Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Forced off Virgin - Plusnet or Zen?
I'm pretty much being forced to ditch Virgin as my broadband provider. No complaints (currently) about >150MB download speed, but for the past week I've been getting less then 1MB upload. Needing to shift lots of images around, working with under a meg upload is like asking an athlete to run 400 metres in a long tight skirt.
My first two calls to Virgin to try and resolve this issue were met with "Sorry we don't support upload speeds". When I finally managed to get through to Cardiff, they at least spoke some sense and suggested I need a new router. That arrived today. No change. Now I'm told there's an infrastructure issue which won't be fixed until September.
So what now? I've looked at Zen and Plusnet. There's no doubt that Zen have a better reputation, but they are pricey. If I keep Virgin for my TV, here are the comparative costs for 18 months (Plusnet's minimum contract length):
Virgin (the no-change option) - £1,223.00
Zen (the optimal option) - £1,497.00 (Incl £156.00 set-up)
Plusnet (the cheap option) - £1,048.00*
My question to Harringay is whether Plusnet are good enough that I'd feel good about saving £25 a month over Zen. Or, should I just bite the bullet and get Zen (man)?
*See an update on this figure in my comment below.
Tags for Forum Posts: plusnet, virgin media, zen broadband
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by e spengler on
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Consider Andrews & Arnold. A niche ISP, rock solid, geeky, privacy activist, ISP. http://aaisp.net
Quality wise they beat Zen. Probably the best UK ISP. See http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/top10.php
Expensive, about the same as Zen, but capped (you pick & pay for in 100GB downloads increments. No upload limit). 100GB will be enough for most, even with netflix or iplayer thrown in the mix.
6 month minimum contract.
I get exactly what I pay for - the 38Mb package - it's BT fibre based product. Line rental remains with BT, I prepay that annually, which cuts the line rental cost by 10%.
It's not always worth getting the 76Mb package because most BT lines don't support that speed fully (it's a distance to the BT exchange thing) - in my case, I'd get about 50Mb. You can start with a 38Mb package and upgrade the speed limit or the d/l cap. You may not notice the difference between 38Mb and 76Mb. Keep in mind that latency (ping) has a significant impact on reponse times too - but no one talks about that. Latency with AAISP has been nothing short of amazing (6ms to the bbc).
I've not regretted paying the premium they charge - this household lives on the internet.
Two years of use, not a single issue. They monitor line quality (up, down, latency, etc) http://aaisp.net/kb-broadband-cqm.html
Speed test (once, no cherry picking)
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"it's a distance to the BT exchange thing" -> mistake, should have been distance to the fibre cabinet. Distance to exchange matters for ADSL not BT fibre (FTTC)
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Im on Allison rd on Plusnet fibre/cable (the fast one). just checked my upload speed at 17.88 and download at 33.90 which means nothing to me but I have no trouble with my internet and have been with plusnet over 2 years and have always been very impressed with their uk based customer service, who are great. I say go for it! x
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Interesting numbers. From the upload speed it looks like you're on the 78 Mb package, but not even hitting half the promised download speed. Many potential causes. You could be on a package that is too expensive for what you get.
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