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Topic: Best Broadband?  (Read 2658 times)

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Best Broadband?
« on: August 30, 2010, 11:00:45 PM »
I'm moving to Leeds, where most companies for broadband seem to be available, but there are a lot of choices, and range of pricing.  I don't mind paying a bit more, as I would really like reliable high speed connections - especially since I'll be using vonage.  I will be getting Sky tv, but there are a lot of negative comments about their broadband, so I think I'll go with something else.

Any suggestions?


Re: Best Broadband?
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2010, 11:18:18 PM »
We always really like Be. We're with virgin media now and their 50mb is ace!

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Re: Best Broadband?
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2010, 11:20:52 PM »
We've been with Virgin for our internet for a few years now and we've never had any bother.  We use Vonage for our phone as well.
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Re: Best Broadband?
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2010, 11:43:32 PM »
we have sky broadband and my husband hates it. It has been so slow that he has opted to use the mobile internet dongel from 3 rather than the sky. we were with virgin and had no issues with the internet (phone was a different story and why I refused to use them again).

We talked about getting be internet but I can't remember why we ended up not switching. heard good things about them though.


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Re: Best Broadband?
« Reply #4 on: August 30, 2010, 11:57:50 PM »
Is the virgin media phone line a cable line or a proper phone line?  It sucks because I would like to just get their bundle with TV, but I really want Fox News (no judgements please) so I think I have to go with Sky for tv.


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Re: Best Broadband?
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2010, 12:02:50 AM »
Lunasera, if you want Sky I think you might want to look for flats that are Sky enabled.  I don't know what this means, but I've heard the boy mention in it several times regarding our flat search.  Maybe another knowledgeable person can fill in my blanks.  ;) Or I'll ask D when he wakes up what he means. 
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Re: Best Broadband?
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2010, 12:20:59 AM »
I put my zip code into the sky website, and it said they serviced it... is there something else I should know?  I figured it was like dish network here where they come and install a dish.

Maybe I will do sky tv and virgin phone and internet....


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Re: Best Broadband?
« Reply #7 on: August 31, 2010, 09:04:42 AM »
We have Sky for TV, but just use BT for broadband and haven't had any trouble.  We brought our US Vonage adaptor with us, and use it heavily, and I have a slingbox at my dad's that I connect to, and for the most part, speed has not been an issue. 

Every once in a while there will be a slowdown, but only enough to bog down the slingbox a bit, not the vonage or regular internet.


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Re: Best Broadband?
« Reply #8 on: August 31, 2010, 09:37:41 AM »
we have sky broadband and my husband hates it. It has been so slow that he has opted to use the mobile internet dongel from 3 rather than the sky. we were with virgin and had no issues with the internet (phone was a different story and why I refused to use them again).

We talked about getting be internet but I can't remember why we ended up not switching. heard good things about them though.

We had Sky broadband an Dh & I hated it we barely had a gig of speed at night luckily we were still in the 28 days so we could cancel it an have BT broadband now. Dh is big a gamer an he couldn't get online to play his games at night an we had issues even trying to use the internet at night.  ::)  :P  Dh said if we could get Virgin in our area we would have that but sadly we don't so we have BT.


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Re: Best Broadband?
« Reply #9 on: August 31, 2010, 10:26:29 AM »
I currently have Sky package with unlimited broadband and have no issues at all....
No peak times to kick me off nothing

I work remotely in the states and use Skype for work and it works just perfect.
I think it depends on the package and we get almost 8-10 speed so I am happy considering I stream like crazy.


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Re: Best Broadband?
« Reply #10 on: August 31, 2010, 10:33:46 AM »
I put my zip code into the sky website, and it said they serviced it... is there something else I should know?  I figured it was like dish network here where they come and install a dish.

Maybe I will do sky tv and virgin phone and internet....

Thats what we have. Always had Sky (well, since 1992), prefer their TV but when I wanted broadband I went with Virgin (then Telewest). They may offer you 12 months free (basic) TV as well, they did to me so I just had that in a bedroom.

Sky do install the dish, one thing to note though - with Sky you own the dish, anything wrong after 12 months it's doen to you and they'll try charging, just threaten to leave, apparently that works (though I've not had cause to do that).....especially if you are in a cable area.
With cable you are renting the boxsothey would just replace. Then again in the 12 months I had Virgin cable TV I needed them out 3 times as the box kept locking up.
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Re: Best Broadband?
« Reply #11 on: August 31, 2010, 03:48:58 PM »
Finally spoke to boy, easy to get Sky- so don't listen to me about all things electronical.  ;) My apologies.
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Re: Best Broadband?
« Reply #12 on: August 31, 2010, 05:14:46 PM »
We have Virgin for everything - phone, TV & broadband.  We don't have Sky because we don't want to put a dish on our house.
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Re: Best Broadband?
« Reply #13 on: September 03, 2010, 09:34:19 AM »
We have Sky for our cable, but Be for our internet.  My husband works in the IT field and needed a good strong connection with lots of something or other...and he likes Be for the most part.  Definitely better than any of our other connections.


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Re: Best Broadband?
« Reply #14 on: September 03, 2010, 02:02:59 PM »
We have always been a cable household for tv, phone and broadband.  When we moved in the BT line was disabled (though still there) and Virgin charged nothing for the initial installation.

We've never had a problem with virgin broadband.  Their speeds are ALWAYS as advertised.  We pay for 10Mb and we always get 10Mb.  The only time this drops is when we get what's called "throttled".  This is only due to my personal usage.  With Virgin if you use x amount of data between 10 am and 3 pm (for us its 3 GB) then your speed is quartered for peak usage time (between around 3pm and 11 pm).  I have no trouble with that, as I know what I'm in for when I do that much downloading.

On top of that, Virgin is just way cheaper for their services.  We're on XL HD tv, Medium Broadband and XL phone and our basic charges are £48/month.  That's every tv channel (except sky sports and movies), 10Mb broadband and unlimitted calling (except National rate and non-virgin mobiles)

The upside with getting sky is-
1) Your HD content as regards number of HD channels is far greater than Virgin - although Virgin has a massive amount of HD on demand content for free.

2) if you have Sky, it's assumed you have a BT line.  If you have a BT line then your options are nearly unlimited with regards to your phone and/or broadband company.


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