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Author Topic: Looking for a new ISP  (Read 1999 times)

Sonac

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Looking for a new ISP
« on: January 20, 2020, 03:45:18 PM »

My BT contract is up within the next few months so i'm looking for some advice on ISP.

Here is my list so far:
1. Zen: Heard really good things from people on this forum. Definitely being considered.
2. Sky: Heard mostly good things. Being considered.
3. AA: Weird pricing and data caps but being considered.
4. Plusnet: Heard mixed feelings for many people. Some good, others bad. I like remote DLM reset but so many conflicting opinions puts me off (especially as when it goes wrong it seems to go very wrong).
5. Talktalk: Very bad past experience... NEVER again.

I just have regular FTTC, cabinet no 1 with an estimated length of about 400m~ so nothing very special.
Not that bothered about pricing as my house uses a LOT of internet so it's worth getting the best.

I did ask openreach for a FTTP quote but they wanted almost £3000. No thanks.

Any suggestions?
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ISP:
BT Unlimited Superfast Fibre 2 - 78/18 [50/15 actual]
Zen Unlimited Fibre 2 - 64/15 [50/15 actual]
DSLAM: Huawei 288
Modem: ZyXEL VMG1312-B10A HG612 (BT NTE5C + MK4 Plate)
Router: Ubiquity Edgerouter X

gt94sss2

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Re: Looking for a new ISP
« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2020, 06:41:48 PM »

I wouldn't rule out continuing to use BT - they can do some very nice retention offers.

What services are important for you in an ISP?

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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Looking for a new ISP
« Reply #2 on: January 20, 2020, 11:01:57 PM »

Personally I'm sticking with Zen as I consider them the best short of aa.net.uk which are WAY too expensive for my usage.

Out of my two lines, I see more packet loss issues on Plusnet, so much so I had to move my VPN clients over to Zen.  Not sure why, other people have said they have no issues.

Ultimately after looking at some of their videos, I have more faith that Zen are investing in their network and they claim to maintain a zero contention network.  I don't like how the big ISPs can have websites blocked by court orders, I did years ago experience a whole IP range incorrectly blocked on Plusnet because they made a mistake updating their blocklist.  I just feel more comfortable knowing that can't happen because Zen do not block anything.

Granted that could change, if Zen are ever considered big enough an ISP then the courts could demand they implement a blocklist, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.
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Broadband: Zen Full Fibre 900 + Three 5G Routers: pfSense (Intel N100) + Huawei CPE Pro 2 H122-373 WiFi: Zyxel NWA210AX
Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, Netgear MS510TXPP, Netgear GS110EMX My Broadband History & Ping Monitors

dee.jay

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Re: Looking for a new ISP
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2020, 12:46:52 PM »

Amazed Plusnet makes peoples short lists, honestly.

Sky are fine for me.

The big selling point of AA you missed - you buy an unfiltered internet connection. I don't believe *any* of the "big" ISP's can offer that nowadays.
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Starlink and AAISP L2TP combo routed by opnSense on proxmox

j0hn

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Re: Looking for a new ISP
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2020, 01:33:40 PM »

Never had an issue with Plusnet once.
Not a single outage, not a single billing issue.
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Talktalk FTTP 550/75 - Speedtest - BQM

Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Looking for a new ISP
« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2020, 02:17:08 PM »

Amazed Plusnet makes peoples short lists, honestly.

Sky are fine for me.

The big selling point of AA you missed - you buy an unfiltered internet connection. I don't believe *any* of the "big" ISP's can offer that nowadays.

Only the major ISPs filter stuff as it costs them money to do so and the smaller ISPs its not in their interests to add more costs.  This is also why the court order did not demand they do so, as it would be prohibitively expensive for them.
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Broadband: Zen Full Fibre 900 + Three 5G Routers: pfSense (Intel N100) + Huawei CPE Pro 2 H122-373 WiFi: Zyxel NWA210AX
Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, Netgear MS510TXPP, Netgear GS110EMX My Broadband History & Ping Monitors

j0hn

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Re: Looking for a new ISP
« Reply #6 on: January 21, 2020, 02:34:15 PM »

Only the big 6 are required to follow current High Court blocking orders.

Nothing special about A&A in that regard.

Zen, IDNet, Cerberus, or any other smaller ISP will offer the same unfiltered service as A&A.

Resellers of the big 6 may differ.
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Talktalk FTTP 550/75 - Speedtest - BQM

Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Looking for a new ISP
« Reply #7 on: January 21, 2020, 04:39:09 PM »

Resellers of the big 6 may differ.

There I think lays the confusion.  A lot of seemingly smaller ISPs are merely virtual ISPs.

It was enlightening back in the dark ages when I worked as Plusnet and you had to pay attention to what flashed on the phone to know how to address the customer, as a LOT of dialup services were just re-sold Plusnet with exactly the same support team.

Same at BT Directory Enquiries actually, you had to record a LONG list of welcome messages for every single telco.  I had no idea there were even that many variants out there, and that was before the 118 services launched.
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Broadband: Zen Full Fibre 900 + Three 5G Routers: pfSense (Intel N100) + Huawei CPE Pro 2 H122-373 WiFi: Zyxel NWA210AX
Switches: Netgear MS510TXUP, Netgear MS510TXPP, Netgear GS110EMX My Broadband History & Ping Monitors

Sonac

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Re: Looking for a new ISP
« Reply #8 on: January 22, 2020, 05:20:48 PM »

Thanks for the advice. I noticed I get a static IP with Zen which is nice. I don't really care about filters since my VPN can easily handle it. I like the sound of smaller companies more because they generally have better support than the big ones.

I hadn't considered IDNet or Cerberus and I'm removing Plusnet from my list.

IDNet seems to have pretty fair pricing and also offers a static IP (or multiple static IPs in a block, I have no use for that though).

Cerberus is pretty expensive. I liked the idea of their FTTC bonded service. But I died a little inside when I saw the price though :o

So many choices. I'm not really happy with BT as I can't get anywhere with them. No point even calling them about issues.

Looks like it's between Sky, IDNet and Zen. I'll have to check prices close to the time!

Thanks

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ISP:
BT Unlimited Superfast Fibre 2 - 78/18 [50/15 actual]
Zen Unlimited Fibre 2 - 64/15 [50/15 actual]
DSLAM: Huawei 288
Modem: ZyXEL VMG1312-B10A HG612 (BT NTE5C + MK4 Plate)
Router: Ubiquity Edgerouter X

jaydub

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Re: Looking for a new ISP
« Reply #9 on: January 22, 2020, 06:26:06 PM »

Looks like it's between Sky, IDNet and Zen. I'll have to check prices close to the time!

Out of the three, I would consider IDNet or Zen as a much better option than Sky.  If you do an ISP comparison on the main ThinkBroadband site, you will see that IDNet and Zen are rated much higher than Sky, which I would reinforce from my own experiences, although it is some time since I was with Zen.

It might come down to how much you use a landline, as IDNet phone charges are much lower than Zen's.
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Weaver

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Re: Looking for a new ISP
« Reply #10 on: January 25, 2020, 11:35:26 AM »

@sonac I have used Zen and AA - I had a line on each and eventually went over entirely to AA. I’m on AA’s old ‘units’ tariff which is totally unlimited use; you just get charged for what you use. If I had out-of-control users such as children, guests, employees then I would change to a different tariff.

I absolutely love being with AA.
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gt94sss2

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Re: Looking for a new ISP
« Reply #11 on: January 25, 2020, 01:43:08 PM »

So many choices. I'm not really happy with BT as I can't get anywhere with them. No point even calling them about issues.

On the rare occasions I’ve had issues I use the BT forum - the moderators (BT staff) are very good with owning and resolving issues.

Good luck with your new ISP!
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PhilipD

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Re: Looking for a new ISP
« Reply #12 on: January 31, 2020, 02:15:28 PM »

Hi

I would recommend UNO, perfect service no slow downs at all, they don't support IPv6 though (at the moment anyway), but support is brilliant.  I've had tickets answered in minutes before now when I've needed to query something.

Regards

Phil
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