Broadband. Who's the Cheapest? Article Discussion Area

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• The article says "Often broadband providers try to make you change phone provider too, yet usually the phone package is pants. Best practice is two unlinked services, so you’re free to shift providers as prices change. "
  It is always worth checking. I started broadband as a newcomer with Tiscali in July 2005 - they had a special offer of 1MB speed with a 2G cap per month and free land line phone calls all day/night (using their CPS) for Ј19.50 per month - definitely a bargain at the time. The 2G cap per month was lifted in Sep or so. There may be better deals now so it is worth checking out but it depends on each households use of phone and internet so very difficult to compare in an article - I think the article underplays the potential value of bundled services though.
• I use a company called Zazizam, they charge Ј17.99 per month and have no download limits. They might not be 100% reliable, but who is.
  They are overall a pretty good broadband provider in my opinion
• Do not go near UK Online. The term 'service provider' does not describe this company's aim or function. For more information visit this site:
  https://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/dosearch.php
  The other cheaper broadband companies, whilst they do provide a service, will ask that the customer signs a two to five year contract and/or ask for 1 or 2 years fees up front and/or charge a setup fee.
  Namesco is by far the best. Costs for a 256k connection are Ј10.95 a month, as long as you do not download more than 2GB per month. You will need your own ADSL modem. There is a one year contract and they do not provide an e-mail address. So you need to know that you will be using broadband for at least a year and have an e-mail account with lycos/demon/wanadoo/hotmail/yahoo etc... You can configure outlook express to recieve e-mails, but not to send them. The connection is reliable and the customer service, although using an 0845 number, is prompt. For more details visit their website:
  https://www.names.co.uk/home_broadband.html
  hope this helps
• Madasafish might seem cheap for small users but if you want unlimited downloads with great reliability and service then Pipex is very hard to beat, and cheaper than Madasafish with no extra charges.
  O.K. Madasafish does provide up to 8mb, but that is only if your exchange supplies it.
• To all thinking of getting broadband or changing provider...
  It is vitally important that the ISP you choose are well known and reliable. Without a robust ISP your broadband experience will simply be bad.
  I recently was a customer of PlusNet who charge Ј21.99 for a highly restricted broadband service. The monthly usage limit is, technically, 100gb, however if a user downloads more than 20gb of data from P2P, FTP or File Sharing applications (these would be things such as videos, music, software etc.) then he or she will be severely limited by having their broadband speed throttled to as little as 64kb/s.
  I am not a ridiculousely heavy user but I download a lot of music (legally!!) and PlusNet were limiting my speeds far too much for my liking. So I switched.
  Zen Broadband (https://www.zenbroadband.co.uk) are, by far, the UK's best provider (claming the highest ratings by far on www.adslguide.com and many awards including PC Pro Magazine's "Best ISP"). The price is a bit steeper - Ј5.00 more than AOL and Ј10.00 more than UKOnline, however I ask you this: do you want your service to be interrupted as you are downloading that crucially important file? Or do you want to be restricted and throttled because you've downloaded too much? I thought not.
  Unbenknown to most, UKOnline's service (as well as Tiscali) are NOT unlimited. UKOnline do have a usage limit stated in their T&C's although this is admittedly a high one. Tiscali's limit is a joke (30gb?). And their service quality speaks for itself.
  As for others such as Bulldog and AOL, don't go near them. And certainly don't touch PlusNet - far, far too many policy changes are being made without notifying the end users and so you might wake up one day to find your connection has drastically changed itself (as I did).
  My advice, as a professional user, is choose Zen. Ј34.99 a month for 2.2mb/s truly, categorically UNlimited broadband with a quality and service record that speaks for itself. They really are the UK's best ISP.
  Regarding MadAsAFish's 8mb offer -- 5GB of data transfer is a pittance. It would take only 1.5 hours (rougly) to download your full month's usage limit of 5GB if your connection was running at 8mb/s and you were downloading constantly. Although this is highly unlikely, you see my point.
  Need proof? Check this link out:
  https://www.adslguide.org/isps/compar...action=Compare
  
  Martin, if you read this, I would urge you to include the more expensive providers who offer *truly* unlimited service in your Newsletter because people deserve to know about these, otherwise they'll end up like me: frustrated and angry at having their connections unexpectedly changed.
  The bottom line is this: with broadband, you get what you pay for.
• I'm currently paying Ј25 per month unlimited download with Telewest broadband and have had it for years. I don't really understand all this enough to know who is a better deal to change to. Can anyone help??
• georgiasmum, please read the article linked to from the first post, it should help
  hhobba, this is 'Money Saving Expert.com' - it is about saving money not about using more expensive providers. High contention ratio providers are great for some, but most people aren't using it the way you are. It's the reason I deliberately link to adslguide in the article allowing people the choice - that's what they do - its not what I do.
  UKonline is noted as a poor provider. Madasafish has had good feedback and offers a hugely competitive package. I note in the article the difficulty in writing a broadband article for exactly the reasons above.
  However that's why this discussion thread is here, so people can give their own opinions (unlike most sites with articles) directly after reading. Do remember though folks your usage patterns aren't the same as others. Just less than 50% of the UK is still happy with dial-up - price is very important and what MSE is about (though in the case of UK online the poor service levels are noted)
  Martin
• Martin, Madasafish are oowned by this company: https://www.brightview.com/our_isps/index.html some of their other brands are cheaper than madasafish...
  IC24 is currently Ј9.99 for 6 months then Ј16.99 the next 6 months for an identical service. https://www.ic24.net/services/broadband/
  The prices and offers seem to change quite a lot though.
• OK - Something to watch out for - Telewest hide their call costs behind this calculator:
  https://www.telewest.co.uk/html/telephone/callcosts.htm
• Hi
  Its not the cheapest you should be looking for but the ones that give you what you pay for, if you want cheap look no further than Tiscali, but I guarantee you, you won't be happy with their service or support, which is the Pits
  Search forums to give you accurate feelings on which provider is doing what, and more importantly who is giving customer satisfaction.
  https://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/
  Hope this hleps
• 1899 have connection from Telewest so that would resolve the call cost issue...
• According to ISP Review, the most complained about ISP of the past week is Tiscali, with the most complained about ISP in general is Tiscali - (https://www.ispreview.co.uk/new/complain/complain.shtml)
  ISP Review readers offer their Top Ten with the following ISP's (https://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/top10.php)...
  Naims - 9.83
  SurfAnyTime - 9.66
  ICUK - 9.50
  Zen Internet - 9.41
  FireFly - 9.25
  MetroNet - 9.03
  Freedom2Surf - 8.96
  Waitrose - 8.90
  ADSL4Less - 8.75
  Vispa - 8.61
  Maybe its worth paying a little extra ?
• PlusNet is an award winning broadband provider. I’ve been with them for around two years and was recommended by a friend and never looked back.
  Superb service.
  They charge Ј14.99/month for up to 2mb download however this is being upgraded for FREE to up to 8mb download where BT exchanges allow it from April 2006. There is no limit to how much you download per month so fantastic value for money. Not only that but you can register for plus talk FREE which gives FREE Internet calls to other subscribers (Thought you’d like that bit – FREE I remind you)
  Enjoy Saving
• Welcome to the forums to any new users coming via Martin's article on broadband and I hope you find lots of help here.
  Can I also remind users that referrals are not permitted on the main boards as stated in the MSE rules.
  REFERRAL LINKS/ADVERTISING
  Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: Sorry, referral links and suggestions are only permitted on the Referrers Board I have asked Board Guides to move any they see on the main boards. If you have any questions about this policy please email abuse@moneysavingexpert.com.
• I'm very happy with my Broadband ISP - V21. They have a 2M/2G service for Ј11-98 per month, but offer a Ј2 discount to anyone taking their FreeTalk comms package (similar to TalkTalk tariff, with free weekend calls). So I'm effectively paying Ј9-98 pm, which I consider to be very good value.
  I know some people like to keep their ISP/telecoms packages separate and I can understand this. However, as I use 1899 and other telecoms providers, it is hard to find another CPS provider that effectively charges minus Ј2 per month (ie they give me Ј2 pm)!
• I see know one has mentioned that if you don't live within sight of an exchange, you won't get 8mb and if you live over 5km from an exchange (not very far by the way) then the most you can get is 512k.
• I decided to get Telewest in December, but didn't realise that I wouldn't be able to use my wireless ADSL router. Since we are three of us using the wireless router via our wireless cards, I had to return my Telewest package as I would have had to buy a wireless cable router etc and it would have been costly and been too much of a hassle.
  Am now considering Euro1net.