UK: Which new Broadband provider?

[Bladedog]

Short version first:
I'd like a new broadband provider.

Only one of the LLU providers is in my exchange, so its basically down to the ADSLMax providers. Currently spend £24.99 on 2 meg unlimited. Want to spend less if possible, certainly no more, on a faster connection retaining unlimited download. If not unlimited I need at least 80Gb/month.

Any ideas?

Long version for those who like to read:
Currently got Freedom2Surf broadband, 2 meg, costing £24.99/month with unlimited downloads.

Its OK but I'm sure there must be better out there.

Freedom2Surf don't do unlimited packages anymore, so if I upgrade with them I move to an 8 meg, 50Gb/month for £23.99/month. Problem is in the last 12 months I went over 50Gb 7 times, as much as 87Gb one month, and they charge £0.99/Gb over the limit. You can add 50Gb for £6/month but thats a lot of extra money per month.

Also I live far enough from the exchange that I would at best get only 4.5 meg out of the link.

Be Unlimited have just completed LLU in my area, 24 meg download !!! but I have checked a few statistics and just about the stage 8 meg drops to 4.5, 24 meg drops to about 5 meg too, so I wouldn't get any faster than going with an 8 meg provider. Plus Be is an ADSL2+ connection meaning a new modem/router. They give you one for free but it only has 2 of the four ethernet ports that you can use, the others are reserved for future expansion and I have 3 ethernet devices. I could get a hub or a switch but now its getting messy.

So what I am looking for is a provider with 4 meg + download speed with unlimited or at least 80Gb+/month for max £25/month. Any ideas?

[MysticKiller]

If you have cable in your area consider something from Virgin Media as part of a package.

If its ADSL (BT Phoneline) your after, go for something from UK Online. Or if you have Sky, get a package from them. I've heard they're offering 16MB uncapped at a good price.

[Samurai_crip]

BT homehub package its good

im on 4meg i think

[kepler]

Stay away from Tiscali, horrible horrible provider.

I've been looking at Virgin cable but I'm wary of the OMGZ UNLIMITED JIGGAMEGGS*








*unlimited in as completely limited to an arbitrary amount we don't tell you of.

[Freelance]

if you want unlimited downloads, go cable. if you try to actually do it on dsl, most ISPs will limit/filter you to hell as they have to pay for bandwidth used from BT wholesale (which is why i guess you're looking at LLU)

[delirium121]

NTL/Virgin £25 gets you 4mb unlimited & the service aint bad to be honest (it is lot better than it used to be so dont go by people past stories (ntl used to be terrible), never had any caps imposed or phone calls

[gamefoo21]

Weird...

Over here... I pounded apparently... 300GB in a month... All I got was a tsk tsk. LoL

If I was on cable I'd get my ass throttled and a threatening letter after 40 or 50.

[Doozer]

I use Bulldog, got ADSL2+, get about 12Mb+, no limits at all, £35 inc phone line and free UK calls.

If you get provided with a new router, you can always hook one router to the other to give more ports.

[Bladedog]

Unfortunately I live in a two-horse town, and we have almost no connections except BT and BTMax.

No cable.
No Sky.
No Bulldog.

Infact no LLU except Be.

I have looked at two different graphs now, and at 1.67 Km (straight line) from the exchange one suggests I would get full 8 meg ADSLMax and approx 20 out of 24 meg ADSL2+, whereas another one suggests I would get approx 5 meg ADSLMax and 10-12 meg ADSL2+. BT's own ADSL checker suggests I would get 4.5 meg on the line. All in all I am confused.

I am going to go back to my current provider and asking if they will drop or reduce the price of the additional 50Gb/month download, in order to retain me as a customer (well they did ask the question in the resulting e-mails).

Thanks for all the input.

[Doozer]

Originally Posted by Bladedog

Unfortunately I live in a two-horse town, and we have almost no connections except BT and BTMax.

No cable.
No Sky.
No Bulldog.

Infact no LLU except Be.

I have looked at two different graphs now, and at 1.67 Km (straight line) from the exchange one suggests I would get full 8 meg ADSLMax and approx 20 out of 24 meg ADSL2+, whereas another one suggests I would get approx 5 meg ADSLMax and 10-12 meg ADSL2+. BT's own ADSL checker suggests I would get 4.5 meg on the line. All in all I am confused.

I am going to go back to my current provider and asking if they will drop or reduce the price of the additional 50Gb/month download, in order to retain me as a customer (well they did ask the question in the resulting e-mails).

Thanks for all the input.

Being 1.67km from the exhange isn't so bad, but thats as the crow flies, so how far so the cables go in reality ?

The longer the cables, the more the signal degrades, which is why the speeds slow down. At that distance you should be able to get pretty close to 8Mb and 10-12 sounds about right for ADSL2+.

It's about time BT and the other companies started replacing all their copper cables for fiber so we can get 100Mb

[Samurai_crip]

Me want faster interwebz i only have 4meg ...I wantz 100

[Doozer]

Originally Posted by Samurai_crip

Me want faster interwebz i only have 4meg ...I wantz 100

me too, I can only download @ 1400kbs

[kepler]

Originally Posted by Bladedog

Unfortunately I live in a two-horse town, and we have almost no connections except BT and BTMax.

No cable.
No Sky.
No Bulldog.

Infact no LLU except Be.

I have looked at two different graphs now, and at 1.67 Km (straight line) from the exchange one suggests I would get full 8 meg ADSLMax and approx 20 out of 24 meg ADSL2+, whereas another one suggests I would get approx 5 meg ADSLMax and 10-12 meg ADSL2+. BT's own ADSL checker suggests I would get 4.5 meg on the line. All in all I am confused.

I am going to go back to my current provider and asking if they will drop or reduce the price of the additional 50Gb/month download, in order to retain me as a customer (well they did ask the question in the resulting e-mails).

Thanks for all the input.

Tiscali told me I should be able to have a full 8mb connection without any problems as I live in the centre of a city, but have never had more than around 1mb p/s (as opposed to 1MB p/s). Though hopefully you'll be luckier with yours.

[Samurai_crip]

Originally Posted by Doozer

me too, I can only download @ 1400kbs