BT Broadband is rubbish

[Paddy]

Set yourself up with a descent 3g system with pro antennae and amplifier. Alternatively go for a satellite up and down link for about £30 pm plus £120 for the kit.

[OwlHoot]

I've heard Zen are good so that's my choice as soon as this matter is sorted.

I'm with Zen Internet, and have never had any problems.

They're a bit pricey, at least for my unlimited download business tariff (c £90 per month), but worth it to avoid hassle.

[Paddy]

I'm with Zen Internet, and have never had any problems.

They're a bit pricey, at least for my unlimited download business tariff (c £90 per month), but worth it to avoid hassle.

But they still rely on BT.

[ChimpMaster]

If you rely on broadband for work, then always have a backup like wot I have.

Like what? I can't access client systems over dial-up...

[AtW]

Like what?

WiFi spots, 3G dongle or sat uplink - there are cheap offers these days.

[ChimpMaster]

BT haven't been iin touch since the 7th when the fault was supposed to be fixed. Repeated requests for an update get ignored by both India and UK.

No idea who to complain to and I doubt it'll make any difference.

I phoned every day and will continue to do so as far as possible. I doubt the engineer will do anything but you have to keep pushing, especially when it comes to the Bobs.

Lodge a complaint online and email Ofcom. The more of us that do it, the better. Yes I too doubt it'll come to much but it's all we can do.

If I wasn't in contract with BT I would have asked them for a MAC and moved on already. It's bugging me most that BT are supposed to be the one-stop-shop for broadband but they are utterly useless. Unfortunately in my area I have no cable either.

Have you got a direct line number for UK support at BT? I hate being put through repeatedly to the useless offshore centre.

[Paddy]

Like what? I can't access client systems over dial-up...

WiFi spots, 3G dongle or sat uplink - there are cheap offers these days.

I have a backup home 3g plus a mobile 3g

Sat links are available and used in some Welsh villages.

http://www.toowaybroadband.co.uk/order_now.php

[scooterscot]

Used BT broadband whilst living in Edinburgh without a problem. The only grumble I would make is that I was paying for a 8Mbit line and I'd be lucky if data would though at a 5th of that. Rip-off.

Using kabel deutschland now, no complaints. €20 a month get my 32Mbits download, 100% of that, unlimited usage, don't remember the last outage. The funny side of which is most staff on the phone speak very good English.

Look on the bright side the UK still have AAA rating.

[~Craig~]

I'm with Andrews & Arnold on the BE network. Really good service, call centre based in Reading I think.

[VectraMan]

I'm with Zen Internet, and have never had any problems.

They're a bit pricey, at least for my unlimited download business tariff (c £90 per month), but worth it to avoid hassle.

I was with Zen until a few months ago, but I'd started to wonder why I was paying £25 per month when the likes of PlusNet offered the same service for £6. So now I'm with Plusnet, and only paid £6 pm a couple of times before I had to upgrade and now it's £12pm, and I have half the upload speed, and much more flakiness than I ever had with Zen.

So maybe it was worth it after all.

If you have an Android phone on 3G you can turn it into a WiFi hot spot. Makes for a pretty good backup. At the end of the day, none of these broadband services come with a service agreement, so the only way to be reasonably sure of reliability is to have your own redundancy system.