Broadband + phone - best deal? Strings?

[swee'pea99]

Just received the latest bill from BT - YIKES! Thanks to our teen's enthusaism for downloading movies and watching eastenders on iplayer, we're suddenly geting hit for £40 for excess broadband downloads, on top of our already exhorbitant £15.99/month, plus £12.79 for line rental for the phone...all in all we're up to over £165 for the quarter. And we hardly use the phone...

I've been trying to choose a new package, but I'm getting baffled. Any recommendations? O2 currently have a package that offers unltd downloads for about £8/month, plus £11 basic line rental, which looks like a good deal. But are they any good? Is changing from one to another a hassle? Will I be able to keep accessing bt news & mail servers, and using btconnect email addresses? It's all so confusing...

Any advice/recommendations appreciated.

 

[MrVandal]

O2 are good, and they will be releasing their phone prices on the 25 February. Also look at quidco.co.uk it is a co operative and if you sign up through them you will get some cash back in a few months. I am told that they have a good deal on Virgin at the moment. Otherwise gocompare.com

 

[ChrisKH]

Funny that, I was looking to move to the £15.99 a month package with BT (from about £30) but now I won't as I have unlimited download at present. I would also be interested in cheaper alternatives.

 

[rh100]

[quote name='swee'pea99']Just received the latest bill from BT - YIKES! Thanks to our teen's enthusaism for downloading movies and watching eastenders on iplayer, we're suddenly geting hit for £40 for excess broadband downloads, on top of our already exhorbitant £15.99/month, plus £12.79 for line rental for the phone...all in all we're up to over £165 for the quarter. And we hardly use the phone...

I've been trying to choose a new package, but I'm getting baffled. Any recommendations? O2 currently have a package that offers unltd downloads for about £8/month, plus £11 basic line rental, which looks like a good deal. But are they any good? Is changing from one to another a hassle? Will I be able to keep accessing bt news & mail servers, and using btconnect email addresses? It's all so confusing...

Any advice/recommendations appreciated.[/QUOTE]

We use Sky. TV, phone and broadband. Basic Broadband is free with the tv and phone - but we pay £5 extra per month for faster speed and a higher cap, about 10gb I think, they also have a monitor on the website to see how much data is used. The phone calls are free (at certain times) - but we pay BT the line rental which is £11 - but the thieving herberts take about £13 because that's there lowest collection limit or some b*llocks - keep meaning to do something about that.

The sky service is quite good - occasional reset of the modem required but get good speeds. However I have been having problems with Cycle chat for some reason, my pc is fine when using mobile broadband but not through the router. Not sure if it's sky or my router setup - will have to mess about.

It would be a hassle moving between providers - your email will likely get cut off. I had this problem ages ago so now just use hotmail.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

+1 for o2 good price and excellent service, wouldnt touch BT Broadband with a barge pole.

 

[rh100]

+1 for o2 good price and excellent service, wouldnt touch BT Broadband with a barge pole.

BT is surely the Halfords of the phone world, you get stung once and don't go back

 

[phil_hg_uk]

BT is surely the Halfords of the phone world, you get stung once and don't go back

The phone package is ok, but I run my own computer business and some of the things I have seen these broadband companies get up to it is a wonder they have any customers at all.

 

[swee'pea99]

By the sounds of it O2 is a good option (I wouldn't touch Sky with a bargepole, plus don't want telly - freeview's fine ta)...is it easy to switch? Can I keep using my @btconnect.com email address?

 

[phil_hg_uk]

If you move away from BT your BT email address will stop working sooner or later, sign up for a free yahoo or google account that way you dont have to keep changing it if you move Broadband providers.

I know what you mean about sky I have sky TV and so could get Broadband for almost nowt but I prefer to go with o2 it is more reliable.

I still get my phone through BT I have seen people have too many problems with other phone providers to move that away.

 

[swee'pea99]

FYI

I just rang BT to ask for my Mac number (which you need, to transfer) and you'll never guess....they immediately matched the 02 price (subject to a new 12 month contract), plus a speed upgrade & a free home hub & home internet phone. So, from 5mb with a 10Gb/month limit, meaning a bill of £90 last quarter, I'm going onto 10Mb with no limit, for £37.50 a quarter. Took about five minutes.

Do NB tho', I was out of contract - my guess is they might be less amenable if you're not.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

I would still have moved to o2 the service is miles better.