Broadband Suppliers

15 Jun 2010 23:10:27

Trevor Hewson

Mainly for Lionel, but others please feel free to chip in.

At this evening's Bournemouth meeting, once we had got down to earth again after the demo of the iPads, I mentioned that I was in a state of confusion having had my broadband supplier offer to take over my phone line and BT offer to take over my broadband on consecutive days. Feeling that it is probably time I did something, I have no idea what.

At this point Lionel mentioned Plusnet and the low rates available in certain areas. I have just checked their website as suggested and found that for us at Barton on sea Plusnet Value Broadband is available for £6.49 p.m. with an estimated line speed of 5Mb. This sounds quite attractive (I am paying £15 at the moment with Nildram, who were taken over by Pipex then became part of Tiscali who now are part of Talktalk who have assigned me to their Opal business users division - in spite of me being a purely domestic user).

So, any views on Plusnet, anyone??

Trevor

Re: Broadband Suppliers

16 Jun 2010 01:48:01

Mick Burrell

I didn't chip in at the meeting Trevor but I have two accounts with Plus Net (one here, one in Cumbria) and I have four friends/relatives I've set up with them. All very happy with the quality of their service. At home here, my connection status tells me I've been connected without interruption for just under 3,000 hours. I can't remember why I was disconnected 3,000 hours ago - I probably switched the router off for some reason! Does that help?

Re: Broadband Suppliers

16 Jun 2010 17:19:24

Lionel Ogden

I can echo something of what Mick says although I only have the one plusnet account. However check what the cost of Plusnet Value is after the initial 3 or 4 months. I think the £6.49 is an introductory price unless you live in a Market 3 area where there are more than three operators with equipment installed in your local exchange. In which case the price will stay at £6.49 p.m. Otherwise it rises to about £11p.m.

Re: Broadband Suppliers

16 Jun 2010 18:14:37

Derek Wright

Another happy Plusnet user

Plus points
They support Redirection as part of their email package They make very to have up to 5 domains - which if you get annoyed with Plus net you can upsticks and keep your email id.

They do not have a Windows centric way of dealing with customers, unlike BT and Talk Talk.

Re: Broadband Suppliers

16 Jun 2010 23:03:56

Derek Wright

One major reason I have fr staying with Plusnet is their problem reporting system, I can enter details on it as wel as the guys at PN so if they do not understand my problem I can see that and harrass them.

Also they have a forum plus they monitor the ThinkAdsl forum for PN so you have a public way of expressing un-happiness of any resolution of problems. And they usually resolve the issue.

Re: Broadband Suppliers

17 Jun 2010 09:57:40

Trevor Hewson

Thanks guys. Good though the iPad demos were, this is the real value of a user group! I have generated a list of 20 mailing lists and websites on which I am registered with my Nildram address and am in the process of working through them before embarking on the change.

I will double check the price. Although I didn't spot at the time that it said anything about an introductory rate, I suspect Lionel is right - it is hard to believe that New Milton is a hotbed of broadband competition!

Re: Broadband Suppliers

17 Jun 2010 11:36:31

Mick Burrell

As a small aside Trevor, before you change your email address, have you considered using a domain name or perhaps a Google Mail account to save you having to do it should you change in future?

Re: Broadband Suppliers

17 Jun 2010 15:50:50

Trevor Hewson

Mick, I set up a Yahoo e-mail account a few years back for just this reason. However, many of the sites I was registered with before then have not been changed from the Nildram address so this is really a bit of housekeeping that I ought to have got around to earlier!

Re: Broadband Suppliers

17 Jun 2010 17:59:25

Trevor Hewson

In case it helps anybody else, I have just confirmed that New Milton is a market 3 exchange, i.e. good for the £6.49 p.m. rate. Just need to get a MAC Code from Nildram/Pipex/Tiscali/TalkTalk/Opal now.

Re: Broadband Suppliers

19 Jun 2010 19:14:36

Lionel Ogden

Check out the latest offer on the plusnet site. An extra £1.50 off for the first 12 months until July 8th, i.e. Broadband up to 8mbps for £4.99.

Re: Broadband Suppliers

10 Jul 2010 22:05:17

Trevor Hewson

I was going to defer an update on this until I had accumulated more experience with PlusNet but Mary has just told me of a phone call she took whist I was out, which I felt I must share. The caller was Barrie from Opal (who are the business arm of TalkTalk who recently took over Tiscali who earlier took over Pipex who even earlier took over my supplier, Nildram - do keep up!)

It went something like this:
Barrie: I am calling to tell you of a great offer available to you now that Nildram is part of Opal. .
Mary (interrupting): But we have just switched away from Nildram
Barrie: Oh really? Who have you switched to?
Mary: Plusnet
Barrie: Oh, they're very good aren't they, I'm with them too!

I wonder whether the call was recorded for training purposes?

So far, we are quite happy. We have the £6.49 basic rate, with the extra £1.50 discount for the first 12months.