Broadband in the UK

Recently a few friends have asked my advice on which service provider to go for when getting Broadband internet connection. I have a page on my homepage concerning internet access in the UK, but I did look further into the range of ADSL providers at the moment. One to check out is: UKFSN (http://ukfsn.org/) who … Continue reading “Broadband in the UK”

Recently a few friends have asked my advice on which service provider to go for when getting Broadband internet connection. I have a page on my homepage concerning internet access in the UK, but I did look further into the range of ADSL providers at the moment.

One to check out is: UKFSN (http://ukfsn.org/) who give some of the proceeds to free software development.

See write-ups of various providers at:

http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/

One thing is there is going to be consolidation as so many providers so don’t get too use to a nice set up one provider has in way of control panel etc.

One provider that can’t be bought up by another is the Phone Coop as it is owned by it’s customers.

http://www.thephone.coop/receive.htm?name=Agent_483&name2=index.html

One thing with the Phone Coop is to take in account on price that one can become a member once a customer and get a quite significant dividend. And it is less likely to go bust as not borrowing from Banks in same way. So over long term may end up actually cheap by price.

Like many others one can switch Phone line rental to them (but there is a breakout fee if had line with BT less than six months), the only reason I can see to stay with BT is if one makes few phone calls and used free caller ID from BT. Remember to resetup premium rate call barring etc if you do switch.

The Phone Co-op provides ADSL at the Indymedia / Free Software Lab in Basement below the Forest Cafe:

http://www.infoseed.org/

It used to used Andrews and Arnold before but they were too expensive as unlike Phone Co-op did not treat small orgs same as residential customers.

The FAQ from one company that supplies ADSL has some interesting info:

http://portal.metronet.co.uk/support/broadband/adsl.shtml

The Register an Online newspaper with interest article concerning ASDL providers: http://www.theregister.co.uk/ (but be carefull as they tend to repeat gossip).

In fact they had an article on Metronet been bought up by another company, as is the trend I pointed out that all the companies will not be around and some consolidation will go on:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/28/plusnet_metronet/

LinuxUK:

http://www.uklinuxadsl.net

This one that Jason who does UKFSN used to work for, but left a while ago due to him think they were not handling money to good cause as well as they should, so as I say I would treat them just as any other company on weighting them up.

http://www.jasonclifford.com/uklinux.html (now via web archive)

But they did win an award from some magazines for being a good ISP for what it is worth. But as I said as they are resellers often at mercy of what BT (or Openreach) do as can see in metronet FAQ.

One thing don’t be taken in by free modem offers these are usually low end usb adsl modems, which often don’t work with Linux. I would suggest buying a combined ADSL modem with router if you have more than one computer and with wireless if you have a Laptop.

I am recommending to everyone who uses Internet in uk takes a look at:

http://www.getsafeonline.org/

as there is some good advice there, that echo stuff I say to people.

Power of adverts (in UK)

In Scotland and I guess rest of the UK power companies are heavily advertising at the moment. For the past few weeks here Scottish Power and Scottish Gas (brand name of Centrica) have adverts that use price as a selling issue despite being the more expensive of the companies. I think they might be fair … Continue reading “Power of adverts (in UK)”

In Scotland and I guess rest of the UK power companies are heavily advertising at the moment. For the past few weeks here Scottish Power and Scottish Gas (brand name of Centrica) have adverts that use price as a selling issue despite being the more expensive of the companies. I think they might be fair to try sell on being trusted or customer service but even there they don’t come out on top in surveys. They also sell idea of fixing prices over five years letting viewer assume that further price rise likely but in that time scale it is generally expected by those who understand gas market that prices will drops as new pipeline to european mainland comes on stream and changes in regulation of gas market in europe reduce prices to UK after a few years.

Anyway there are several services to compare utility prices, and watchdog energywatch publishs the various price comparisons.

Also I notice many people understandably use 118118 for directory enquiries due to it’s heavy and in my view annoying adverts, or other widely advertised numbers. 118114 by phone coop is what I recomend it is cheaper than most.

Word of mouth can conteract the distorting of consumer choices by adverts where expensive previous monopoly providers keep market share. The bloggosphere is a wider word of mouth network. I have for a few years put such links up on my homepage as I would some times mention to people in conversation recommendations and then be able to just point them to my home page. I may well just start doing blog entries for updates especially if recomendations likely to go out of date.