What ISP do people use in the UK? Looking to buy for new home.

Hello
I am moving out for the first time and buying broadband for the first time too. The property I am moving into doesn't support Virgin Broadband which is what my parents had and I used to play FFXIV, Xbox, PS4, Stream etc.

My options are: Sky, BT, Plusnet, TalkTalk, EE and Vodafone. Fibre is an option on all choices.

I know Sky and BT are the big wigs but Plusnet and TalkTalk come out cheaper per month for roughly the same "up to" speeds.
I should add that I will probably be using the WiFi too.

What do people recommend?
Does anyone use any others apart from Sky/BT?

Thanks.

Edit: Added Fibre is an option on all choices.

Huh I didn't even know EE and Vodafone went beyond just providing Mobile Phone services

Honestly out of your options, I would go with BT.

Talktalk was a painful endurance test when I was forced to be on it for a year due to not having the funds for Virgin Broadband (shame they aren't available to you, I would go with BT Fibre if it was available but its not) but yeah TalkTalk was just horrible service, painfully slow, peak-time throttling.

Also suffered Sky Broadband for a while, they weren't as bad as Talktalk but they aren't great either they are just okay. But don't expect any amazing package deals from either of them to be able to download/upload at a reasonable rate unless you don't mind waiting hours for XIV to update and the like.

BT are probably your best bet for a decent ISP package, though only if BT Fibre is set up in your area.

If you're looking to save money, I would suggest Sky Broadband

If you're looking to spend a bit more and BT are offering their Fibre option then I'd say go for them.

I've used Sky and BT and I prefer Sky, the internet cuts off less where I live ever since I switched to Sky and its ever so slightly faster too (but still barely 8mbps)

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Originally Posted by Crosly

I forgot to mention Fibre is available on all choices.

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Then I would say look into Sky and BT's packages and then decide who gives you the best value for money. Though I would personally lean more towards BT.

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Originally Posted by NaesakiAshwell

Talktalk was a painful endurance test when I was forced to be on it for a year due to not having the funds for Virgin Broadband (shame they aren't available to you, I would go with BT Fibre if it was available but its not) but yeah TalkTalk was just horrible service, painfully slow, peak-time throttling.

Also suffered Sky Broadband for a while, they weren't as bad as Talktalk but they aren't great either they are just okay. But don't expect any amazing package deals from either of them to be able to download/upload at a reasonable rate unless you don't mind waiting hours for XIV to update and the like.

BT are probably your best bet for a decent ISP package, though only if BT Fibre is set up in your area.

If you're looking to save money, I would suggest Sky Broadband

If you're looking to spend a bit more and BT are offering their Fibre option then I'd say go for them.

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I forgot to mention Fibre is available on all choices.

After having Sky, BT and TalkTalk I would also advise BT Fiber - They might not be the cheapest (possibly the most expensive actually) but I've had no issues since moving over to BT Fiber around 2 years ago. Previous to that we had Sky, which was ok... but only that, and before Sky we had TalkTalk which was just horrendous for pretty much the same reasons mentioned above (plus random disconnects).

XIII

BT fibre hasn't let me down yet. Virgin can be dicey at times and talktalk is just gash.

Talktalk is ghastly. I've used Sky for years with no problems, really liked them and only swapped to Virgin because I got a better deal. I've dealt with BT before and found their support pretty terrible (when they sent me the fifth new modem in a row rather than sorting the problem at their end I knew it was time to leave). Good complaints procedure though. Pity I had to use it multiple times.

Wow you even have a choice? /envy

I wouldn't use TalkTalk if they paid me, it was terrible and the customer service was abysmal.
I've been with Plusnet and they've been fine so far.

I sure wish I had options like that. Of course much of the talk over here about ISP's welcoming competition, talk.

BT are the best I've had so far. Most of the time it just works. Fast response to faults and good customer service.

I am honestly SO glad that you don't have access to Virgin.
My family have insisted we have that for years and its absolutely terrible, we constantly phone them to get things sorted ~ they've give us the new hub last week and its the slowest thing I've ever had to use, it's literally made somethings impossible. I honestly would not advise anyone to go with them unless your in an area where they are the ONLY provider.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Crosly

Hello
I am moving out for the first time and buying broadband for the first time too. The property I am moving into doesn't support Virgin Broadband which is what my parents had and I used to play FFXIV, Xbox, PS4, Stream etc.

My options are: Sky, BT, Plusnet, TalkTalk, EE and Vodafone. Fibre is an option on all choices.

I know Sky and BT are the big wigs but Plusnet and TalkTalk come out cheaper per month for roughly the same "up to" speeds.
I should add that I will probably be using the WiFi too.

What do people recommend?
Does anyone use any others apart from Sky/BT?

Thanks.

Edit: Added Fibre is an option on all choices.

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Better options than me we have the choice of Kcom in HULL or some wireless provider.

It's a bit zone dependent in my opinion. I have lived in a zone where I had bt then went to sky and was better, meanwhile I moved bought a house, have bt fibre and don't have any problems whatsoever. There are some websites that have records of speeds of different services in different areas. Have a search in google it will be easy to find. Personally ATM I prefer BT.

Me and my partner have recently moved to the UK (from a Nordic country) and I was really shocked to see about the "quality" of "options" available. We're getting BT to our apartment but we didn't even get fibre as an option, whereas back at home I can get up to a 1Gb fibre connection for under 50€ a month and at least 50Mb fibre connection was a given pretty much anywhere...

To be honest, I'm a bit worried what this will do to my gaming hobby. :confused:

Sky or BT, the others are just horrible.

On the whole id say SKY are generally better with regards to gaming at least from my view. They sorted the routeing problem out in a couple of days alot of us had in 2.0 while i remember Virgin and BT dragging there feet on that.

I'm actually using Southern Electric at the moment. We were suprised they even did internet but we found it on a comparison website.

We've used TalkTalk in the past which I found to be fairly ok. To be honest you'd be better off looking at what is best in your local area though, my experiences on the south coast are likely to be very different to someone in London/The Midlands/The North.

edit: it's also worth noting that a lot of the smaller companies use BT infrastructure anyway. Virgin media is the only one that doesn't.

You really do get what you pay for in Broadband. Remember though, broadband is effectively the same regardless of who you are with (from a residential perspective ofc,Biz stuff has alot of different management options).

What you really pay for is the service you get when something goes wrong, Talk Talk and Plusnet have honestly rubbish support, sometimes you find a gem that is super knowledgeable but often its terrible.

BT and Sky are quite consistently good with their support and frankly if you tie your Sky TV into it you get a great deal normally, thats where I would lean too.

I had an awful experience with TalkTalk they had the worst customer service ever. Currently with BT

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Originally Posted by Genaxx

I had an awful experience with TalkTalk they had the worst customer service ever. Currently with BT

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I can confirm that, I think I once was on the phone to there IT department bascially shouting 'it's not the wifi' for about 10-20 mins....and we had one of there tech guys tell us the 3-4 disconnects per night is perfectly normal and proceed to ignore there own procedures, fun times.

I'm with and would recommend BT, unless you're with Virgin all the lines etc are owned and maintained by openreach, who are a separate company but fall under the BT umbrella.... in my experience any issues are usually down to openreach not the isp themselves but being with BT should result in more efficient solutions to any issues, ik in theory they shouldn't work like that but you know xD

Sky. They did optimize my ping. They helpful too

Oh but if your area has cable go Virgin. But their customer service is shitest in this country.