I live in a pretty rural area. Broadband options are limited. I’ve been with Zen for longer than I care to remember. I like them. It always works. The download speeds I can live with (somewhere around 4-7mbps) but it’s soooo damn expensive. I’ve got a 50GB download limit and recently we’ve started hitting it – On Demand programmes and streaming radio mainly. So I need more download allowance.

The next package up with Zen is an extra 11 quid a month for a 200GB limit 😯 I could save a few quid by using Zen phone, line rental and BB but that’s still £50 a month.

Alternatively I can go fully to BT. Currently on offer with an unlimited ADSL, same line rental and phone package for 31UKP a month.

It’s a no brainer with a >15UKP saving a month for unlimited internet compared to my current individual phone (BT) and BB (Zen)) packages.

Sky / Vodafone / EE won’t supply my area. I ain’t touching TalkTalk with a long stick.

But I’m still reluctant. Zen, it just works. My dealings with BT on the phone have been less than great in the past for phone problems.

I realise they are on the same local loop but is it likely my download speed could go down?

Do people use the BT Home Hub or their own ADSL router?

Plusnet?
I wouldn’t use BT again after their woeful custom service. Plusnet are way better

Make sure you go via Quidco or similar ..will get a lot of cash back.

Yep it looks like Plus Net are my only other option.

A couple of quid more a month than BT for unlimited.

I have had some shocking experiences with BT and would advise against using them if possible.

BT customer services are simply the worst I have ever encountered. For that reason alone, when we moved house we went with sky.. who when we had a problem getting the internet setup were superb and sent out a BT engineer the following day – I dread to think how long it would have taken BT to sort. Case in point is we cancelled BT a month ago and we have just been billed for next month. grr.

+1 against BT. If it all works, great, but if you actually have to resolve a problem, God help you.

Ring Zen?

Cheers all you kinda confirmed my suspicions.

Either spend some serious wedge with Zen or give Plusnet a go. My mum’s with them and have been quite good.

Ring Zen?

Did a while back but they weren’t budging. Maybe try one more time in the new year.

Been with plus.net for years and on the rare occasion I have had a problem they have been great.

Plusnet +
Both my neighbours are witth BT on fibre broadband,they switched about 6 months ago when it became available with BT only.
I stayed with Plusnet on ADSL because of the past nightmare with BT.

Starting a trial fibre connection with Plusnet this month so win win situation.

I won’t bore you with the details, but BT are the worst and I hate them.

I got a decent discount from zen when I phoned for a mac code.

I moved from Sky to plusnet last month, it went pretty smoothly and would recommend them.

Virgin?

P

Been on BT fibre for about 2 years after Demon. Zero problems and it all works. The Homehub router is fine.
Obviously I can’t comment on support and how they fix problems because there haven’t been any.

Used BT for years with no problems. Thought about switching but there isn’t another superfast provider where I live and not too bothered because none of the others are any cheaper than BT. All the home hubs we’ve had have been fine also.

If you have a hatred for BT, it is worth knowing that Plusnet are part of BT!

Whilst their customer service representatives are reassuringly northern, pretty much everything else is the same as BT.

G

Been with BT for years never had an issue.

I’ve never had problems with BT. Was on their Infinity package but switched to Vodafone to save money. Vodafone has been fine although it’s slower (22m to BT’s 30m) and you can’t use your own router.

BT customer srevice has been slow ime, but we have infinity with them and broadband before that and the service itself once set up has been great

Been with BT for many years and have their fastest unlimited fibre. No real problems over that time although we have negotiated discounts by threatening to leave every other year or so.

The latest ‘offer’ pushed it too far however, as they tried (again) to force a new broadband contract to avoid paying for BT sport.

We don’t want BT sport but it keeps getting added as a freebie then used as an excuse to renew contracts.

Told them to go away this time and got a deal with Sky as part of a Q package that lowers the overall costs significantly.

BT didn’t like it and tried to keep us by offering a manager only discount (yawn) of 50% off broadband, whilst also saying that Sky uses the BT service for its broadband and would be compromised if we then went to Sky to use it.

Sort of true but it’s BT and Sky that use Open Reach as a provider. Although it is a BT company.

All in all a big their crap, we’re the best type statement so we decided to leave BT for at least a year and see what they come back with next time.

Plusnet are owned by BT as said and I’ve read that they cap upload speeds to 2mbps. If so, I’d be warey of advising anybody to use them as upload speed is as important, if not more so, as download.

I’ve had no issues with BT over the years i’ve been with them. A few years ago I upgraded to their ultimate broadband package but recently after reviewing my actual speeds rang them up to down grade as I wasn’t getting the higher speeds of that service. They were very helpful and acknowledged that due to the distance my house is from the exchange I won’t be able to get the higher speeds, so immediately downgraded me to the slower (upto 50mbps) service. I then rang back up to ask about their TV package to give it a whirl as I contemplate ditching Sky, and they gave me a cracking 12 month deal.

So i’ve had no issues with them, neither has my dad who lives in a rural area and he’s tried everyone – Sky, plus net and others too and none have provided a better internet service as BT.

You can’t blame companies from signing you up to upsell you a new TV package or something. I get that from Sky all the time. If the call annoy me I just ignore them and don’t pick up the phone. If I don’t recognise the number calling as a friend or family I never answer anyway.

However i’d steer clear of Sky Q. I know a few people who have got it and it is very unreliable – it just doesn’t work sometimes and it is a problem Sky know about but so far don’t have an answer. Seems like it is a system that is not quite ready for public release yet.

Make sure you sign up for BT through Topcashback or similar, I got £115 back for Infinity1 plus landline in summer 2015 and where my Topcashback journey began! 😆

However i’d steer clear of Sky Q. I know a few people who have got it and it is very unreliable

This doesn’t surprise me. Their Sky Go mobile app was almost unuseably flakey.

I’ve had fabulous customer service from BT, better than any of the other providers I’ve used. I also have mobiles through them now and their support in improving my signal at home has been brilliant.

Well I called Zen. They can’t budge. I’m on one of the higher cost BT/Openreach rural exchanges and probably one of very few (if any other) Zen customers on the exchange – I get the impression they aren’t making a lot of money by me anyway.

The guy was really helpful. He said on this exchange there will only be Zen, BT or Plusnet. His recommendation was BT because Plusnet shape / profile at peak times and BT don’t!

So much for competition. +1 for Openreach to be completely separated from BT.

BT in a large Hampshire village ran at 0.7mps frequently (we where paying for 5mps). Mobile signal was 10-15x faster. Customer service dire, always claimed it was a problem in my house then miraculously it would start working again. Streaming wasn’t really possible so only watched things on download. Cancelled BT and use mobile wifi dongle but has only a 20gb limit so would be no good if we where there full time for things like software updates etc. Phone contract is unlimited data so we download iPlayer to phone and send to Apple TV.