part of the smaller print. If your package is advertised as £20 a month then £20 it should be, not plus line rental. Energy suppliers do not send you a bill then tag on a rental for the gas or water pipeline or a wire rental for your electricity supply.
Essentially ISP's are doing (though not quite as complicated) the same as energy suppliers have been guilty of, unclear tariffs. Working out how much you actually pay should not be necessary, it should be clearly stated.

I don't disagree about unclear advertising, which also includes thing like free* (for 6 months, then normal price thereafter on a 36 month contract) offers. However, you only have to pay line rental once, so including it could confuse things further. For example, say BB is £10, phone is £10 and LR is £5, is it best to say BB or phone are £15 each, but £25 for both, or just use the current system of add up services and line rental?

Although saying that, companies already have confusing plans along those lines e.g. broadband plus TV works out cheaper than their individual prices, even before you take LR into account. IMO, making the system as clear as possible plus something like estimate calculators on websites would probably be good enough.

[Deadlight]

Yes. PLUS the slightly speed increase (Infinity 2 vs the 60mb Virginmedia connection I was on before) PLUS slightly cheaper PLUS no more bandwidth throttling/restrictive FUP.

[Deadlight]

Infinity 2 which is going to give us 72Mb

Are you sure about that Ferral? 72mb is the stated *maximum* speed on Infinity 2, ie. the line speed, not the speed you'll get on your PC. Or is your local exchange in your back garden?

You got lucky with getting a HHub 4 - I got BT on the 5th of this month, and I got a HHub 3 :/

[watercooled]

The speed is actually capped at 80Mbps line rate, although the profile (sync) speed is often higher if the line is short enough etc. It's provided from a DSLAM in a new street cabinet i.e. the local loop should be much shorter than the entire length to the exchange, and many people within the first few hundred metres do get the full 80.

[davidcrofter]

Not really as I don't particularly feel the need to watch live football - we are very close to saturation point as it stands and imho BT might be a bit late to the table. Still nice to see somebody take on the monopoly of Sky who have built most of their business around the EPL - not sure it will be any better for the consumer though as they will simply just up their bids (and fees) to stay in control.

[GeorgeStorm]

The football hasn't attracted me at all, did have a quick look for my new house, but sadly just not worth it.
Going with Plusnet who are cheaper and overall I've heard far better things about.

For the family I'm considering moving to them since my Mum wants to carry on paying BT for the line rental regardless, and there are a couple of deals on the longer contracts which make them better value.

[Myss_tree]

I don't disagree about unclear advertising, which also includes thing like free* (for 6 months, then normal price thereafter on a 36 month contract) offers. However, you only have to pay line rental once, so including it could confuse things further. For example, say BB is £10, phone is £10 and LR is £5, is it best to say BB or phone are £15 each, but £25 for both, or just use the current system of add up services and line rental?

Although saying that, companies already have confusing plans along those lines e.g. broadband plus TV works out cheaper than their individual prices, even before you take LR into account. IMO, making the system as clear as possible plus something like estimate calculators on websites would probably be good enough.

BT have just changed their offer to free for the first six months then £16 for the remaining twelve months on an eighteen month contract. The contract i signed up to was half price ( £8) for twelve months and the remaining six months at full price (£16). These contract offers/terms seem to alternate frequently and yet the cost is exactly the same (£192). Why keep changing the wording when the price exactly the same?
At £246 million for the PL rights BT have to clawing it back somewhere as no business is going to be giving that away for free and overall every BT subscriber will be paying a small bit somewhere, somehow.

[avi8tor]

Football is a demotivating factor for me sadly.

Totally agree!

[Ferral]

Are you sure about that Ferral? 72mb is the stated *maximum* speed on Infinity 2, ie. the line speed, not the speed you'll get on your PC. Or is your local exchange in your back garden?

You got lucky with getting a HHub 4 - I got BT on the 5th of this month, and I got a HHub 3 :/

Yeah, its all new round my way, they installed it just over a year ago now. Close to the exchange are getting around 80Mb, by the time it filters down to the new green box which was installed about the same time is around 120 metres away from the house. Exchange is around 1Km away from my house. House I live in is also only around 5 year old now so there is all new wiring going out to the street.

The old copper wire though was terrible, wiring came out the exchange and went round all the estates before it reached us, doing a bit of research I found that it was approximately 8Km of wiring before it reached us, even following the roads it is little over 1Km and less as the crow flies!

There are new green boxes virtually every quarter mile now so they really went to town in getting it set up right.

Mind you 72Mb is what was quoted on the phone when I set it all up, be happy if I get 60 in all fairness, Skys Fiber service is extremely bad for the price, I think they need to do some work at the exchange and get it sorted out. Whenever we have called them about it the speed boosts for a few days then drops back down to what it was before the call. Additionally their routers are terrible cheap Sagem ones which certainly doesn't help the situation, wireless is bad on them also, when I am downstairs in the kitchen my phone sat on the table drops to one bar or even drops out completely, then I have to force reconnect when I go back into the front room.

So at the minute, anything that is better than Sky and is cheaper than Sky will do for me and my family. The amount we are saving monthly is also a decent amount, just wish TalkTalk would stop calling me to try and get my business.

[jim]

I would be switching immediately, I suspect. The lure of fibre and free football is too much to resist. But, sadly, I think I'll be tied in to suppliers for various reasons all season.

[watercooled]

Mind you 72Mb is what was quoted on the phone when I set it all up, be happy if I get 60 in all fairness, Skys Fiber service is extremely bad for the price, I think they need to do some work at the exchange and get it sorted out. Whenever we have called them about it the speed boosts for a few days then drops back down to what it was before the call. Additionally their routers are terrible cheap Sagem ones which certainly doesn't help the situation, wireless is bad on them also, when I am downstairs in the kitchen my phone sat on the table drops to one bar or even drops out completely, then I have to force reconnect when I go back into the front room.

Sky and BT FTTC will use the same access network - if it's your sync speed that's dropping, moving to BT won't make any difference - you will already have an Openreach VDSL modem which, unless it's an old model, you'll probably keep throughout the switch.

Sky do have an 80Mbps package like BT, but it's wasn't clear on their website last time I checked, I think you have to phone up to get it.

Poor ISP-provided routers are unfortunately fairly common, made by the lowest bidder and all that. But, you should be able to check reviews and buy your own router, just make sure it has an Ethernet WAN port (sometimes called cable routers), supports PPPoE, and can handle the faster connection.

[STEVONYMO]

You are all aware aren't you that BT bought PLUSNET years ago an it is part of BT?

[watercooled]

It's a division of BT, but they're not exactly the same company from the point of view of the end user.

[krazy_olie]

Was 90% going to do it, but was still considering Virgin. This was the deal sealer, although had we switched earlier we would have got the free evening calls (though small beer, that).

Little bit unstable initially, seems to be sorting itself out.
Annoying thing is that although I have freesat I can't get the satellite channel unless I buy a sky box and a viewing card, which I don't really want, so not sure how I will be watching this on the telly box. Doubt they'll make a ps3 app.