Moving broadband supplier

[Fazerruss]

Good afternoon ladies and gents, I'm looking for examples of real experiences of moving fibre broadband suppliers. I'm currently with sky for my phone and fibre broadband but my minimum term is up so I can move for a better deal if I wish.
Sky have offered me a reduction to £28.99 for the existing service but I've noticed plusnet have an offer for the equivalent service at £24.99 pm.
As far as I'm aware it's best to sign up to the intended new provider and let them switch it over from the old one.
Question is how long does this take and am I likely to have a blackout period while someone moves a plug?
I can't complain at the service from sky as it's always worked spot on so I'm asking myself the question is it worth any potential agro to save 4 quid a month?

I don't want to loose internet for too long or I'll get will get withdrawal symptoms from not being able to get on the mig welding site or listen to Doubleboost swearing at an inanimate object!

 

[Migmac]

When we changed from our old ISP to BT, we had no loss of service that I can recall.

 

[cumbriasteve]

I have switched three times without any problems, simply went to the new provider and asked them to sort it, I was disconnected for about 2 hours the last time but think times are even shorter now if at all.

I bet Sky would price match if you told them you will leave.

 

[Ian James]

I have taken the plunge and gone I will be by the 11may totally on 4G as my line is allways a problem suffering many drop outs within a day and very very slow

 

[zzr1200]

You won't lose service , but you will still have to pay the "Disconnection Notice Period" for your old supplier and the overlap for the new one probably, is there a connection charge, so the savings may not be so clear.

Personally if your happy with the service for £4-00 extra a month, if you can get them to guarantee a fixed price for the contract term as a loyal customer, I'd go with that. Wouldn't surprise me if they try and sneak in a price rise in a few months.

 

[RonA]

Don’t consider moving to a certain company that used to use a Jamaican runner to promote their product. Service in our neck of the woods used to be first class but over last two years starting to get frequent drop outs & snail like performance at times.
Have complained numerous times but the solution offered is to upgrade to an even faster speed (at a cost) with absolutely no guarantee of any better service.
What really rubs salt in the wound is they’ve just upped the monthly fee for the service (I think service is an oxymoron for what they provide)
RonA

 

[Fazerruss]

I have switched three times without any problems, simply went to the new provider and asked them to sort it, I was disconnected for about 2 hours the last time but think times are even shorter now if at all.

I bet Sky would price match if you told them you will leave.

That price was after I threatened to leave. I've already cancelled the tv subscriptions as we never watch the rubbish anymore. It was about to go up to £90 pm.

 

[winchman]

Problem we have is Virgin Media is fast the rest are like snails as the telephone exchange is miles away so no alternative really, when we go to the inlaws whose street isn't cabled his is shocking compared to ours.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

@Fazerruss Have you asked Sky's 'customer retention' crowd if they'll match the Plusnet figure? I'd be very surprised if they didn't.

 

[Shox Dr]

We’ve been with Talktalk ever since they started. They just need a call now and again to be reminded there are other suppliers. After listening to too many people rant about been messed about, I’ve come to the conclusion its not worth the hassle.

We currently pay 30-32pm, for phone+package and BB

 

[Ashley Burton]

Can't speak highly of Plusnet, They've been useless & that's being polite.

I'm considering BT when I renew, But seems most providers are a lottery!

 

[Fazerruss]

Rang sky again tonight and the operator in the end offered me a better deal than the plusnet.
Got phone and fibre broadband for £25 pm but this is only a 12 month contract rather than the usual 18 month that the industry seem to be forcing on customers these days.
Happy bunny

So now a new question that hopefully some of you may be able to help with...
I've cancelled the sky TV packages as none of us in the house use them to justify the cost. I'm now looking for a new satalite receiver with record function. Basically I want to do what the sky pus box does without the monthly cost. I noticed Humax are popular so I'm interested to hear any of your experiences.
What else can they do besides receive and record freesat signals? Can you stream programs on them and maybe even record the downloaded programs for viewing later?
I'd like to be able to download stuff from BBC iplayer ect for viewing when no WiFi is available. I like to take something to watch when we go on holiday (we hire a static caravan and I take the satalite dish+ receiver with us )
Does such a device exist?

Over to you....

 

[armalites]

I switched from BT to Plusnet and it took a few weeks but it was a simple case of when one stopped the other worked.

I can thoroughly recommend NowTV, gives you some of the core Sky content for I think £6.99 a month. We also run a Humax box but many new TV with USB ports can record directly to a hard drive.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

@Fazerruss Have a read here, might give you some insights, not that I know enough about such things to recommend...

https://www.techradar.com/reviews/audio-visual

 

[merryman]

Hope you have better luck than me. I changed from Plusnet to BT. Same reason, BT was a bit cheaper. New router wouldn't work on my laptop. I had it connected via ethernet wire to my old (unbelievably slow) desktop and it worked on that. So tried ethernet on the laptop and it worked on that. Took me a week of messing to finally find an uninstalled "optional update for Atheros" on the laptop. Luckily I had found out by then that the router is an Atheros, whatever BTs adverts say, installed the update and finally Wi-fi started to work. To add insult, BT charged me for a full month after I had only been with them about 5 days, and put prices up to what Plusnet had been charging, after a couple of months.

 

[gaz1]

personally i think bt stink with its broadband service they can offer faster fibre optic service but many dont even get it as its mostly in there boxes

im with cable been with them a long time now had some trouble at start but i went through some stuff and got some advantages for me to stay with them

the problem i had was when someone went into box they moved a wire i got cut off broadband never had a faulty box yet but have on the tv side of it

started off at 30 and ended up at 100 now im back down too 70 and thats all with a package deal

weve had 3 players playing wot on net in house all at same time

 

[Fazerruss]

We don't watch that much telly anymore but when we do its very selective. The wife has a prime account with Amazon so we get a small amount of viewing choice there.
In all the time we've had sky the service has been spot on. A lad at work has Plusnet and is happy with it. Seems service can vary for most of the broadband suppliers.
I've been looking at the Humax HDR1100s for the recording tv option. It can also stream some services like Curtin, Netflix but not record this data for viewing offline. One thing I can't find out is whether it can download the on demand content for viewing later from such as BBC, my4, C5 ect.

Anyone have a HDR1100s?

 

[Cobbler]

We've got a Humax hard drive recorder for Freesat, had it for must be close on 10 years now. Never had a problem with it, works well, put it this way, if it packed up tomorrow I'd go and get another one.

Your second query about down loading & recording on demand, our one won't, but not sure whether any will, I think there is a licence problem. We used to get iplayer on it but that was stopped, we just use an Amazon Fire thingy for that now.

 

[wookie]

Can't speak highly of Plusnet, They've been useless & that's being polite.

I'm considering BT when I renew, But seems most providers are a lottery!

I am a happy customer of PlusNet, been with them for years and years, only ever had a couple of problems and each time it was resolved quickly and I was given a month free to make up for the inconvenience.

Not all internet problems are due to your ISP, it can be down to the poor state of the BT line to your property, I know a couple of people that have had no end of problems with their internet and have changed supplier multiple times with no improvement because at the end of the day they all use the same telephone line to your property that is old and full of dodgy connections.

 

[gaz1]

fibre optic to the home from bt

sorry your not going to get it anytime soon

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/broad...rouble-with-the-uks-fragile-internet-network/

its been upgraded to the boxes for years but customers are still stuck with copper lines

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/03/bt_milton_keynes_fibre_to_the_premises_trial/

2011-2018 and bt lines still havent been upgraded to fibre optic lines

https://www.computerworlduk.com/galleries/infrastructure/history-of-uk-broadband-2000-now-3629899/