The Framers Forum

I'm thinking of changing my broadband/phone provider. Does anyone have any recommendations, or "avoid like the plague" suggestions?

We’re with BT at work. Not the cheapest but good service, very good if we ever have problems and it comes with an EE back up dongle which has proved useful at times.

Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for.
Like Tudor Rose, I'm with BT and you have to reflect that they own the lines or fibre which supply the broadband.
So, when something goes wrong, guess whose network is going to get fixed first.
We take internet supply so much for granted that an interruption can seem catastrophic when it happens.
You can get cheaper broadband but if it's for your business, maybe think carefully before switching.

If its fibre, stay well away from Talk Talk and other much cheaper providers. As Dermot says, they all have to go through Openreach ("not BT").
Plusnet and EE are owned by BT, so I would stick with any of those three.

Thanks for the replies. Until recently I'd had good service from my current provider but I'm having a few problems with their service at the moment. I've been with them for many years so I don't know if I'm missing something better.

Is anyone on the new digital service? Only one lot of my friends are, and their digital line is terrible (they're in the middle of nowhere so don't get a good signal). Presumably the digital service will be better in an urban area but I don't know anyone else who's on it.

Digital service? Do you mean using a SIM router on a mobile network? If so, yes, if you have good mobile signal then you can buy a SIM router for about £75 and get an unlimited data sim for around £25/month. I installed one for a friend in town and it works perfectly.

I mean the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which is superseding analogue phones between now and 2025, and which I think is different from what you've mentioned.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/20 ... technology

I took the fibre package with digital phones and then as soon as they were setup, I diverted the number to my mobile, that way keeping our landline number. It's only past customers and the Mother-in-Law who use it and I can talk to her for hours...

It's a few pounds a month, without a call package.

We now use VOIP for our landline.
Or to put it another way, we now have to use VOIP for our landline as BT no longer supply service over the old copper lines in our area.
And of course, we have no mobile signal here.

Initially the reception and sound was a bit odd. It worked but it was taking a bit of getting used to.
BT have now ironed out all the oddities and the service is now identical to what went before.
It did however introduce a new vulnerability in that if there was a power cut ( quite regular in rural areas) then there is no phone.
BT halted further roll out whilst they address that issue - maybe back up battery units for the routers and phone cradles.

You pay BT an extra £8 a month to supply a phone with an all inclusive calling plan.
There is some potential saving by opting for pay-as-you-go calls only.
Use the landline for in-coming calls only and make out-going calls on your mobile connected to the wi-fi.