BT/EE

[herbidacious]

The amount above was for BT's fastest internet.
I have an EE mobile already.

I feel it's not worth changing for the sake of £3.50 a month.

I am wondering what the (noticeable) difference (theoretical) speed of 700-900 is as opposed to 24. (I have similar thoughts about the difference between a £50 bottle of wine and a £200 one. Very theoretical thoughts, obviously...) Of course we would have found out in France if the Orange engineers were not complete b***ards...

[KeenCook]

I just asked OH what the package we have costs, it's around £84 per month.

Our previous BT package had gone up to £100 plus.

It includes OH's mobile, a booster, and also a backup box that will connect us to the mobile network when / if the broadband goes down.

Also, unlimited landlines and mobiles (UK only I think) on a digital connection. With exceptions, I believe for 0845 and 0870 and similar numbers.

I did check the international but don't remember what the charges are.

At the moment I've been using 18185 as a prefix to the international number. It is cheap for the US but Switzerland, where I call my sister, has gone up to, I think, 5p a minute.

All these charges are so appallingly opaque I'm going to have to do some serious research to work out what is what.

I'll update if I find out more!

[Amber]

Can you use WhatsApp calling? Or FaceTime calling for free? No need for video if you don’t want to.

[KeenCook]

Yes, we do that for the most part, it's true, but we haven't quite got used to the idea of no landline!

We may well come round to it in due course, as several of our friends have done.

[scullion]

we did it some years ago - big saving and the only difference is that we no longer get cold calls.
before having a share of our son's internet we had a 4g router with a sim card - far more reliable than the landline we had.

[herbidacious]

I had decided to stick with BT. Since I started looking they increased the price of the one I screen shotted by £20!

They are offering me something without complete wifi for £46ish. With for £52 ish. But also complete wifi separately for £1 a month.
Sigh.

I think I will have to ring...

[herbidacious]

I signed up for super fast full fibre broadband with BT. Installation on the 14th. I think I just get one WiFi extender disc but they say one can have more of ones not enough . Pretty sure it won’t be. Let’s hope installation is not à l’Orange…
I kept the landline but as PAYG. I guess I can use my mobile to ring people who put you on hold for half an hour. (Hospital and doctor mainly.)

[KeenCook]

Interesting they are offering a PAYG on landlines.

What price did you get in the end?

[herbidacious]

£55.14 for 900mb (700 guaranteed) download/110mb upload and 'complete wifi' (a disc to amplify the signal). The landline is costing £3 a month.
They are also charging £11.99 to send out the equipment I guess the installation company is separate. (Openreach - separate but owned by BT.)

[miss mouse]

For those in London, I moved to G-Network recently. They have their own fibre network (not using Openreach infrastructure) and so far so good. They were cheaper than others I looked at. I don't bother with a landline

G network here as well, about 18 months ago, it was a bit wobbly initially but they have put a lot of work into the infrastructure and it wizzes along now.

[herbidacious]

Right so I got my full fibre installed and set up with discs (after a few hiccups- my fault). I initially thought that one disc was faulty so arranged for a replacement which arrived. It then turned out disc no.2 was not faulty after all. They sent me an email saying I have to send back the 'faulty' disc or be fined £30.

So given that I actually need three discs (to get wifi upstairs) and am entitled to them I rang them and explained all of the above.

Now how's this for an example the non-nuanced inflexible society we live in: I can have three discs. I am entitled to three. But instead of keeping the not-faulty one, I have to send it back and order a different third one.

Apart from being stupid, this is wasting resources. From their perspective - someone has to fetch the disc and send it to be posted, or even if this is all automated, someone has to collect it. A postman has to deliver it. Also this must use up some non-human, and non-temporal resources.

I am assuming I can just return the new third disc they are sending me rather than packing up the actual (non) faulty disc and returning that. (New discs need setting up.)

I also learnt that i didn't need these discs at all, as I was told I did. I am paying an extra £10? £!5? (I can no longer see the different package options now I am no longer out of contract.) I could probably attempt to change the contract still at this stage but have already wasted far too many hours.
I hope their help line is free to BT customers as they persuaded me to go onto a PAYG landline contract.

[herbidacious]

So the replacement 'disc' arrived and it's a branded EE much chunkier square white one (looks like a bit of early 2000s tech), instead of a chic BT black round one, so hopes to just to send this back rather than replace the existing one, involving setting it up again, and avoid packing up the old one, are dashed.

Good thing I didn't use the 'old' one's box to chit potatoes in as planned...

[KeenCook]

Arghh, what a palaver, Herbi.
Touch wood, our new EE set up seems to be working ok ... we also have a signal booster to boost the signal upstairs on the top floor, but it doesn't seem able to access the signal up there so we have it installed it on the middle floor.
DS2 arrives on Sunday, so we'll see how efficient it is.
The old BT one was fine on the top floor.

[herbidacious]

You should be able to ask for additional ones, KC... maybe. BT allows up to three.

We previously had some sort of signal booster which went through the wiring (?!? I don't really know...) in addition to three BT white discs. But even with both, it was hit and miss upstairs. The new set up gives us just as good a speed upstairs as downstairs, so we are pleased. (But still annoyed that they lied to us and there is a new offer for £10 less with the 'discs' (/squares!) Can't help it's a bit of a scam/money not quite for old rope for them but certainly very lucrative. And does it really cost them more to give you more data once you have the necessary hardware?

Meanwhile in France... our satellite (current ADSL - as they call broadband there - set up) provider has been taken over (again) and are now offering more data with a rolling contract. We can cancel then pay £30 to start it again. Sounds a lot but still cheaper than paying £35 a month when we are rarely there in more than two months in the year. (If we did this, we'd have to make sure we don't go in a week that bridges the start of the new 'month'.) Question is, how much data do we need to do our jobs, and maybe watch some TV? I can't find out from my account online. BT doesn't think we need to know because we have unlimited data. Will have to investigate. (They must have a record surely.)
Our data on the current tariff has been doubled to 60GB/month but we could get up to 150GB.
Speed can be 24MB but often drops.

My neighbour switched to Virgin a couple of years ago (before you could get full fibre with BT, on our street) and he says it's ok, but a poor signal in the back room (he blamed the fish tank, but theirs is the mirror of our house so I suspect just the thick walls) and for some reason they can't get Netflix to work.

[Earthmaiden]

I'm with Virgin. Generally very good but it won't go through what was once an external stone wall to the kitchen. I haven't tried a booster.

[herbidacious]

Might be worth a go EM. They work in different ways. The new ones I have work in a mesh. I wIt seems better than the old system.

This is useful if you are interested:

https://uk.pcmag.com/how-to/117310/wi-f ... difference

or indeed

https://www.virginmedia.com/broadband/wifi-boosters

I think the old BT discs were repeaters. They had their own password.

You'd need to make sure that what you wanted worked with your router.

[Earthmaiden]

Thank you Herbi. I just haven't got round to it, I only really need it for recipes in the kitchen and manage!

[Suffs]

We have Virgin … it used to be iffy in the back of the house but since they upgraded the box it’s fine and even works out in the garden.

[herbidacious]

Sooo... BT have just sent me an email asking my to review my contact. I thought I set up a new one when I upgraded. They have also been charging me for 700 free telephone minutes and PAYG since I got the new fibre (and thought I had set up a new contract.)

This is the company that once amassed £700 over pay in direct debit which it took us 6 months to get back.

They have also failed to send me the returns envelope to return the (non(faulty) disc which i will be charged £30 if not returned soon.

I am going to have to ring them tomorrow, which I would rather not waste my time doing. I have had to google the number as can't find it on their web site. (They send me a in a loop when I click on the contact link.)

[KeenCook]

Arghhh, they really are beyond the pail, herbi