I don’t have proper internet and would like some. The flat has a phone line into it (ie, phone socket in corner of living room) but we’ve not had a service on it since moving in 2+ yrs ago.

Not fussed about super high speeds or masses of data, but want to be able to download some movies/watch iPlayer etc. Keeping things cheap would be nice.

So, which ISP and/or phone line provider would anyone recommend?

TalkTalk looks pretty reasonable from initial research, with line rental at £9.50 a month and broadband discounted 50% to £3.25 for 12 months. I’ve heard they aren’t great though… Can it be that bad?

Thanks for any tips…

Chris.

I wouldn’t touch TalkTalk with yours, let alone mine! They regularly get hammered on Watchdog and the like, and there have been loads of interwebz threads on here where they get slagged off too. O2 seems to get good reviews, I use BT, and generally have had no significant issues, but others have, so I can only give a guarded recommendation there. Plusnet advertise a lot and seem to be reliable, not sure about Orange. If I was starting from scratch, I’d look at O2, as I’m an existing customer anyway, and Plusnet. Others may have other suggestions, and you could try a google search for Broadband recommendations.

I wouldn’t touch TalkTalk with yours, let alone mine! They regularly get hammered on Watchdog and the like, and there have been loads of interwebz threads on here where they get slagged off too.

Plenty who are happy with them too. The one and only time I’ve used customer service, they were spot on. Very little downtime, no more than an hour in 1 year of use and good speed.

BT if you generally want it to work, and are willing to put up with a little grief if it goes wrong (which it probably won’t do).

Zen if you want top class support if it does go wrong.

Ah, Zen! I knew there was one that a lot liked, but I couldn’t remember the name. Thanks for that. 😀

Look at http://www.samknows.com to see which LLU providers are in the area.

I tried Talktalk for 5 weeks a couple of years ago. The promised 4Mbit connection was actually 125Kbits. Support were useless.

I’ve just switched back to Plusnet after a stint with Sky. Connection speed is already 50% faster for the same price and in a couple of months fibre should be available for an extra £10 per month.

They’re owned by BT, but independent.