broadband which provider?

[Pino_Spetzberg]

Received call from BT Loyalty this morning.
Offered us BT Fibre Superfast 3 Unlimited, a new router, free postage & packing, to plug into existing phone line. That's their basic fibre option.
Contract 18 months, increasing to £49.99 as prices stand presently.

£24.99 including week-end calls.

Explained we don't need a landline. Asked if BT offer a broadband only rate, like Virgin ?

They said no.

They put me on hold for 5 minutes, then offered me Line Rental Plus which gives unlimited calls within the week, as well as week-ends, normally £2 per month for free.

Told them that wasn't really giving me anything because we probably won't make any calls.

Asked them to take £2 off the price instead and we might stick with BT.

Put me on hold for another 5 mins. Came back with £22.99 per month, for BT Superfast 3, new router, free p&p, including unlimited week-end calls, but not week-day calls.

Told them if they give me free paper statements, I'll do it, but I'm staying on copper.

Then spent another 10 minutes, while they tried to convince me to change to fibre. Told them my copper is working fine, after my next contract ends fibre will be at least £49.99, whilst copper could be £4 cheaper, as things stand.

They eventually agreed to £22.99, inc unlimited week-end calls, free paper statements, and unlimited broadband, staying on copper.

I know others pay less, but I'm content with that.

I've got my broadband down from £45.99 to £22.99, and staying with BT.

( Apologies, boring post, but may help somebody. )

[400ixl]

What do you mean by staying on copper? The old full copper ADSL which is restricted in speed compared to what is called fibre but is in reality still partly copper.

The fibre in this case is just the replacement on copper between the exchange and the street box ((FTTC). It will still be copper between the street box and your house. Very very few houses get fibre all the way to the property (FTTP).

Refusing FTTC and staying with ADSL seems a very strange choice (if that is what you meant), effectively limiting your speed for no gain anywhere. When the deal runs out there will be other deals out there. BT want people off of ADSL and will start pushing up prices soon on that service. They are already pushing the government to set a termination date in a similar way to analogue TV.

[Pino_Spetzberg]

Yes agree with all that.
The government was mentioned by BT this morning funny enough.
BT referred to my current broadband as 'copper'. Virgin told me BT fibre is copper from the cabinet, which is why they need to send their team out to install fibre to the house, free of charge tbf.
I could swap to BT fibre as they call it, deals change, quite so.

We upgraded to BT fibre at a different house, it made little if any difference for our purpose (downloading programmes to watch later), we also had problems with a few Home Hub 5 routers being replaced as faulty.
The reason we are sticking with copper is because it suits our purpose, and our Home Hub 4 works great. If it's a bit cheaper when our contract runs out that's just a bonus.

Seems like BT customers are able to swap to fibre at no extra cost at the moment.

[Pinchy]

I pay £50 for Sky TV (except Sport) and 50mbps BB. We used to get problems with a speed of 5 but since it was increased haven't had a problem. It's contention that is more important.

Wouldn't move from Sky as they have the most HD channels.

[John]

I was with BT for broadband until last year, although I objected to paying for a landline I didn't need (for phone). My BT connection averaged between 60 and 70 MBS. Last year I dumped BT and moved to virgin, for the joining deal I got broadband/tv - all channels and phone for £75 which was cheaper than my BT and Sky (which I also dumped) and my speed with virgin was 300mbs. My first year contract with virgin expired and the price was going to jump to £127 a month... no chance, so I cancelled. They soon came up with a deal...and put me on the 500mbs broadband. I know the same thing will happen next year, but I always shop around