Be Gone

[ffutures]

Be, the ISP I use, is apparently being taken over by Sky.

Since on principle I don't do business with anything owned by Rupert Murdoch if I can possibly help it I think I need to find another ISP. BT is the obvious one for this area, any other suggestions for central London?

Comments

[timill]

ICUK?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

??

[nojay.livejournal.com]

I've been asked this question by someone else who has similar qualms about staying with Be. I'm still with Demon for various reasons. They've moved from providing basic home Internet into the SOHO niche with three standard packages, a bandwidth-limited starter at 60GB/month download for £13 per month, an £17 per month unlimited download package and a handholding higher-end bundle. You get a static (V4) IP address, a dozen POP3 mailboxes, dial-up capability/fallback for emergencies and very limited Webspace (I think). Prices don't include VAT.

http://www.demon.net/

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Interesting - I used to be with Demon years ago but this looks much better than their old service. Thanks!

[nojay.livejournal.com]

I did a bit more digging and it turns out Demon's headline prices are for a 24-month contract. A shorter contract is a lot more expensive -- the £17/mo. deal is £23/mo. for 12 months, for example. They give a 5% discount if you pay annually up front rather than monthly.

[timill]

http://www.icukhosting.co.uk/

Owned by Leslie Costar, who also owns Cix these days.

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

I'm with BE and find them reliable if slow. I fear a flood of Sky marketing and disruption as they merge networks. But changing is such a palaver, especially as I work from home, so I'll wait and see

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I'm not mad keen either, but I only use Be as an ISP, not for email, web hosting etc., so it wouldn't be a big deal for me.

[i_kender]

Check uswitch.co.uk for a new provider. But O2's broadband is also being bought up by Sky.

How do you feel about Richard Branson? Definitely the fastest internet in the land...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The main reason I switched from Virgin a couple of years back was that they didn't have it working properly in my part of London. That plus their totally crap user support etc.

[pengshui-master.livejournal.com]

Hm.

Most ISP , uses BT infrastructructure, You can use samknows.com to find out which wholesale providers have equipment in your local telephone exchange. If the address on your website (W2) is correct then that means you are using then Bayswater exchange.

So you have a choice of Sky,Pipex,Tiscali or Talk Talk if you want to stay off BT's infrastructure. I also note you have FTTC (Fibre broadband) available where you are.

I've a lot of good experience by Zen internet, the LL is BT , but their tech support staff are actually technical rather than script following monkeys I find elsewhere.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

OK, the last time I looked they hadn't got the fibre working locally (I presume you mean the high-speed BT service?) but maybe it's working now. I'll check it out.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

We use Zen too because although it's a little more expensive than most competitors, we're running a web development business and we're in the middle of nowhere so we're prepared to pay for reliability. Their tech support staff are excellent.