New House, New ISP - Any Recommendations?

[Stephen C]

Have never looked into this myself but seeing as I'm moving on Monday I'm going to need to find a new ISP.

Virgin seems pretty good from what I've seen but can anyone reccomend any services at all?
Oh and also, do I need to rent a phoneline seperate? (I have no clue at all where to start)

I could also do with TV channels if there's any bundles.
Oh and now I have my budget - £31.54 to include line rental.

[smargh]

Be will be offering landline + broadband soon - there's no defined timetable for it going live though.

http://blog.bethere.co.uk/2010/08/be...e-pricing.html

Draft prices:
http://tg.bethere.co.uk/downloads/La...list-DRAFT.pdf

Node the add-on extras which you might take for granted with other landline providers.

[AledJ]

I used to have all three services with Virgin, and had no real issues apart from broadband (but think that's higher usage in my area). You can make your own bundle up on this page.

[Stephen C]

Think I've settled on Virgin as I'm in a fibre optic area.. going to go with the build your own bundle, up to 10mb fibre optic broadband unlimited with free wireless n hub, "over 65+" digital channels, unlimited weekend landline calls (wont be using this as I have a mobile but good for incoming calls) and line rental at 11.99 bringing the total to £29.99 a month plus 2 months free.

Do they give you a virgin box for the tv channels then?

[aXeR]

You will get a set top box for your TV that takes a card, bit like with Sky

[AledJ]

Think I've settled on Virgin as I'm in a fibre optic area.. going to go with the build your own bundle, up to 10mb fibre optic broadband unlimited with free wireless n hub, "over 65+" digital channels, unlimited weekend landline calls (wont be using this as I have a mobile but good for incoming calls) and line rental at 11.99 bringing the total to £29.99 a month plus 2 months free.

Do they give you a virgin box for the tv channels then?

As aXeR says you will get a virgin box and card. Is there already a cable point in he house? As Virgin will either send a tech guy round to install it all, or send the box etc in the post. Not sure if you know this, but you can get bbc iplayer on virgin too

[aXeR]

And cacthup TV on demand which rocks (especially if you like come dine with me as I do )

[Lee H]

And cacthup TV on demand which rocks (especially if you like come dine with me as I do )

I hardly watch 'live' TV now as I'm always using on demand or the iplayer to watch stuff when I want to watch it.

I'd also like to thank Virgin for making me loose hours of sleep for putting all the Phineas and Ferb epsiodes on demand in the kids section

[Spud1]

Before you sign up with virgin, have a look at this:

http://help.virginmedia.com/system/s...RTICLE_ID=2781

And see if you will be affected - thats their download limit page (you know, the limits on their "unlimited" plans...). If you don't stream much or download much then its not an issue..but if you are someone who streams HD content from iPlayer for example, then prepare for heavy throttling.

I would also strongly advise using one of their virgin TV boxes before signing up for TV - they are much better than the old C&W/NTL ones but still not that great in terms of usability. Again though if you don't want much TV it may not bother you.

I'm seriously considering virgin when I get my new house soon, but that depends on how BT do with their fibre service in terms of pricing and limits (as I have FTTC in the new place).

As an alternative i'd suggest looking at Sky and their similar packages..a much better TV experience imo but you wont get fibre internet from them (yet). They have a kinder policy on downloads though, if you go for the top plan.

[Stephen C]

Did take a look at Sky but the best I could come up with for TV, unlimited net, phone & phoneline was £36.50 which is a bit over budget.

[Stephen C]

Anyone have experience of how reliable the post code checker on the Virgin site is?
My address isn't listed but my detached neighbour about 20 meters up the road is listed and selecting their address returns:

"Great News! Because you're in a fibre optic cable area, you can get all this.

* Up to 50Mb broadband
* Over 165 digital TV channels (including Sky channels)
* Great value home phone packages

So help yourself to fibre optic broadband, the very best digital TV, and phone services."

I've filled out the spotters form, guess that's th only way to be sure?

Edit: I guess it's pretty un-reliable, checking another address in the street returns:

"You're not in a fibre optic area, but can still get our brilliant broadband down your phone line."

Hmmm, tried all other addresses in the area and it was only 1/34 that said fibre optic was unavailable.

[Lee H]

Edit: I guess it's pretty un-reliable, checking another address in the street returns:

"You're not in a fibre optic area, but can still get our brilliant broadband down your phone line."

Hmmm, tried all other addresses in the area and it was only 1/34 that said fibre optic was unavailable.

I know of streets where 1 side have cable, but the other side do not.

I would recommend ringing them or pop into a local virgin shop and having a word to double check to see if you can get setup with their products. Their internal checking systems are a lot better than the website.

[Zak33]

IF you can get fibre, you're in for very vert fast broadbean... but trying to escape from them if you need/want too is a challenge.

If you can't get fibre, I see no reason to use Virgin.

BT line rental is between a tenner and £12 per month.

Zen broadband is £25 per month. No contract.