leaving virgin - line problems!

[lady of the wood]

Hi,
We've been with virgin broadband and want to change to Tiscali. They say we need to contact BT to get a BT line. But BT says we cannot do this unless we go with them for 12 months! Can someone tell me what IS needed and what is going on??
Thanks! :)

[Kymmy]

Most on here will turn white at a sheet at the mention of Tiscali and run in the opposite direction..

If you really do wish to leave cable then most ADSL providers will need you to sign up to BT first... But some (like Sky) have other options for the BT install...

[smeagoly1]

As kymmy said, most ADSL even Virgins ADSL will need a BT Line. Even if your new isp does a short contracts your stuck on a 12 month minimum one for your BT phone line, 18 months for their Broadband.

As for ADSL providers, I personally wouldn't go through Tiscali, there are quite a few much better ones.

Try www.samknows.com and search yoru exchange and see who you can use.

I know Be, Sky and BT all have checkers on their sites to see if you can get their service from your local exchange.

Do bare in mind, that on top of your ISP charge you will also have to pay the BT line rental, even if you don't use the phone.

Most cases BT will charge you £125 new line install fees, unless the hardware has already been installed in the property. Sky i do know if their deal is still on, offer a kind of refund on the BT install fee.

TBH if my new house was able to be cabled up i would not have left a cable network, for all it's faults for most ADSL packages.

It all depnds also on what your going to need the net for, to who or what you change to.

[junouk]

if you think virgin are bad wait till you go on Tiscali if you moving to them you be on dail up and capped most of time to and you be ringing up paki stan if need help,, they or worst isp on this world look on google see all horror stories

[ultimate]

I use VM for BB and also have BT and Tiscali, I also use Tiscali in my office, the connection/speed is not bad, provided that you are near the exchange. Customer Support is worst than VM, but... I never have the pleasure of contacting them, this is what I heard. They have a in house site where they can and do solve your problems. Capping is 6-11pm, a lot better than VM. I am sure there are horror stories around, but touch wood, so far I have very little complaints. They do suffer from peak hours slow down, but no worse than VM . Again it depends on where you live.

I got my BT line last November, and I immediately signed up with Tiscali, BT didn't force me to go with their BB, but themn that was almost 12 months ago. Not so sure about now.

My advice, if you are getting a decent speed from VM, stay with VM.

[Fatec]

I use VM for BB and also have BT and Tiscali, I also use Tiscali in my office, the connection/speed is not bad, provided that you are near the exchange. Customer Support is worst than VM, but... I never have the pleasure of contacting them, this is what I heard. They have a in house site where they can and do solve your problems. Capping is 6-11pm, a lot better than VM. I am sure there are horror stories around, but touch wood, so far I have very little complaints. They do suffer from peak hours slow down, but no worse than VM . Again it depends on where you live.

I got my BT line last November, and I immediately signed up with Tiscali, BT didn't force me to go with their BB, but themn that was almost 12 months ago. Not so sure about now.

Tiscali's capping hours are 4-11pm everyday, actually.

And god forbid you do get capped into the badboy ip range, as t he speeds are ALOT WORSE than dial up and browsing becomes impossible.


I'd steer well clear of tiscali, check http://www.samknows.com to see how far you are from your exchange and what providers you can get.

[CrowmanUK]

I'm with BE https://www.bethere.co.uk/ and i'm impressed, you do need a bt line and it is 125 quid if you've never had one at the property before, if there has previously been a phone line there then there shouldnt be any problems reconnecting it. If you do need to pay the 125 quid i'm sure sky did a deal where if you signed up with them they'll refund the install charge (125 quid) you'd have to call them to check that though as i'm not 100% on that.
If you have an O2 mobile have a look at here http://broadband.o2.co.uk/home/index.jsp?cm_mmc=GUK-_-UKE-_-BRE-_-o2%20broadband as you get a discount if you're a mobile customer too, BE and O2 are part of the same family and i've heard nothing bad about either, yet ;)

[Florence]

If you are only planning on going to tiscali I would say stay with cable it will be faster than tiscali..
Also Tiscali is a 12 month contract..

[junouk]

i will allways stay with vm thay are best isp around ive moved like 4 times in last 4 years ive never ever had any problems with them only part from billing me wrong thay sorted that i rang them up told them i was leaving cuz makin me for for v+ they gave it me free.
all time aswell ive had really good speeds were ever i move
did you guys do file speeds test shaw ant ya comp or ya network cables etc
could be modem to so many things it could be.

[ultimate]

I have to correct you there Tiscali FUP Fair Use Polidy capping is 6-11pm, this is copied from their website just now:

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/legal/fair-usage-policy/

This fair usage policy automatically identifies the very small number of extremely heavy users and manages their bandwidth only during peak hours (6pm to 11pm Monday to Sunday), to protect the service for all our other customers. Outside peak hours, the use of the internet by these heavy users is unaffected.

[Fatec]

I have to correct you there Tiscali FUP Fair Use Polidy capping is 6-11pm, this is copied from their website just now:

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/legal/fair-usage-policy/

This fair usage policy automatically identifies the very small number of extremely heavy users and manages their bandwidth only during peak hours (6pm to 11pm Monday to Sunday), to protect the service for all our other customers. Outside peak hours, the use of the internet by these heavy users is unaffected.

I know what their sites says, but trust me, if your in that "badboy" range it starts at 4pm on the dot where it will drop to un-useable speeds. ;)

[ultimate]

Ok thats fine, we are talking about 2 different things, I was talking about the times when you shouldn't "overuse" the internet, you are talking about the "punishing" times for offenders.

[CrowmanUK]

I've been with Tiscali/Pipex and Virgin on ADSL, wouldnt touch either with a barge pole, steer well clear.

[Zhadnost]

No one's mentioned that with BT if there is a pre-existing line to the house, you may still need to pay the installation fee depending on what has been done at the exchange since you disconnected (and sometimes they try to get it even if nothing has been done to the line).

I had a cease and reprovision (line cut off then restarted with a new number) go through and they wanted 2x£125 + VAT for it. Took a long time to get them to honour their original offer of a no charge change.