Finally finally getting rid of BT Broadband!

[SpyderTracks]

Well, it's finally time.

We've been paying BT £70 a month for phone and internet and getting around 35Mb for the privilege

They have Virgin in the towns north and south of us, but nothing where we are.

Then my Knights in shining armour sent a teaser note through our door last summer saying they were planning on laying cable and to register interest, but you often see those and nothing transpires.

But a few months ago they announced they were laying cables in the village.

Then today, I get a call from a great guy. For their basic package, 150 up and down, it's £30 plus £10 for phone. And you pay £0 for the first 3 months, no installation or connection fee. Up to 3 week lead time for installation.

Full Fibre Broadband to Suit Your Lifestyle | Swish Fibre

Join the UK's fastest network, bringing exceptional connectivity to homes and businesses. Enjoy reliable, super fast Full Fibre broadband as you work, surf and play.

www.swishfibre.com

Swish Fibre is rated "Excellent" with 4.6 / 5 on Trustpilot

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Extremely happy!

So it's goodbye BT, goodbye forever, never again!!!!

 

[Martinr36]

Well, it's finally time.

We've been paying BT £70 a month for phone and internet and getting around 35Mb for the privilege

They have Virgin in the towns north and south of us, but nothing where we are.

Then my Knights in shining armour sent a teaser note through our door last summer saying they were planning on laying cable and to register interest, but you often see those and nothing transpires.

But a few months ago they announced they were laying cables in the village.

Then today, I get a call from a great guy. For their basic package, 150 up and down, it's £30 plus £10 for phone. And you pay £0 for the first 3 months, no installation or connection fee. Up to 3 week lead time for installation.

Full Fibre Broadband to Suit Your Lifestyle | Swish Fibre

Join the UK's fastest network, bringing exceptional connectivity to homes and businesses. Enjoy reliable, super fast Full Fibre broadband as you work, surf and play.

www.swishfibre.com

Swish Fibre is rated "Excellent" with 4.6 / 5 on Trustpilot

Do you agree with Swish Fibre's TrustScore? Voice your opinion today and hear what 2,188 customers have already said.

uk.trustpilot.com

Extremely happy!

So it's goodbye BT, goodbye forever, never again!!!!

Awesome mate, the more that move away from BT the better, some time back after I had moved to sky, some young lass from BT phoned me on the land line, I told her she shouldn't be phoning as the line was registered on telephone preference service, therefore she shouldn't be calling, she said as it was a BT line that didn't apply, that was enough and she got my opinion of BT.......I'll say no more

 

[CMP01]

Used to have Virgin up here in the village, and being with them since 2014 I ended up with a pretty good deal. But we moved in 2020, two miles away in town and had to go with BT as Virgin weren't available on that street for a few months (but a couple of streets over? Fine) Not a year later we're back up the village, a street away from the original place only now I have a BT contract. Well, I'll admit that BT have been good for speed and reliability. But at 285Mbps and a 6Gb monthly SIM deal for £65 but vs the Virgin deal I had, 200Mbps and a 12Gb SIM rolling over monthly for £40... the Virgin one was better by far (and that'd be more by now as they upped the speed every now and then for no increase in price etc, and even sent me a letter to let me know) The BT contract is done in a couple of months but I'm unsure what to do when that happens. We're on a shortlist for housing in Somerset (in Surrey rn) probably be a move between late summer and end of year and I have no idea what ISP would be available there. I'd go back to Virgin in a moment but I probably wouldn't have such a deal again without building it up over a few years.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Used to have Virgin up here in the village, and being with them since 2014 I ended up with a pretty good deal. But we moved in 2020, two miles away in town and had to go with BT as Virgin weren't available on that street for a few months (but a couple of streets over? Fine) Not a year later we're back up the village, a street away from the original place only now I have a BT contract. Well, I'll admit that BT have been good for speed and reliability. But at 285Mbps and a 6Gb monthly SIM deal for £65 but vs the Virgin deal I had, 200Mbps and a 12Gb SIM rolling over monthly for £40... the Virgin one was better by far (and that'd be more by now as they upped the speed every now and then for no increase in price etc, and even sent me a letter to let me know) The BT contract is done in a couple of months but I'm unsure what to do when that happens. We're on a shortlist for housing in Somerset (in Surrey rn) probably be a move between late summer and end of year and I have no idea what ISP would be available there. I'd go back to Virgin in a moment but I probably wouldn't have such a deal again without building it up over a few years.

Oh, Somerset is so lovely, are you going to be quite remote out there?

Remember, Starlink is always an option in remote places, although fairly expensive at £75 rental, plus £300 or so for the hardware, and speeds are affected by weather, but it's still an excellent option if you're off the beaten track and service is lacking in that area.

 

[Scott]

Can't beat proper fibre, it's just untouchable. I want to leave virgin but there are literally no other options even close to what they provide me. I genuinely see almost 50MB/s download speeds (note the MB Band not mb) on a 350mb/s package. It's flawless, they don't half charge me for it though..... well, considering what I previously paid for broadband. I suppose £48 isn't too bad. They insist on a phone line which is ridiculous though, I don't even own one now.

 

[B4zookaw]

And the advantage of getting fibre (at least I assume it's the same in UK as in Ireland) is that once you have the physical fibre connection, you can then move between providers to avail of new customer discounts, as opposed to just having Virgin cable and being tied to them.

Spyder, is it FTTC or FFTH?

 

[SpyderTracks]

And the advantage of getting fibre (at least I assume it's the same in UK as in Ireland) is that once you have the physical fibre connection, you can then move between providers to avail of new customer discounts, as opposed to just having Virgin cable and being tied to them.

Spyder, is it FTTC or FFTH?

Full FFTH which is just fantastic.

 

[TonyCarter]

We're seeing more options where I am too.

Has been the choice of ultra-fast Virgin Media (1Gbps), super fast BT and their resellers (upto 32Mbps), or Three/EE 4g/5g broadband (100Mbps+).

After many years of getting regular emails from BT/Openreach saying their full fibre offering was now in my area...and checking to realise it wasn't (and re-registering my interest every time) we finally got a go live date late last year.

But we're also seeing signs of YouFibre (Netomnia FTTP) in the surrounding areas.

So come next renewal, I will have much more ammunition against any rise VM want to impose.

 

[Steveyg]

Virgin have always been top here and BT are are a close second these days. Just what ever you do under no circumstances get your internet through Sky. It's genuinely the worst

 

[B4zookaw]

Full FFTH which is just fantastic.

Surprised you don't get higher speed than 150Mbps if it's FFTH

 

[SpyderTracks]

Surprised you don't get higher speed than 150Mbps if it's FFTH

You can go up to 900mbs, were just getting the base package.

 

[B4zookaw]

You can go up to 900mbs, were just getting the base package.

Oh push the boat out, treat yourself. Those Steam downloads are only increasing in size....

 

[TonyCarter]

Oh push the boat out, treat yourself. Those Steam downloads are only increasing in size....

Even with my VM Gig service, I rarely see the game downloaders take advantage of the full bandwidth

 

[TonyCarter]

You are all making me jealous.....I'm just stuck on "normal" fibre rather than upgraded fibre There has been a company laying fibre around us but no clue if it will ever reach me as I live in a block of flats and there seems some reluctance

You could do what we did when we had a project on the 14th floor in an office block...simply threw a long 10Base-2 cable out of the window to connect to the client's router on the 3rd floor...via BNC connections (IIRC).

In the office itself we just distributed AppleTalk/LocalTalk cables through the office above our heads in the empty spaces above the ceiling panels.

My Mac used to be the 'server' for all the team's laptops to connect to.

 

[B4zookaw]

Even with my VM Gig service, I rarely see the game downloaders take advantage of the full bandwidth

Unfortunately true. Download rate slows down, you pause it for a few secs, then resume and it shoots back up again. Repeat as needed to try and get download completed asap....

 

[SpyderTracks]

Unfortunately true. Download rate slows down, you pause it for a few secs, then resume and it shoots back up again. Repeat as needed to try and get download completed asap....

This is where you need a duck

 

[CMP01]

Oh, Somerset is so lovely, are you going to be quite remote out there?

Remember, Starlink is always an option in remote places, although fairly expensive at £75 rental, plus £300 or so for the hardware, and speeds are affected by weather, but it's still an excellent option if you're off the beaten track and service is lacking in that area.

I shouldn't think so, at least not any more remote as other places I've lived. We're planning for in or around Midsomer Norton, where my gf hails from. Tbh this is more a move for her health and sanity as she wants to be around for her Nieces growing up and her family, who have been good to me. That said, this is how we roll and as much as it's her move it'll be better for us, the dogs and cat all round, while my family are indifferent even to me at best. Truth is, I'm a bit older than her and have moved/lived as far afield as Co Durham at very short notice so this is no prob for me, while moving to Surrey for me was her first time living away from her hometown and family. I've generally always found it easy to settle and find myself wherever I go tbh, good sense of location/internal GPS etc which helps lol.

So yeah, pros and cons but mostly pros. Going by researching estate agent listings the internet speeds vary greatly for that area but shouldn't be lower than 50Mbps or so (but if I can get 100 fair enough even if I'm used to twice that) The Midsomer area is actually pretty well served by buses, no worse than here (between the dreaded Slough and Staines) with Bath, Wells and Bristol not too far and I actually spent 5 years from 11-16 around Bath and Bradford on Avon so I'm familiar with the area even if that was 30 years ago.
The only cons really are the logistics of the move itself and moving further from my mum, who isn't well herself. My mum does have good support though (nm not really helping herself re lifestyle etc) and I can commute this way if needed far easier than gf could the other way. But we can't remain living where we are either, it's not been good for us.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I shouldn't think so, at least not any more remote as other places I've lived. We're planning for in or around Midsomer Norton, where my gf hails from. Tbh this is more a move for her health and sanity as she wants to be around for her Nieces growing up and her family, who have been good to me. That said, this is how we roll and as much as it's her move it'll be better for us, the dogs and cat all round, while my family are indifferent even to me at best. Truth is, I'm a bit older than her and have moved/lived as far afield as Co Durham at very short notice so this is no prob for me, while moving to Surrey for me was her first time living away from her hometown and family. I've generally always found it easy to settle and find myself wherever I go tbh, good sense of location/internal GPS etc which helps lol.

So yeah, pros and cons but mostly pros. Going by researching estate agent listings the internet speeds vary greatly for that area but shouldn't be lower than 50Mbps or so (but if I can get 100 fair enough even if I'm used to twice that) The Midsomer area is actually pretty well served by buses, no worse than here (between the dreaded Slough and Staines) with Bath, Wells and Bristol not too far and I actually spent 5 years from 11-16 around Bath and Bradford on Avon so I'm familiar with the area even if that was 30 years ago.
The only cons really are the logistics of the move itself and moving further from my mum, who isn't well herself. My mum does have good support though (nm not really helping herself re lifestyle etc) and I can commute this way if needed far easier than gf could the other way. But we can't remain living where we are either, it's not been good for us.

As someone who has lived in the Surrey / Hampshire area for a bit, while yeah, it's beautiful, it's so overcrowded, and just too damn expensive.

I wish you guys every bit of success with the move, keep us posted.

 

[Salmon Fisher]

I'm still with BT for my sins, but getting fed up with being robbed silly for 38Mbps, VM is an option but how reliable are they? What's CS like? I don't need silly speeds but I really do need to stop the incessant drain on finance that BT represents.

 

[Scott]

I have had very few issues with VM over the years. The only issue I have with them is they know when you're over a barrel. Reliability is fine for me but their router settings haven't been the best in my experience so you really need to know how to configure one. Most issues I hear with VM is due to the router not being configured suitably for the home, rather than the service into the home.

Like anywhere though, mileage will vary. But.... are you going to save money with BT? I would be far cheaper going for one of the phone line offerings where I am, VM is the expensive one..... but I do get what I'm paying for.