Which telephone and broadband package?

[tcg]

My BT Business Broadband and phone contract is about to expire. I know I can carry on without renewing but I would like to look at other options.

I tend to work as much from my office as I do from my home office. I like to be home in the evenings when dealing with the US so I can say goodnight to the children.

I currently have BT business broadband and telephone. I am online all day, but in truth I do not see much difference between the BT business broadband and regular home broadband.

Yes I understand about the number of people using the connection etc, but there are never more than three of us online at once, and at home ,if I am online and Sasha is also online, there does not seem to be any noticeable difference.

Which broadband and telephone package do you use? Any recommendations?

 

[Ashley_Price]

Have a look at Utility Warehouse. They have some great packages, especially if you swap your gas and/or electric over as well as phone and broadband.

 

[ENS]

Have a look at us too , if you have bt lines we will give you free broadband. If you have any questions please let me know.

 

[YODspica]

I like TalkTalk.

 

[tcg]

Have a look at Utility Warehouse. They have some great packages, especially if you swap your gas and/or electric over as well as phone and broadband.

Just spoken to them, nice chap on the line. Helpful and only a littttllle bit pushy

 

[ENS]

depends how much their rates are im sure were cheaper but really depends on how much your bill is each month

 

[tcg]

Have a look at us too if you have bt lines we will give you free broadband. If you have any questions please let me know.

Hi I have looked at your website. You offer some great solutions for larger businesses.

I could not find what you are referring to above though. Can you explain further?

Alasdair

 

[ENS]

just wanted a figure for how much you spend on your telecommunications each month, so i can put some rates together.

 

[cmcp]

We used o2 business broadband for a couple of years and their service was excellent.

 

[tcg]

I like TalkTalk.

Yes Talk Talk look like an option. They are owned by Car Phone Warehouse though. They have really annoyed me through miss-selling to me. The sales person lied to get the sale. I cannot really blame him for doing so, as Car Phone Warehouse set up their sales that way, but I can blame Car Phone Warehouse for the way they have handled the situation.

Still I should not let my stubborn side prevent me from getting the right broadband and phone solution.

Alasdair

 

[stugster]

www.BeThere.co.uk

www.Voipfone.co.uk

 

[tcg]

We used o2 business broadband for a couple of years and their service was excellent.

It appears I am out of their area. They can offer me something but not the package I wanted. A shame as I liked the look of their pro package.

 

[tcg]

just wanted a figure for how much you spend on your telecommunications each month, so i can put some rates together.

Hi. I will send you a DM so we do not bore everyone with my internet usage and bills

 

[Business News]

We have used XLN Telecom for 4 years and they offer the lowest price for line rental, various call packages and unlimited 2nd generation 8Mb broadband. But, most important of all the actually have a customer service team that you can talk to. The importance of this cannot be stressed.

Do your research in online forums. Customer service on business lines is in many way more important than price as you generally need faults quickly rectified. BT usually tops on this.

 

[tcg]

We have used XLN Telecom for 4 years and they offer the lowest price for line rental, various call packages and unlimited 2nd generation 8Mb broadband. But, most important of all the actually have a customer service team that you can talk to. The importance of this cannot be stressed.

Do your research in online forums. Customer service on business lines is in many way more important than price as you generally need faults quickly rectified. BT usually tops on this.

I agree customer service is key. I have had no complaints about BT, just the price differential between their business offering and their home offering. I use both and see little difference in the product performance/speed wise.

In our San Francisco office, as we can have over 40 people online at the same time, we use a robust and reliable provider. Here we do not have such demands as our key developers are based in S.F.

I will check them out in the morning.

Alasdair

 

[ginantonic]

As I work from home, I have BT for the phone line purely for O2 broadband, which is half price if you have an O2 mobile contract. Usually there are 3 of us online at home (occasionally 4) and I have a wireless router. No problems with dropping out, either, which happened all the time when I had BT broadband. Don't use the landline, other than for 0845 calls, as I have a good mobile deal. Works for us.

 

[KM-Tiger]

....... O2 broadband, which is half price if you have an O2 mobile contract.

It's actually £5/month off, not half price.

As Stugster suggested: buy broadband from a broadband supplier, and telephone services from a telecom supplier. You are then not locked into a package if either proves to be carp.

A "package" will be a combination of products designed to be cheap rather than good.

 

[ENS]

we give FREE broadband and have low prices on telecoms and we don't committe anybody to a contract.

 

[stugster]

ENS,

Free broadband? Ok... send it my way please

 

[ENS]

who are your lines with sugster

 

[stugster]

Coax in from Virgin.

 

[ginantonic]

It's actually £5/month off, not half price.

I negotiated with them, and get mine at 1/2 price.

 

[ENS]

Coax in from Virgin.

im just checking this out now

 

[ENS]

coax is the type of cable and vigin provide the service for you, virgin do not have lines they get the lines from a seperate company do you know who the lines are with sugster?

 

[steve67]

The best deal i found when i was looking for a broadband and telephone ( for business use ) package was a company called XLN Telecom, I pay £ 25 a month for unlimited calls and broadband ...not sure how they stand on international calls , but their number is 0844 880 9000 if you want to find out any more....

 

[tcg]

The best deal i found when i was looking for a broadband and telephone ( for business use ) package was a company called XLN Telecom, I pay £ 25 a month for unlimited calls and broadband ...not sure how they stand on international calls , but their number is 0844 880 9000 if you want to find out any more....

You are the second person to recommend XLN. I will give them a call. Did some research yesterday. Today has been about work. Sometimes work gets in the way Jokes aside, these sorts of things take up so much unscheduled time.

 

[My Owl 1]

Hi, I am with UW. Combined Broadband and telephone rental is £25 per month with call costs at 1.9p to as low as 0.9p depending on call volume.

If you would like more info please pm me.

Best wishes

Avril

 

[Mattonella Tile Studio]

The best deal i found when i was looking for a broadband and telephone ( for business use ) package was a company called XLN Telecom, I pay £ 25 a month for unlimited calls and broadband ...not sure how they stand on international calls , but their number is 0844 880 9000 if you want to find out any more....

How do you find XLN broadband? I'm currently with them for telephone and considering swapping for broadband too, but after a v. bad experience at home changing to Orange broadband it's kind of put me off changing.

 

[My Owl 1]

How do you find XLN broadband? I'm currently with them for telephone and considering swapping for broadband too, but after a v. bad experience at home changing to Orange broadband it's kind of put me off changing.

The experience I have had with some of my customers switching to us, is they have been stuck in quite a long contract perio, which has meant they are stuck with their provider for the duration or paid a quite high penalty for coming out of contract early.

We don't have a minimum contract and I would be happy to give you some information on our services too.

Best wishes

Avril
www.savemoneywithus.co.uk

affordable utilities for business and home.


Utility Warehouse are reducing both their electricity and gas costs from 1st April.

 

[steve67]

I contacted several suppliers prior to signing up with xln , they seemed efficient , had good helpful staff on the phone , and installed it all on time and when they said they would..as i said , i am on the £25 business package, unlimited calls and fast broadband , which as i run my own small telemarketing business is perfect for me.

Steve larnder
Tha Appointment Makers
0117 9553863

 

[Business News]

How do you find XLN broadband? I'm currently with them for telephone and considering swapping for broadband too, but after a v. bad experience at home changing to Orange broadband it's kind of put me off changing.

XLN broadband is truly unlimited. There are a lot of providers who have limits on their unlimited broadband but I've never had a hint of a high usage threat from XLN (up to 3Gb per day). Companies like Tiscali are renowned for limiting bandwidth to high volume users and I have noticed this from them on my home connection. I did have a bandwidth issue recently with my XLN bb so they upgraded it to second generation. Now all is well. Their customer service is excellent.

I'd use XLN at home if I could but they only do business accounts.

 

[KM-Tiger]

XLN broadband is truly unlimited.

No it isn't, see here:

http://www.xlntelecom.co.uk/broadband-fair-use.aspx

Like a lot of so-called 'unlimited' services, demand is actually regulated by a fair usage policy.

Bandwidth costs money, so no supplier is really going to give away an unlimited amount of it.

 

[Business News]

No it isn't, see here:

http://www.xlntelecom.co.uk/broadband-fair-use.aspx

Like a lot of so-called 'unlimited' services, demand is actually regulated by a fair usage policy.

Bandwidth costs money, so no supplier is really going to give away an unlimited amount of it.

Every bb provider has a fair usage policy. XLN clearly have a much higher tolerance then others that I have experience with. I doubt you will find a single complaint about XLN restricting service on any of the broadband forums.

 

[KM-Tiger]

Every bb provider has a fair usage policy.

Sorry but that is misinformation again, not all providers have such a policy to limit usage.

Some give you a monthly bandwidth allowance and charge you more if you exceed it. They do not pretend it's unlimited when it's not.

It might well be true that with XLN, a 'normal' user will never get near the fair usage policy being invoked, but that is not the same thing as unlimited.

 

[cjd]

The industry standard for 'unlimited' is 50GB per month - for a business connection. Consumer services can be a lot lower than that. It is impossible for a company to offer truly 'unlimited' - they would be bankrupted.

 

[Business News]

Sorry but that is misinformation again, not all providers have such a policy to limit usage.

Some give you a monthly bandwidth allowance and charge you more if you exceed it. They do not pretend it's unlimited when it's not.

It might well be true that with XLN, a 'normal' user will never get near the fair usage policy being invoked, but that is not the same thing as unlimited.

OK - every company that offers ''unlimited broadband'' has an accompanying fair usage policy. XLN only offer ''unlimited broadband'' and up to 3Gb per day as we have utilised should be enough for most users.

 

[My Owl 1]

OK - every company that offers ''unlimited broadband'' has an accompanying fair usage policy. XLN only offer ''unlimited broadband'' and up to 3Gb per day as we have utilised should be enough for most users.

For some yes but not for all.
Unlimited should be what it says not what it isnt.

Avril
www.savemoneywithus.co.uk

 

[Obsidian]

Which broadband and telephone package do you use? Any recommendations?

I use a BT line with Freedom2surf ADSL, works a treat.

The differences between business broadband and consumer broadband are mainly in the SLA's and the contention ratio.

Business users can 'less' afford be without an internet connection. For example, if my home connection goes, it's not a trainsmash, as all it means is that I can't check my personal emails for a few hours. That's why it costs about £15 per month. Whereas in a business scenario, those few hours could mean lost business, for which the provider could be held liable, and as such the price is much higher.

Home and garden broadband usually has a contention ration between 1:40 and 1:50. This means that up to 40 or 50 people are using the same bit of copper between you and the exchange, and thus the chances are higher that your speed may drop because of too many people on it at the same time. Ever notice how the internet speeds drop in the afternoons? That's thanks to kids on the internet in the afternoon, or similar.

If I'm not mistaken business contention ratios are 1:20, but I do know for sure that they're a lot lower than consumer ADSL.

Hasn't answered your question though has it....

 

[Lucky Ed]

Hi Everybody,

We use Freeola and they're brilliant.

Firstly they don't mess around with fair usage policies they just give a very high download capacity in our case we pay about £20 and get 12Gbit peak usage with any amount we want off-peak, you also get up to 8 free static IP addresses, webmail, unlimited email addresses and free auto responders (which is great for when you can't answer your emails/enquiries immediately).

Another huge benefit of Freeola is that there is no migration charge from your old ISP and you only sign up for a rolling monthly contract which means that if you are not happy with the service you only have to give a months notice to terminate. They also have a sister company called get dotted who will host your domain name (we have 3 of them) as part of the deal.

Since we have been with Freeola (about 8 months) we have had two increases in our capacity allowance at no extra cost and their technical helpdesk is extremely good.

I know I sound like a Freeola saleman but I did a lot of research before using them and I've also spent 19 years in IT before starting my own business so I have a pretty good idea of this sort of stuff.

Kind regards

Lucky Ed

 

[stugster]

Just to put things into perspective for those that don't know.

If you're on a 10MB connection, you'll be able to pull roughly 10,000kbps (I know it's not exact, but lets go with it). In a 24 hour period, assuming you're using your connection to its max, you'll pull down approximately 108GB. (That's 3240GB a month!!!)


If you're on a 4MB connection and assuming you can get that speed, you'll be on 4,000kbps. In a 24 hour period, you'll pull approximately 43.2GB.


It's very unlikely anyone is going to be completely maxing their connection for such a long period of time, and you'll usually find that your connection never hits that.