Broadband Internet & ISP Recommendations?

Same for a friend who only gets 1.5Mbps in her farmhouse in the Peak District. No 3G or 4g signal either. No 2G on some days actually! Must surely be one of the most underserved locations in the country.

Thought I'd just update on my Virgin situation. I gave my 30 day cancellation notice and outbound retentions called the following day. Got my monthly bill down to £29 from £60 ish, but jeez, they make you work for it. Despite my efforts I couldn't get them to drop an extra £1.01 to give me a new customer equivalent price though. Ha, fuckers. I'm happy though, just wish it was a fairer process/model.

Thanks for the advice

Anyone with experience with Community Fibre? Looking pretty good as an alternative to Virgin but good to hear of first hand experiences...

https://communityfibre.co.uk/

Just a quick update on my internet situation up in Liverpool.

After umming and erring (as reviews are mixed to say the least), went for Three's 4G router (Huawei B353) mainly based on cost (EE was about £50 a month?!) - two year contract @ £11 for 6 months, then £22 for 18.

Getting average download speeds of 30MB, upload of about 20MB, ping <0.5s.
Router is on the windowsill in the front bedroom of a 1920s three-bed mid-terrace, I'm working in the back bedroom, and haven't had any connection issues so far in the past couple of weeks.

Going to change to Zen broadband. Read lots of positive things about them. Like the B corp thing as well as seemingly great customer service. Anyone want to 'refer' me to get the £40 gift card?
https://www.zen.co.uk/refer-a-friend

Edit - thanks for the referral @cornelius_blackfoot

We have 200mbps virgin fibre optic, we pay £50 a month only for the internet.
Question 1: Is that too steep?

We have had no issues with them.

My only issue is that the cable that runs into my house is quite exposed and I looked at some of my neighbours too, although you can hide it on your property there is no way of securing it from the ground on the pavement, literally appears from a hole.

Are there any connections that offer 100mpbs+ and dont need that cable (or can have overhead cable)? Those sky dishes I see on houses are they only for TV?

You can get it cheaper from them. I pay £33 for 200mpbs
I bought one of their student offers as I didn't need the phone or TV
https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/broadband/students

You can probably get it cheaper, maybe about £35 a month. Stupidly it may be cheaper if you take a landline with them, even if you never use it.

You may have to start the leaving process to get it cheaper though so it depends what your appetite for that kind of effort is.

Bit of a stupid question - I am considering trying 4G as my main WiFi, but before signing up to a deal, I want to try different networks etc because I live in a basement flat and signal isn’t always great. It is just a normal SIM I need. Isn’t it? They are not any kind of special SIMs, are they?

I am looking at some routers on Amazon and they don’t look too bad cost wise...

Yep! Recently started using a 4G SIM here - didn't test different networks before buying though.

The biggest difference I found has been router placement: 8-10MB at the back of the house vs. 30-40MB at the front.

I'm on Three - 24 month contract, £11 for 6 months, then £22pm.

Yes just a normal sim, to try different networks

1. Get a To the moon sim and get the free 500mb one to try out EE.
   
2. Get a Three data reward sim for a free 200mb trial
   
3. Lebara doing half price offers to try out Vodafone, the link will show £5 but goes to half price when you go to pay
   
4. O2 not too sure, you could try Giffgaff or Lycamobile
   
   

https://tothemoonmobile.com/order

https://www.three.co.uk/Free_SIM_MBB/Order?manufacturer=&ID=1686&ty=aff&aff_id=337&link_id=lc&link_ref=three-data-reward-sim&link_ref=three-data-reward-sim&aidset=1

https://mobile.lebara.com/gb/en/msm/exclusive-monthly-plan-500/p/441174?utm_source=impactradius&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=2096376&utm_content=PRODUCT_CATALOG&utm_clickid=2cy1d8WiqxyOUPTwUx0Mo3EUUkEVOw0th3UI3E0&utm_iradid=917923&utm_clickref=&irgwc=1

Are you in a 5G area?

Currently we have Sky and it is pretty shit.
Speedtest usually comes to 15mbps, but if I try to play GT Sport online and MrsDeth does a video call, it craps out.
TalkTalk, for the same money, are "guaranteeing" 108mbps on their 150mbps package.

Any issues with TalkTalk? Alternative suggestions?
Virgin are offensively expensive, so am reluctant.

First thing would be to check why your Sky is so slow. Are you sure you haven't got WiFi problems?

EDIT: Just to explain a little more, the Talk Talk 150 service is delivered over your existing FTTC cabling using g.fast so if they think they can deliver 150 over the cabling that Sky is managing 15 on, then perhaps the issue isn't your connection but your wifi.

Can you plug a laptop in to your router using an ethernet cable and see what speeds you get?

I went for Vodafone 5G and have nothing but problems though I live in Inner London (Rotherhithe) Basically I have had their technicians admit 5G is a better product which explains why I have only ever had a 4G service in the 4 months I have had it. Also customer service from Vodafone is absolutely terrible.
As others have said it all depends where you are what service you will actually get and the companies promises are not to be trusted. @freezing77 suggestion for trying different networks is a good one.

Just checked my sky account and we only have the shittest option, which offers 11 as the average, so we are getting better than they say.

If Virgin is through their fibre it's normally a very reliable service. Shit customer service though.

Cheers! I am on O2 and the reception is shocking!

No... 🥺

Have you asked Sky if they will give you a new customer deal to stop you leaving?

Also, if you sign up to a deal and reception is shit (or you just change your mind) you can cancel it within 14 days for a refund.

I did this for a 100GB per month SIM that I got as a stopgap and, despite having used 90GB, they still gave me a full refund which surprised me.

Which network was it?

It was an EE one from carphone warehouse.

The same should apply to any network so long as you buy online. You get a 14 day cooling off period

Might do that! Ta!

Currently on a call with BT. I changed my tv package with them to remove BT sport to one that would specifically include Eurosport. It seems in the 7 weeks since I signed the contract either it has been removed or it simply wasn’t there in the first place.