Tesco Broadband - Your experience

[richardj]

Hi, I am considering changing to Tesco Broadband and was wondering if anyone was using it and what they think of it. I realise it runs on the BT Broadband infrastructure - just wondering if it works well in rural Caithness as we are based on the Watten Telephone Exchange - 3.2MB connection. I currently use PlusNet and I am looking at changing to save some money.

Richard

[Big Gaz]

All i can say about Tesco is they may be cheap but their "unlimited broadband" is not unlimited as i found out after i moved from Talk Talk......bad to worse!.

T&C clause
8.7 In addition, we may manage traffic on the Services to make sure that you and our other customers get the best service possible. Our traffic management policy can be found at www.tescobroadband.com/terms. Sometimes we may block access to certain websites, for example those on the Internet Watch Foundation list (see www.iwf.org.uk).

Substitute "may manage" for cut your service speed until it's so slow you will want to cut your wrists in frustration!

[richardj]

Big Gaz thanks for the reply, that does not sound promising ... talk talk does not get a great review for services in Caithness area, so if it is worse that is not good. A good service speed and reliability is more important to me than cost.

[Bill Fernie]

I have been with Plusnet for a long time now and have found it an easy and reliable service to use.

I recently contacted them about what I was paying and within two minutes was offered a new package at reduced cost for one year if I signed up for a year. I was also told I could enquire again at the end of the 12 months to see if there was a better deal again as the price I have will rise after the offer period of 12 months. I could not fault them for the service and the advice to check again after my offer period was over.

[Big Gaz]

I agree with Bill, i've been with Plusnet almost 2 years now and can't say i can fault them other than a few hiccups when i first took them on and was getting 1/2 the speed i had from talk talk and it took them a few months to sort it (give them their dues though, they gave me a reduced rate for the remainder of the year to compensate) and again when i moved house and the line was in a poor state. Took them a few attempts and 2 no-shows by a BT engineer but they finally got round to it and fitted a complete new line from the cabinet so i was sorted and have had nigh on 8mb speed since and often watch streamed movies in HD without any buffering or breaks. I have one major gripe though and that's when they stuck the bill up by £1 a month mid contract so they will know my feelings about that when it comes to renewing this summer.
All i can add about the Tesco & Talk Talk broadband service is that even if they paid me to take it, i would still refuse.....it just isn't worth the grief and constant calls to a non-existant customer service

[richardj]

Hi Bill, good that you have had a good experience with PlusNet, I am also with them at the moment and they did send me an e-mail offer to save a little if I stayed with them. The problem is I am also having issues with my broadband connection and after I changed to a new router it did improve a bit (the router provided by PlusNet is just rubbish and has terrible online reviews), however I am still having problems with my connection so I also want to move to another provider to see if this fixes the problem. I realise it all runs on BT, but each provider has its own exchange equipment and I suspect that is the cause of my broadband connectivity problems. Trying to get any broadband provider to fix an intermittent issue is like pulling teeth. So my main reason for changing is due to broadband reliability as well as the cost. It would be great if BT upgraded the exchange to fibre!

Richard

[Big Gaz]

No immediate plans (not least until 2018/9) to upgrade the exchanges to fibre. Not even a date mentioned on this site

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/NSWIC

The Wick exchange upgrade date to 21CN is 28th feb but i'm not holding my breath because for the last 2 years, everytime it got close to the upgrade date then it got knocked back another 3 months.

If and when O2 get their equipment in there, i will be changing asap. 4 years with them previously, £5 a month unlimited internet and £5 a month off line rental as i was a mobile customer (still am) and not once did i have any issues or downtime. I ran a website & gaming server for 4 years and the uptime service logs are perfect. That line was changed from BT and all the time that i was with BT, i couldn't trust the line to stay up. Nothing changed with the line, just the exchange equipment so i know it was BT's fault then.