Broadband suppliers?

Tetris-Rock

one of those "they/thems"
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This is an exceptionally boring thread I know, but i'd be really grateful if anyone had recommendations of suppliers. We are with Plusnet whose customer service is great but our actual connection is frequently terrible even when only a couple of us are using it. This is a particular challenge when me and my flatmates are relying on it to work / study from home. I missed a huge chunk of the start of the Melfest and Drag Race UK finals recently because the connection wouldn't work, and it's impossible to watch anything using the Chromecast on our TV anymore.

I'm not even sure if switching suppliers is likely to make it any better but I felt it could be worth a shot. Have been trying to research online but it is hard to tell from reviews as people mostly tend to moan about bad experiences (like I am here innit) than share their good ones.

Would appreciate any recommendations that people have, particularly if you live in London or a big city.
 
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I switched to Hyperoptic a few months ago and they're very good, though I think some areas still can't receive it as it's a fibre thing.
 
While I’m with Virgin Media I wouldn’t particularly recommend it. I only have it because I’m lazy and also can’t be arsed to switch the TV package.

My speed and connection is generally great, but:

* It’s bloody expensive after the introductory packages expire and the price just keeps going up
* They have absolutely no regard for customer loyalty, wanting to charge you silly money for an upgraded router unless you spend half a day making phone calls threatening to cancel, while the fancy new routers are free for new customers paying less than half for their service
* On the odd occasion when there’s a genuine problem (maybe twice a year), the communication and customer service is fuck awful
 
I'm with Sky and they're okay. I've been with Virgin and BT in the past they were both awful.
 
While I’m with Virgin Media I wouldn’t particularly recommend it. I only have it because I’m lazy and also can’t be arsed to switch the TV package.

My speed and connection is generally great, but:

* It’s bloody expensive after the introductory packages expire and the price just keeps going up
* They have absolutely no regard for customer loyalty, wanting to charge you silly money for an upgraded router unless you spend half a day making phone calls threatening to cancel, while the fancy new routers are free for new customers paying less than half for their service
* On the odd occasion when there’s a genuine problem (maybe twice a year), the communication and customer service is fuck awful

I have virgin media. Whilst I agree with the first point, I've never found a customer service issue and they've generally been pretty good at letting me upgrade stuff without having to moan.
 
I switched to Hyperoptic a few months ago and they're very good, though I think some areas still can't receive it as it's a fibre thing.
Oh that's good to know, I think it's getting installed in my development in the next few months.
 
I've got Sky at the moment and it's fine; bigger problem is that I don't have access to fibre yet even in central London (too close to the exchange) so the speed is sluggish.
 
another provider will run on the same cables so you'll want to upgrade rather than switch. and as Zen points out you might benefit from better/newer hardware that can handle multiple users. if the flat is big you could get some repeaters too
 
I have virgin media. Whilst I agree with the first point, I've never found a customer service issue and they've generally been pretty good at letting me upgrade stuff without having to moan.

Maybe 25% of the time I will get through to someone helpful when there's an issue. It got shit when they closed down their Welsh call centres so very few of them are based in the UK now. Thankfully it doesn't happen too often, but when it does, it lasts for days. When one of my issues clearly was a shitty old router and they had 2 upgrades since I got the original, it really took several calls before they finally caved and realised maybe I needed a new one, which they initially wanted to charge me something like £50 extra to send.
 
I'm with Virgin Media and can't fault them, our broadband is up to 100meg and even at busiest times it's always over that when I speedtest. We also have phone and telly from them. I rang them up and told them that Apple products in the house nick all the broadband from the router so they offered to send me one of the ones that has both 5g and normal settings and has brilliant strength through walls. I rang them up and told them that my TiVo box kept going blocky when I was watching recordings so they sent me one of those 1TB V6 boxes. They never charged me anything extra.
 
I switched to Hyperoptic as soon as they came to my block, having become extremely pissed off with Virgin, and they’ve been great.
 
Zen.

We used to be with Plusnet but would have to differ with regards to customer service, it USED to be excellent but lately they lost the ability to talk at the same level of expertise of the customer (they used to notice fairly quickly if you're an IT guy who knows what they're talking about and adjust their communication accordingly). Now when you know exactly what the problem is and what you need them to do, it's hard luck, you're dealing with a robot - they're going through unnecessary bullshit basics in their flowchart like doing a hard reset of your router and losing all your settings for a problem that is entirely unrelated to the router. Ditched them.

Zen continue to be the best in general and have the best communication skills. They always have but we switched from them for a while when their prices went silly.

Switching won't help your link speed - that's down to Openreach and will be the same with any ISP. With some shitty ISPs it'd help if they were throttling / traffic shaping or just oversold, but neither Plusnet nor Zen are known for any of those issues.
 
So I think I have a bit of a plan now.

We had a letter through from Community Fibre saying that they are coming to your area a while ago but it is unlikely this will be before our Plusnet contract is up in May.

However, helpfully i’ve realised a friend’s partner works for them and has offered to check the status of the rollout where I live when she is in on Monday.

If it is sooner, we can stick with Plusnet and then switch as soon as is possible. If it is later, we can maybe switch to someone like Zen (my landlord suggested them too, Cloud!) on a 12 month contract and then go to Community Fibre when it has fully rolled out. Another friend who used to work in telecoms said that the router Zen provide is likely to be better than the Plusnet one.

Thanks to everyone that replied with advice!
 
My mate lives in rural derbyshire and went down the 5g and a proper external antenna pointing at the tower route, and its very decent. Having lived with satellite internet for a while I wish I’d have done that even on 4g
 
I have just remembered that MSE did a poll just the other week and I think Zen came out very well!
 
Yes here it is

It has Utility Warehouse as one of the top ones too, and that is baffling. My Dad uses them and their speeds are like being back in the 90s. Very cheap though.
 
Yeah the Zen router is good, they provide Fritz!boxes which are some of the best
 

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