The relocation company will help me for finding a place to live, bank account, etc. However I need help for some more technical questions, like which broadband provider (and mobile but this can wait) should I subscribe.
Orange is out of question because of their fair use policy stating that if I use too much my connection (for example by listening to Orange's own Liveradio or downloading large files) they may either reduce the speed or suspend your service and/or possibly close your account.
What a lovely definition of unlimited, and they don't even tell anything about a warning before closing the account...
Currently the shortlist is TalkTalk and O2 (even if it seems some O2 modems need to be rebooted very often to get WiFi back since they updated their firmware to fix a big security issue), but I did not yet check all offers (like Virgin or Sky in case I am eligible).
And what about smaller ones like Andrews & Arnold Ltd which offers static IP, IPv6, ... but has traffic limit and would imply I don't do big checkouts or download iso at daytime (which should be fine except during vacations).
Any opinion on this ?
I think days are not too far when broadband is heavily taxed for same as Oil is. Broadband is really getting expensive where I am and inferior too. Unlimited options are either too little or too slow.<br><br>One example is EVDO based broadband, hell they are not thinking of capping on whole 3.1mbps and simply taking away unlimited options of users. <br><br>~giles
I highly recommend 02 - never had a issue with any of the modems I've had from them.
bethere http://www.bethere.co.uk owned by o2 and is same network as o2's but excellent customer service and great perforance
I recommend O2 as well, excellent service and speed at least in Manchester. I tried Virgin but they told me they would set my line up, and when I called them again they didn't even know who I was in their database.
We're with TalkTalk and have been for some time now. Fast connection, they keep improving their packages and their forums (odd for a real company, I know) are awesome; both community and company people help you as much as they can.<br><br>O2 might work out slightly cheaper (especially if you have a contract with them as you get discounted broadband) but I wouldn't trust them to fix things if something did happen to go wrong (I'm with them for my phone).<br><br>These are both ADSL so both require a phone line which incurs an extra cost over the broadband package.<br><br>However, if you're in a cabelled area and you want really good internet, I couldn't recommend it more. 6 years ago I lived in a cabelled area and had a 15meg connection. You need a really good phoneline to reach that with ADSL. And that was 6 years ago... They're up to 50, 100 and even 150mbps in some areas now.<br><br>You should note that unless the digital economy bill is repealed (looking unlikely at the moment), all these companies are required to spy on you to make sure you don't download copyright material without permission... If you want to avoid that you need a company with fewer than 400,000 subscribers and for that, you migth want to consider a smaller company.<br><br>The other benefit of a smaller company is you have somebody to scream at and they generally have people that know what they're doing and aren't reading from scripts. This does translate into higher costs and lower speeds as they can't oversell and stretch their resources in the same way a huge ISP can.
Try BeThere, they offer unlimited downloads, on a 24Mbit conenction for great prices. Oh and they also offer statis IP's if that's your thing.
I recommend BeThere. Excellent customer service and very good performance.
if you can get a package deal from Virgin cable with TV, mobile if you need. If not in Virgin cable area and you want quality TV as well go for Sky. After that depends on your area / see comparison web-sites (sometimes they can get you better than direct online price).
I reccomend o2/be (same company) also, if you have a mobile phone with o2 (pay as you go or contract) it's better to go with o2 as you get a £5 discount per month. They also do landlines that are £1 or so cheaper than BT.<br><br>Never had a problem with my o2 router.
You could try to create your own isp, like fdn does in france :)
I'd second those recommending Virgin, especially if you don't want a phone line (otherwise you have to pay BT line rental). I've had no trouble and it's a much better connection than I've ever had with ADSL. Of course, if you're renting, you only want to do this if there's an existing connection since it's very expensive to install a new one.
Thanks everyone :)
I was with 02 in an area that was not unbundled. It was supposed to be unbundled within a few weeks of me signing up. 1 year later, it still wasn't. To make things worse, the BT stuff (If it's not unbundled, your ADSL will go through BT) was *very* oversubscribed.<br><br>We would get slightly higher than dial up speeds, but slower than ISDN :( We were 100 metres from the exchange too.<br><br>02 wouldn't do anything about it. Paying £20~ish a month for dial-up sucked, they wouldn't even let us out of our contract early.<br><br>Saying that, I hear if you get their network stuff, it's good.<br><br>Enter your postcode at http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker and see what is unbundled in your area.<br><br>I moved to Sky, as they were the only unbundled ISP in the exchange. 1.4 to 1.6 megabytes a second downloads for less cash :)
O2 all the way mate. After the horror that is BT I went there and never had better service. Even when my line was noisy I got an english native on the phone who understood what decibels are and adjusted my noise margin on the fly. At 8PM.<br><br>The router was as crappy as all standard boxes are but nothing is prohibiting you from putting down your own cisco or draytek.<br><br>Get an O2 phone sim too, it takes 5 pounds off of your monthtly bill and O2 has some very good deals for international minutes if you ask them nicely. I paid 7.50 for internet and had 200 free international minutes on my sim every month.<br><br>Do NOT go with Virgin - I know of noone who's with them and does not loathe them.
I'm on Virgin, with the unlimited (though lightly throttled) 50MB connection. Works well for downloads, though not that well for online gaming, bizarrely enough.
I'd recommend Be too. As others have said, their top package is pretty fairly priced and their tech support dudes actually hang out on an IRC channel and you can interact with them there which is a total bonus if that's the kind of UI you prefer (as opposed to automated telephone systems or weird ticket reporting systems).
I'm with A&A and really recommend them. Not cheap but certainly fine, and if your exchange is Be enabled then you can have a Be line (thus 24mbit).<br><br>The traffic limits are not really a problem -- if you have the need to download several gig a day then yes do it between 2am and 6am when it's practically not charged, but bandwidth is sufficiently cheap that I don't worry about checking out large repos.
for info, im on talktalk, the cheapest package gives you 40gb + calls for 6.99 + line rentals, which is pretty cheap, and its up to 24mb, and ive not had any problems. The router they send is wireless N, but only one wired port, so im not using it.
bethere i definitively recommend (http://www.bethere.co.uk/)<br><br>Chmouel.
o2 / bethere (same company) are excellent. They give a discount if you get mobile and adsl together (see remco's comment).
I'm on Be Broadband (www.bethere.co.uk) and I'd recommend them. From what I gather O2 and Be share the same Infrastructure for their 20MB packages, the only difference being the router (I think)...
I would recommend BeThere (used them for 3 years) as they offer good servicem speed, option of a static IP etc. A&A are quite reasonable as well.