Which ISP should I use?

[Peter]

Right now I'm with BT broadband, on their 'up to 8Mb' package, for about £28 a month.  Unfortunately, 'up to 8Mb' actually means 'less than 2Mb' (and no, I'm not confusing my bits with my bytes), for a line that's rated as capable of 4.5Mb.  Furthermore, BT uses extensive traffic shaping measures, so things like bittorrent are given a low traffic priority, and at peak times (4pm-midnight), I only get about 10-35 kilobytes/second in download speed (80-280 kilobits/s), and 50KB/s at off-peak times, with a maximum of about 120KB/s for brief bursts between midnight and 4am.

You can find out your own connection speed using these:

http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/speedtest/?r=7

http://performance.toast.net/

I've read that https://www.bethere.co.uk is good, and it's rated as the fastest UK ISP in terms of real speed, rather than claimed speed, so I'm thinking about moving over to them, but does anyone else have any suggestions?

Here's the results of some speed tests I've done today:

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Lurk Hurk Gurk]

Right now I'm with BT broadband, on their 'up to 8Mb' package, for about £28 a month.  Unfortunately, 'up to 8Mb' actually means 'less than 2Mb' (and no, I'm not confusing my bits with my bytes), for a line that's rated as capable of 4.5Mb.

No surprise. "Up to" can mean anything between zero and the given value. Clever marketing.

[Pyraxis]

I'm on Tiscali 8mb broadband, and I've never run tests on it, but so far I've only had a couple hours of downtime in four months. So I'm pretty happy with it.

[Lurk Hurk Gurk]

I'm using Tiscali as well (though maybe how they work here in Sweden isn't particularly relevant). 0.5Mb/s originally, but nowdays I can sometimes get speeds of around 2Mb/s. (downloading using bittorrent)

[Peter]

I'm using Tiscali as well (though maybe how they work here in Sweden isn't particularly relevant). 0.5Mb/s originally, but nowdays I can sometimes get speeds of around 2Mb/s. (downloading using bittorrent)

2Mb/s as in 0.25MB/s?

[duncvis]

If you can get cable in your area you might want to consider it - we have the 4Mbps service which actually means 4Mbps, and its pretty solid, with no download limit. 

[Peter]

If you can get cable in your area you might want to consider it - we have the 4Mbps service which actually means 4Mbps, and its pretty solid, with no download limit. 

Your 4MB cable connection actually runs at 4MB when you speedtest it?  I've got a fairly expensive wireless adsl router already, which I'd rather not see wasted by moving over to cable, though we do have a cable point already installed in the house from when my sister stayed here for a while and got cable TV put in.  The only cable broadband provider listed for my address is Virgin Broadband.

[Peter]

Don't think I fancy going with Virgin:

#

Review by
thejaybot
on 30th Mar 2007


User Rating : 0
Respect : 0

I have moved from AOL to Virgin Broadband because of AOL's poor service. Unfortunately it has gone from bad to worse. My Virgin account now runs quite often at 0.16mbps, only 3x the speed of dial-up. ...
thejaybot's full review | 129 words
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Review by
plymgary
on 8th Mar 2007


User Rating : 2
Respect : +1

The fact that many people are willing to leave the service despite it being free speaks for itself! I am willing to live with it as I use the internet all day and it's quite speedy pre-4pm. If you'r ...
plymgary's full review | 85 words
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Review by
farandaway Rank: Lance Corporal
on 27th Feb 2007


User Rating : 1
Respect : 0

I used to really like the Virgin brand for generally being a bit different and offering good customer service. My experience with the broadband service has totally changed this opinion - I am dreading ...
farandaway's full review | 125 words
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Review by
Martin Imeson
on 26th Feb 2007


User Rating : 0
Respect : 0

They were unable to deliver a working broadband connection despite the availability checker claiming "a super fast reliable connection up to 8Mbps". It doesn't work, and Virgin knew problems existed ...
Martin Imeson's full review | 110 words
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Review by
rodjepson
on 25th Feb 2007


User Rating : 1
Respect : 0

My 8Mb upgrade has left me with 0.3Mb broadband, which is too slow for some sites. I will probably switch from Virgin Broadband to a better internet provider, as there is no improvement in sight. ...

[duncvis]

I've been using Virgin (formerly Blueyonder) for several years with few problems. This is my current speedtest result, as of right now: http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/117563513561530920214.html

That's typical, and is sometimes faster. Perhaps the reviews were for Virgin through a standard BT phone line rather than the cable fibre-optic network, as they do broadband via the main phone network also in non-cabled areas. 

[Peter]

Maybe you've just been lucky, and there aren't any problems with it in your area?  There seems to be no end of complaints about them.

Monday 26 March 2007

Apologetic Virgin takes a battering
Will Sturgeon
silicon.com

Virgin Media has responded to the barrage of customer complaints it has received in recent weeks, claiming its performance has not been aided by its recent wrangling with BSkyB.

Readers of CNET.co.uk's sister site, silicon.com, have been posting angry feedback on a recent article about Virgin Media's customer service strategy, criticising the cable broadband giant for everything from poor up-time of its Internet service to unacceptable levels of customer service and long helpline wait times.

Nicola from London was typical of many readers. She wrote: "I have been trying to contact Virgin Customer Service team for over a week. Phones are not answered and emails are not responded to, except to send an automated response. Telewest at least picked up their phone! I can't wait to cancel my Virgin service. I am outraged by their lack of customer care."

Stephen from Hampshire wrote: "I'm disgusted with Virgin and I think I'm going to make it my duty to let everyone know how poor the service is. This is completely unacceptable."

silicon.com presented a catalogue of complaints to Virgin Media and asked for a response to readers' concerns.

Neil Berkett, chief operating officer of Virgin Media, blamed the problems on its recent spat with Sky.

"We are currently receiving a high number of queries, following Sky's recent decision to withdraw a small number of channels from our TV service. We would like to sincerely apologise to anyone who has had to wait a long time to speak to us recently. We are working very hard to answer the queries as quickly as possible."

While that might explain lengthy wait times it doesn't answer some concerns, such as those expressed by Mary from Dagenham.

"Since Virgin Media took over my home phone it is almost not working and it is taking six days for an engineer to come out to fix it even though I am disabled," she wrote.

Caroline from Hersham was another angry reader whose actions may rub salt in Virgin's recent wounds.

She wrote: "We have taken the decision to move to Sky -- much against our wishes. We agreed with Richard Branson over his stand with Sky but feel Virgin's customer services let them down badly -- especially when they refuse to speak to you."

Gary from Reading said he too is making the switch to rival Sky: "The [Virgin Media] staff have a bad attitude and I still have to hold for 20 minutes to speak to someone. I would wholeheartedly recommend Sky to anyone and I have never been a customer of theirs. It's just they can't be as bad as Virgin."

A spokesman for Virgin Media told silicon.com: "We know this isn't good enough and we're doing everything we can to return things to normal."

[Lurk Hurk Gurk]

2Mb/s as in 0.25MB/s?

Yes.

[duncvis]

Meh, I'm not especially impressed at the way the takeover of telewest was handled by Virgin, or the Sky One fiasco, but I've certainly no complaints about the cable broadband service. woo, its even faster now the network's quieter

your call matey...

[Peter]

I'm getting this now.

However, because of BT's traffic shaping policies, I'm only getting 60KB/s on Bittorrent (480Kb/s). 

[duncvis]

That's fucking pants - half the point of paying for fast broadband is for decent download speeds for large files. I frequently have 2-3 Mbps on torrents.

[Nomaken]

What is the fastest broadband service in the united states?