Which Broadband ISP? (Top 5 UK ISPs)
Writing by stickman on Thursday, 28 of June , 2007 at 2:01 pm
I always find it a bit tricky to recommend an ISP, as even the best can have a bad day and a bad day for an ISP can result in a terrible user experience. A lot of this is the due to how tight the margins are for an ISP, with them making maybe £20-40 profit per user per year. With a single support call costing them an average of £15 you can see how any profit can be quickly lost.
Personally I use Playlouder MSP, as I designed their network, unfortunatly they are still in beta testing and not taking on new users. However as soon as they do I will be sure to post (maybe q4 2007?)I am always asking my friends which ISP they use and what they think of them and from this feedback here are my top 5 Broadband ISP’s (the ones I would recommend to friends & family):
1. BT Broadband
Good old BT (or possibly bad old BT!), at the end of the day the BT are still the main UK telephone company and while they may not always be the cheapest if you just want it to work they are your best bet. This is especially true if you live in the more remote areas of the UK because at the end of the day its going to be a BT engineer who comes and fixes your line. Their technical support is good (at least compared to everyone else!) and their service is pretty reliable. Also to be fair the BT Hub is an excellent device (several of friends have one and its good looking and reliable!) and they are launching their BT Vision (TV over the Internet or IPTV) which will allow you to download and watch what you want, when you want it.
[Link to BT Total Broadband]
2. SKY TV
Sky bought Easynet, one of the first and better ISPs in the UK (I worked for them back in ‘93 and they where a great company). After some extremely bad launch issues (not enough support staff, not enough customer ADSL routers etc.) they really seem to have got their act together and now if you order the service from them its delivered in that smooth, slick manner that Sky excels at. Unfortunately (for some) you have to be a Sky TV subscriber to be able to get broadband but if you do its very good value (an extra £10/month gets you 16MB ADSL). Overall if you have SKY TV (or looking to justify it) you should use them for Broadband as well.
[Link to Sky TV]
3. Eclipse
I have only heard good things about Eclipse, including the fact they are now Carbon Neutral
[Link to Eclipse Internet]
4. TALKTALK
My sister continues to use TALKTALK, even though she seems to spend more time talking to their customer service department than actually using their service! I ask her why she continues using them and its very simple - they are the CHEAPEST! This is especially true with all the refunds she gets when they (repeatedly) mess up her bill. Still they do seem to be getting better, having hired more staff and the actual phone & broadband seems to be reliable. On a positive note I feel TALKTALK have made a real contribution to the UK broadband market by creating a new price point and going head to head with BT.
[Link to Talk Talk]
5. Virgin Media
Have I got some funny stories about the jokers at Virgin Media (formerly NTL/Telewest) and how they messed up installs etc! Still, once its up and running (fingers crossed) it tends to be pretty reliable and the new owners (Virgin) have promised to fix their legendary bad customer service. If you are a subscriber to NTL/Telewest or thinking about it they really are not that bad and their packages with Cable TV, Phone and Broadband are well priced.
[Link to Virgin Media]
After having written the above, its made me pretty depressed, that after 10+ years Broadband is still pretty useless in the UK. I have a South Korean friend and they get reliable 10 or even 100 Mbps service (5-50 times quicker) very cheaply. Why is this?
Well I think BT are partial to blame, with them owning the final mile (the copper wire between your house and the phone exchange) they automatically have a huge pricing advantage over their competitors. Recently they have improved matters by creating BT OpenReach, a separate company that manages this last mile but it is still owned by BT.
In my view, BT OpenReach needs to be bought by the government and turned into a non-profit entity that sells access to any ISP at a fixed rate. This would allow equal access for any ISP and at the same time, this non profits primary mandate would be to plough all profits back into upgrading the last mile to fibre and extending the network.
I can almost hear all the capitalist outside screaming at this “privatisation” but the reality is that capitalism is about competition in equal markets and for broadband that does not exist because the last mile is owned by one company (and a tiny fraction by Virgin Media with their cable television network).
To me an equivalent to broadband is the Railway Network, where it is just not econimically feasible to have two train-lines running between say London and Edinburgh owned by two different companies, but that is what is required to allow competition and therefor capitalism to work. Otherwise capitalism turns into a monopoly.
Finally on this note, I see no reason why a non-profit company, if probably structured can not offer a service equial to or better than a for-profit?
Category: Broadband, ISP, review
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