Can I dump BT?

[Coolcats]

As an aside, our Parish Council did approach Openreach to see about getting fibre into the village. After many months of deliberation, the answer was yes, but they would need a certain number of households to want it and even then there would be a cost per household of around £1000. We got the Parish Council to ask them to confirm if this was for fibre to the door at that price. Answer - no, fibre to a new box in the village, then the rest of it on the existing antiquated lines. No thanks. Most of us on the south side of the village with clear line of sight of the local mobile mast now use mobile data.

Thats the problem with privatisation, if it was easy/cheap the likes of Virgin would be on your doorstep I can only imagine what commercial rules are in place by Ofcom. in other words you cant use your dominant market position to provide broadband to you by undercutting the competition. The only answer is to put in universal provision as per a public/nationalised company that would allow service to be funded.

The same would be for energy suppliers I guess

 

[Boringfrog]

Came here because I thought it was another toilet post.

 

[Larrynwin]

Jesus that must cost a pretty sum.

£106 per month. We have a house full of family here so not just us two.

 

[SpeedyDux]

Round here the mobile signal is poor especially 4G. Duxette has Vodafone which works in her home yet I can't get a Vodafone signal in mine which is about 30 metres along the same road. Vice-versa with O2 which I am on. BB providers still use the BT network with copper cable as the last leg into the home, so that's slow too, and has sporadic drop outs. Otherwise, you can opt for Virgin Media because Telewest did install the cables yonks ago, but according to local news Virgin has too many users in this area and it crawls or drops out at peak times. I will stick with landline for BB and Sky dish for TV.

 

[busbuddy]

Partner and I on tesco, 12gb a month each, her son and his girlfriend on ee, unlimited
We ditched landline in march at start if lockdown as us 2 oldies had to upgrade our coal powered phones due to work/hobbies shifting to zoom etc
Her lad runs his xbox off his phone tether/hotspot/whatever .........we not had any problems since losing the landline and dont miss it

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[Sheddy]

We use a 3 cube router at home, had it about 18 months, we pay £20 a month for unlimited data, we both have small accounts with EE and 3, one pay as you go the other £8 a month for 8gb texts and phone.
We could take the cube with us when away from the house but leave it to control security and nest heating system.
We do not have a land line.
Cheers
Ed

 

[Tykatem]

I pay BT through The Post Office - £17 a month for landline broadband.
That's £204 a year. I hate BT with a passion but there is still no alternative to their speed in my area.
I can't wait until there is an alternative and I can tell BT where to shove it.

Oh and don't miss cancelling before the end of a the years contract - if you do - it suddenly becomes £30 a month

Our contract with BT ended on Saturday and took great delight in telling them to shove it and their TV package, now to cancel the TV license.

Pete

 

[Clipgate]

Coupled with ditching the TV licence and streaming, perhaps the establishment will get the message

 

[Coolcats]

That exactly makes my point, you should not have to use subdefuge (spelling?) to be able to speak to a person, but hey oh that’s BT for you. Not so long ago that they were still using Indian call centres with questionable English.

To be honest over the past year or so when I have had a fault or called to change the contract it’s once again UK based agents and no issue with speaking with them. They also gave me the latest hub without having to plead or threaten to take my business elsewhere. When you read social media blogs whether it’s BT VODA EE etc etc you always see unhappy customers, just seems to be the way of life. One of the things I like about the package is the security elements and the 1tb of cloud storage, plus the other bit I mentioned of the wireless hub they switch in if there is a BB issue.

 

[Stealaway]

Not sure why anyone can hate an inanimate object Other providers are just as bad or worse and most use the BT network or connect to it. for every one who says my provider is great or better you can always find others moaning.

Its their business philosophy that stinks. Thay have had a monopoly on the land line system through their OpenReach company for over the last 50 years. Its only recently that Virgin as began to provide an alternative. but they can charge a ridiculously high price because of BT's pricing policy.
Some years ago BT was instructed by the government to reduce their landline prices. They did, but only to the very letter of the government wording and only a few thousand customer bill were reduced, mostly pensioners.
Many years ago they (OpenReach) were also paid millions (billions?) by the government to provide broadband to every property in the UK - as far as I'm aware they have still not managed it.
They insist that they have allowed other provider to service and supply broadband, but everyone of them still has to pay a licence to BT.

Rant over

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[Charlie57]

I had broadband with the Post Office £14 per month then they tried to bump that up significantly at the end of the contract,
Binned the Post Office resigned my mobile to Virgin 36Gb unlimited mins & texts, not a great internet user so 36Gb is plenty, especially as Brenda has the same contract

 

[Coolcats]

Its their business philosophy that stinks. Thay have had a monopoly on the land line system through their OpenReach company for over the last 50 years. Its only recently that Virgin as began to provide an alternative. but they can charge a ridiculously high price because of BT's pricing policy.
Some years ago BT was instructed by the government to reduce their landline prices. They did, but only to the very letter of the government wording and only a few thousand customer bill were reduced, mostly pensioners.
Many years ago they (OpenReach) were also paid millions (billions?) by the government to provide broadband to every property in the UK - as far as I'm aware they have still not managed it.
They insist that they have allowed other provider to service and supply broadband, but everyone of them still has to pay a licence to BT.

Rant over

Interesting, just like the power companies BT was paid for by the public it was owned by the public and was sold off. You say ridiculously high prices but when you consider around the mid 70’s a 5 min call was the cost of a jar of coffee and yet today a call is free or almost free costs have dropped. Like any organisation your in business to make a profit communications cost building infrastructure costs wages cost. Technical commercial and political challenges all surround these former monopolies. Maybe the price we all pay is reasonable maybe it is not but the race to the bottom eg everything is free or little costs means someone somewhere pays and normally it’s the worker.

just a thought if there was no BT what would we have...probably another American tech company making billions and paying no or little tax in the uk.

 

[Pickygame]

I ditched BT and Sky and went with Vodafone Broadband at home. Unlimited download and 60mbs download so TV runs through the internet.
We use Vodafone mobile with 100gb in the motorhome. My total bill is about £60 per month for both services

 

[Coolcats]

I had broadband with the Post Office £14 per month then they tried to bump that up significantly at the end of the contract,
Binned the Post Office resigned my mobile to Virgin 36Gb unlimited mins & texts, not a great internet user so 36Gb is plenty, especially as Brenda has the same contract

I have BT mobile £5 unlimited talk time and texts plus 2gb a month which is more than I need and as a BT customer there are around 5 million Wi-fi hotspots I can connect to so I don’t often need to use my own data when I’m out and about. I know there are other solutions out there from o2 sky etc but happy with what I have and I guess that’s the thing if your happy with what ever provider you have that can’t be bad

 

[JockandRita]

I ditched BT and Sky and went with Vodafone Broadband at home. Unlimited download and 60mbs download so TV runs through the internet.
We use Vodafone mobile with 100gb in the motorhome. My total bill is about £60 per month for both services

We're with BT at £30 a month, which includes....................

Broadband Unlimited
Superfast broadband that's great for streaming and catch-up TV

• Unlimited usage
• Stay Fast Guarantee
• Free access to 5 million BT Wi-fi hotspots
• 200GB BT Cloud storage
• BT Web Protect, BT Virus Protect and BT Parental Controls included
• Dedicated UK and Ireland-based support

• 500 minutes a month to UK landlines, UK mobiles and 0870/0845 numbers.

Add to that our Vodafone 100Gb mobile package (all useable abroad.......for now at least), at £8 a month, making our total comms and BB outgoings at £38 a month.

Cheers,

Jock.

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[tonyidle]

Not sure why anyone can hate an inanimate object Other providers are just as bad or worse and most use the BT network or connect to it. for every one who says my provider is great or better you can always find others moaning.

Unless you're with Zen then there are no complaints. Ever.

 

[Coolcats]

Unless you're with Zen then there are no complaints. Ever.

If I had ZEN it would still utilise the BT wholesale network. There has never been a product or service created by anyone which is complaint free.

Here is a Zen complaint

Awful service
Awful service, I was with bt with 29 down and 5 up but I fancied a change so went with zen.
Been on with support since I joined 2 months ago. My speed is now 23 down and 2.5 up, basically I'm paying £10 per month more for slower speeds. Just wish I could quit my contract. Support is also a complete joke.
Bring back bt all is forgiven.

And another for BT

BT product is excellent.
BT product is excellent.
Im leaving 1 star because they choose to use parcelforce to deliver halo 2.
Product never arrived. No text, email or nothing.

BT are mananging this so they get the bad review.

Both rate the BT product yet its gaps in service that let it down, you cant make it up !

 

[tonyidle]

If I had ZEN it would still utilise the BT wholesale network. There has never been a product or service created by anyone which is complaint free.

Here is a Zen complaint

Awful service
Awful service, I was with bt with 29 down and 5 up but I fancied a change so went with zen.
Been on with support since I joined 2 months ago. My speed is now 23 down and 2.5 up, basically I'm paying £10 per month more for slower speeds. Just wish I could quit my contract. Support is also a complete joke.
Bring back bt all is forgiven.

And another for BT

BT product is excellent.
BT product is excellent.
Im leaving 1 star because they choose to use parcelforce to deliver halo 2.
Product never arrived. No text, email or nothing.

BT are mananging this so they get the bad review.

Both rate the BT product yet its gaps in service that let it down, you cant make it up !

"PC Pro has released the results of their annual 2020 Excellence Awards, which saw Broken Link Removed Mobile being named as the “Best Mobile Data Provider” and fixed line provider Zen Internet once again picking up a 17th consecutive win for the “Best Broadband ISP” category. Zen also scooped the “Best Web Host” category.

The outcome was based on a survey of 4,500 participants, which quizzed each respondent for their impressions of customer support, reliability, value for money, speed and whether or not they’d buy the service again, among other things. The scores were then combined to produce an overall satisfaction rating. On this point Zen scored a broadband satisfaction rating of 94% (down slightly from 95% last year).

Meanwhile some of the other awards are based on the knowledge of the editorial team and their bank of testers, including those from sister brands ‘Expert Reviews’ and ‘IT Pro’."

Maybe I exaggerated a little

 

[Tony50]

We currently have BT broadband at home, and travel with phones, tablets and a laptop - but no Mifi. Much of the time my iPhone works OK with a good data allowance which I can use as a virtual server and share the data with other devices. However, when we have no usable signal none of this is any use.

I’m happy to spend money on a good Mifi set up with external aerial, particularly if I can use the Mifi at home when not travelling. If I can dispense with my BT broadband I can redeploy £3-400 per year.

Does this sound like a workable solution, home and away? We probably use 30-50gb of data per month, but currently don’t stream big data files. We have a TV on board but, to date, have never switched it on

I currently have 100 GB with o2 for £18 a month using Tenda Router with a couple of short aerials stuck out of it , got it in our Static caravan whilst we look for bungalow , probably put that in new property, as works fine, stream Netflix ok so far ,dunno if you can find something cheaper

 

[Coolcats]

We all exaggerate from time to time Tesco operates the call centre for its Mobile data offering which I believe is white labelled from 02 so well done 02

If you think by using Zen you have moved away totally from BT then this ZEN page maybe off interest you will see Zen is often connected via the BT network, Zen offers a good broadband and management service but the offering is limited (focussed) and therefore the customer experience may feel better.

Many companies offer a white label service and you would never know who is behind the scenes its all quite incestuous really. If you removed the plug on the BT networks the UK would hardly have any internet connectivity. Its a little like the national grid multiple power companies competing for your pennies yet remove the core (national grid) the lights would in the main go out.

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[wittenham]

(snip) Once upon a time there was universal service provision if the same was to happen today there would be a roll out of fibre and instead of profits being paid to share holders and big pay to the executives that money would pay for the upgrade for the nations fibre network.

BT [& Kingston] still has a universal service obligation... that is where payphones, low income user packages and the like come from. They are in the middle of discussing with the regulator what a broadband USO looks like. And a serious question: should BT shareholders fund the roll out of fibre to places where BT thinks it is uneconomic? [I don't work for BT...]

 

[wittenham]

Thats the problem with privatisation, if it was easy/cheap the likes of Virgin would be on your doorstep I can only imagine what commercial rules are in place by Ofcom. in other words you cant use your dominant market position to provide broadband to you by undercutting the competition. The only answer is to put in universal provision as per a public/nationalised company that would allow service to be funded.

The same would be for energy suppliers I guess

the issue hinges on what is reasonable for BT shareholders to pay to connect someone up. And, yes, BT/openreach have not done themselves any favours. Here is the broadband uso information:

Your right to request a decent broadband service: What you need to know

Everything you need to know about your right to request a decent broadband service.

www.ofcom.org.uk

 

[Coolcats]

BT [& Kingston] still has a universal service obligation... that is where payphones, low income user packages and the like come from. They are in the middle of discussing with the regulator what a broadband USO looks like. And a serious question: should BT shareholders fund the roll out of fibre to places where BT thinks it is uneconomic? [I don't work for BT...]

Totally agree and not just shareholders the government keeps banging on about making universal access they also need to stump up the cash and help make it work.

An elderly relative had a water meter the water company kept increasing her bills it was something like an Olympic size swimming pool of water every month that she was being charged for and the company was emptying her savings. she was frail in poor health and fading eyesight.

Whilst the leak was on her property, it was a maisonette therefore an exemption should have flagged up on their system, I pointed out that in any circumstance where a member of the pubic was using that much water someone should have spotted the issue and investigated. They were quite happy to just take the cash, you could literally see the water meter spinning around.....I pointed out that they had failed corporate diligence and that they had corporate social responsibility to make amends. Which I am glad to say they did by repaying all the money and a little compensation to go with it.

I think the issue often is not bad people but bad processes

 

[Coolcats]

the issue hinges on what is reasonable for BT shareholders to pay to connect someone up. And, yes, BT/openreach have not done themselves any favours. Here is the broadband uso information:

Your right to request a decent broadband service: What you need to know

Everything you need to know about your right to request a decent broadband service.

www.ofcom.org.uk

I get it but what if you have a dozen houses on Farmland (former farm worker cottages) and it costs 100K to get the service there (I just picked random numbers) should it be the shareholders the government or the house owners (tenants) to pay.

I don't have any answers but its just another instance of the political shaping of technology and before long it will all be fibre so to put a green cabinet close by may be a waste of time anyway.

 

[TheMachMan]

We have TalkTalk and it’s crap. 10mbs down, 0.5mbs up! According to them we should get 23 to 10. Last week was 6!
Support is dire, and took a Google search to find their helpline as no where to be found easily on their web site.
Unfortunately 4g is patchy too, so stuffed all round.

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[Dorset Diver]

The only reason I keep a landline is that in the event of a power cut the mobile phone system can fail but the landline should remain working.

 

[Otter Spotter]

Buy another 100 gb sim combined cost is probably still cheaper than BT

 

[ManTheVan]

BT mobile (using the EE network) are currently offering a 100gb 5g SIM-only deal over 2 years at £20/month. If you are already a BT halo customer, the data is boosted to unlimited.

On BT broadband we get 13mbps down and only 0.49mbps up on a good day, so any upload at all causes the service to cut out. We both work from home a lot, so a good service is vital.

I’m in the process of installing an outdoor LTE antenna to feed mobile data to the house. The mast 3.5km away up the valley is currently giving about 35/20, so a vast improvement. The SIM also comes with unlimited calls and BT sport, so reducing the current phone bill by the same amount makes the new SIM effectively free.

We’ll keep the BT broadband going as a backup.

 

[Lenny HB]

I've just bought a TP Link AC 1200 MR600 4G LTE router. Only got it yesterday had a Three 30 day unlimited sim still with 7 days on it so using that to play with.

The 4G aerials are removable so you can fit an external MIMO if required. It has 4 x 1gb LAN ports one doubles as a WAN port.

Very easy to set up and works a treat, fitted it in the same place as my old router high up on the wall in the hall.
Getting 33 mb/s download and 20 mb/s upload on a wired connection not brilliant but pretty good. Obviously speed will vary on wireless depending on distance from router.

Although the WiFi aerial is internal I'm getting slightly better coverage around the house than the TP Link router I was using that had 3 external aerials.

Broadband contract runs out at the end of the year so goodbye landline.

Will be going for an unlimited data sim as I reckon we use upwards of 150 gb a month. It will be Vodafone as that works better roaming (Three is a pain in the butt roaming) will be limited to 25gb roaming so will just have to download loads of stuff before a trip (we do that now anyway).
Also Vodafone will get a better signal at home the mast is few hundred yards nearer so download speeds will be better.

 

[Bolti]

I've just bought a TP Link AC 1200 MR600 4G LTE router. Only got it yesterday had a Three 30 day unlimited sim still with 7 days on it so using that to play with.

The 4G aerials are removable so you can fit an external MIMO if required. It has 4 x 1gb LAN ports one doubles as a WAN port.

Very easy to set up and works a treat, fitted it in the same place as my old router high up on the wall in the hall.
Getting 33 mb/s download and 20 mb/s upload on a wired connection not brilliant but pretty good. Obviously speed will vary on wireless depending on distance from router.

Although the WiFi aerial is internal I'm getting slightly better coverage around the house than the TP Link router I was using that had 3 external aerials.

Broadband contract runs out at the end of the year so goodbye landline.

Will be going for an unlimited data sim as I reckon we use upwards of 150 gb a month. It will be Vodafone as that works better roaming (Three is a pain in the butt roaming) will be limited to 25gb roaming so will just have to download loads of stuff before a trip (we do that now anyway).
Also Vodafone will get a better signal at home the mast is few hundred yards nearer so download speeds will be better.

Hi Lenny HB does your new router pick up a stronger mobile signal than your phone. I ask because I am on the fringe for mobile signals.

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