davieG Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 Switching from a big broadband provider to a smaller company could see you reap the rewards, according to new research. A broadband satisfaction survey, conducted by consumer group Which?, showed John Lewis Broadband, Plusnet, Utility Warehouse and Zen Internet all top the list. However, the UK's three biggest providers – BT, Sky and TalkTalk – languished at the bottom of the table. Every provider was rated on qualities including reliability, value for money, speed, customer service, clarity of bills and technical support. John Lewis Broadband topped the list with an overall rating of 76% compared to BT – who finished last – with 45%. Only two companies out of the 11 rated, received four stars for speed – Zen Internet and Virgin Media. Every other company was given three stars, with the exception of TalkTalk who languished in last place with two stars. BROADBAND PROVIDERS RATED Which? is campaigning for providers to improve both speeds and service that customers have been promised. The research comes after another study revealed that broadband speeds in the UK's fastest street are 135 times quicker than the slowest area. Sandy Lane in Cannock, Staffordshire topped the list with a superfast 72.86Mbps compared to Williamson Road in Romney Marsh, Kent, which had a dire average speed of 0.54Mps. Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Best-worst-UK-broadband-providers-revealed/story-26181025-detail/story.html#ixzz3UYxX6QBM Follow us: @Leicester_Merc on Twitter | leicestermercury on Facebook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DB11 Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 Isn't Which? targeted at less technically savvy people so I think the people that were surveyed is important because they won't understand things like speed doesn't depend on the provider as an overall but more where you live and which exchange is closest. I'm with BT and it's the fastest speed round here out of all of the providers because I live round the corner from the exchange. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKCJ Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 At Uni I had Virgin Media which was proper shit and now I have BT which is proper good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purpleronnie Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 I've never changed my provider since I went online which must be over 15 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyT Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 We're with the Post Office and it's fine. Never had any problems. Been with them since August last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzell Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 I'm currently on Virgin and they are terrible imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristianity77 Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 We've got Talk Talk and its never worked right since November. Currently trying to get ourselves out of the contract and move to someone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkTranquillity Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 I'm with Sky, and only really got it for gaming. Its very reliable for playing and downloading games (between 16 - 21mps), but I've recently started to stream my gaming sessions on Twitch, but suffer badly with poor quality streams due to really poor upload speeds (around 1 mps). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xen Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 Virgin and BT are the only ones who actually own the network as far as I'm aware, the rest all lease it, so reliability will basically be down to which company owns the network you sit on. Speed again depends on the company, but those 2 as above will be the better for the same reason. More important in this though is of course the area you live in. If you live in the middle of a city then the network might be better, but there's more traffic so your speed may suffer slightly. If you live in the suburbs itll depend on how far from the cab you are. If you live in the country you're gonna struggle. Other factors are obviously dependent on the company, but as DB11 said, I'd question the quality of the survey. Especially as no-one has more than one provider, most will have had a max of 2 in the last 5 years (the networks change so much in that time that looking any further back is pretty pointless), so ranking will be inconsistent. People who shop around for companies like JL Broadband or Zen probably have a very different standard of expectation to someone who goes for one of the companies claiming to be the biggest in the industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blur Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 Is there any way to find out which exchange that are closest to you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m00nie Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 Is there any way to find out which exchange that are closest to you? https://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blur Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 https://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search It only mention available exchanges but it did not say who is nearest? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m00nie Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 It only mention available exchanges but it did not say who is nearest? ?? type your postcode in and it should show you the nearest. if i recall though its done on crows flight wheres as the line wouldnt be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blur Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 ?? type your postcode in and it should show you the nearest. if i recall though its done on crows flight wheres as the line wouldnt be Nope I entered a random postcode so it would be useless to catfish me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m00nie Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 Nope exchange.png I entered a random postcode so it would be useless to catfish me! It's showing the nearest exchange. Leicester central is the nearest to that postcode. Mines le3 and Glenfield is classed as my nearest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
separator Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 Been with BT for 9 years now, never had any problems. Went over to BT Infinity about a year ago, get 75/80 Mb download speeds no problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strokes Posted 16 March 2015 Share Posted 16 March 2015 I've never changed my provider since I went online which must be over 15 years ago. ....--..-...--. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo Posted 17 March 2015 Share Posted 17 March 2015 We've got Talk Talk and its never worked right since November. Currently trying to get ourselves out of the contract and move to someone else. When I still lived at my dad's, he had TalkTalk - absolutely useless. The amount of full days without service was atrocious, can't believe they get away with it Been on Virgin Fibre Optic for the last 5 years and never had a problem, honestly can't remember being without a stable connection. Not a fan of their regular price hikes but you get what you pay for Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozleicester Posted 17 March 2015 Share Posted 17 March 2015 I'm with Sky, and only really got it for gaming. Its very reliable for playing and downloading games (between 16 - 21mps), but I've recently started to stream my gaming sessions on Twitch, but suffer badly with poor quality streams due to really poor upload speeds (around 1 mps). Been with BT for 9 years now, never had any problems. Went over to BT Infinity about a year ago, get 75/80 Mb download speeds no problem Oh my god.... how jealous can i be of those speeds.... currently my provider promises speeds up to 20Mb with an average of 7-8Mb........... i actually get 2Mb download . Fking dark ages! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DB11 Posted 17 March 2015 Share Posted 17 March 2015 It only mention available exchanges but it did not say who is nearest? https://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
separator Posted 17 March 2015 Share Posted 17 March 2015 Oh my god.... how jealous can i be of those speeds.... currently my provider promises speeds up to 20Mb with an average of 7-8Mb........... i actually get 2Mb download . Fking dark ages! Just done a speed test out of interest, 80.43 Mb download, 11.97 Mb upload speeds. Thats on the BT Infinity top package so no download limits either. Before BT upgraded the exchange last year I was only getting about 5 Mb download speed, Since moving onto BT Infinity I've never had to reset the router or suffered any outage, I know BT get a lot of stick but reliability (so far) is 10/10, can't speak for technical support as I've never had to call them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozleicester Posted 17 March 2015 Share Posted 17 March 2015 Just done a speed test out of interest, 80.43 Mb download, 11.97 Mb upload speeds. Thats on the BT Infinity top package so no download limits either. Before BT upgraded the exchange last year I was only getting about 5 Mb download speed, Since moving onto BT Infinity I've never had to reset the router or suffered any outage, I know BT get a lot of stick but reliability (so far) is 10/10, can't speak for technical support as I've never had to call them. just tested mine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
separator Posted 17 March 2015 Share Posted 17 March 2015 just tested mine Here's mine using the same test as you, gives a slightly different result than BT's own speed test Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adster Posted 17 March 2015 Share Posted 17 March 2015 BT at the bottom? I've had BT Infinity for a while and I've never had a problem with the service or the broadband. It's fast and reliable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legend_in_blue Posted 17 March 2015 Share Posted 17 March 2015 Just done a speed test out of interest, 80.43 Mb download, 11.97 Mb upload speeds. Thats on the BT Infinity top package so no download limits either. Before BT upgraded the exchange last year I was only getting about 5 Mb download speed, Since moving onto BT Infinity I've never had to reset the router or suffered any outage, I know BT get a lot of stick but reliability (so far) is 10/10, can't speak for technical support as I've never had to call them. BT at the bottom? I've had BT Infinity for a while and I've never had a problem with the service or the broadband. It's fast and reliable. I'd go with that. It's expensive, granted, but you get what you pay for. We get roughly 45mb downloads now we've upgraded to infinity. I can download 1 gb though on ps4 in under 10 minutes on a good day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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