According to the latest figures Sky is the fastest-growing broadband service in the UK while BT and Talktalk struggle to meet expectations for increases in new customers. So what makes the Sky deals so attractive – and are there better packages available? Rob Barnes takes a look...

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Have your say: Share your experiences with your broadband provider. Whether it's good or bad, it's very useful to those currently looking to sign-up for, or change, their broadband package.

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To get the really good deals from Sky they must have their LLU equipment in your exchange. Check the samknows website - Sky is under Sky/Easynet. For non-LLU ie. their connect package - generally very poor and pricey.

amazing that your post doesn't include 'which' magazine's number one broadband package provider Utility Warehouse!

why is that?

is it because it won't pay sites like yours commission?

sky, virgin, tiscali etc are all good at telling you what the good parts of their deals are - hopwever it's what they don't tell you that counts! - they have to make money - and to do that they balance the good bits with bad bits that they keep quiet!

how much are their calls to mobiles for example! -

they all use something called confusion marketing! - make it all high information - make the bills complicated - and when people are confused, they tend to do nothing! just stay where they are! - thats what these companies want!

if they are so good, why do they need 12 -18 month contracts? - Utility Warehouse don't tie people into contracts!! - they don't need to - they are very good! - sure - all companies make mistakes - but Utility Warehouse are number one for customer satisfaction because of the way they sort any problems out! - over 90% of all calls are answered at their london hq within 15 seconds!

but they don't advertise - and they don't pay comparison sites commission - so that is why you won't see them mentioned on these sites!!!! - that is the reason for this rant!!

i bet this message doesn't get posted!!!!

I am a virgin media customer for the telephone only. Would it be cheaper for me to take their broadband service as they say I do not have to pay a BT line rental charge so they are the best? I am one of the confused being marketed to (so I suppose it works dalehurrel!)

Hi dale,

We don't feature Utility Warehouse on this site because they are an agent. They don’t ‘advertise’ in the traditional sense of the word - they do something called ‘network marketing’, as I’m sure you’re aware.

With regard to your post being deleted, as you can see it is still here, though I'm afraid your post with your email address in has been deleted. UW agents seem to periodically target our forum to promote their brand and this directly contravenes our forum Community Standards and Terms of Service. This is why several of their posts have been deleted in the past - as they will be in the future.

Of course, if Utility Warehouse would like to appear on our website – we’d be more than happy to talk to them – through the appropriate channels.

You might find this thread of interest:
http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/utility-warehouse-1586.aspx

I hope that helps.

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Cheers,
Graeme Delap, Community Editor,
graeme.delap @ moneysupermarket.com (remove the spaces)

i wrote on this thread because of my experience in how these companies - in my opinion - hard sell bad deals!

i became a distributor for UW because i saved £55 a month becoming a customer - i recieved great service and found i could be paid for helping other people to save money.

and that is all i do! - and i'm passionate about it. i have enabled people to keep their houses, to have money to pay for food - all you want is to make money for shareholders for your company and other suppliers!

you talk about brand promotion and other 'corporate' speak - i am an ordinary person - electrical inspector by trade - i am not some 'shark sales person!' - i put my email address because i thought that any advice put on the thread would be blocked by your team because your wages are paid through your 'switching commission' paid by these other companies. you promote who pays you - and UW doesn't - fact!!

i just wanted to save the person who replied to my rant money and hastle!! - my advice is to look at 'Which' magazine for the best customer satisfaction and you will find Utility Warehouse at number 1!!! - then find a local distributor!

bet this doesnt get posted!

Dale,

Moneysupermarket.com are fully accredited to the energywatch confidence code, which you can see by clicking here.

As I said previously, if Utility Warehouse would like to appear on our website – we’d be more than happy to talk to them – through the appropriate channels. This is not an appropriate forum to publicise or promote your postition as a Utility Warehouse 'distributor'.

I'll also take this [second] opportunity to draw your attention to our forum Community Standards and Terms of Service.

If you wish to continue posting, may I respectfully suggest you give them a thorough read-through before you make any more posts. They're quite clear:

"You agree not to do any of the following actions whilst using the CFA:-

To post or transmit any unsolicited advertising, promotional materials, or any other forms of solicitation in the CFA, except in any areas that may be designated for such a purpose..."

I hope that helps.

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Cheers,
Graeme Delap, Community Editor,
graeme.delap @ moneysupermarket.com (remove the spaces)

The problem with the Sky offer is simple - you have to subscribe to Sky! :-)

Most of the mainsteam ADSL providers are now trying to build huge subscriber bases on infrastructure that isn't up to the job - I respect your own test figures, but have a look at http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/ for more consumer comments.

And remember everyone... NOT ONE ADSL SUPPLIER IN THE UK IS OFFERING UNLIMITED DOWNLOADS! It doesn't matter what the blurb claims... even the MoneySupermarket.com write up mentions "unlimited" with the little asterisk and the footnote "Fair Use Policy applies". Call it what you want - "Fair Use Policy", small print, contractually-unfair limitation... it isn't unlimited broadband, and never will be ever again - get used to it.

Oh, and if you are daft enough to feel tempted to sign up for one of those "free" broadband offers... please, please, please speak to someone who is already a customer.. if you have any problems at all, you will quickly learn why a free service is a great example of "you get what you pay for"... :-(

I wonder what the suicide rate is amongst TalkTalk customers trying to get their connections to work properly...?

i agree,

also look for the contention ratio - how many people can be sharing your internet at any one time. most have a contention ratio of 50:1 - 50 people sharing your 'channel' - reason why broadband slows down when the kids come home from school.

the good ones have 20:1 ratio.

also look at 'which' mags reports on availability stats - what % of time the broadband connection is available. some companies are 95% - not good! - look for the 100% suppliers. - in short - check out 'which'

i have never had any fair usage problems myself - but a colleague of mine had their broadband switched off by sky - and only found he had fair use issues not of his making after he spent hours on the phone trying to sort it out.

you forgot to mention that with Sky you still have to pay the monthly BT line rental, so the cheapest package is in total more than £16. TalkTalk incldes the line rental, although there is no TV included. I object to paying any more than the licence fee for TV.

Hi,

I am not very Internet Savy

As an ex Sky Broadband user , i have a few comments about there service.

I used there Broadband successfully for six months till the kids were home for the summer hols. When my Broadband was restricted by Skys ridiculous Fair Usage Policy, when i say restriccted i mean it slowed down to the speed of my dialup connection forcing me to need a new supplier.

I asked my friend Gloria who she used and she told me about Toucan, a firm i had never even heard of. Gloria has been with Toucan now for about four years and advised me that there Customer Services were brilliant , no long queues straight to the point.

I rang up there freephone Sales line and got through to a very approachable Irish man called Enda who advised me that he could only give me 6.5 MB Broadband on my line (SKY told me it was 8 , bit of a Fib ?) . Enda advised me that Toucans Braodband was unlimited , uncapped and that i could stay online for as long as i liked which i reassured him that my kids would love also.

After gaining a MAC CODE from SKY bit like having your teeth extracted without an anathestic i was online in about 10 days with a brand new free modem.

I am now very pleased with the service i have recived so far from Toucan and there Sales Agent Enda

Well done to Enda and Toucan for their help.

Every man and his dog is now offering BB as an add on.

As most telecoms/mobile/TV providers are finding BB is not just a simple add-on.

There are subtleties and complexities that they do not consider when they offer it. And because it is a contended service with no British Standard on speed or quality it also means they can fiddle about with the speeds/throttling/download restrictions and rip you off big time. In many instance users can end up with speeds slower than dial-up.

Do yourself a big favour and pay for the quality. Anyone who offers you a product with a long term contract and you don't know what you are buying is very suspect. Forget so called FREE BB packages, overseas call centres, overseas tech support. Buy a service where the committment is only one month (there are very few providers who offer this so it eases your search) then if you don't like 'em you can leave. It cost a bit more but saves £££'s and loads of heartache and time in the long run. Get UK based tech services. Keep UK jobs in the UK and we all benefit.

When an ISP says 8Mb that is the technical maximum speed available. However you will never get it because of all the factors that effect BB speeds.

Finally I am dubious of someone recommending Toucan becuase most people I know who have used them can't wait to get rid of them. The message looks like someone from Enda, whoever they are recommending themsleves.

Normal 0

Having worked in this industry since 1999 working with both domestic and commercial telecommunications users here is my take on the situation.

When broadband (BB) first came to the UK market it used to be that if you signed up with one BB provider (ISP) the only way to transfer your service to another ISP was to cancel your service with your existing provider. This could take weeks or months depending upon how responsive they were and what your original contract with them was. The argument the ISP’s put forward was that they incurred costs setting up these services and so needed time to recoup those costs and also if a customer/user had agreed a term they should be obliged to stick to it. This, rather like some ISP’s today, seems to apply regardless of the quality of the BB provided.

Once your line was free of the other ISP you could then apply to have another ISP provide BB on your phone line. This could mean being without BB for weeks or months. What most people for whom BB had become essential did was to bite the bullet and have a new phone line installed. Then put BB onto that and then decide what to do with their original phone line. This was a huge pain in the a*** and a cost.

OFTEL who were the regulator at the time (and IMHO seemed to have more teeth to force companies to toe the line than the current bunch of consumer guardians [ROFL] OFCOM) introduced the MAC system. This enables you to change provider without losing your BB for more than a few hours. This system works well generally.

OK so far.

Now we move on to the present day and the new technology of local loop unbundling (LLU). What happens here is that the ISP puts their equipment into the BT exchange and when you transfer to that ISP on a low cost (Ha Ha Ha) line rental and BB combined service they take your phone line off the BT equipment and put it onto their own.

Here now is the scandal. It explains why BT like the system so much and why BT have changed their t & c’s so new customers are tied to BT for a 12 to 18 month term and upped their install charge from £25 to £125. It also explains why the likes of talktalk were keen to offer the gullible FREE BB (without regard to the quality of the BB offered). Lets see, there was the £30 enrolment fee, the £70 early cancellation charge, the difficulty in speaking with their overseas tech teams and overseas customer services. Now we have the revelation that if you want to leave them you have to go back to BT for at least 12 months at a new line install cost of £125. Not so FREE now is it. There is no such thing as a FREE lunch.

Anyone who offers LLU BB is in the same situation.

If you don’t like the service and want another ISP the only way out is back to BT for 12 months and then get a new ISP. This means no BB for the time it takes. Just like it was b4 the MAC system (see above) was created.

So what about the MAC system? Well here’s the final kicker. The dumbo’s who now run OFCOM (the consumer champions. Now you see why I laugh) did not envisage that people might become dissatisfied the their LLU BB provider and so have NO SYSTEM IN PLACE to allow LLU customers to transfer. I understand that they are working on such a system but as yet nothing exists and it could take up to 2 years to be implemented. BT again has pulled the wool over their eyes. Probably because BT have a number of “senior liaison people” working “very closely” with the OFCOM telecoms dept.

The only thing you can do is either stick with the scumbag ISP you hate, or get a new ISP to put a new phone line in for you (the least painful proposition I feel. Because b4 you change you will check out the new ISP thoroughly this time won’t you) or get BT to give you a new line and then pay BT the get out of BT’s contract fee of about £70 – total cost line plus fee about £200.

Oh by the way. Because the telephone line got transferred to the LLU ISP so did your telephone number. You know the one you have had for 10 years. The one that everyone knows. Well most likely you will lose that. By most likely I mean YOU WILL because the ISP now has control of that line and phone number and they are not going to let you go. The best way to think about it is if you moved house you might have to get a new phone number and then tell everyone who needs to know.

Next time somebody offers you FREE (especially well known High St names. They don’t really care about you, you know!) watch out!

Education is when you read the small print. Experience is when you don’t.

After several ISP's I have settled on Utility Warehouse non LLU. It costs a bit more but I have never had a problem, rarely if ever call their techies (it never falls over) and the speed is always what was promised, no throttling or other contention adjustments that effect speeds. Not only that but they save me so much on gas and electricity that my BB effectivly costs me nothing.