Other Broadband and tv providers for my new house?

I'm moving into a new home very soon and will be requiring broadband and Sky tv. Since I will be getting a Sky package, it would seem sensible to go for their TV and broadband package. However, if there are better options, I'm all ears. I guess what I'm asking is if Sky's broadband service is any good, or would I be better off with something else?

 

Do you know what kind of Broadband services Sky can offer? Have a look here and run a check......

https://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker

 

My experience of Sky BB is that is quite middle of the road. It is unlimited, the customer service is alright, but you don't get any geek features. Locked down router, no static IP, etc etc. There are better services for computer enthusiasts. Plusnet is my vote. Sky BB is good value though when bought with a TV package.

 

As an ex-BE* customer, the move to Sky was an utter shambles, and the quality of the service dropped from excellent to piss poor. Needless to say I exercised my rights and jumped ship to BT Infinity and have had nothing but excellence since. Admittedly I can't say much about BT's customer services, because I've had no need to contact them after placing the initial order.

 

Can you get Virgin media?

Let me know if you can for cheese cake like discount

 

This,

But, I jumped to EE. It was terrible at first, but once I bought a decent router I've had no problems since. I only went for the cost, I think I pay £13 a month inc line rental as I took out a mobile contract which brought the cost down. Given the option though I'd have a total package from Virgin, but their service stops 100m up my street.

 

This. But I moved to Claranet soho and I haven't looked back!

 

I'm with plusnet and I'm getting a constant 14meg which is pretty good for a BT line

 

For what it worth Sky broadband has been fine here personally.
As fast as could be expected and solid connection/consistent speeds (barring for one speed issue that was sorted reasonably quickly).

Being locked to the basic router may be a problem, but there are options where that is concerned if you are so inclined.
Either use the Sky router solely as an access point attached to another router, or (against t&c) extract the login and use your own modem/router.
(N.B. May be out of date information, I'm not sure what the current hardware they are sending out is like)

The speed issue was indeed linked to a bad firmware update on the router, so it's not ideal. But like I say, I've been happy with the service otherwise and not had any other significant issues over the now quite long period I have been with them.

Couple of people I know have had other issues but I've rang tech support personally and managed to get them sorted.
I found it ultimately an okay experience if you you know what you are talking about and don't mind waiting for a bit or jumping through a few scripted hoops to get to the point.

Anecdotally and locally at least I've heard little but bad things about Virgin Media.

 

Ok guys, thanks for the responses.

I was looking at sky broadband purely because it seemed to make sense if getting the tv package. However, it looks like I may need to do some re thinking.

I did look at BT infinity, but it seemed rather expensive compared to some of the others. I have heard good things about plusnet though.

 

I'm getting PlusNet next week. I hope to get a better speed than TalkTalk. They never could do better than 11meg and I live next to the exchange. When I took out the line my ping tripled and my speed was less than the minimum stated in the contract. Took them 3 months to give me above 8.

No more switching my PC on to find the net is out every 2 weeks, no more freezing up while streaming, no more watching my enemies warping around the map while I try and shoot them, no more answering the multitude of support questions off by heart before they have even asked me, no more having the phone slammed down on me because the fault I was explaining deviated off the scripted response list, no more asking some poorly trained English speaking operative to speak louder because the piece of **** line has the worst hissing sound you've ever heard, no more smashing up home phones and waking the neighbour's up at 3am with screams of rage and anger (hopefully).

What ever you do DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER TALKTALK AS AN OPTION!

They truly are the single most worst experience I have had to deal with. Simply **** to the core!

Roll on next week some good old fashion northern broadband, whatever that might bring .........

 

On sky FIber here pay just £100 for everything phone tv internet ( All tv channels, HD,2 multiroom, Best internet package, Free daytime and weekend calls to all numbers, Free line rental)

Cant really complain, First few days the Fiber was a bit dodgy up and down but its since stable at 80 down 20up. Which is alot better than I used to get on BE which was basically 2mb down 1mb up.

Talk Talk is rubbish, BT was unable to supply Fiber so was a none choice and Virgin is rubbish also any issue and your in trouble as there Customer service is shockingly bad.

 

Another vote for Plus net from me.

I was on BT and could only get 4MB a second with them for the package I was on since infinity is too expensive. I switched to Plus Net and pay an extra £5 a month then before and get a constant 68mb through now. Never had a drop out, lowest I've dropped to was 56mb so barely noticed it.

I wouldn't recommend BT or Sky after trying both.

 

My daughter signed up with TalkTalk she had neither a phone or broadband for 3 months then they just refunded her money walked away leaving her with nothing ffs I told her to go with plusnet and she had both phone and broadband within a few days and never had a problem.

TalkTalk come round my house every few months with some BS saying the line's been upgraded and they can give me 30meg on a normal BT line ffs, see them squirm when I ask exactly how was it upgraded lol they'll tell you any crap just to get you to sign up

 

Another supporter of Plusnet. I've been a user of their Unlimited fibre for 8 months. Was easy to change over from Be/Sky ADSL. As far as I could tell no loss of speed in the evening. Little to no FUP. I've been consuming 900GB a month since Feb with no complaints.

The above has been said with no direct influence by Plusnet or for personal gain. However why don't you sign up to Plusnet with the referral link in my signature?

 

I'm on Sky after getting rid of BT

BT was dropping out all the time, they were charging me for their 80Mb speed as previous address could get it but new address can only get 45Mb maximum, contacted them and they refused to change contract, I was even prepared to renew for 18 months but a no go, with BT was only getting around 30Mb max. They also didn't inform me of their price increase over Christmas and the New Year so they were in breach of contract.

So got rid of their fibre and other services and changed over to Sky.

We got the TV HD & 3D package and 45Mb fibre, we actually get a full 45Mb and the service is stable. They sent us the new model Sky Hub (black one) which is doing its job nicely and you don't need the extra open reach router. 2 things that do bug me with it though is the locked in login information and the fact the it is not wireless n. You can get a booster (esentially a hotspot) for around £20 from them if needed and there are ways to extract your login details from the Sky routers if you want to use your own. Thing is though you would need the Open Reach modem if you use a standard router that doesn't have fibre support (fibre modem built in).

Final thing with the Sky Router unlike the BT Hub is that it does not have parental controls on it, 2 teenagers that use the internet a fair bit, with the BT Hub you can set time limits on how much they can use it daily, Sky router doesn't have anything like that, you can control via MAC address but it is limited with functionality, either on or off sort of thing.

 

They are worse than appalling. I really wish I had kept a log of each encounter with them too send to Ofcom. When the line went live I noticed it was running at 7meg. It took 2 weeks of calling before I got the speed put up to 8.5meg. A far cry from the promised 17meg.

On avearge it has failed once a month, sometimes 2 or 3 times in the same week. It was off for a day last October, when it came back on I developed an issue with eratic ping spikes and mini freezes while streaming. Twice they sent Engineers around to check inside my house. Both times they said it would be a free visit if no fault was found inside the property. No fault was found on either visit, but I was charged on both occasions and had to demand a refund.

Ironically, my speed has gone up to 15 meg since I sent notice of cancellation, some kind of sick joke no doubt. The ping spikes and streaming issues are still present though. Also they rang me and offered me Fibre for £13 a month, it's a bargain but I declined his offer. I don't think he understood my sarcasm about needing thearpy and medication, therefore negating any savings made, should I continue being a TalkTalk customer

I will save the results of the speedtest and can use it as leverage against Plusnet should they try and flob me off with some cruddy speeds.

I had to ring them yesterday and did notice it took them a while to answer, but overall I am far happier to sit and wait a few mins knowing I will at least be understood when I do get served.

Cheers

 

Plus net is nice for broadband only but they don't offer tv services. Which put me off going with them. These days less hassle to stick everything on one provider.

Problem for tv sky is really the only choice in the uk. More so if you watch a lot of sport. Bt trying to get there but dou't they will ever take over. Paying a lot for champions league which will cost the consumer more cash.

 

I can't comment on the TVservice as i don't have it, but I'm happy with VM's broadband...

...not that I have a whole lot of choice in that regard

 

You can have a bit of a wait the longest has been 30 minutes but it's a Freephone number so I just put it on speaker and get on with something openreach ( BT) was working down the road and messed up the broadband a couple of weeks back plusnet sent a engineer out to check things (no charge) and all's working well now.

The thing I like with plusnet you can talk to them and they don't treat you like a idiot and they really do give you the best speed your line will take

PlusNet do a sports package, not that I want it, tbh can't see the problem with getting phone and broadband from plusnet and tv from sky not exactly complicated is it?