broadband provider(s) - any opinions?

pansyface

We have been told that our John Lewis broadband service is being discontinued.

Any views on a good replacement/alternative?

Ones to avoid?

Many thanks.

Plantminded

I can recommend EE @pansyface, I've always had an excellent service for my broadband/home phone package.  They also offer good renewal terms for existing customers.  There's a confusing array of options out there but I find USwitch a good comparison site worth looking at to get a feel for prices. The strength of signal in your area is important, worth checking with your neighbours too!

Pete.8

I've been very happy with Plus Net for the last few years.
You can haggle for a better deal.
I was also going to go for John Lewis BB service, but PlusNet agreed to match the price, so I stayed with them.
Their support is very good. All you need to do is send them a text message with the word - help - they then analyse your line and report back within a few minutes and whatever the problem it's usually sorted within about 15 mins.
Only on 1 occasion did I need a visit from Openreach who removed some unnecessary extensions and fitted a proper Telephone Jack in the hall which had a dedicated BB slot with filter so I don't need filters fitted to every socket in the house any more - didn't cost a penny.

I only have their basic BB service and I get a download speed of around 17MB/sec

B3

I like Plusnet because the call centre is based in the UK. This makes a huge difference if you need to communicate with them.

steephill

This link might be useful - https://www.thinkbroadband.com/isps/compare Plusnet and EE are owned by the BT group (as are Openreach).

Broadband provision is in a state of flux at the moment as fibre is being rolled out across the country. It can be very difficult to find out when or indeed if your broadband is going to be upgraded. Most of the existing infrastructure is owned by Openreach so it doesn't make much difference which ISP you use if they are all reliant on Openreach.

Exceptions are areas where Virgin has installed cable (mainly larger towns and cities), Hull and areas where what are called Altnets (smaller fibre companies) are building their own infrastructure. The Altnets tend to concentrate on smaller areas e.g. in the SouthEast we have Swish Fibre.

Buttercupdays

I'm not a million miles away from you @Pansyface, just a hill or two in between

In our remote rural location I'm not holding my breath for fibre, but we have unlimited broadband from EE at a not unreasonable price. There is enough capacity to satisfy even the younger contingent of our household, who are very rarely completely offline!

 Any problems have been dealt with swiftly and courteously,  the odd time we have needed to call them.

ColinA

I have had good service from TalkTalk for the past 15 years

pansyface

Thank you all very much for your useful replies. I shall pass them on to ‘Im In Charge. 😊

JennyJ

Ours is Zen, chosen by OH. Not the cheapest but very reliable, and get the top score by some way in the Which? Jan2022 customer survey - here's a screenshot (I'd post a link but I think you have to be logged in to see it).

Might be overkill for you, if you were happy with John Lewis!

Edited to add the other columns (can't get the two screenshots to line up exactly - hope it makes sense).

Edited again: n/a means they didn't get enough responses to that question to give a rating. Zen's Contact Us page has separate phone numbers (yes, actual phone numbers not online chat/messaging) for tech support, sales, customer billing etc. instead of a single customer services contact.

And another edit: we've had no problems with Zen, only when some nutter idiot dug up the pavement down the road, took out the wires and killed everyone's internet in the whole neighbourhood.

Nanny Beach

We were with Talk talk since they started, maybe 20 years,never had a problem. Hubby doesn't have a mobile there was a good LL deal with them, lots of free calls plus a filter for scam callers. Changed to sky because separate accounts were expensive. Sky offered a good deal, plus £6 a month for my mobile. Fibre going in the village, literally NOW, they are in the next road!!!

Golarne

Long term lurker here. Absolutely don’t have Virgin, we’ve had many problems with them at my parents in Leics.