Who's the best adsl provider in the uk?

Question

Hi, I am with virgin media right now and might be leaving in the next month or so, i have my phone, tv and broadband from them, and obviously ill have to go with bt, then sky, but who is the best adsl provider because i like virgin but i pay £18 a month alone 2mb broadband! then the tv and phone, i can get "up to" 8meg unlimited from tiscali for that price and for an extra £2 i get the line rental, and unlimited landline calls. But ive heard some bas storys about them so i dont really know. I wont be going with bt broadband because i had them before and their c**p, so who is then best ?

Thanks

Answer 1

I've heard only good things about o2 broadband (from people who would know if they had a good connection or not) and from what I've heard they're the only provider I'd consider switching to. Myself I've been happy with BT Broadband for 6 years now, no problems.

You can compare ISP speeds in your region at www.speedtest.net

Answer 2

ADSL24 best isp in uk i just moved from Demon and the increase in speed is very good, check out how good they are on dsl zone site

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php

Virgin , tiscali , BT etc are all rubbish, read the reports

Answer 3

It's like cars, pick any make/model and you can find someone who loves it and the next person hates it! ;-)

I was locked into BT for 18 months when it was my best and pretty much only option, but Tiscali undercut them by miles and I had to jump, how could I resist lopping off almost £40 a quarter compared to Option 1!!  BT went down three times earlier this year, and twice were Fridays so I lost the whole weekend.  Tiscali may be as bad, and it's the same exchange after all - but it can't be £40 worse can it!  

There were some early muddles during switch-over and in getting my free router organised.  Since then, no worries.  The speeds are the same as I had with BT, which is just the maximum available to the line here (I get around 4mb in my little village!).

Had I not been strapped for cash I doubt I'd have changed though.  I was loyal to BT for years and years.  But I couldn't afford any more to be sentimental about it and the costs were bugging me so badly.

Answer 4

Have a look at TalkTalk, they have got some great deals at the moment, they do not do t.v at present, their service is excellent and if you need any help their help line is free....Never had any problems with them, set up is easy, Billing is straight forward.....Give them a try...

Answer 5

What you've got to remember is who ever you go with, all ADSL uses BT's phone lines, exchanges and equipment. There is no other.

Also that "up to" might even be slower than your 2 Mb is now, depending on how far you are from the nearest BT exchange. If there is not an old BT line connected to your house, it will cost you £125+ to have one put in.

Why don't you phone Virgin and say you think your paying too much. I did and got a h**l of a reduction. In my package, split down I pay £16 for 4 Mb which is being upped to 10 Mb for the same price by the end of the summer.

I'm not saying stay or go but I'll tell you now there is no way would I have ADSL broadband.

Answer 6

AOL is the best, no problems with them at all,

Answer 7

I have heard bad stories also from tiscali, I went with talktalk for phone and internet, it costs me £15 a month and I get upto 8 meg, (this is dependant on how close you are to a telephone exchange and not what the company decide so its likely the speed wont alter much, just the failures -if you do get any, may improve), and I get 40 download which suits me fine: I use the internet for about 7 hours plus a day, every day and dont go over, I watch about 2 programmes on bbci/4od every day and still dont go over, 40 gig is fine.

But talktalk do not do tv, they only do phone and internet, they are normally the cheapest though, and also give you nectar points.

Sky are apparently ok, they do phone, tv and internet, but they do cost alot more then most.

Virgin are supposed to be good with internet, but I consider my internet to be slow- its been tested to be nearly 4mg so virgin are offering 2mg?? not going to waste my time on that then!

BT are rubbish- they work ok, have slipups when they dont work about once a week though, more then anyone else I know, and their customer service is terrible, you can end up on the phone on hold for hours and hours while if they do answer you, its pushed from one department to another and then they accidentally hang up. The speed is slightly faster then talk talk, but I would prefer a slower service that doesnt break down then a fast one that cancels out or freezes at the very last minute.

My personal opinion, talktalk are the best, but I have not actually tried aol, orange, ntl or anything else not mentioned here.