[RsC]

My ISP (beeb.net aka B.B.C.) Has informed me that they will be withdrawing all Broadband services from 30 June '08.

I'd like to ask U.K. users for their recommendations on where I should obtain my next service from, and how reliable their recommendation has been for them (if used).

Also should I switch from ADSL to a wireless service, bearing in mind I operate from a building separate to the main house, therefore would the 2 outside walls between the house and my 'office' block a signal.

Also advice on difficulty of switching and time taken from closure to startup of the new service.

[Dave Hybrid]

I normally recommended BT to my customers as if and when they get problems the don't get passed to another company as 99% have their phone line with them also.

EG: If you are with Orange, you call with a problem and they say "It's not us call BT or vise versa".

All of the big names are a much of a much anyway, but down here I'd steer clear of Talk Talk and Sky.

This is all based on seeing and dealing with a lot of broadband issues via my company.

[spot]

The key unanswered question is whether Virgin/Telewest/NTL cabled your location because if they did then that's your best option. If they didn't then how far are you from the nearest exchange - that determines whether BE ADSL2+ is practical or not.

[Dave Hybrid]

Yeah that too, I'd pick cable over ADSL any day.

It's much faster, reliable and future proof, speed wise.

ADSL can only go as fast as dated telephone lines allow (at best 6MB IMO no matter where the exchange).

[spot]

Be fair Dave, the exchange might be downhill from him. Electrons have mass, you know.

[RsC]

I checked through B.T. - The speed available through my line is 7Mbs. I'm around 1 mile or so from the nearest exchange.
I'm currently getting 2Mbs through the B.B.C. connection with a little Speedtouch 330 box.
I'm not keen to go on to cable connection - my son is with Sky and has had quite a few problems with the wireless router (wall penetration) and the free McAffee protection.
I'm unsure if the signal provision obtained will be good enough as I have my garage turned into an office and the signal may not penetrate 3 walls to offer a good service.

[spot]

I'd forgotten Sky would be an option. Well, it's a genuine unthrottled unlimited 16Mbit/sec download rate, I've never seen it used much less used it, it's a comparable price, it has nothing at all to do with wireless wall penetration (that's after the signal gets to you and you can do what you want with it including making it go through walls with a wireless router). Nobody's is going to compel you to install McAfee whether it's free or not. Don't they use a dish? Surely Sky installs a dish, the signal comes from their satellite network. It's a line of sight dish that doesn't involve their signal getting through stonework.

[philthomas]

Sky is not a Cable connection ... as Spot said Virgin (formerly Telewest & NTL) is the only Cable provider, in the UK that I am aware of.
Cable speeds are upto 20mb (increasing to 50mb) this year. I have a 20mb connection and manage 2550kbps downloads on a good day. Nothing ADSLwise can come close, so if it's available where you are, it has to be your best option.
As mentioned already, what you do with the signal, once obtained in your property, will be a consideration whatever ISP you choose.

[spot]

Sky's a satellite downlink with (if I grasped the essence of what they do) some form of outgoing-only phone-line ADSL, and their current downlink rate's set at 16Mbit/sec. It's possible that I've got it totally wrong of course, I've never seen it done. Who here's seen Sky broadband, we need a description please.

[philthomas]

Sky is the same as any other ADSL ISP, in that you need a phone line.

[spot]

The misunderstanding is entirely mine, I'd gone to http://www.cable.co.uk/providers/sat...providers.html and misinterpreted the hype. So Sky's broadband is purely ADSL2+ despite their huge access to Inmarsat or whatever satellite chain they use these days? How odd.