i've been with vodafone for 5 years now and we need an increase in terms of speed (they capped us to 2MBPS) And we may switch to Virgin Media but due to what i do for a living their stupid prices and caps would prove to be a bigger nightmare than Vodafone was. I've been trying to get us to switch over to O2 but they say its crap and more expensive. any ideas? which ISP should i swap over to and which provides more bang for less buck?

o2 crap? What imbosile said that??

o2 is the very best ISP in just about every aspect... firstly, they provide BROADband, not a one-way fast, one way slow service, uptime is second to none, caps don't and never have existed, there is NO traffic shaping (cue Virgin Media) and complete net-neutrality (goodbye Virgin Media), the customer support is 24/7/365 FREEFONE from your o2 mobile and any landline, the customer support team is all BRITISH, extremely knowledgable (geeks), very polite and friendly, bend over backwards to help you and always answer the phones quick, ive never waited longer than 3 or 4 rings... give them a call to test, 0800 230 0202.

They are also dirt cheap, even moreso when one considers the service should really be a premium service, they have an ultra-fast network with little if any congestion, through Telefonica they have more peering than most other ISP's put together.

Now, take any ISP and compare each point of o2's service against them, and you will not find better... o2 have 5 star service on EVERY aspect, and tonnes of bonus features, like free email-text, free web texts etc... and soon they will be doing landlines for £9 a month as well haha!!

Vrigin don't even come close, maybe for DOWNSTREAM speed they can (theoretically) beat o2 due to the technologies each is using, but you try that at peak times, with traffic shaping, non-net neutrility and a congested network taking effect, and then try getting hold of customer support to complain about it haha!!

02 ftw then!
now i just need to convince Kezzbag and her other half to go with O2. because if they put us on Vigin then i wont be able to use BBCIplayer, PSN, Xbox Live, TPB, IIRC Channel, Youtube ect....and we use those daily!
yeah the idiot who said o2 was crap was one of Kezzbags other half's mates who work in cadburies with him. they are all on Virgin.

Check out the o2 Broadband review thread - https://www.wikiwirral.co.uk/forums...adband_Ongoing_Review_Of.html#Post206623

Let's put it this way, many of us on this forum have actually signed up for new 12 month contracts with o2, after the original one has expired, I can't recall a single negative comment about them in that thread (could be wrong) and tonnes of people have been using o2 for ages. Ive been on it since Feb 2008 iirc, and I aint ever looked back since. As you know, I use my home connection intensively for business and would like to think im a better judge of how reliable and stable the service is than most, in addition to which I work within the ISP and backbone industry to understand networks etc...

Why not?
I've never had any problems with Virgin. Regularly use my PS3 online with no problems and the other stuff you mention.

The main reason I went with Virgin was because I wanted TV and Broadband and didn't want to pay line rental and they were the best deal at the time.

Everytime I ring virgin I always speak to very friendly Scottish people.

Don't want to disagree with Matt because I have no experience with O2 and know (from reading lots of other posts) he knows his stuff (even though I disagree with his choice of football team )

Anyway just thought I'd chip in my experience of Virgin

If im completely honest, if it were Virgin vs any other ISP... id probably be edging towards them, simply on the basis of their cable technology and the fact they are overall as good as and in many cases, better than most other ISP's. But at present, unfortunately for the rest, o2 are quite simply in another league when it comes to all-round service levels. How long they will keep it up, is anyone guess, but ive been saying that for over two years now so the future could be bright, even if it isnt Orange...

I do like the way o2 do not interefere in their connections "full stop". No capping, throttling, traffic-shaping, peer-preference and complete net-neutrility. You are free to do what you want, when you want, and as much as you want, regardless of what it is you are doing, and o2 do not bat an eyelid or even notice. Unfortunately, I can only think of a handful of ISP's nowadays that are like that, all the rest are sadly much more expensive.

No problems with O2, your friend obviously has had no dealings with O2, infact neither have I. The service is so good, i have not had to ring up.

Have heard quite a few bad reports about virgin although i have not had any direct experience.

I am always nominated as the host when i play XBox Live. Go team O2.

All this for around £10 a month, winner.

No problems here with O2 either. Customer service is great. Connection speeds and stability are also top notch.

As Matt says, they dont throttle the connection in any way if you use it heavily unlike virgin

I've been with them for 18 months, and have ZERO complaints


O2 Standard
8MB download
1.3MB Upload

£10 a month (Not O2 mobile phone customer)
£7.50 a month (O2 mobile phone customer)

Virgin Media are leading the way for Broadband speed I think, not sure how the DOCSIS3 side of things are running though, Mind you I think all Virginmedia broadband users will be on DOCSIS3 soon the way download speeds are increasing.

I believe alot of people have a problem with Virgin as they quote these fantastic line speeds but in reality they are providing speeds at a fraction of the quoted speed.

I got Virgin 20mb and on speedtest.net i always get 19.92 and upload of 93. So very happy with it

All providers have + & -....

I've been on VM 50Mb for a few months, allways 50mb/1.5mb depending on how far out I go and time of day. Dont know what contention ratio I'm on but no speed probs to date. I have battered it 24/7 and no throttling or cap.

Is wirral docsis3 ? I wonder what 100Mb will cost

Anyhow, I will keep you guys posted if anything changes.