Broadband deals 2026?

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stevewestern

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I'm in the process of sorting out our EE mobile sim contracts as prices have gone up, so thought I'd have a quick look at broadband deals too.
We currently pay BT £55 per month for full fibre and it seems we could be paying a lot less - ie Sky 300mbps with Netflix etc is £37 and there are a several cheaper options.
So..... Anyone got any thoughts or suggestions about who to look into or avoid - like most people I've stuck with bt over the last few years but it might be time to move on..
Thanks for any replies!
 
Have a look at the Uswitch site, they’ll give you various options for your area.

BTW if you haven’t already sorted out your sim deal, I switched to Smarty a few months ago and have found them excellent, they were also a third of the price of the 02 contract I had before. Smarty use the Three network and have good coverage.
 
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boogie man said:
Have a look at the Uswitch site, they’ll give you various options for your area.

BTW if you haven’t already sorted out your sim deal, I switched to Smarty a few months ago and have found them excellent, they were also a third of the price of the 02 contract I had before. Smarty use the Three network and have good coverage.
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Thank you B Man!
Uswitch was actually the site I first saw, I'll have a proper look this afternoon.
Not heard of Smarty before - I'm in Cornwall and when we moved here 15 years ago there was very limited signal in much of it and bt was almost the only option but I know Three have been pushing themselves a lot around here.
Thanks for your help!
 
Sadly Smarty only has 4g coverage around us. The joys of life in Cornwall in 2026..
 
I have been with NTL / Virgin for over 20 years and they wouldn't budge as there was zero decent competition and it was full fibre (well coax) so it was £42 minimum but recently city fibre have been up the road and suddenly my 150mb is £32 so maybe worth seeing if that is a thing
 
Seems that EE are the only people who provide 5g here, but Lyca use their network - any users here?
Again, thank you all for your input!
 
By speaking to BT, our BB (900 mbps) and telephone went down from £94 to £38 pm.

One problem with BT is that if you have a BT email you will loss if unless you pay separately for it
 
leaky5 said:
One problem with BT is that if you have a BT email you will loss if unless you pay separately for it
Click to expand...
For the sake of all that is holy, if you use ISP-provided mail: migrate away from ISP provided email otherwise you can't leave your ISP easily.

Add in that virtually no ISP these days wants to run email servers so you're at enhanced risk of downtime.

Please, move off ISP email - it will save you a pain in the bum later.

There are heaps of free alternatives available, there are low cost paid for options, there are high cost paid for options, you can even run your own mail domain... Point is there are options.

My advice is to run both in parallel & any time you get mail in the ISP mail, make the decision whether you want to unsubscribe from it or change it to be in the new non-ISP mail... So it's an opportunity to rid yourself of a lot of spam too.
 
stevewestern said:
I'm in the process of sorting out our EE mobile sim contracts as prices have gone up, so thought I'd have a quick look at broadband deals too.
We currently pay BT £55 per month for full fibre and it seems we could be paying a lot less - ie Sky 300mbps with Netflix etc is £37 and there are a several cheaper options.
So..... Anyone got any thoughts or suggestions about who to look into or avoid - like most people I've stuck with bt over the last few years but it might be time to move on..
Thanks for any replies!
Click to expand...


I've been with Zen for must be 20 plus years and I wouldn't change. Currently on FF 500gb for £34.00 or they'll do 910gb for £39 and up to 2.3tb for £55

I stay with them because their service is 2nd to none and their prices are always fair.

www.zen.co.uk

Zen - the UK's best broadband

As voted by Which? and PC Pro customers.
www.zen.co.uk www.zen.co.uk
 
stevewestern said:
Seems that EE are the only people who provide 5g here, but Lyca use their network - any users here?
Again, thank you all for your input!
Click to expand...

I recently switched from ee to Lebara as I thought the latest price increases were out of order. They did offer a large reduction when I asked to cancel but it was still more than Lebara. However Lebara use the Vodafone network so not much use to you.

Lycra feature in the Which reviews but they are not particularly highly rated. However they offer one month contract so if it doesn’t work you can quickly move to another provider.
 
Steep said:
I've been with Zen for must be 20 plus years and I wouldn't change.
Click to expand...
I will second that.

We've been with them more or less since they first appeared on the scene and they've never let us down! (y)
 
hunnymonster said:
For the sake of all that is holy, if you use ISP-provided mail: migrate away from ISP provided email otherwise you can't leave your ISP easily.
Click to expand...
100% this i always say this to people we did this a few years ago just to be more mobile between UK and our house in GC
we went to gmail and its been excellent
 
Steep said:
I've been with Zen for must be 20 plus years and I wouldn't change. Currently on FF 500gb for £34.00 or they'll do 910gb for £39 and up to 2.3tb for £55

I stay with them because their service is 2nd to none and their prices are always fair.

www.zen.co.uk

Zen - the UK's best broadband

As voted by Which? and PC Pro customers.
www.zen.co.uk www.zen.co.uk
Click to expand...
I've never heard of Zen but a very quick look and their prices seem good so will investigate more, thanks!
 
As an aside, how can you get cable tv without talking their broadband? The last time I looked using a different broadband provider was not possible with Virginmedia TV.
 
stevewestern said:
Seems that EE are the only people who provide 5g here, but Lyca use their network - any users here?
Again, thank you all for your input!
Click to expand...
Have a look at 1p mobile, the run on EE. If you do decide to join them please give me a shout and I can send across a referral code. Thank you
 
hunnymonster said:
For the sake of all that is holy, if you use ISP-provided mail: migrate away from ISP provided email otherwise you can't leave your ISP easily.

Add in that virtually no ISP these days wants to run email servers so you're at enhanced risk of downtime.

Please, move off ISP email - it will save you a pain in the bum later.

There are heaps of free alternatives available, there are low cost paid for options, there are high cost paid for options, you can even run your own mail domain... Point is there are options.

My advice is to run both in parallel & any time you get mail in the ISP mail, make the decision whether you want to unsubscribe from it or change it to be in the new non-ISP mail... So it's an opportunity to rid yourself of a lot of spam too.
Click to expand...
Re: email service providers.

I have a number of email addresses, some of which are used for more general functions e.g. the likes of forum use and others limited to personal things like Banking.

I have a general aversion to the likes of Gmail because their use of subscribers data & privacy keeps throwing up questions.

So, because of the PN and Greenby fiasco I need to bite the bullet but my criteria are:-

My data is mine and I don't want some spurious use like apparently Gmail allow themselves.

Good spam and phishing filtering?

Use industry standard ports for SMTP & POP3 with authentication protocols as needed.

POP3 as I am happy to download the emails locally but leave a copy on the server for say 60 days in case of local failures?

Anything I have missed???

Just who should I be looking to purchase my email service provider???

TIA :)
 
I got away from BT (thank God) and went with Brillband (migrating to APFN) using CityFibre's network. £35 per month fo 900Mb/s up and down, which is pretty consistent regardless of the time of day. Rarely have any downtime, once or twice for a few minutes.

Just ran a speed test, can't complain. There never seems to be any throttling or traffic shaping.

1771196962183.png
 
sep9001 said:
Have a look at 1p mobile, the run on EE. If you do decide to join them please give me a shout and I can send across a referral code. Thank you
Click to expand...
They do look rather interesting - I've just sent my girls a link to check out, and your request has been noted!
 
stevewestern said:
I'm in the process of sorting out our EE mobile sim contracts as prices have gone up, so thought I'd have a quick look at broadband deals too.
We currently pay BT £55 per month for full fibre and it seems we could be paying a lot less - ie Sky 300mbps with Netflix etc is £37 and there are a several cheaper options.
So..... Anyone got any thoughts or suggestions about who to look into or avoid - like most people I've stuck with bt over the last few years but it might be time to move on..
Thanks for any replies!
Click to expand...

Vodafone have loads of offers on at the minute for example 900mbps for £28.99 per month.
 
I'd been with BT for 15 years without any issues at all, having previously been with Virgin with who we suffered frequent loss of service, sometimes for only a few minutes, sometimes for 24h or more. Last year we switched to EE as we were able to upgrade to a faster speed (1.6G down) for £15/month less than we were paying BT. At renewal time, Zen were more expensive than BT, and I didn't want to go with Sky or Vodafone who more or less force you to use their own routers, which generally don't offer some of the features available on off-the-shelf equipment. I regularly use remote access (via OpenVPN) and Wake On Lan to power up my home PC and NAS for example.

Currently only Openreach offer 900+ download speeds in our village, and there are no other providers like CityFibre yet. My deal with EE runs out in 6 months so I'm hoping that there are other options available then.
 
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A happy morning trapsing around the phone shops in town...
EE couldn't be bothered to even try to offer me anything, the guy almost seemed like he was expecting the shop to close down.
The Vodaphone man offered me 500mbps (ie 9 times faster than I currently get) for £27, although I can get the very same deal via Uswitch for £24 and mobiles, which are still expensive at £10 pcm albeit with 80gb data - even my daughter only ever uses about 6/7gb. I even get a £150 gift card for joining, whoopee!
Zen are £42 for 500mbps broadband so too expensive.

1p mobile can offer me 4gb for £6pcm or 10gb for £8 and use the EE network, so we can still get 5g here.
Seems like a decision is close to being made, and again, all help has been and still is much appreciated!
 
stevewestern said:
A happy morning trapsing around the phone shops in town...
EE couldn't be bothered to even try to offer me anything, the guy almost seemed like he was expecting the shop to close down.
The Vodaphone man offered me 500mbps (ie 9 times faster than I currently get) for £27, although I can get the very same deal via Uswitch for £24 and mobiles, which are still expensive at £10 pcm albeit with 80gb data - even my daughter only ever uses about 6/7gb. I even get a £150 gift card for joining, whoopee!
Zen are £42 for 500mbps broadband so too expensive.

1p mobile can offer me 4gb for £6pcm or 10gb for £8 and use the EE network, so we can still get 5g here.
Seems like a decision is close to being made, and again, all help has been and still is much appreciated!
Click to expand...
To be honest it’s a waste of time going near the shops for broadband and mobile etc you will always get the best deals via Uswitch website.
 
f/1.2 said:
To be honest it’s a waste of time going near the shops for broadband and mobile etc you will always get the best deals via Uswitch website.
Click to expand...
Ha, a lesson I'm slowly learning.. I do actually prefer to talk to a real person not least as I have a couple of questions that it might be better to solve face to face but either way it's only a couple of £ wasted if I don't get the answers I want -
Basically one of my daughters is in Mexico for 6 months but will be flying back here for very brief visits. She currently uses a Mexican sim, and if I cancel her current EE sim and she gets a 1p mobile sim there may not be time for it to be transferred over while she is here.
It would be good to know if she'll be able to use her phone while travelling if out of WiFi, or do I just leave her current EE sim account as it is until she returns for more than 2 days....
 
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sep9001 said:
Have a look at 1p mobile, the run on EE. If you do decide to join them please give me a shout and I can send across a referral code. Thank you
Click to expand...
PM sent, and I'm going with Vodaphone as BT can't do anything to help me - their deal offering the same speeds (500mbps) is £8 more per month
It kind of amazes me that years of loyalty means nothing - just like my car insurance, we've swapped companies this year as our previous company wanted about £400 more than the new people. I know the way it works, just think it's a bit sad, but then I am an old f**t who believes in what I see as values and loyalty.

Guess this is me....
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcHyCdvBnIU
 
You can see how good companies are to their loyal customers by the better deals they give to newbies.
Obviously subsidised by existing customers.
 
leaky5 said:
By speaking to BT, our BB (900 mbps) and telephone went down from £94 to £38 pm.

One problem with BT is that if you have a BT email you will loss if unless you pay separately for it
Click to expand...
Left BT years ago, even set up a new email but I've never needed it, I still have BT email and I certainly don't pay for it.
 
stevewestern said:
Seems that EE are the only people who provide 5g here, but Lyca use their network - any users here?
Again, thank you all for your input!
Click to expand...

We both use Lyca. I joined them a couple of years ago after EE refused to back down on charging me roaming fees while we were on Corfu and they said I was in Albania and charged me £38. OK it's just across the water but they didn't even bother investigating so I left.

My partner joined a month ago after EE put her price up to almost double.

In every day use they are a bit slow dialling up having to go through relays and the signal isn't too good round here even though there's an EE mast a quarter of a mile away. We're moving soon so we'll see how we get on then review them. Their voicemail is strange with a lot of different people guiding you through and one of them, being Indian, is hard to understand.

Generally no complaints.
 
Harriers9 said:
We both use Lyca. I joined them a couple of years ago after EE refused to back down on charging me roaming fees while we were on Corfu and they said I was in Albania and charged me £38. OK it's just across the water but they didn't even bother investigating so I left.
Click to expand...

Similar happened to a mate of mine when in Croatia and it grabbed onto a tower in Bosnia. A few hundred MB later and a whopping £900 bill put a dampener on the post-holiday return. Incidentally, it was also EE. After weeks of haggling they met halfway with the bill, but it wasn't really fair because there was supposed to be a £40 limit on roaming, but apparently that gets cancelled when you activate...roaming. Try and figure that logic out! lol
 
Just had mail from EE to say my BB bill will increase by £4 a month in April, that makes the cheaper alternatives seem even better now, time to start looking around as contract renewal in early April.
 
I've found Spusu to be good for mobile around the southwest, runs on EE and contract length is a month.
Answerphone is a little different, you get a text link to an individual number to listen to each voicemail, or as an audio file attached to an email or both.
 
Previously I was with Now Broadband but after being informed of an in-contract price rise I cancelled and switched to using an unliimted data plan with O2 and using a 4G/5G router.... Earlier this week I was on the phone to O2 trying to negotiate a better deal for my mobile phone and during the conversation as well as getting a better deal on my phone contract I was offered a better deal on the unlimited data SIM contract where that price would drop £7 and would then be eligible for a "Multisave" discount of 20%, dropping it even further... So I agreed to 2 new contracts with O2...

Checked today and the Multisave discount is up and running..... :)
 
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