I'm currently with Plusnet for £27/month for unlimited broadband, line rental and unlimited landline calls and my contract's up next month.
MSE have come up with Sky for £14.67/month for the same, plus unlimited calls to mobiles. the only difference being Sky have an 18 month contract as opposed to Plusnet's 12 month.
I contacted Plusnet and they agreed to renew for £18/month and meet Sky's conditions.
I'm tempted to move to Sky, but don't know how good they are. It means I'd get a new router that has possibly moved on in improvements compared to my old Plusnet router. SWMBO would get her hands on a £70 M&S card, but it means going through the changeover process.
I'm torn!
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I've been with Sky for about a year now - best ISP I've been with tbh, and I've been wivva few.
Just BB and phone so a 12 month con with eve/weekend calls thrown in.
I'll most likely stay wivvem when the 12 months is up, but try to reduce the already low cost ovvit.
I could get superfast here, but 7Mbps does all I want, including Amazon Prime vid and the iPlayer.
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It's irrelevant really but I'm with Virgin and I have been with them for years and years, since they first laid cable outside my house (maybe mid 90s or earlier?). Their service has always been pretty good albeit not cheap, and while I have often threatened to leave they then come up with an offer to make me stay.
My point really is that I have little motivation to leave as the service runs well, support is adequate when required and overall I am satisfied. So I would be loathe to move to another provider, even one as big as Sky, when I'm not really sure whether the move would bring me much technically (or financially really) benefit, and could in fact, do the opposite, and with a risk of some inconvenience along the way.
You might find Plusnet can supply you an updated router if you feel that's what you need. I am with them for mobile and find their online chat facility really good for stuff like that.
Having said all that - both my daughter and a mate are with Sky and haven't reported any real issues so, while I imagine there would be forums-full of unhappy customers to be found, they aren't at all bad for most. (When my daughter moved to them they did take many weeks and visits to resolve an issue, but to be fair the issue pre-existed them and it seemed that it was a line issue which I think would also be outside their control. Thus this is almost an uptick for Sky)
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I've been with Sky broadband since they started doing broadband and have no complaints. I'm a light user so have no need for fibre etc. If you're happy with your current provider and they will match Sky's price i see no reason to change.
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I've been putting off this change for ages. I pay line rental £18.95 and calls £8.00 (inc VAT) to Talk Talk and another bill to Vodafone (originally Demon) for Broadband. I know I've wasted money for years but it works and changing is a faff.
Vodafone have now brought matters to a head by announcing they're closing the Demon brand on 15-05-19. For reasons I cannot now remember Demon's service was a business offer so Vodafone are offering business oriented replacement deals priced ex-VAT. All are fibre which their availability checker shows as available here, we're Fibre to Cabinet rather than fully cabled. For 35mbps offer is £17.50 + VAT or £20.83 for 63Mbps. Unlimited calls on either package add £13 - £36.79 inc VAT for slower service or £42.78 for faster. Both are fixed IP address which I have at present but not sure I have a need for one.
Plusnet will do me 36mb and unlimited UK/mobile calls for £31.99.
IIRC others on here speak well of Plusnet. Any better offers or any reason not to go for that.
Presumably I have to get MAC codes from both Talk Talk and Demon?
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You rarely need a fixed IP address as a home user, and if you do there are web sites providing free services to emulate (dyndns and noip spring to mind)
Not sure why you would need any codes, a MAC code is a long set of hex digits assigned to a device and (although it can be cloned) isn't much use again except in special circs.
FWIW I have Plusnet but only for mobiles and they are fine -currently roaming in Portugal with almost better 4G coverage than UK!
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>> Not sure why you would need any codes, a MAC code is a long set
>> of hex digits assigned to a device and (although it can be cloned) isn't much
>> use again except in special circs.
My recollection was that like with mobiles when you 'port' your number you had to get some sort of code from your old supplier to pass on to the new one.
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You need a PAC code not MAC!
Porting Authorisation Code
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>> You need a PAC code not MAC!
>>
>>
>> Porting Authorisation Code
Thanks my 'TLA' was based on idea of a Migration Activation Code.....
I am actually familiar with the hex MAC numbers. For a while I used a router's MAC filtering to overcome issues older home PCs kids had with implementing WiFi security.
EDIT: BT's contemporaneous post noted...
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sun 17 Mar 19 at 16:44
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MACs are no longer required, your new ISP informs your old one and it (should) go seamlessly. I had to threaten Plusnet with a request for a MAC to get a better offer and they informed me of this.
In fact: Under rules introduced in June 2015 consumers who switch broadband provider no longer require a MAC code. Instead, Ofcom's revamped code of practice transfers responsibility for managing a switch to the provider to whom the customer is switching.
As an aside I've just had to contact Plusnet to inform them they're overcharging me £11/month.
I suggest you look at MSE to see what deals are available.
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So migration to Plus Net should take place on 23 April when engineer can do stuff at cabinet etc earlier correspondence gave date as 15 April. Sorry you're leaving letter from Talk Talk refers to 15 April as end date.
I've now had about four conversations to sort this out. Plus net referred me to Talk Talk; I need to tell them correct date. Talk Talk insistent they need it from PLusnet.
Most Plus net people I've spoken to have been great except one who kept gabbling away explaining (or rather failing to explain) some technical stuff about 'holds' on my line. Used quite patronising language like 'what you need to understand is'...
Talk Talk are however universally useless script jockeys almost certainly overseas and unable to give straight answers. Simple question - can you confirm my service ends on 23 and not 15 April results in questions about deal I'm getting from PLusnet, reading of lengthy T&C about leaving and general failure to engage. Didn't appreciate being instructed to give my phone number slow and loud, slow and loud (he repeated this). I've done this information gathering stuff day in day out for years; I mentor new telephone advisers. My suggestion to my mentees is if you don't catch something apologise and ask them to repeat it. Don't risk talking in a way that'll get their back up, it can poison the whole conversation. This guy had no idea!!
Eventually, after about 15 minutes I got a clear statement that they will not end my service until the new one starts.
Fingers crossed, I'll still not be surprised if line goes dead on Monday.
Eventually got
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Fri 12 Apr 19 at 17:38
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>> Fingers crossed, I'll still not be surprised if line goes dead on Monday.
>>
>> Eventually got
Looks like finger crossing did no good then.
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FTTC question...
My modem tells me that the connection runs at 39998 mbs but the best that I can get from a wired Ethernet connection is 27 mbs. Any idea why?
The Ethernet adapter is in 7th gen i5 quad core laptop with a GTX1070 graphics card and a "killer" Ethernet (i.e. fast) adapter - so I am hoping the bottleneck isn't there.
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What ethernet port are you using on the modem router? some of them only have 1 gigbit ethernet port. What are you using to measure thruput? Your maximum broadband capability is rarely matched by the actual speed you achieve in real use.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 12 Apr 19 at 19:31
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I have used Fast.com and www.speedtest.net both report similar speeds.
There are 4 Ethernet connecters on the back of the modem / router. As far as I can tell, they are all the same speed.
I can only get the lowest FTTC speed as there was no room for a double speed card in the cabinet apparently!?
(I miss the 80mbs that I had in my previous house that translated to 75mbs via wireless connections!)
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>My modem tells me that the connection runs at 39998 mbs...
That's Kbps not Mbps ie. 40Mbps.
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>> Talk Talk are however universally useless script jockeys almost certainly overseas and unable to give
>> straight answers.
They closed all their UK call centres 2 or 3 years ago now, maybe longer. When I was with TT for Broadband only and had some issues, I spoke to one of their UK call centres and the guy was really helpful and arranged some 'freebies' to compensate me for my troubles. Ended up with nearly a years free BB, among other things. Just before the call ended, he said he was being laid off next week as all the UK call centres were closing and it was no skin off his nose to offer me more than he should have. He wasn't bothered if the call was being recorded for training purposes. He said, "I'm going anyway, so if they sack me it doesn't matter". Got the deal in writing from him too. And it all carried through as he had promised.
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 12 Apr 19 at 19:14
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My Plusnet contract ended recently and I remembered this topic for the fact that Bathtub Tom negotiated a better deal with them. My bills seem a bit high at the moment so, a few days ago, I thought I might look into doing the same.
I discovered that Plusnet now have lots of customers who are complaining about billing problems, including not being billed at all. They seem to stem from the site software being updated sometime around September last year.
I've got more pressing issues, so I'm going to wait for a while to see if the problems get resolved before contacting them.
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>> My Plusnet contract ended recently
If you didn't renew the contract, then you'd be put on their standard terms. They ain't cheap.
I see they're currently offering 'phone and broadband for nineteen quid a month. I took out a new twelve month contract for eighteen by quoting Talk Talk prices and they were prepared to match.
Plusnet overcharged me by eleven quid for the first couple of months, but that was quickly resolved with a 'phone call.
As an aside, just taken out a new energy contract with Utility Point. Gone up by more than 10% from my previous supplier.
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>> As an aside, just taken out a new energy contract with Utility Point. Gone up
>> by more than 10% from my previous supplier.
I would be very careful about the smaller energy brokers, fair few have gone to the wall, with more to come.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 12 Apr 19 at 22:49
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The address of this link indicates the topic, but the last 2 paragraphs suggest something "similar but different," for broadband and phone users, came into operation on April 1st. Did anyone know that?
www.theguardian.com/money/2019/may/04/energy-switchers-to-receive-compensation-for-delayed-refunds
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Broadband and 'phone line rental - Dog
