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[hotel21]

Now!!!    I bet that got the attention of some of you...

To explain, I'm at a bit of a juxtaposition in a number of regards....

My O2 mobile is out of contract.....
I'm totally p*ssed off with Sky+ and multiroom, with the Sky+ box falling on its arse as regularly as it does.
Also, the Sky signal fails as soon as it snows or rains heavy.
McAfee full bhuna package is up for renewal.
My BT Internet connection is pants - pay for option 3 (upto 8 meg, I think...) and it gives a barely 1 meg connection for the cash, 'cos the line is so far away from the exchange that it cannot give anything else.
And I still pay BT for the privilage of having a 'phone line each month.

And I get somewhere in the region of 250 plus gash chunks of assorted guff spam on one e-mail addy alone, despite filters sprouting from wherever filters can sprout.  Time for a change, perhaps....

Overall, I recon I pay out somewhere in the region of £150+ calls for all of the above.

I can get the all of the same from the all new singing and dancing Virgin product for at least £30 per month cheaper.  Thats mobile, sky plus equivelant multiroom and replay gubbins, mobile, free phone calls etc, all combined - anyone using or used same that could comment before I do the deed?  I already have cable into the house as it was one of the first Telewest areas that were plumbed in....

As it stands at the moment, I am seriously less than happy with my existing 'net connection, let alone anything else....   Anything else is a bonus and it could easily be a 20 - 30 quid a month winner, as well as a real upto 10 meg connection?.

.... and discuss..  

ta

B

[Phil]

I know someone who has Virgin broadband, in an area where most poeple have real trouble, and he says its great.

Virgin mobile works off T mobile so is only as good as their network, just cheaper  

[Big Rod]

Funny enough Broocie I've been considering the exact same thing.

I have no problems with my BT broadband, but that's £26 on its own. on top of that there's line rental for the phone line and because we're at very low altitude, (about 1m above sea level!!), the digibox is tempremental to say the least.

It looks like a good deal to me. I suppose it depends what you get on the SKy as to whether or not it's a decent package.

[Ken T]

I was with NTL a few years back. They were crap then, box fell over, no internet service, a staple thro the BT line, crap tech support, took 2 months to answer letters etc. However I think they have improved a lot now. I still wouldn't go back to them.

[nixoro]

A mate of mine has been using NTL and now switched to the Virgin thingy, he does well though as he installs the equipment and can get stuff at staff rate, he likes it. He has said in the past to me he wouldn't go back to BT.

Just my tuppence worth

[Timbuk]

I've been with Telewest for 5 years and i've had no problems at all and its a lot cheaper than SKY

[Ken T]

Oh Dear, I'm getting shot down here!   I think the earlier problems with cable was that they didn't have enough capacity to meet demand and hence the problems. It would have been nice if they had told me, I might have respected them for it. As it was they took the money but didn't deliver the service. It sounds like they have a lot more capacity now so hopefully no more problems.  

[Timbuk]

Oh Dear, I'm getting shot down here!   I think the earlier problems with cable was that they didn't have enough capacity to meet demand and hence the problems. It would have been nice if they had told me, I might have respected them for it. As it was they took the money but didn't deliver the service. It sounds like they have a lot more capacity now so hopefully no more problems.  

Correct, in the early days ( when i was in Coventry ) we had Coventry Cable which was awful, always going off, but the cable companies seem a lot better nowadays

[Chopsdad]

I have Virgin Broadband - and have had to take the afternoon off to get it fixed!

Since it changed last week to Virgin Media I can't get on-line after 5pm - no dial tone!

But initially it was far better than AOL and Tiscali and even with the intermittant ISP issue - it's worth a go.

[Markjay]

I can only comment on Virgin Mobile, not Broadband.

We had 9 handsets with Virgin Mobile for 6 years, which were last month replaced with Vodafone.

Virgin Mobile were at the time (2001) by far the cheapest. They are still very good value for private users, but as we are eligible for business account we managed to get a better offer from Vodafone which is why we switched.

Pros for Virgin Mobile:

a. Low cost of calls generally speaking, for several years when O2 or Vodafone representatives came to quote against them they said they can’t better the Virgin deal … also comparatively simplified charging structure.
b. Virgin separate the purchase of the phone from the purchase of the simcard, which allows you to buy simfree phones or pda’s etc and use with Virgin’s simcard. Not everyone sells the simcard on its own, though some do.
c. If you do buy a phone from them, it is locked but they will provide the unlocking code FOC on request (some operators charge for this).
d. You can have pay-as-you go phone with no contact, and still pay monthly by Direct Debit instead of top-up  – and have international roaming etc. Not everyone needs this, but if you do, then be aware that no other operator offers this…
e. Calls to your own voicemail are free.
f. Excellent customer service – very knowledgeable and helpful BRITISH people answer the call, the cost is a flat rate of 10p per call, and almost all the problems I ever had were efficiently sorted on my first call. A+.
g. When a phone is lost, new simcard were dispatched no-questions-asked FOC next day – and any balance transferred from the lost card to the new one. Brilliant. But TBH I don’t know how other operators deal with lost cards.

Cons:

a. They rely on the T-Mobile network (previously 1-2-1), which is generally crap with awful coverage and generally congested.
b. Their rates fro other-network mobile are very bad – around 30p per minute.
c. They offer very little in way of additional services – all business services became available on Virgin long after everyone else had them, and these include call waiting, GPRS, WAP, etc. As far as I am aware they still do not support having two numbers for the same simcard (e.g. private and work) or Blackberry.
d. They are not really geared-up for business users – Vodafone offered us a better deal, but only because we have 9 handsets and a relatively high monthly expenditure.

[hotel21]

Thanks for all the info, folks.  Much appreciated.

I have decided to go with their full package option which gets installed by a tech next Tuesday afternoon, all things being equal.

By the time I added all my costs together, I should be £35 per month better off with a 10 meg broadband connection, the complete equivelant Sky+ and multiroom package (including sports, which I don't have at the moment) and a new mobile with the same number.

As long as it does what it says on the tin, it should be a worthwhile move.  Will keep you updated.

thanks again    

B

[Chopsdad]

FYI Broocie,I've called the helpline (only 25p per minute) and they think my problem may be down to the SKY box being plugged into the master socket, creating interference at the PC outlet.

They can't help further until I lose connection again - so I said I'd call them about 6pm  

Good luck

[Chopsdad]

Well they may just be right

As I sent the last message, it was unable to connect - disconnected SKY - all back on line  :-?

Go figure  :-/

So VIRGIN 1 vs SKY 0  (and an extra point on aggregate for helpful cheap helpline)

[CaptainZok]

Got a great deal on one of their payg mobiles a few weeks ago and with the credit in the box applied they sent me the unlock code to use my contract sim, Cust servs seemed very helpful and gave me the feeling they couldn't do enough to help. Quite a change from some mobile companies I could mention.