Posted 19 October 2023

Best broadband

Hi all, I’m sure it’s a question asked time and time again but what’s a good provider right now.
I’m with Vodafone and it’s terrible, hear nothing good about Virgin or BT and Lit and Community fibre aren’t in my area.

just want something reliable from a company that don’t jack up the prices after x amount of months.

New Comment

25 Comments

sorted by

19th Oct 2023
Virgin Media is a tricky one. They are the fastest option in many areas which can be important especially if you are unfortunate enough to be in an area where your only other option is a copper phoneline to supply broadband though. But they typically have more downtime than the Openreach network does, and if you ever have a problem their customer service is by far the worst in the industry. On top of this, their supplied equipment for most areas and packages is bad enough to make you need to buy your own, and latency can be hit and miss depending upon your area too.

Openreach isn't the fastest, but it is generally the more stable and robust network infrastructure. And switching from one provider to the next is very easy. As for not hearing good things about BT - BT Aren't cheap but they are actually pretty good. Their connection is stable and rarely slows down, customer service is fully based within the UK and Ireland and speaking to them is generally a painless experience, and all their recent routers they provide to customers are actually pretty well made too.

The other option is 4G+/5G Home broadband which Three have from £20 per month if you can get a good signal in your area with a decent router included in the package to do a much better job than tethering with a phone would.

OP - What issues are you having with Vodafone right now to make them terrible? The specific issue would dictate what I would advise you to do next. For example:
1) Poor WiFi performance around the house - Stay with Vodafone but get your own router to perform better.
2) Poor customer service - Move to a new ISP that has better customer service ratings.
3) Speeds that drop at peak times - Move to a new Openreach ISP that doesn't use Vodafone's exchange backhaul that is too congested. BT or BT Wholesale based ISPs would generally be a smart move.
4) Frequent disconnections - Have Openreach come out to repair or replace your line.
5) Slow speeds at all times - If it is within your guaranteed speeds, then the only option would be to move to someone like Three or Virgin to get the faster speeds if Openreach can't push any better down your line.
19th Oct 2023
One more for Virgin Media.

Its just sad that their customer service is pants, and you have to do a dance at renewal time if you don't want to get shafted.
19th Oct 2023
When I was with Virgin Media about 7 years ago, I had no issue with their broadband service, rock solid for 4 years and only lost connection once for a few hours. What I have an issue with is their customer service but nowadays there is not one provider that you would class as good with customer service. You need to look at, in no particular order.

1. Speed
2. Cost
3. Availability
4. Customer service
5. Length of Contract.

It is up to you which is more important.
19th Oct 2023
Probably best to initiate that numbered list with
0 reliability
which is literally ambiguous.
19th Oct 2023
What's terrible about it?

I've been jumping around with Openreach FTTP with BT and Plusnet with Vodafone taking over next week and I've had zero issues.

Realistically given that most providers are using the Openreach network you'll likely get the same level of service from each, with the only real option either being VM or using a 5G/4G SIM
19th Oct 2023
I'd disagree with the same level of service. The same level of performance yes, but service does depend on the company. So far my Openreach has been covered by Sky, Talk Talk, Plusnet and most recently with Zen internet. The level of service has improved on each hop, even though my internet service hasn't changed (and can't change as it's a physical limitation).
19th Oct 2023
Youfibre 1000mb 27.99 and they'll pay up to £300 to cancel your existing provider. If available in your area
19th Oct 2023
+1 for YouFibre. Great performance + support and usually don't have any problems.

Had recently a few problems with confusion on billing, but it's been sorted out quickly. Haven't had any problems in terms of connectivity or hardware.. Highly recommend.
19th Oct 2023
Been with Virgin for over 20 years (Since NTL days) wouldn't switch to anything else for speed and reliability. Only issue is having to keep ringing at renewal to get the best price (different price quoted by each person you speak to).
19th Oct 2023
Good is a subjective question.
Virgin Media have been rock solid reliable for me for the past 10 years. Always get the best deals from them.
19th Oct 2023
BT are the devil

Vodafone for 3 years were perfect, and always got through to an English speaker, until recently, when my internet went dead for 3 days, and I could only get through to an India call centre, it eventually came back on, and three weeks later, went off again, but this time for only 12 hours.

anyway I’m now deciding if I risk trying Three
Author
19th Oct 2023
Thanks for all the input.

Vodafone’s wifi is shocking here. Speed is nonexistent at peak times, the wifi doesn’t reach half the house. Tried using extenders but because Vodafone apparently put a pulse in their connections the extenders constantly drop out. They have put the price up and what I’m getting isn’t worth it.

I like a lot about 3, but my mobile signal (on 3) isn’t the best here. I assume any 5G would be exactly the same.
19th Oct 2023
The 5G Routers have much larger antennas than your phone does, and you can also add external antennas to boost signal even further. Additionally you'd be placing it at an optimal location like a windowsill rather than in the middle of the house where you're likely comparing mobile phone signal.

Moving to another provider that uses Openreach cables but doesn't use Vodafone's backhaul at the exchange should fix the slowdowns at peak times. And either using your own better router with it or picking a provider with a good router to start with will improve WiFi performance.
19th Oct 2023
If it is just rubbish wifi with the supplied router, why not either replace the router with a decent model, or buy a mesh system, or connect an old ISP router via an ethernet cable and configure it to work as an wifi access point. technewstoday.com/how…nt/ (if it is an old BT router, you'd need to disable smart setup as well).
20th Oct 2023
I got a deal with VF for a data only sim, £10pm. Using a Huawei H122 speed varies from 20-95mps, certainly enough for HD streaming to several TV's plus pc and simultaneous music streaming most of the time.
Author
20th Oct 2023
YouFibre also not in my area.
Three can only offer 4G no 5G

Tried a mesh, doesn’t work with Vodafone. It’s constantly searching due to the split second drop outs.
20th Oct 2023
Did you connect the mesh base station by ethernet cable, and turn the vodafone router's wifi off? (edited)
20th Oct 2023
If you go with Virgin make sure you actually get what they said when signing up. I had a Virgin Media guy come round with an amazing offer earlier in the year. They'd just set up in the area. I signed up & when I got the contract email through it was nothing like what we'd agreed upon. It turned out to be the basic nothing package! No calls included, basic Freeview TV channels etc... I was gob smacked that they'd trick people like that!! I still can't get my head around it now Took me lots of calls to get it cancelled, spent nearly a full day on the phone, the customer service was terrible. 18 month contract too! I'm just really glad I read through the emails properly the day after signing.

I will always see them as scammers from now on... Will never sign up to anything with them in the future.
20th Oct 2023
Only reason I still have virgin media broadband is they offered me a good deal when I called to cancel, I pay £17 a month for 125mb broadband and landline with free weekend calls