TV, landline phone, internet provider, mobile phones

I am dependent on communication technologies and will need internet and a phone as quickly as possible once I'm there. Can you folks tell me which service is best and does bundling help? I know there are lots of choices so would appreciate all experiences and opinions. Thanks.

This all depends on where you are and what you are looking for.

Remember getting TV/Phone/Internet here can take a few weeks as most complain it takes them forever!

I personally have Sky TV/homephone/Internet with unlimited internet and unlimited calls to the states and have no issues what so ever.

I have a PAYG mobile phone with O2 and love it - 10 pounds a month - deal!

Some places have virgin cable Internet (I wish we did) so it all depends on the package.  Cable.Phone there aren't tons of options- I believe the main ones are Virgin and Sky - look at their sites.  (BT is the phone carrier if you want that separate)

If you don't have credit here in the UK it can be difficult to get a contract phone, but PAYG packages here are much better.

Yeah PAYG is a lot more competitive with minutes/internet/texts... Also no stigma attached if you use it. Theres also SIM only plans - which are about as competitive. Also, most phone will come unlocked, so if not happy you can move around without much notice. Like back home, youll need to see who has the best coverage in your area. http://www.gadgetstylist.com/blog/mobile-phone-coverage-check-your-mobile-coverage/

Internet you can price around services (prices have dropped in the last 6 months) but check your post code to see what services are best in your area.
http://www.broadband-advisor.co.uk/broadband-checker.aspx

Remember cable internet is not available everywhere (Virgin has no plans to expand its coverage either) and neither is DSL.. Virgin is where you go if you want Cable internet and all the providers offer DSL. Some are offering Fiber Optic services in select part of the countries. Check directly with providers to see whats best for you.

We currently use PlusNet for internet, but my partner works for them, so my experience is a little different than most who have it.

We use SKY for tv and overall pretty satisfied with their services. They got our TV hooked up within 10 days of us moving into the house. I wanted to go with FreeView but as my house lacked an antenna and the cost to install one at the time was on par with SKY, we went with sky..   

And a lot of internet/tv bundles come with landline packages, and most of its pretty basic service..

We would have the virgin bundles if virgin cable was available if our area--- but it isn't . So we have sky for our tv, broadband and phone-- we are happy with them. We have 3 for our mobile and are also very happy with them.

We had Sky for tv/internet/phone a few years ago, and I was unimpressed (search my posts for "sky" and you'll get the whole story).  Having researched the industry a bit, I think the majority of phone/tv/internet providers in the UK are pretty crap, so you might as well just get the one that offers the cheapest package of services you need.

With that in mind, we use Freeview for TV, and Plusnet for phone/internet.

As for mobile phones, I got a PAYG phone from Orange when I first got here, and they were excellent.  As everyone else has said, getting a phone on a contract without a credit history in the UK is like getting health care with a pre-existing condition and no job in the US.

This is all very helpful information! I am printing it too. I would be glad to hear more info from others as there seems some like the same companies and some don't. I love the link (as usual) that shows what is available and where. I'll have more questions probably after I digest this.

I guess PAYG is pay as you go? I love the comment on the stigma! Typical from Americans. I live in the second poorest county in this state of 88 counties and even these, uh, walking well have smartphones (I guess that is what I want to call them) and the phones are smarter than the people. So as I have seen on here, I completely agree, the Americans are so spoiled and are out right boring with materialism and living way beyond their means. Of course every one else here is picking up the tab for that greed and stupidity.

The thing that really takes forever is getting your phone line set up. I'm with Virgin for phone and internet (unfortunately no fibre optic broadband here) and Freeview for TV. Since there wasn't an active phone line at my flat when we moved in, BT had to come out to hook it up. It can honestly take up to a month for BT to show up - and I've even heard stories of them making an appointment to come and never showing. I'm not sure if they behave differently if you're going with them for your phone/internet/TV. After they come it takes another day or two for the internet to go active.

A PAYG phone can be purchased the moment you land quite easily. If you absolutely cannot wait to have internet, you might try getting a mobile broadband dongle (jump drive you just plug into your computer). Depending on what type you get, this is also something you can purchase instantly and there's no set-up costs or installation. They have PAYG mobile broadband and also contracts. You'll just need to be aware of your data usage as there are limitations.

This is all very helpful information! I am printing it too. I would be glad to hear more info from others as there seems some like the same companies and some don't. I love the link (as usual) that shows what is available and where. I'll have more questions probably after I digest this.

I guess PAYG is pay as you go? I love the comment on the stigma! Typical from Americans. I live in the second poorest county in this state of 88 counties and even these, uh, walking well have smartphones (I guess that is what I want to call them) and the phones are smarter than the people. So as I have seen on here, I completely agree, the Americans are so spoiled and are out right boring with materialism and living way beyond their means. Of course every one else here is picking up the tab for that greed and stupidity.

Yeah, sorry for that. PAYG = Pay As You Go. Most plans here offer a large variety of phones and options. I know O2 currently offer a deal if you top up £10 a month you get 50 free minutes to an international number of your choice (Its called 'Your Country' and the more you top up over the month, the more minutes you get) I think if US Cell providers saw the amount money to be made from PAYG and treating it like they do in the UK they would be able to tap into another set of customers... Instead they treat it as something as criminals and 'poor' people use.

I only just moved to a smartphone (after using basic phones since 2001) and pretty happy with it. If you want to buy your phone, you might want to take a look over at hotdealsuk as they list a lot of deals for phones that you can buy outside of a contract.

The thing with the phone lines and WHY it takes so long for phones to get connected is that all the lines are owned by BT and Virgin, Sky, etc lease their access and all have to gain permission from BT to access the line in order to give you a number.

Thanks, I love knowing this stuff. Do you happen to know if landlines are hooked up fater for people with disabilities?

I haven't liked BT since one of their drivers screamed at us in London for nearly running over a man at a zebra crossing. (We didn't notice the squiggle lines until after that). You would have thought we planned to kill him! (: BT driver was ranting in our window at a stop and said the man would probably be reporting us.  You have to be able to first. Blah, blah, blah...It was all I could do not to spring some US road rage on his ass and that was in 1999!

Hiya,

We have a Sky package for tv/phone/internet.  And overall the TV and phone are fine but the internet is horrible.  My husband does remote IT support and there are days the connection is so slow that he can barely connect. 

If you need internet quickly, you can get a PAYG intenet dongle for your computer.  http://www.three.co.uk/Mobile_Broadband?intid=topnav We had this for a while and it worked fine as a stop gap between when we moved and when we got our internet set up.

Thanks, I love knowing this stuff. Do you happen to know if landlines are hooked up fater for people with disabilities?

No idea if people with disabilities are prioritised or not.

We had Virgin phone for years, and when we moved to our own flat, we had them for phone, cable, and internet for about a year.  We switched to Sky this past autumn.  I'd like to say that Virgin was better (on principle), but we've found that Sky is cheaper and offers you more for your tariff.  Virgin has a nicer box for telly, but the Sky one has a bigger hard drive.  You get more "On Demand" with Virgin, but Sky is trying to catch up.  We get more minor outages due to weather because of the Sky dish, but we had periods where our cable was down for hours.  And when we first went to Virgin, our phone was screwed up for months, and it took 3 visits to sort it.  It turns out that it was installed incorrectly on an old line to begin with, so we had at least a half a year with periodic landline problems.  We get more channels with Sky (but not all of them are anything we're interested in) and more HD channels than with Virgin.

Basically, we pay about £55 a month for phone (free calls under an hour to US and other countries.  If you want to speak longer than that, hang up and ring back), unlimited internet, and HD (many more channels than offered with Virgin) telly with all but two regular packs (and no Sky movies/Sports).  They also gave us a WiFi modem, which Virgin didn't at the time (although they may be doing that now). [EDIT: When we had Sky internet with inlaws, it sucked, but they had the free package, and I think we were "throttled" a lot.  I don't know if the reason we're getting decent speed now is because we've paid for the unlimited, and we don't tend to download a lot.]

If you think you can get along with Freeview or Freesat, you get quite a few channels with them.  You can get a DVR Freeview/Freesat box, and they come with HD now (IIRC).  We did this for a couple of years, but we opted for the pay channels when we moved.  I am sort of glad we did, because I missed a lot of the stuff that we can get now on sat.  There's also the option of watching things online, but a lot of the stuff available online is available through a free telly system.

We've tried PAYG mobiles, but one disadvantage is often, if you want a decent phone, you have to pay out of pocket up front.  You pay for monthly phones through your tariff, but it's an option if you don't have a chunk to put towards a phone up front.  Plus we were always topping ours up, and it turned out we pay less now than we were paying to top up my husband's phone.  It may have improved over the past couple of years, but in 2007-08, we were paying too much for top ups.

Here are some links to your options for bundles:
Freeview
Sky
Virgin
BT Vision
Free Sat
There are also regional providers and independent phone companies you could use if you opted for Freeview/sat.  You can also look each up on Wikipedia, where they offer a channel list for each.

The major mobile companies are O2, Orange, Vodaphone, 3 (mobile),  TMobile (part of Orange now, but they offer separate deals I think).  Then there are companies who offer contracts, but use the major companies signals (Sainsbury's, Virgin, Tesco, etc.)

The major mobile companies are O2, Orange, Vodaphone, 3 (mobile),  TMobile (part of Orange now, but they offer separate deals I think).  Then there are companies who offer contracts, but use the major companies signals (Sainsbury's, Virgin, Tesco, etc.)

I know Tesco uses O2s signal (as well as GiffGaff) Sainsburys no longer offer their own services but will sell Vodafone & T-Mobile

Virgin, uses T-Mobiles network, and can be added into your monthly bill if you choose broadband or tv..

The first thing we did when we moved here (last August, we are in Greater London) was get cheap PAYG phones from Tesco which served us well. I still have mine, but hubby eventually treated himself to an iPhone.

About a month ago, we finally moved into our own flat. It's in a huge mansion house that has been divided into 4 flats. Our house sits high atop a hill, near Windsor. We have SKY for our cable, broadband, and telephone.

Our telephone was the first thing they connected. That was about 2 weeks after we moved in.

Next, about a week later, was the cable. There already was a cable dish on the house, so the technican just hooked into it. HOWEVER, because our house is so tall, they had to send out their SPECIAL HEIGHTS TEAM, which took an extra week. Groan.

Finally, they hooked up the internet.

Comments:

We're very happy with the telephone. For £10/month we get UNLIMITED calls to US landline and mobile phones. And because we've bundled with SKY, they knock £5/month off the bill. Superb.

We're fairly happy with the broadband, although it does tend to drop off every now and then. Speed is okay. We're not gamers or anything, mainly just surfing the net and reading emails, so no real problems.

We're pretty disgusted with the cable. There are very tall trees just opposite the satellite dish and on windy days (and at other times), the signal is just crap. We had the SKY technicans out (several times!) and finally got one who seemed to know what he was talking about. He said that the problem is entirely down to location of the dish. He said that it needs to be attached to the chimney at the very top of the house. Problem is, SKY's SPECIAL HEIGHTS TEAM can only reach as high as their ladders and, unfortunately, the chimney on our house is too high. He said if we wanted the dish moved, we'd have to hire an independent contractor who has a cherry-picker and, of course, pay for it ourselves.

In the end, we decided to stick it out with SKY. Maybe when our contract's up, in a year, we'll switch to someone else.

Just thought I'd share this info about the special heights thing in case you (or someone else) ever runs into the same situation.