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Posted October 6, 2011 at 12:09PM
I seem to be getting worse connection speeds with plusnet I pay £14,99 pm and a few years ago I was getting very good speeds with them 6.5mbps,but now, since their big advertising campain ,and offers ..they are very poor I complained as I was getting 1.5mbps ,,they have upped it to 2.5 mbps ,,I am allowed 5 gb a month is this a good deal..or are they seeing how low they can push me before I change providers , or the flood of new people means I am paying towards the cheap offers .by sharing my band width ..
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Posted October 6, 2011 at 12:31PM
Yup - the 'pipe' that feeds your exchange is only a certain size and so the more customers that tap into it the lower the flow. Sound like you are on a 'up to 8Meg' connection so they can feed you almost anything.
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Posted October 6, 2011 at 12:34PM
TalkTalk 3.25 for 6 months and 9.50 line rental (if you qualify).
Despite the huge number of complaints (you don't hear from many of the satisfied customers) it's about the best deal around at the moment, although I would recommend finding an ISP who is LLUd at your exchange rather than using BTs old mechanical switching gear. ha ha.
Perhaps +Net are LLUd - I don't know, but a speed of 6.5 dropping to 1.5 does suggest contention ratio.
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Posted October 6, 2011 at 12:52PM
You do seem to be paying over the odds, or does £14.99p include the line rental?
Go to http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker and see what providers are available for you where you live. Enter your phone number and postcode.
In the next bit that opens click on 'Compare Broadband packages and prices at this postcode'. You will have to look further to see what each provider gives you in each 'deal'. Be aware that line rental is on top of the prices unless otherwise stated.
Also speed you will get is dependant on what your line can support. (I am on LLU 'up to 24Mb' but only get just less 2Mb as my line is so far from exchange and wires are old. I've had all the OpenReach checks and that's the best I can get)
You were getting 6.5mbps so you know your line can support that. Plusnet shouldn't be restricting you to 2.5Mbps
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Posted October 6, 2011 at 2:28PM
My bundle with TalkTalk was 'upto 8Mb'. Neighbours on TalkTaslk were getting 6Mb I was struggling to get 1.5Mb and some disconnections. Other ISP's differed.
Constant badgering to an higher level complaints, soon involved TalkTalk and BT becoming involved, with the end result that I now get a regular 5Mb. Had I not complained loud enough, then it would have been a most likely case of still putting up with 1.5Mb.
ISP's should now provide a realistic 'confirmed' speed to customers, because Ofcom have now outlawed the 'upto', which was a let out for some ISP's, especially where contracts were concerned.
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Posted October 6, 2011 at 3:23PM
In my opinion PlusNet are extremely good value although you would appear to be on a legacy plan. I recommend people to PlusNet and they are owned by BT can you believe. They are not only cheaper than BT but unlike BT have Yorkshire Based call centres. That alone is worth something to me and whenever I have had to use them I have got very understanding support from their tech department.
First of all I would speak to their sales guys about switching to a more up to date package. For example PlusNet Bundles The basic package is £6.49 with a 10GB limit per month. You will probably find that their line rental is also cheaper than BT so look at your entire BT phone package as well. Note that these packages are only one month contracts.
Secondly speak to PlusNet about your speed issues. Ask them how much realistically your line should be able to accommodate and emphasise the dramatic drop in speeds recently. If your Exchange has been upgraded beyond the capabilities of your router this might explain the problem. Let us know how you get on and post back if you need specific advice as you go along. I`ll monitor the thread when I can.
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Posted October 7, 2011 at 6:08AM
I'm with TalkTalk,have had visits from some "bloke" in a suit telling me I will be getting 5Mbs which I checked whilst he was here & sure enough I was getting his 5Mbs figure.I checked it at various times over the next 24hrs & the lowest speed was under 1Mb at (weirdly) 4am and his answer to my question of why so many disconnections at around 10pm & 2am was "You shouldn't be getting them" I have tried TalkTalks customer services & gave up when his english was so bad I couldn't understand much more than "Hi,my name is jhdgv,jg" I would change ISP but nobody offers a service at this price(free)and as its free,I don't expect it to ever improve(even though BT have installed a large green cabinet a few hundred yards from my house,their Infinity looks good on the advert but the price is excessive & the monthly bandwidth allowance seems dismal)
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Posted October 7, 2011 at 10:18AM
I'm with TalkTalk up to 8MB. I get 11.78Mbps download. My neighbour is with BT, he gets 2Mbps.
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Posted October 7, 2011 at 10:33AM
Transferred to Consumerwatch from Speakers Corner.
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Posted October 7, 2011 at 4:35PM
I am with PIPEX/talktalk I get mainly 10.5MB and rises to 12MB a lot of the time and I am on up to 8MB. I am hoping it stays that way if I accept the complete transfer to TalkTalk in the next month as they close down PIPEX residential.
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