Changing ISP (1 Viewer)

How easy is it to change your ISP, how long does it take and do you lose internet connection for any length of time?

I'm so disgusted with EE and their marketing methods, but I've been a customer right from the days when Freeserve included discs in magazines. The thought of changing is a bit scary!:eek!:

Soooo the second question would be... who to go to?

Delia I'd go to something like uswitch.com for an impartial view. Moving should be easy. Just ask your provider for a MAC code and give that too the new provider. You should move with no outage and should be fairly painless. It's like everything else. If it works everyone is happy.

Moving is easy, I've done it many times. You "may" get some issues, it is unlikely but possible, however, you can always tether to your phones internet connection during any swap over time.

I'm with SKY, they offer some of the best deals and with them "unlimited" means what you expect it to mean. With other ISP's their definition of unlimited is not the same as mine. If you have SKY TV its a "no brainer". They offer free broadband to light users and unlimited is £7.50/month. I have their "fibre superfast" for an extra £10/month giving me 48Mbits/sec, my best "normal" broadband speed was 2 to 2.5 max.

Pete

Hi D.,

As stated, it should be easy to switch; I'd spend some time at thinkbroadband to find out which providers are active in your exchange/LLU and what connection speeds/download limits are possible.

If you have your 'phone line with EE as well as your BB, you'll need to switch that, too.

I stayed with a provider for rather longer than I should have done because I too was afraid of switching (and couldn't afford for anything to go seriously wrong for professional reasons). Eventually I took the plunge and I am very glad I did. I did have some very odd problems when switching (my router for some reason no longer worked after the switch, but it was quite old, and it took a while to catch that particular issue since it had worked just fine before and I'd ruled it out as a possible cause for that reason). If all goes well any outage should just be a couple of hours.

I strongly support Andrew's recommendation for thinkbroadband as a very good source of information.

It really helps if you have a list of priorities. Which of the following are important to you, and to what extent?

- price
- reliability
- support in the UK (no ringing call centres abroad where the operators don't understand what you're trying to tell them)
- capacity (I don't know how much of an issue `throttling' still is, but it certainly was noticeable with my previous isp and very frustrating - I live a long way from my local exchange and that used to only have the re-sold BT basic option)
- usage included in the contract (and extra cost if you should exceed this)

Price can be really hard to determine because many operators offer combi-deals (tv, phone, broadband). I investigated one really good sounding broadband deal to the point where I realized that the phone deal that had to go with it included horrible call charges when going beyond the light usage limits.

Note that many providers insist on signing you up for an extended period (a year or so) with heavy penalties if you decide to switch again. They do offer good monthly rates with this, but if you should be unhappy with the new provider you have a problem. Unfortunately it's very rare these days for any provider to let you have a rolling contract for a try-out.

I am really glad I switched, and in retrospect question why on earth I put up with so much frustration from my previous isp. A little research now will go a long way to making sure that you end up with a deal that's right for you.

Andrea

Thanks for all the replies so far, I've been exploring all the links and I think getting more confused in the process. I'm not sure if what I'm thinking they're talking about is actually what they mean.

I have a Sky+, my sister has BT Home Hub and my brother uses Virgin. They all seem happy. But according to Andy's link I don't think Virgin is available here.

At the moment I've only got as far as studying the Sky one but can't work out if I'm a "Lite" user, nor how much the calls are if you make any during the week/evening. And it doesn't seem to say if it's wireless (or is that an option you're given when ordering?)

As for usage, I'm not really sure what is meant by this at all. I'm on-line a lot but never download films or music. Only occasionally watch something on I-Player; but do look at Gallery pictures and BFTV videos. Where does that put me?

Pete said:

you can always tether to your phones internet connection during any swap over time.

Click to expand...

Sorry, Pete, I just don't understand this sentence.

Your current ISP should be able to tell you something about your currernt usage. It's worth trying whether they have a webpage where your login credentials (the ones your router uses) allow you access to your personal information. That should deal with the question of what your usage is. (Similar data ought to be available for your phone usage from your provider, though you'd probably have to analyse that yourself to split it into day-time versus evenings/weekends).

I would strongly recommend also checking out charges for phone calls outside those covered by the package. Some unexpected event might completely change how much you use your phone and when, and you don't want to be locked into a contract then where you have to pay through the nose for some calls.

When you talk about wireless, do you mean through your router, or do you mean `anywhere you go'? When you're at home whether or not you can access your broadband connection wirelessly depends on your hardware. Your current router should certainly be capable to do the job (or do you have to return it to your current provider?) if you are savvy enough to re-program it for the new provider (it's not that difficult, and most providers should have the information on how to do this to give to you (but you need to make sure you have a copy before switch-over for obvious reasons)). Some providers include a new router in their deal because it means they can set it up and send it to you and then don't have to worry so much about users who're unable to set up their own. However, the costs of this are certainly included somewhere in any deal. Their hardware might not be best suited for your situation. (I live a fairly long way from my exchange, for example, so I went for an older router that is known to cope very well in that situation, and not to limit my download speeds any further.)

I hope this gets you a little bit further down the road to deciding what you want.

Andrea

Thanks Andrea

I'm just off out, so I'll study you post in more detail when I get back home.

My guess Delia is that you are a "light" user, so Sky broadband (as you have a TV package with them) would be free for you. If you did go over your limit (2 GB I believe is the limit) you will not be charged any extra. Sky will simply advise you of the situation and suggest you upgrade. They will supply (free) a brand new, modern (fast) router, pre-programmed and ready to install, you should only have to type the wifi access code into your PC the first time you connect. Don't forget you will have a new email address too, so make a back up of all your contacts email addresses and inform them of your new address. Even the most stingy of ISP's should give you at least a months grace with your existing email account tho.
The basic Sky phone package provides free UK evening and weekend calls I believe?

Like I said before, as you have Sky TV, broadband will be free and a "no brainer"

"Tethering" means setting your smart phone up as a "personal wifi hotspot". This allows you to connect (your PC, tablets etc.) by wifi to your phone and use it (as a router) and its 3g or 4g connection to access the internet. It can be very useful when out and about, or in emergencies when your broadband fails at home. However, some mobile phone companies may restrict its use or even forbid it in your contract. Providing you don't go "over the top" they can't actually know if you are looking at a web page on your phone, or with a PC tethered to your phone.

Google........ "your phone model" tethering.

Regards, Pete

A 2GB monthly download allowance is just too low for most daily Internet users (66MB per day?! I have .pdfs bigger than that).

Thinkbroadband's TBB meter allows you to monitor and collect data statistics so you can get an idea of how much you're currently using: http://www.thinkbroadband.com/tbbmeter.html

The Sky Hub, supplied with all Sky BB packages, has wireless: http://www.sky.com/shop/broadband-talk/sky-hub/ If you setup something like Sky on demand and actually use it, it will add enormously to your data throughput.

Virgin Cable probably isn't available, they may have lesser options though.

The current baseline unlimited figure looks like:

Sky Broadband Unlimited
Unlimited usage
We'll never slow your unlimited broadband down
Unlimited access to Sky WiFi at no extra cost
Inclusive weekend calls to UK# landlines

£7.50 a month

for Sky TV customers
with Sky Talk Weekends
+ Sky Line Rental (£15.40 a month)

Click to expand...

So £7.50 + £15.40 p.m.

Sky won't charge for going over the 2GB limit, they will simply advise you that perhaps its time to upgrade. If however, you do start using the "on demand" service (you say you don't download films etc tho?) the unlimited option will be required for sure.

If money is tight I'd definitely try the free route first and upgrade if required. Upgrading will cost nothing extra and you'll have saved £15 or more.

What amount of GB have you been using with your present ISP? They will tell you if you ask the question.

If money is not an issue go for the Fibre unlimited if its available, it's FAST, very FAST. We live miles from the exchange and as I said previously our broadband speed (or lack of it) was 2 to 2.5Gb/sec max. We now have almost 20 times that speed, using "on demand" services is almost instantaneous.

Pete