Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

as tittle should i stick or move.
I have a 20mbs cable connection and an o2 16mbs full connection now question is which one do i stick with virgin with a better network or o2 where i cant get anymore than 16mbs? And with the 50mbs upgrades from virgin in the pipe i find it harder to decide + low failure rate on virgin network compared to bt.

Re: who
 

Stick with Virgin,02 is over priced rubbish.

Re: who
 

anymore thoughts on this fro anyone else.

Re: who
 

Given that the quality of VM's service varies area to area, and the list of restrictions to use said service, is on the rise, i would guess the same could be said of VM.

If one ISP meets your needs, more than the other, you should be able to answer your own question?

Re: who
 

true but i think i need to weigh up the pros and cons from a few other people from experinces they have had.

Re: who
 

I'd stick with VM. Cable has to be the best option. Think how miserable it would be to live in an area that hadn't been cabled..

Re: who
 

That was kind of my point, experiences vary, person to person.. so you're going to get different answers based on different experiences from different people.
At the end of the day, you're the only one that can weigh up the pro's & cons, based on experiences relevant to you?

Re: who
 

true again but getting a wider perspective is going to aid me in my choice.

Re: who
 

You also need to consider what your network of choice can provide you in terms of future technology. VM for example are expanding the capability of its network to support speeds of 50Mbps with the prospect of more to come. Can the same be said for the non cable networks?

Keep in mind also that if you are happy to pay your current price, and not under the constraints of a retention contract, you can leave whenever you like. This will provide you with a "grass is greener" option should your initial decision be the wrong one for you despite the advice you get here.

Re: Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

I've changed the title of the thread to something that might help you get the 'wider perspective' that you have stated you desire - I would imagine that most people would have had problems deciphering exactly what 'who' was referring to.....

Re: Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

ooops thanks for that rob

Re: Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

I would stay with Virgin: Although all the call centres abroad are useless and every few years you are bound to hit a problem their service within the UK is great and problems always get sorted out,- all be it eventually.
Virgin is a good company, in most respects it is still ntl:telewest. From what I read they are just trading under a new name?

Re: Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

That's what i thought to the vm network has a low failure rate compared to BT lines getting interference and subject to bad wheather and corrosion. And i do work from home 2 days a week and have a voip pbx handset at home.

Re: Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

Hi,

Having been on both sides I can say that o2 broadband is very VERY good, if it hadn't been for my poor BT line I would still be with them now.

BT line problem is that I live with a Train line near my house and when a large train goes past my SNR drops to 0 and I loose connection.

24 hour UK only customer service and tech support (freephone too), On the two occasions I called them my problem was sorted immediately.

No restrictions on download, no traffic management or caps and the network seems to be in very good shape.

Virgin Media: ok when it works, a living nightmare when it doesn't (UBR04 Preston here, fault raised in September 2007 and fixed 3 days ago, 11 months of extremely poor speeds and tickets closed as fixed when nothing at all had been done). STM, Phorm (coming soon?), BPI letters etc.

Thats the way I see it anyway, just my opinion...

Bri

---------- Post added at 13:43 ---------- Previous post was at 13:37 ----------

What?

o2 upto 8Mb = £7.50 with o2 Mobile or £12.50 without

VM upto 2Mb = £9.00 for 12 months then £17.00 !
VM upto 10Mb = £16 for 12 months then £24.00 !

And o2 is overpriced...?!?!?!?!?!

Re: Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

dont for get you need a BT phone for 02 so thats another £11.50

Re: Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

I think most people have a phone line anyway, be it VM or BT.

VM: £11p/m
BT: £10.50p/m

If you have a VM phone line, switch it to BT, if you have no phone line, stick with VM.

Re: Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

If you change from VM to BT phone won't you have to pay for installation?That's hardly cheap.

Re: Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

True, but I can honestly say that I've never been in a house or lived in a house or flat without a BT phone line already installed.... I'm sure there's one or two out there but I would guess the majority of properties have a BT line.

But this is getting a little out of hand. My comment was simply questioning the comment that o2 was overpriced broadband when it is quite clearly not, especially compared to VM (who are my current broadband provider btw)!

Re: Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

It can still be a challenge to get a BT line reconnected without paying the fee.

Re: Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

BT are stuck in their ways of ripping people off with the added bonus of poor customer service.

Re: Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

Oh dear, looks like my return to VM has been too soon,

Reconnected on Monday on 10Mb package, all fine Mon-Weds 9.7Mb/s download... Tonight, browsing is hell, 10% packet loss and download speeds peaking at 465kb/s....

Not STM'd as upload remains at 487kb/s (theres a first, I'm on UK cable and have a higher upload than download !)

According to status page my area has had 5 days worth of upgrades to increase capacity... ah well... maybe back to o2... £8.50 p/m cheaper and sync at 5Mb/s with no STM.

I've given newsgroup support a nudge but as this problem has been ongoing since September 2007 I'm not holding much hope..

Makes the BT line install fee seem almost worth it !

Re: Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

You're telling me, I've been trying for months to get them to take back a bulldog line.

Re: Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

I recently switched from Virgin's 20mbit service, actually it goes offline on the 11th of next month, to Be. I'm only synching at 7.6mbit down, 1.2mbit up with SNR tweaking. But I'm happy with that. I've down graded to the 'Value' service since that's 8mbit max, with same upload speed. With the £8 a month till end of the year + £40 cash back from Quidco the 12 month contract works out at only £8.50ish a month! I can cancel with 3 months notice by upgrading back to to the 'Unlimited' tariff too if things don't work out.

Now Virgin/NTL have provided me with absolutely outstanding service. Think I only ever had one issue with them in 2 years and I'm a heavy downloader (200-500gb a month), speeds were always maxed out. But £37 a month, or what I was offered £17 a month for 10mbit for 12 months with only 512kbps I decided to see what Be had the offer.

I had a much better setup before Be though. Free SkyBB on the ADSL line, 20mbit Virgin. The Sky was a nice backup and good for other people in the house to use to browse with. But £8.50 a month for 7.5mbit/1.2mbit up is too good a deal though so I had to switch.

Re: who
 

O2 (and Be) are less than half the price of Virgin's 20 meg service, for a service that is nearly as fast (or in Be's case, faster) assuming you have a good line and are near the exchange.

How on earth is that over priced?

Re: who
 

Thankyou ! My point entirely.

Re: Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

You have to see it that if your lines bad then you could be paying £8.50 or whatever they charge for a 1mb line

Re: Should I stick with VM or Change?
 

The same applies (but for different reasons) to cable. If you have a bad connection or modem, it can be a bitch to get VM to fix it (I know this from experience), the same way it can be a bitch to get BT to fix their lines.

Ok , so both technologies can potentially suffer from area oversubscription, but most of the ADSL ISPs have newer equipment and/or are smaller than Virgin so are not suffering this at the moment. Virgin is.

The difference is that if your fault does not appear within 30 days, you are commited to a 12 month contract with VM, where as if you are on Be (O2 also requires a 12 month contract), you are on a 3 month contract. Oh, and for those 12 months, your monthly fee for cable will be nearly twice that of Be.