Telephone/broadband and maybe TV packages - advice please

[tllm2]

Hi

Am looking into signing up for new telephone and broadband package (as minimum), and maybe TV too .................. but am being 'completely blind by science' by the comparison websites.

All I think I want is a decent broadband service(don't do anything particularly spectatular online), line rental included or at least with the same provider, perhaps with some free calls thrown in, half decent customer service and the option to include some TV perhaps. All as cheaply as possible, obviously.

Any suggestions/recommendations

[suniil]

O2-BE are best IMHO, most of the time they have ?100 cashback (via cashback websites) + 3 months service free of cost which is hard to beat. They can take over the line rental also from BT (saves few ?), but I suggest to stay with BT for your line rental.

SKY don't do SKy or SKY+ boxes anymore, the basic box itself is SKY HD and many offers are floating around

[tllm2]

My current deal (telephone, broadband and line rental) are with talktalk (originally tiscali), is it not easier to have everything with 1 provider? Is there any advantage to seperating them out?

[Loz]

As much as I hate to admit it, Sky isn't bad.

- The TV is good, though it's ?48.50 a month for the whole shebang. You can get that down to about ?18.

- SkyTalk is OK. Free calls to landlines on evenings and weekends. I don't get line rental through them, but you can.

- Broadband is actually rather good. They've just rejigged the packages so you can get a starter package for free (!) or an all-you-can-eat package for ?7.50 a month.

I did look to separate my broadband out, but couldn't really beat Sky in the end. And I've only ever had one outage in three years.

[cate]

Talktalk has terrible customer service. I wouldn't use them again. BT has good deals on right now and are cheaper than Plusnet who I am with for both phone and broadband. Don't know anything about TV packages as I only have freeview.

[tllm2]

I've been unimpressed by talktalk's customer service, which is why I thought I'd try and start from scratch for the whole lot.

Loz - do you have an idea of what a SKy package all in might cost?

[Loz]

tlim2,

I pay ?48.50 (tv) plus ?7.50 (broadband) and then non-included calls on top. SkyTalk basic is free.

But it depends what you take from their package - you could get tv + broadband + SkyTalk for ?18 a month. Or you could get SkyTalk international and HD TV and line rental on top of what I've got and that will set you back the best part of ?75 a month.

Have a look at their website: www.sky.com.

[The Minkey]

I switched to Sky from BT Weds just gone. Unlimited Broadband & Talk Anytime, no TV, comes to ?26 a month and includes line rental. Calls to 01/02 & 03 numbers are free whenever you call. Calls to mobiles are 25% cheaper than BT. And you are only tied in for 12 months if you don't like what you're getting.

I was tempted by Talk Talk but I heard too many bad stories about their customer service. They did have a handy comparison chart though, which lets you see their deals compared with similar competitor packages. The Sky package I've got came out better than what they were offering when costs over a year were taken into account - seemed a strange thing for Talk Talk to be publishing. For some reason, the Sky Talk & Broadband (no TV) package isn't on their website. I had to call Sales to verify it existed.

I signed up over the phone. The switchover happened when they said it would and they took care of cancelling my account with BT. So far so good.

[Ramble66]

We liked Virgin Media. Have to check you're local broadband speed though. It's bad in some areas.