5 minutes ago, Hostahousey said:

Thanks Guys for that info I'll look into them options. Trouble is I just signed an 18 month deal  ( BT . HALO ) I .pay £68 month to include TV free calls etc

Depending on how "just", you have 14 days to cancel.

1 minute ago, Hostahousey said:

Thanks Guys for that info I'll look into them options. Trouble is I just signed an 18 month deal  ( BT . HALO ) I .pay £68 month to include TV free calls etc

Plenty of time to migrate your emails away from BT then,
Set up the free ones and add them to your online accounts, you can change Broadband and Banking emails whenever you want.
I never even received a TalkTalk email because I was transferred over from Tesco Broadband, I just added my own email as the primary.

23 hours ago, alexp999 said:

Depending on how "just", you have 14 days to cancel.

Took out new contract about " months ago, so past cancel date . Thanks anyway

27 minutes ago, Hostahousey said:

Took out new contract about " months ago, so past cancel date . Thanks anyway

Mine doesn't include TV or calls tbf.  I don't know how much they add to a package but it's definitely worth looking around for a better deal next year, a month or two before the contract ends.

TalkTalk were advertising their "Superfast" fibre service for £21.95 in cheaper areas... including mine... which is less than I am paying for my current 35mb service!

I only have landline and BB with my provider, which is Daisy Communications, UK based and you can ring them up 24/7 and speak to an actual person, I've been with them for many years now. Currently my BB cost is £20.29 and line rental is £11.21 on a 'rolling' monthly contract. BB speed is always an issue as I am 1.1 miles away from the cabinet from which the lines are copper and not in a very good state of repair.

'Unlimited' BB is a misnomer, there is no such thing, if you use a lot of MB streaming and gaming you will get strangled and your speed will drop, the actual term is 'reasonable use'.

A few posters have mentioned Vodafone, anyone contemplating joining this cesspit of sharks would do very well to take a long hard look at customers reviews on Trustpilot, I was with this Company for many years but am no longer.

As for mobile, I'm with 3, they are about the cheapest at 3p a minute for calls, 2P for texts and 1p a MB for BB. I have very little or no mobile signal in my location so use BB calling if I need to or use WhatsApp. My usage does not warrant a monthly contract so I just use PAYG.

There is such a thing as unlimited use. It just depends on the ISP. Some genuinely don’t have “fair use” bs. Mine doesn’t. 
 

Often the cheaper the ISP the more they oversell their backhaul, which cause contention. 
 

Id rather pay a bit more for an ISP that buys plenty of bandwidth and won’t shape, limit or otherwise mess with my connection. 

9 hours ago, Micro said:

TalkTalk were advertising their "Superfast" fibre service for £21.95 in cheaper areas... including mine... which is less than I am paying for my current 35mb service!

Only for new customers I guess?  I didn't realise it was different prices in different areas, thought you just had to put the post code in to remove any cable services in non-cable areas! 😮 

2 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Only for new customers I guess?  I didn't realise it was different prices in different areas, thought you just had to put the post code in to remove any cable services in non-cable areas! 😮 

It’s some stupid thing between Ofcom and bt that let them charge more for the “last mile” copper rental, where there is less competition. 
 

The original incentive I think was to compensate for the extra cost in harder to reach areas, but it’s a stupid outdated system. 
 

Im in a low cost area and yet only got 20mbps broadband up from 3mbps a year ago. Because BT decided it was not financial viable until then. Who knows how long full fibre will take. I’m hoping a different provider comes along before then. 

31 minutes ago, Milkman said:

A few posters have mentioned Vodafone, anyone contemplating joining this cesspit of sharks would do very well to take a long hard look at customers reviews on Trustpilot, I was with this Company for many years but am no longer.

I don't really bother with online reviews any more...I'd never buy anything if I did!   They're mostly fake these days anyway.  I'd never have gone with TalkTalk based on reviews, yet I've not had an issue with them so far.

What was the reason you switched from Vodafone yourself?

14 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Only for new customers I guess?  I didn't realise it was different prices in different areas, thought you just had to put the post code in to remove any cable services in non-cable areas! 😮 

Yes new customers only. They offered me (existing customer) to pay £4 more for the same service.

Now with the current climate, they have no customer service on, meaning that I'm stuck paying a higher bill (that I had cancelled the upgrade of), with no way to downgrade until their CS guys come back.

I want to say to avoid TalkTalk - however, the service itself isn't an issue - i'm getting upwards of 65Mbps and peaking at 80Mbps with the only downtime being 10 mins here and there in the early hours of the morning. Billing and customer service however requires you to be persistent - my last complaint was 1 day away from going to the Ombudsman, and once their CS staff are back this time, if they can't sort it, i'll start the complaints process again.

I switched from Vodafone because of their inept and very rude way that their customer services treat you when you want to change things, I wanted to go from contract to PAYG but they could not grasp what I wanted and in order to do what I wanted I had to give 30 days notice before the contract came to an end, wait for the 'final Bill' and then request a PAYG SIM which when that arrived was the old credit card size and not the micro type, despite telling them what phone I had so I just gave up. I could write a book on their failings but it would be a 1000 page novel. In short, they lie, charge you more than the initial quote, send you poor condition handsets, send to the wrong address and when they decide that they think you owe them money they send in the debt collectors and kill your credit rating. All I can say is, please do look at the reviews on Trustpilot, the only fake ones on there are the ones that praise them, also look on their own website on the forum and read what customers are posting. They reply in both with condescending comment asking you to contact them via Facebook or Twitter, they have no email or phone contact and if you use the live chat they will pass you around between 4 Countries ending up exactly where you started, that's if they don't hang up on you, and still give you no resolution.

9 hours ago, Micro said:

Yes new customers only. They offered me (existing customer) to pay £4 more for the same service.

Now with the current climate, they have no customer service on, meaning that I'm stuck paying a higher bill (that I had cancelled the upgrade of), with no way to downgrade until their CS guys come back.

I want to say to avoid TalkTalk - however, the service itself isn't an issue - i'm getting upwards of 65Mbps and peaking at 80Mbps with the only downtime being 10 mins here and there in the early hours of the morning. Billing and customer service however requires you to be persistent - my last complaint was 1 day away from going to the Ombudsman, and once their CS staff are back this time, if they can't sort it, i'll start the complaints process again.

Ah ok, they haven't offered it to me!   Just offered me the same as I'm currently on for £3.50 more...  In fact, they don't seem to know whether that's for 18 months or 24 months either.

It does the job, but Xbox updates take forever (it's not uncommon to have a 40GB+ update on CoD! 😮 ) so if Vodafone can double the speed for 50p less I'd rather go with that.  I haven't had any issues with TalkTalk though, don't even think it's dropped out at all.  I was previously with Sky that dropped maybe once a or twice a year.  I've been fairly lucky with BB so far.

I guess it's not really fair to base CS on the current climate but do appreciate you've had problems previously as well.

8 hours ago, Milkman said:

I switched from Vodafone because of their inept and very rude way that their customer services treat you when you want to change things, I wanted to go from contract to PAYG but they could not grasp what I wanted and in order to do what I wanted I had to give 30 days notice before the contract came to an end, wait for the 'final Bill' and then request a PAYG SIM which when that arrived was the old credit card size and not the micro type, despite telling them what phone I had so I just gave up. I could write a book on their failings but it would be a 1000 page novel. In short, they lie, charge you more than the initial quote, send you poor condition handsets, send to the wrong address and when they decide that they think you owe them money they send in the debt collectors and kill your credit rating. All I can say is, please do look at the reviews on Trustpilot, the only fake ones on there are the ones that praise them, also look on their own website on the forum and read what customers are posting. They reply in both with condescending comment asking you to contact them via Facebook or Twitter, they have no email or phone contact and if you use the live chat they will pass you around between 4 Countries ending up exactly where you started, that's if they don't hang up on you, and still give you no resolution.

So it was a phone contract problem rather than a Broadband one...?  Surely that's like not buying a Mondeo because you bought a Ka that was rubbish...  The Trustpilot reviews for TalkTalk are also horrendous but I haven't had any issues.  I think they're just all useless if you actually have a problem tbh, just have to hope you don't!  As said above, I've been lucky with BB so far.

I can't use phones so Facebook chat or online chat is ideal for me, I won't use any company that still believes we're in the 1920s instead of the 2020s and forces you to use phone calls instead of text based comms...on that basis, I'd never use First Direct again, but old people love the fact they can call an actual person, so what seems like terrible CS to me, is ideal for them...plus I do like a bit of condescension in an online chat!

 

Just a quick question regarding switch dates - what is the actual date to switch on to avoid paying the 'new' fees once out of contract but not paying any 'leaving contract early' fees?

It says my contract ends on June 3rd - so do I start the new one on June 3rd, or is that the last active day so I should start the new one on June 4th...if that makes sense!?  

3 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

So it was a phone contract problem rather than a Broadband one...? 

But their BB service is just as bad, the router they send, it's like they promise you a brand new car but actually send you an MOT failure with no engine and when it does work instead of doing 80mph it is actually restricted to 35 and has 3 flat tyres.

10 minutes ago, Milkman said:

But their BB service is just as bad, the router they send, it's like they promise you a brand new car but actually send you an MOT failure with no engine and when it does work instead of doing 80mph it is actually restricted to 35 and has 3 flat tyres.

Well that would've been much more appropriate for this thread!  

Morning Tom.

This may be a little bit redundant for your change of contracts but the links are still useful.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com

1) The BT Wholesale broadband checker tool (recently updated) should hopefully give you a good indication of what connection speed your line may support (phone number might not work if it's been un-bundled to TalkTalk or other wholesaler). The address checker is obviously less accurate but still useful as an alternative (or to check a different address if you're moving in the future).

https://www.samknows.com/

2) The Sam Knows site allows you to check your local area and exchange to see what types of internet provision is available. Further to @alexp999 post above, it also allows you to see what OFCOM Market your local telephone exchange is. It's this market status that affects an ISPs price and why some get different offers based on where they live.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband-offers

3) Thinkbroadband is a good site to keep up with all things broadband related. They also have an offers page (direct link above) though I've not used it at any point in the past.

I personally use IDnet but they are expensive in comparison to a lot of the usual mass market home broadband suppliers. I have to call a few times over the years but always get through to the UK support team who are excellent at sorting things out.

6 hours ago, Zico said:

Morning Tom.

This may be a little bit redundant for your change of contracts but the links are still useful.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com

1) The BT Wholesale broadband checker tool (recently updated) should hopefully give you a good indication of what connection speed your line may support (phone number might not work if it's been un-bundled to TalkTalk or other wholesaler). The address checker is obviously less accurate but still useful as an alternative (or to check a different address if you're moving in the future).

https://www.samknows.com/

2) The Sam Knows site allows you to check your local area and exchange to see what types of internet provision is available. Further to @alexp999 post above, it also allows you to see what OFCOM Market your local telephone exchange is. It's this market status that affects an ISPs price and why some get different offers based on where they live.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband-offers

3) Thinkbroadband is a good site to keep up with all things broadband related. They also have an offers page (direct link above) though I've not used it at any point in the past.

I personally use IDnet but they are expensive in comparison to a lot of the usual mass market home broadband suppliers. I have to call a few times over the years but always get through to the UK support team who are excellent at sorting things out.

Thanks Yaz, still undecided at the moment!  Waiting for May 3rd, hoping TalkTalk might offer a better deal on superfast with just a month to go...if not, I'll move elsewhere.  Internet was awful yesterday so that's helped a bit lol, took all day to download a 12GB Xbox update!  😮  

Not really sure what I'm looking for here?  Are we saying max of 75Mb download and 20Mb upload?

Featured Products	Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)		Upstream Line Rate (Mbps)		Downstream Handback Threshold(Mbps)	WBC FTTC Availability Date	WBC SOGEA Availability Date
	High	Low	High	Low
VDSL Range A (Clean)	75.3	52.8	20	16.3	47.2	Available	Available
VDSL Range B (Impacted)	73.2	49	20	14.5	40	Available	Available

Featured Products	Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)	Upstream Line Rate (Mbps)	Downstream Range (Mbps)	Availability Date	FTTP Install Process
FTTP on Demand	330	30	--	Available	-

4 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Thanks Yaz, still undecided at the moment!  Waiting for May 3rd, hoping TalkTalk might offer a better deal on superfast with just a month to go...if not, I'll move elsewhere.  Internet was awful yesterday so that's helped a bit lol, took all day to download a 12GB Xbox update!  😮  

Not really sure what I'm looking for here?  Are we saying max of 75Mb download and 20Mb upload?

Featured Products	Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)		Upstream Line Rate (Mbps)		Downstream Handback Threshold(Mbps)	WBC FTTC Availability Date	WBC SOGEA Availability Date
	High	Low	High	Low
VDSL Range A (Clean)	75.3	52.8	20	16.3	47.2	Available	Available
VDSL Range B (Impacted)	73.2	49	20	14.5	40	Available	Available

Featured Products	Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)	Upstream Line Rate (Mbps)	Downstream Range (Mbps)	Availability Date	FTTP Install Process
FTTP on Demand	330	30	--	Available	-

Yeah it's saying your line is capable of between about 50-75 mbps down and 15-20 mbps up.

So you'd want to go for an up to 80mpbs package if you want full use of what your line can support.

If it took all day to download 12GB update then you are experiencing contention. It's where the ISP hasn't paid for enough bandwidth on their links to the Xbox servers.

I have experienced contention with every major ISP I've been with except maybe BT. Sky made youtube unusable in the evenings when we were with them.

I prefer the smaller ISPs now, none of the big ones. They are a bit more, but you get a better service out of it. At least I appreciate the difference anyway, it just depends how you use the internet.

I know far too much about whats going on behind the scenes so get frustrated when I know they are messing with stuff, or lying to me about where the problem is.

2 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

Yeah it's saying your line is capable of between about 50-75 mbps down and 15-20 mbps up.

So you'd want to go for an up to 80mpbs package if you want full use of what your line can support.

If it took all day to download 12GB update then you are experiencing contention. It's where the ISP hasn't paid for enough bandwidth on their links to the Xbox servers.

I have experienced contention with every major ISP I've been with except maybe BT. Sky made youtube unusable in the evenings when we were with them.

I prefer the smaller ISPs now, none of the big ones. They are a bit more, but you get a better service out of it. At least I appreciate the difference anyway, it just depends how you use the internet.

I know far too much about whats going on behind the scenes so get frustrated when I know they are messing with stuff, or lying to me about where the problem is.

At the moment, my laptop is the main restriction for internet use, the RAM can't cope with a few tabs open and the battery can't cope with YouTube for any length of time.  But I do intend to get a new laptop later this year, so want internet that will be able to cope with whatever I want to use it for.  (No, not that! )  I may also get a SmartTV in future which would also use the internet, I've only just found out about these, my little sister had to explain what they were after she bought one recently...I always wondered how YouTubers got so big if everyone was having to watch them on 6" phone screens or limited battery laptops.  

I use the phone for Spotify & Instagram at the same time (to pass bathroom visits when I've run out of FOC!) but not sure how much download that uses, probably not much.

I also play Xbox online multiplayer regularly, but probably not at peak times, it's generally mid morning or early evening.  Never can tell whether I'm lagging or just terrible at the game!  

But by far the worst part of the internet right now is the Xbox updates, especially with new games.  When I got the latest CoD (about 3 months old), it needed over 120GB of downloads! 😮  Seems a little pointless buying the discs these days as I can't imagine there would have been much more to download from a discless key instead!  That's only once or twice a year though, and the smaller updates (10-40GB roughly) are about once a month.  So not really worth the extra cost of Ultrafast BB just for that.

 

Also, am I looking at the wrong thing on the Samknows website?  All I find is how to join them rather than instant tests?

 

And after yesterdays update...there's another 15GB update this morning! 

 

Looks to be averaging about 15MB download atm.  I guess that's another morning of Homes Under the Hammer instead of killing people then.   Hopefully it'll be done by this afternoon.  

Just now, TomsFocus said:

And after yesterdays update...there's another 15GB update this morning! 

 

Looks to be averaging about 15MB download atm.  I guess that's another morning of Homes Under the Hammer instead of killing people then.   Hopefully it'll be done by this afternoon.  

Are you only on ADSL at the moment, instead of FTTC "Fibre", or is your ISP really that slow.

7 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

Are you only on ADSL at the moment, instead of FTTC "Fibre", or is your ISP really that slow.

I'm on 'faster' fibre, and can even see the cabinet from my flat lol.  It's usually around 30MB download on the Xbox.  Yesterday was mostly below 1MB and kept dropping so low the download stopped a few times.  No idea why it's so bad at the minute, maybe I have lots of neighbours online atm that would usually have been away at work during the day? 

I am also on the laptop right now typing this, so that won't help!  

Edit - Oh, it's also all WiFi if that makes any difference, I don't like having trip hazard cables around the room lol.

Neighbours don't affect your connection like that. It can create noise, but that just affects the sync rate.

If you can see the cabinet, with vectoring and g.inp the noise would be minimal. Your line is probably capable of 300 mbps using g.fast.

Sounds like there is just contention with your ISP.

Just a big of background, you have your own line to the cabinet, the cabinet has a fibre backbone, in the 10s of gbps, not sure the exact bandwidth, but it's plenty.

Generally, slow broadband (as in slower than normal or other times) is caused by either using WiFi and it being a weak signal (or an old slower generation router), having a faulty line causing the sync rate to drop or contention from the ISP.

Openreach's backaul is more than capable.

The odd thing is that on the Xbox the speed is all over the place both yesterday and today, it's shooting up to 30Mb, then dropping down into Kbps before dropping out altogether, then it starts again, shoots up to 30MB before immediately dropping off, then jumps around between 10-30MB for a while.  I know it's a bit like watching the instant MPG in the car, but surely it should stay reasonably steady?

Laptop is currently only getting 7MB on Speedtest.net but I don't know how to see an 'instant' reading on there to work out a rough average.  That's really lagging out though, and using 75% memory (3GB) just on MS EDGE with 3 tabs open, Facebook and a couple of forums...surely that's not right!?   I wonder if it's doing a background download maybe...?