Bt Broadband Vrs Sky Broadband Vrs Virgin Media?

Question

I would like peoples opinions on any of the above from their own experience! Im thinking of making the change from Virgin now that i have a Bt line but i want to be sure im making the right choice. Im quite near the exchange so i should get the best speed available.
Main thing i want to do is what they are like in peak times? Is the connection quite consistant?>

Answer 1

!I have been with Virgin for 13 years when they first started in 1994 in the UK. I've had fibre optic Broadband since it first came on line about nine years ago from dial up.



If you want to sacrifice your broadband then go ahead, but expect a load of grief with an ADSL system and the problems it has.



Virgin's broadband is going up from 4 Mb to 10 Mb as the standard, 20 Mb is now available and 50 Mb will be available within 18 months or so. Speed is constant 24/7 because it is fibre optic light technology. All unlimited use. No capping.



In nine years we only lost the service once for 24 hours when the system went down due to a electricity supply sub-station fire and shut down a mainframe and that was about seven years ago



ADSL cannot match that in this country as BT's equipment is out of date. Designed and rebuilt in the 1930's for a telephone service!



If you go with Sky they just use BT's equipment so your no further forward with that.



Big decision! My advice stay where you are, especially if you use the Internet a lot.



TV and phone are neither here or there. They just happen to be in the equation! Except if your TV decoder or Broadband Modem goes belly up they are replaced free with Virgin. Sky you have to pay for repairs to their equipment after one year or a replacement.

Answer 2

This is a very good question. I have used all three and have to say for reliability, fast speeds and no download limit then Virginmedia wins. It's fibreoptic which means it's the fastest broadband you can get. It also get less affected by other people, as ADSL lines are used by far more people than Cable, due to the fact that the ADSL copper lines are used by Talktalk, Bulldog, BT, Tiscali, Wanadoo etc. Cable is used only by virginmedia.



Now in terms of price, Virgin doesn't win. If you are less than 2 miles from the exchange then you are probably going to be ok for speed on ADSL.



This site explains which one you should go for in simple terms:



http://mattsdealsalert.com/telecommunications.aspx



This site basically says that all these companies offer the same price for an exact side by side comparison, where they differ depends on your needs. Therefore, if you want the cheapest broadband without TV or cheap phone calls then go with Talktalk. If you want cheap broadband and lots of TV channels, then go with Sky. Finally if you want the best broadband and a bit of TV and not worried about price then go with Virginmedia.



Hope that helps!



Edit: Remember to get Sky broadband for free you need to get Sky TV. If you haven't already got Sky you can get online discounts too at:



http://skytv.at/mattsdealsalert

Answer 3

BT Broadband is off. Sky bought EasyNet which has the exact same service running up and down the country as Virgin. The only difference is you need to use the phone line in your house to route the sky to their service where virgin come right to your door. Virgin is really bad for customer service compaired to sky and virgin will cap you if you go over your bandwidth. Sky is great due to the service they offer and the fast reliable Internet they now offer. It was down when it first kicked off but now is the best in county like!



For cost, efficiency and good customer service. SKY is the best choice!!!



I have to say as an X-Sky employee I might be a tad biasted, but was there from the start of broadbands launch and since then it has become the best in the country!



Hope that helps!

Answer 4

STAY AWAY FROM VIRGIN!!!



I have the knowledge of having used all three services and I would rank them in this order -



Sky

BT

Virgin



I have ranked them on three factors



Reliability

Cost

Service



Reliability is the most important thing from an internet provider. Sky have not let me down once, speed has been excellent.



Cost, Sky again wins hands down, I pay £40 for sky TV, Free phone calls and get the broadband free. BT was the most expensive.



Service is customer service. BT i could never get through to on the phone. Virgin the same though when i did they never resolved the ongoing issues. I have phoned sky once to upgrade line, straight through profesional, job done.



Verdict - BT have been doing it a while though this doesnt make up much ground on Sky who are cheaper and in my opinion spot on.



Hope that helps. :-)

Answer 5

First off all lines (phone and Internet are ultimately owned and serviced by BT

All BT do is sell a few thousand connections to other people(sky.tiscalli.aol.and more)

Any problems you have will ultimately end up with BT .

But you might think that is a great offer from whoever but the service is at the end provided by BT.

So it is up to you use another provider , and any problems they will pass on to BT and it could take weeks to sort out.

Or use BT and any problems will be sorted out a lot faster.

I have used BT for ages for the Internet and had no problems what so ever.

I am on the 8 meg package and getting 7.5 but that is another question relating to copper wire and resistance the further you are away the slower you get

Answer 6

I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about BT but mainly to do with billing however I cannot fault their broadband service which I would recommend, I don't know what option I have but it is the unlimited access with free mobile wi-fi minutes and pay around £25.00 a month + VAT. We are all gamers and it is not unusual to have 2 laptops a console and a desktop all online at the same time through my home hub, with no problems. Most of the time slow downloads are due to to the server at the other end and rarely to do with the broadband itself, you can only receive as fast as they send the information so if they are only sending 25kbps that is all you will get, superfast broadband only works if the server sends it out superfast which is not always the case.

Answer 7

I'm with Virgin, I get 7.6MB bandwidth on an 8MB account, over a BT phone line (BT could only manage 5.3MB) - that I'm impressed with!

If the landlord was to allow cable I'd have it, as soon as I move I'll get it.

Virgin were the first ISP to offer 10MB, 20MB,50MB and very soon to be 100MB connections.

All ISP's will struggle with bandwidth at peak times, no matter how good, or bad, they are, there's a limit to the amount of data any phone line or fibre optic cable can carry.

Imagine sending 100 trucks into a tunnel, one at a time - no problem, simple and quick, 100 at a time - big problems! Get the idea?

As for customer care, I don't have case to phone them very often, but the times that I have, they've been quick to answer, polite and helpful.

I'd recommend Virgin to anybody.

Answer 8

I get Vigin Media broadband via a BT ADSL line. I'm only paying for the basic download speed 2 MB per sec but its fine for what I want.



Customer service is awful! Just spent a fortune on premium rate calls and emails trying to get them to reslove a problem with their Freespace where you can upload your own web pages. Admittedly they do say they don't support Freespace but I just went round in circles. I just gave up in the end and am now paying about £2.50 per month for web hosting with 1 and 1.

Answer 9

If you have sky get sky broadband.

Found virgin media to be C*ap.

BT won them all and who I am with now and will be with (if everything stays the same) for ever.

Answer 10

I'm with BT but service is terrible with speed as low as 200kbps even though I can prove I used to get 3mbps+. 7 months of complaining and wasted time and incomprehensible incompetent back up staff in India.



Either pay less with sky or more with Virgin for speed - I am thinking

Answer 11

I had BT and found the home hub thing difficult to work with. Once online it was fine.



My view is just go for a supplier with no frills this way your PC will not fill up with useless icons and tools that you will never use except to offer endless conflicts and require new downloads every week.



On a separate note. I would recommend Firefox as a browser anyday.

Answer 12

BT over Sky for me. I was on BT before then changed to Sky and it was a nightmare. It took them ages to send the router after they switched the service over so I had no internet for a week or 2. Then when it was connected it kept cutting off and going so slow that pages hardly loaded, so the router had to keep being switched off and back on to make it work again. In the end we had enough and had BT back and have had none of those problems. :-D

Answer 13

we was with virgin media and they treat there customers like cattle.they lie just to get you off the phone and the service is the worst i have come across,the broadband was so slow it use to take about 40 seconds to open a email.with bt now,,costs a mint but no problems at all.

Answer 14

I have sky TV but wouldn't change my orange broadband.... I get broadband and dolphin mobile for £35.00 a month.... meaning the broadband element is free as the dolphin package alone is £35.00The service is good, relatively fast (I'm in a poor area) and technical help as good as, if not better than most

Answer 15

my dad has bt so that's too expensive.

sky is best by far, great customer service, good prices, reliable service & free router (as with most now). i am with virgin media now as i switched from sky as it was cheaper, the net keeps going off 4 a few hrs - a few days in our area (not rural or anything like that) and i'm going back to sky as soon as am able (after contract expires).

just dont go with tiscali!!!! dont go there, not worth it at all!!!

Answer 16

I have mostly been with Virgin apart from one house i was living at that was not cabled. The customer service is crap i must say, but the service is great, especially for speeds.



May i suggest if you do decide to change over to ADSL, stay with BT. It's thier lines, so can resolve issues more quickly.



Carphone warehouses plan was brilliant "As Talk-Talk" with free calls to a mobile they provide to sim card for, but my internet services went downhill after i changed from BT to Talk-Talk.



You need to ask yourself, do you want speed ? Stay with Virgin, Do you hate Virgin ? Go with BT. Want if cheap or free ? Look at Sky, Orange or "uhem....." Talk-Talk

Answer 17

When I was on BT the service was fantastic, fast, but expensive.



My current service on Virgin is erratic, and customer service is crap, such as late and incorrect billing and losses of service.



You get what you pay for. I will go back to BT as soon as I can. I only changed because I moved house.

Answer 18

Remember that both BT and Virgin will spy on your surfing habits - and sell the information to a company called 'Phorm'





Google for Phorm.

Answer 19

I am with Bt and i could not recommend them to anyone. I had a problem with my Hub , it kept cutting out. After months of talking to people i could not understand and who could not understand me i eventually got a visit from an engineer , turned out my Hub was faulty. It was replaced in two days and is now working ok , but i received no apology or any sort of refund even though it was their fault.

I will be changing when my contract runs out and it will be good riddance to Bt , they suck.

I will be checking your answers for other peoples thoughts.

Answer 20

Hi there,i had BT for many years and i found their service to be excellent in every way the only reason i have changed my ISP is of the cost.I am now with Sky and have so far found their service to be good and at half the price of BT.

Answer 21

If you use a VPN with a laptop form work, then avoid Sky -however I've only heard good things generally about them.

Don't go to Orange/Wannadoo though unless you do live really close to the exchange - they moved me over to their own equipment (to speed up the connection) and havenm't had anything but problems since..

Answer 22

i was with telewest long before virgin took over the service and i am still on even though it changed its name if its not broken dont fix it iit the best. the price is the best plus a little insider advice virgin are changing their service they are doing away with 2meg broadband so if you pay for 2 meg you will recieve 4 meg 4 meg will recieve10 meg and the 20 meg stays the same

Answer 23

I am with BT and would not recommend them. Their helpline is based in India and you can spend 20 mins on a 5 min conversation because of the lack of understanding and accent which is very frustrating.

I would suggest you find a company who has a helpline based in this country.

Answer 24

I have had BT for about 1 year now had no trouble and you get free modem and BT Vision box came free and its a good tv service

Answer 25

I have been with many broadband providers. Virgin have always been very fair with me.I was considering leaving them for O2 and told them this.They immediately cut my monthly rate to £7.50 per month and upped me to 8mb. They also sent me a free wireless router for my laptop and set the whole thing up online!! Would any of the others do this? I doubt it.

Answer 26

Personally I look at it from the point of view of what would happen if it did go wrong?



At least with BT you know they have the technology to fix it should it go wrong which I don't think the other two compaines would have that much of a back up plan?

Answer 27

well, it does not matter who u go with only thin g that changes are price and customer service.



i was with BT for 1 month, and not once did it work. now i am with virgin, and it worked immediatly, am still waiting for my money back from BT.



BTW, i ahve had no problems with my virgin supplier in over 4 months

Answer 28

I'm with BT not had no problems got a home hub connected to my ps3 and its works a treat.

Answer 29

Sky

Answer 30

I`m with BT and can`t complain, it costs £23 per month (unlimited d/loads)

Answer 31

if you have sky tv i would go with sky broadband get the £5 package i have had no problems with it

Answer 32

your better getting a reliable ISP such as fast.co.uk or Falconet.co .uk BT and Virgin are both rubbish , read all the reports here and you will see

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php

Answer 33

I am with BT and I don't find problem with their services. Their technical staff are very knowledgeable and helpful.

Answer 34

Its very regional, and depends on your exchange and the lines from it.





Check out www.speedtest.net - it colaltes results from people's own speed tests on lines to show what you will really get.

Answer 35

BT all the time. I was with NTL which then changed to VIRGIN and everything went downhill!

Answer 36

SKY very very cheap and excellent fast service.

Answer 37

Sky. im still using it. and its very good. dont ever go for

Orange please. its a waste of money and the customer service is crap.

Answer 38

bt

Answer 39

may i suggest Wanadoo also known as Freeserve

Answer 40

sky

Answer 41

sky broadband.very good

Answer 42

BT. = No problem.

Answer 43

virgin all the way