I'm going to be switching my phone and broadband provider shortly as I'm not happy with Sky. However the only thing that puts me off changing are companies fair usage policies on their "unlimited" internet. I use anywhere between 70-100GB a month due to Netflix, and 3 PS3's all being used at the same time and downloading game content such as map packs, also things like my Dropbox which I regularly move things between work and home computers. While I'm fed up of my Sky connection being unstable, dropping out and running slow for about 1 week in every month. I would also be equally annoyed if half way through the month my speeds were throttled because of high usage. Has anyone had any experience of being throttled back? What companies are the best at the moment?

 

Can you get virgin?

 

70-100Gb isn't that much really. You shouldn't fall foul of many fair usage policies. Be (www.bethere.co.uk) are the only truly unlimited provider I know other than Sky. They do offer a very good service.

Obviously be aware that if it's a problem with your phone line, the problem might just get transferred to the new provider leaving you no better off.

 

over 700MB in one night and my Virgin gets throttled back to 30% speed

 

only between 4 an 9pm. that is traffic shaping not unlimited data tariff. there is no shaping after 9pm.

 

Nope




I was with Talk Talk for a year before Sky and the connection was spot on, their router was pants though so bought my own. Talk Talk had no idea who we were though and kept messing the bills up, not taking payments, then sending us letters to say we owe them money. Every time I phoned they said the number we had was not registered to this address and the name for that number wasn't us. So went with Sky, connection problems started straight away. The main thing though is I want to use my old router again. I got the username and password out of my Sky router and changed the MAC address of my old one to match, but couldn't get it to connect. Even tried plugging the Sky one into my Netgear, but for some reason my phone wouldn't get internet access anymore when set up that way.

I'm thinking of going with Orange as I have a contract phone with them so get a £5 discount, coupled with £60 cashback through quidco that makes a total of £10 saving per month for the first year over my Sky package. I will check out what other deals there are too.

 

Decided on Orange and it is just about to be swapped over. Now I've been with Sky for the last year and thought the Talk Talk saga was dead and gone, but a bill for £211 from Talk Talk has landed so I'm going to have to try to explain all this to someone in India who once again will not know what the hell I'm going on about as the number is registered to someone else and I don't exist *sigh*.

Edit: Update.

So far Orange is the quickest I've ever had, speeds of between 11-14 Mb/s and pings between 25-30ms. Sky ping had been 199ms for the last few months. I'm hoping Orange keep my speeds where they are. Router seems good too, some nice features and a USB port for adding a networked drive.
As for Talk Talk, the account was in my gf's name so she called them. She couldn't understand the women on the phone, but basically she couldn't tell us why the bill had been generated, but then went on to say about being £300 or so in credit and so they would be sending us a cheque for £100 odd.