Reliable Internet Provider Wanted

[pastafreak]

And not Virgin.
I've been with them for years...mostly fine except for price rises. But outages this year are increasing. Connection lost late Wednesday, back on yesterday lunchtime. Off again last night and still off. Problems throughout this area apparently.

[aelmpvw]

it's a minefield itsn't it? i'm satisfied with talktalk but someone will be along to say don't touch them with a bargepole . . .

[pastafreak]

When I looked at reviews a while back I discovered that all suppliers are universally hated.

[jno]

this roundup might help, it's this week's

https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/technology/1406053/best-broadband-uk-internet-provider

[johnny.5]

pasta how much are you paying for virgin ?

[dannyk13]

Pasta, I think that all internet providers have troubles now and again.I am with Virgin and it happens sometimes in my area too but usually tings are back to normal within a couple of hours.All providers have price rises,

[davebro]

Since upgrading to talktalk faster fibre (2 yrs?) I've had no problems at all.

[archibaldy]

Varies by area. I've been with Virgin for 15 years now and have had no problems, maybe a couple of unplanned outages in all that time. Virgin today is essentially a conglomerate of the many smaller historic local UK fibre optic broadband companies and as such the quality of equipment and infrastructure varies a lot depending who originally deployed it.

[Buenchico]

To the best of my knowledge, Virgin is the only company that uses only its own cables. All other companies use BT Openreach's network for at least part of the path that data travels along. So, if there's a fault at a BT exchange, it's likely that all internet services in the area (apart from Virgin's) will go down, irrespective of which company a subscriber has signed up with. So, up to a point, it's hard for any company to be either more or less reliable than their competitors as, for much of the time, they're all 'in the same boat' anyway.

However some firms do seem to be better at keeping things running properly 'at their end' than others are (and/or at hassling Openreach to fix problems that are affecting their customers). Plusnet seems to be one of the better (as well as cheaper) companies and, as they're part of BT, they should have a good working relationship with Openreach as well. So they might possibly be worthy of your consideration, Pasta.

[I can't suggest that you use the same ISP as I do, even though they're excellent, as they seem to have withdrawn from the domestic market, other than for existing customers. I'm with Claranet, who provide internet services to big retail companies, such as Pets at Home, and to bodies in the public sector, such as Norfolk County Council. Claranet have to provide a top class service to such customers, which I benefit from too - but such a service unfortunately comes with quite a hefty price tag!].

[curlygirlies]

I was told BT is the best cos they kinda own the telephone lines. We are with BT and had no outages so far. My mate up the road is with Sky and she's always dropping.

[dannyk13]

Having looked into BT I found that ,compared to Virgin, it was expensive.

[gingejbee]

^there's more to consider when choosing than lowest cost, though.

[davebro]

My sister is with Virgin. They advised her of a quite substantial price increase so she said she would be changing to Sky whereupon Virgin gave her a better price.

(I pay £23.95 pm with talktalk)

[curlygirlies]

We both work from home so I don't mind paying above the norm for a reliable service. Open Reach are always around here checking lines.

[bhg481]

curlygirlies - you see BT OpenReach checking the cables because they own all the cables except the Virgin ones. If someone with TalkTalk reports a fault BT Open Reach have to check the cables.

[dannyk13]

Ginge //there's more to consider when choosing than lowest cost, though.//
I know and I have no complaints about any part of Virgin.They even provided me with an emergency phone line(which I need) for free.

[curlygirlies]

When we got Sky TV I was thinking about changing to Sky internet on a good deal. The SKY engineer advised me not to cos BT was better and they got faults fixed first cos they own Open Reach. Good enough for me that!

[emmie]

I am with EE, and haven't had any real problems for ages,

[pastafreak]

When I started with virgin 15 years ago, I was paying about the same as dave is now with talktalk. It's substantially more now. I too dread getting on the phone and arguing my case.
I may look into EE as I've had my mobile with them for years...and years.

[bednobs]

pasta, i am also with virgin and tolerate their prices because im too much of a pussy to negotiate with them! We should pull our big girl pants on and JFDI

[ladybirder]

I'm with Plusnet. An absolute nightmare to get set up. They really cocked it up for about 3 weeks. They gave me compensation and have been fine ever since except they are slow, about 8 wattsits per minute. As I've got plenty of time that doesn't bother me.