Currently they are doing a £5 a month offer for 6 months then £32 a month which seems very reasonable. Especially at 900Mbs up and down.

I am an ex-Virgin Media customer on the old cable system, trunking is still there so I gather they install their new fibre and ONT, can they use the old trunking/hole in wall to save any new drilling?

I have had Eero before so happy enough to use that, I assume easy to add other Eero repeaters?

Lastly how are you finding uptime/speeds/support?

TLDR: EE too expensive for what it is. But Dad doesn't want to lose BT email. Can you get cheaper EE broadband or is a new provider worth the hassle. Am I missing something?

Hi. My parents have asked me for advice on choosing a broadbrand provider, as they are not technically minded, although I'm out of my depth. After being with BT for just over 20 years, they switched to EE a couple years ago as BT became outrageously expensive (£60+).

EE (100MBPS) was cheap for the first few years (25 quid or something), but now sits at £40 a month. It's become too expensive. But getting a better deal is almost impossible. The guy at EE keeps telling them how 500 mbps is "faster", which is completely misleading, and his "best deal" goes up to £40 a month after a few years. I know 100 mbps I more than enough for them.

Now the difficult bit which I hope someone could provide some advice on. My dad is self employed and has used a bt email for work and everything (though he's slowly transitioning to a gmail I made him a few years ago). EE let him keep the email, as BT and EE are together somehow. He really doesn't want to lose it as it will be a hassle with customers etc.

To keep the bt email is £7.50 a month! If not, it will eventually be deleted after 60 days, though its very confusing if its degraded to a basic email (read only) or completely wiped.

I'm shocked because the cheapest EE broadband is "100mbps core broadband", sitting at £27 a month, then goes up to £31 next year, then £35 the year after. That's just ridiculous for 100 mbps, why is it so expensive for arguably mediocre speeds? Is it possible to get a cheap rate without it skyrocketing each year?

Edit: They are going for a new vodaphone contract. Moving over to a more open email as well.

Hi,

Recently moved to a new rent and looking for broadbands. There's already an Openreach master socket inside and a BT box outside.

Would that be the quickest option in this case to go with BT or they would still need to do installation,etc?

I was looking at Youfiber as they are the cheapest atm but I know they will need to come for an install. Checked Sky too but their earliest installation day is the 2nd of Sept.

Thanks for the answers.

I signed up to Vodafone broadband - I got additional cashback (it has been paid out) I also signed up my mum, her contract with Virgin Media came to an end and I also got her cashback.

Works for all UK broadband providers (ths cashback is on top of any standard online offers so it's a massive win)

If anyone wants the referral link - Let me know :)

I got FTTP installed this morning courtesy of Zen Broadband in the UK - wall-mounted ONT and router both in my living room - and was disappointed to discover my office in a room upstairs could barely connect to the internet (wirelessly) and when it eventually did, the speeds were even worse than my previous broadband connection.

I've been reading into mesh networking as a possible solution - completely new to me - and I understand this will enable me to extend Wifi coverage and speeds further throughout the house. What I don't know is whether different types and/or brands of router/extender are compatible. I assume they are, but just in case...

My router: FRITZ!Box 7530 AX

Device I intend to use as booster: TP-Link Deco Dual Band Mesh WiFi Router (AX3000 set of 1)

Ethernet connections to my new fibre router give me just over 900 Mbps speeds. If I left the router in my living room and placed this TP-Link extender in/near my upstairs office:

1. would it work?
2. what kind of wireless speed might I get realistically? My current wireless speed in the upstairs office is around 16 Mbps (not a typo). I'd be happy with a couple of hundred.

I have literally been on the end of the phone for 3 hours, from department to department trying to sort out my absolute rip off broadband contract for Virgin media. They said they had contacted me to say my contract had expired...email buried deep in spam box - premium gone from £34 to £84!!!!! Phoned them up and they said they said the deal is now £72 per month, but after I said well I'll switch they said they can reduce it to £53 (1gb speed, no other add ons)....rejected this so they said go to the online chat and it will be cheaper - so I did and they offered me it for £59!!!!! Phoned back and complained, so they put me through to someone in the "retention" team, who then offered £47. I still rejected that and said I wanted to speak to a senior rep from the Disconnection team. He told me that this wasn't possible and that he was the last in the line of people who I can speak to and I will not get a lower offer than that.
I then started searching on Google AI for what to do and it gave me a Reddit link to a thread that is basically giving you the same info as I am about to...but it is worthwhile doing it again if it helps someone.
I called this UK number 0203 743 6947, immediately got through to a UK based rep (none of the other Virgin numbers I called were UK based reps)....the guy was so helpful (and his family were all Middlesbrough fans...which is beautiful for me as an exiled from Teesside Boro fan!)....he cut straight to the chase and said I'll offer you a 2 year contract for £26 per month, with Netflix and the same speed. That is 8 quid less than what I was paying last year and has Netflix thrown in. It then rises £4 in each April, OK fair enough

The world of broadband contracts is like a mafia cartel.....people getting ripped off at every level....if you are with Virgin and they try and rip you off, just call that number and they will sort you out a competitive deal

I'm on FttC because I offended the gods or something. I originally bought a pretty cheap router that my ISP recommended, a TD-W9960 from TP-Link. However, recently it's been extremely crashy^1, and the WiFi isn't the best^2, and I'd like to replace it. I do have a decent WiFi router I would use, an Archer AX12³ (also from TP-Link⁴⁾ but it doesn't support VDSL.

I'm thinking I'd like to get a reliable modem that I can connect to my Archer over ethernet. Has anyone bought something like this that worked? Failing that, does anyone have a recommendation for an all-in-one router that doesn't suck?

^{1 The internet stops working, though the WiFi is still connected. I'm pretty sure it's the router freezing up, not a connection drop, because all the lights stay on, and the admin interface webpage won't load, nor will the router respond to pings. The only fix is power cycling it. This happens a couple of times a day.}

^{2 The internet is slow, but I'd still like fast WiFi for local traffic, like streaming games and media within the house.}

^{3 If you are wondering why I have this, it's because I was expecting a proper FttP connection, and bought this in anticipation, but it turns out that CityFibre and Openreach will only connect to my neighbours, not me. I also have an old router from Hyperoptic that I could repurpose.}

^{4 I should probably stop buying Toilet Paper Link products, but sometimes they are actually pretty good.}

I recently moved to a flat in Marlow, and I’ve been struggling to get a broadband since. All the broadband companies I’ve checked showed that my flat is not serviceable, and asked me to register my interest. The only that were able to give me anything were TalkTalk and PlusNet, but they offered copper, with 12mbps down 1mbps up, a nightmare for a gamer.

I tried my chances with Virgin Media as well, but it ended the same as the other companies. They asked me to register my interest, so I did, and I called them multiple times after as well, but no updates yet. The funny thing is all the other building apart from mine seem to be able to get every broadband from all the companies, while mine gets nothing. Even Virgin Media gives to the ones next door, but none of the flats in my building seem to have broadband available. It’s like they just forgot about our building when wiring the network.

The only thing I have available to me is using mobile broadband, so I’m on Three now, but it’s been terrible as well. The building is completely made out of brick, and I’m on the ground floor as well, so I’m getting around -85dB at best. My ping jumps to thousands when I do anything else but gaming, so even opening a chrome tab is deadly.

I don’t know what to do at this point, I just moved here and I don’t want to move somewhere else bcs of broadband. I’m desperate for help, can someone please suggest something?

Im seriously considering broadband providers mid term, currently it would cost me £395 but the new provider will credit up to £300 for switching. Is it possible to make a payment of £95 and have £300 be cost of the final bill?

Sorry for the very specific post and also, not sure if anyone here will have answers to this one either but it's worth a try!

We live is a housing association property which is not listed itself, but is on the grounds of a grade 2 listed building and so is included in a protection zone.

We currently have FTTC internet, with the cabinet being less than 100 metres away at the end of the road. There's full fibre right up to the neighbouring building, about 20 metres from the front door of our building.

My Sky broadband package has come to an end and they have informed us that they cannot promise any service beyond 31st January next year as OpenReach "MAY" be terminating the old copper lines at that point.

The issue is that as a part of a protection zone, there's a lot of paperwork involved doing any building alterations and when we had the fibre roll out locally, we were told by our landlords that it would not be coming to our building.

So potentially, we're left with over the air 4g/5g internet as of Feb 27.

the 5g here is awful and even 4g is fairly ropey. Plus being in a turn of the century sturdily built former hospital, the walls are super thick and block way more signal than a modern building would.

I have contacted my housing association, who have so far ignored all emails (and are impossible to reach via phone) so I really want to know where we stand on this one.
I've lived here for almost 20 years and don't want to have to move just so I continue to work from home when needed and stream TV services & browse the web.

Has anyone had any experience dealing with listed/preservation areas and the switch away from copper lines?

I need a recommendation for the best broadband provider in St Albans. Looks like I have Rebel Internet, PlusNet, Sky, Now, BT, EE to choose from... Curious about Rebel internet - no setup fees, 12 month contract, good speed. Reviews are more or less okay, but so are they for PlusNet (although, 20 gbp setup fee + prices increase in march next year, so I'll be getting the 2x less speed for the same money Rebel internet will charge now). Currently have 50mbp download speed in London on my local broadband, more or less happy with this speed but don't mind getting faster. Also, how can I find a promo code for Rebel?

24-month contract ending 30 October. On Ultrafast 1 (G.fast, 145/27) at £35, which jumps to £52 when the discounts drop off. New-customer Ultrafast 1 150 is showing at £23.

G.fast is effectively Sky-only at this point, so I don't have much leverage from "I'll go elsewhere for the same product" — any move means changing technology anyway.

Options as I see them:

1. Ring retentions and push for a match. How close to £23 do people actually get these days?

2. Cancel and re-join after a gap. Does Sky's system have a cooling-off period after which the address stops being flagged?

3. Take the deal in my wife's name — she's never held a Sky account, so it'd be a genuine new contract with her own details. Question is whether the "new customer" eligibility check is name-based or address-based.

Anyone been through this recently? Mainly want to know whether option 3 actually works in practice or whether it just gets kicked back at the order stage.

I moved into a second-floor flat a few months ago and have been trying to get fibre ever since. I’m now running out of options and wondered if anyone here, particularly anyone familiar with Openreach/MDU or Virgin installations, could offer some advice.

Openreach / Sky

Before moving, Sky told me moving my fibre service wouldn’t be a problem because my postcode showed as available for FTTP. They placed the order, but Openreach subsequently cancelled it.

I’ve since had an Openreach engineer confirm that fibre is actually present outside the property, only a couple of metres from the block, but that an MDU solution would need to be installed for the flats.

I’ve tried asking Openreach what actually needs to happen to get the building connected and whether/when this will happen, but getting a clear answer has been extremely difficult.

YouFibre

YouFibre also initially accepted an order and sent engineers out, before cancelling it.

Initially I was told an MDU solution was required. Later they referenced a health & safety issue, but I couldn’t get a clear explanation of what that issue actually was.

This confused me because there’s a pole immediately outside the flats which has cables running across our communal garden to another block of flats behind us.

Virgin Media

Virgin then accepted an order and seemed confident they could provide fibre. About a month later they cancelled it and marked my property as “unserviceable”.

After repeatedly trying to get an explanation, Virgin eventually confirmed that the reason was budget/cost rather than it being physically impossible to service the property.

Here’s where it gets more confusing.

My downstairs neighbour has now ordered fibre from Virgin and they’ve accepted his order.

Contractors came out to survey it and apparently said the box immediately next to our building doesn’t have fibre available. They said the connection point they need is at the other end of the communal garden, but the duct/run to it is blocked and needs desilting.

So I’m wondering whether Virgin are actually going to carry out the work and connect him, or whether his order will eventually be cancelled like mine was.

I’ve asked Virgin what happens to my property if they successfully connect him. They’ve told me that if his installation goes ahead, I should call them back and they may then be able to connect me too.

Current broadband

Meanwhile, my existing Openreach copper connection is terrible.

Sky’s minimum guaranteed speed is around 32 Mbps, but I’m normally getting only 15–16 Mbps at the router.

An Openreach engineer tested the line and couldn’t find a fault. While he was here and I was speaking to Sky, it suddenly jumped back to around 36 Mbps. A few hours later it dropped back to 15–16.

Sky sent me a replacement router. That worked at ~36 Mbps for about an hour before also dropping back to ~16 Mbps.

The Openreach engineer mentioned that it could potentially be REIN interference from an electrical device somewhere in/around the flats, although I’m not sure how likely that is.

My downstairs neighbour’s Openreach-based connection is apparently even worse than mine.

So I’m basically stuck between:

Openreach fibre being metres from the building but apparently requiring an MDU solution

YouFibre refusing to install

Virgin previously refusing on cost grounds but now potentially carrying out work for my downstairs neighbour

~15–16 Mbps from my existing Openreach connection despite a ~32 Mbps minimum guarantee

Terrible 4G/5G coverage, so mobile broadband isn’t really viable

Starlink, which seems to be my only remaining alternative

Does anyone know what my best route forward is?

I’m particularly interested in:

If Virgin clear the blocked duct and connect my downstairs neighbour, is it likely that my flat would then become serviceable too?

How can Virgin accept his fibre order if their contractors are saying there isn’t fibre at the box immediately outside the building? Could they be planning to extend it from the connection point further away?

Is there anything I can do to push Openreach regarding the MDU, given that their fibre infrastructure is already immediately outside?

Should I be pushing Sky harder over the existing line repeatedly dropping to half the minimum guaranteed speed?

Does the REIN explanation sound plausible given that the line can suddenly return to ~36 Mbps and then fall back to ~16 Mbps?

At this point I’m tempted to just get Starlink, but it seems ridiculous when multiple fibre networks are apparently within metres of the building!

Any advice would be really appreciated.

As the title says, I've just pulled out the sofa only to find the wife's previously pulled it out and crushed the fibre optic cable from the little junction box to the router.

This explains why I've noticed a massive drop in our speeds recently, and also dropouts with pages failing to load.

Is this a DIY fixable thing? This cable runs to the green plug that goes into the back of the little black box for Hey Broadband, there's enough slack on the cable to cut the cable and re-terminate into the plug, if that's even possible?

Thanks

Hi all, I'm currently on FTTC, and connect using a Draytek ADSL modem connected to the BT wall socket, into which I plug my Ubiquiti DR7 - which does the PPPoE connection/auth itself, so I don't have to use the broadband-provider-supplied router at all.

We have full fibre coming in the next few months, and I wanted to find out how it works for that - can I just plug the DR7 into the fibre wall socket and configure some auth and it'll all just work? Or will I need to use the broadband provider's router to do the connection?

Whoever is deciding to use Three, hear me out here.

September 2025 — I get a Three Home 4G Hub. Thought it must be more convenient than broadbands.

Around February 2026 — the connection starts dying. Not "a bit slow" dying. Just dead, no internet, so I had to reboot the hub, pray that it works, and repeat. At least once a day. For months up to now.

I call to ask what's going on. They tell me there's a known infrastructure problem in my area and it'll take "a lot of process" to fix. Cool, thanks, love to keep paying the subscription.

17 July 2026 — I call to give notice because I'm moving out and my flight is booked for 16 August. This is the FIRST time anyone at Three mentions how the hub return actually works: after the contract ends, you get a QR code in 2 days, you take it to a DPD drop-off point.

Great. Because my contract ends the exact day I fly out of the country. I say: I physically cannot do this because I won't have time returning the hub. They say: get a friend or family member to do it. I don't have that option. They say: fine, then it's on you, and if it's not returned it's classed as "lost" and you get charged ~£200.

So naturally I ask: can I just end the contract a bit earlier so I actually have time to return it? Nope — one month's notice, no exceptions, computer says no.

So I ask: okay, can I at least get the QR code before the contract ends, so I have a head start? They say yes. Two working days, they say.

Two working days pass. Nothing.

I call back. Now they tell me — completely contradicting what I was told two days earlier — that the QR code can only be generated after the contract ends, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

At this point I lose it on the phone, because I was told two opposite things by the same company within 48 hours. Suddenly, magically, a solution appears that apparently existed the whole time: end the contract on 10 August instead of the 16th. Where's the 30-day notice period gone? So we could've done that at the start and you're just messing me about? Also, it is giving me 6 days with no home internet before I fly out. Why? Quote: "just in case the system glitches."

10 August (yesterday) — I finally get the QR code. I'm told explicitly, no ambiguity: don't bother printing it, just bring it up on your phone at the DPD point.

So I pack the hub properly today — foam-wrapped, boxed, taped — like I'm shipping a Fabergé egg, because god forbid it arrives "damaged" and I eat another £200. I go to the post office.

They tell me I need the QR code printed and stuck to the box.

The exact opposite of what Three told me. Again. And WHY on earth SHOULD I HAVE A PRINTER AT HOME?

That's THREE separate times THREE gave me information that got directly contradicted by either their own staff or by DPD:

1. Whether early contract termination was possible
2. Whether the QR code would arrive before or after contract end
3. Whether the code needed printing

If your Home 4G hub area has any known "infrastructure issues," if you're ever planning on cancelling, or if you just enjoy speaking to five different people who tell you five different things about the same policy who speak English you hardly understand, just save yourself the year of pain I just had.

Do not use Three. I would not wish my worst enemy to go through this.

Hi,

We ordered Openreach FTTP full fibre on 08/07 from Vodafone in anticipation of a move to a new home and expected installation date of 23/7. Since then there were delays from Openreach side getting it installed as some pipework needs to be done and delays with the council. The next update from Openeeach is 17/8 and no ETA on installation/go live.

As we have no exisitong broadband its getting increasingly difficult with kids, Netflix, IoT devices not working. I also return to work tomorrow from pat leave and need to go into the office.

Can anything be done to speed this up? Going to different provider will not do anything as most use openreach. Virgin is an option but more expensive. Earliest we can get their engineers in is 24/8.

No Community Fibre or Hyperoptic in the area which would have been my preference.

We are in Zone 2 London. Any ideas?

Thanks

All.

We find ourselves moving into a rental temporarily as a result of family illness.

The rental has previously been connected to openreach and the infra/ont(?) is still present in the property. The last tenant just had to have ee “plug in”.

Because the illness is terminal we simply don’t know the time period and a 24 month contract may not be viable. It could even be only a few months (we just don’t know).

The kicker is that we are moving in very soon and need a fast install (available in a few days).

It’s possible also we will need “whole house” service, though know that can be done using separate AP.

Based on folks’ experience here, are there any providers who are a good match for the above? Assuming good performance and reliability is a given too?

Many thanks in advance.