BT offers a competitive range of broadband and phone products, from up-to-20Mbps with line rental to 100Mbps fibre-optic connections, but the BT Vision TV service needs an upgrade.
BT is a natural first stop for anyone looking at broadband and phone, because most of us still have our phone line provided by BT, but these days it has to compete with a huge number of other broadband providers.
BT Retail, which sells services to consumers, has to buy capacity from BT Wholesale like other broadband and phone providers (except Virgin), and its prices reflect that.
There’s a range of phone packages, high speed broadband going up to BT Infinity’s fully fibre-optic connections, and digital TV through BT Vision. BT is also part of the YouView consortium, which is developing a high definition super-Freeview HD that will go on sale in Spring 2012.
Like many providers, BT has simplified its phone tariffs to a simple line rental-only, evenings and weekends, and anytime calls, with options like discounted international calls on top. However, it’s also insisting on lengthy 18-month contracts for broadband.
BT’s broadband has been upgraded aggressively, with high speed ADSL2+ available to most of the UK, and a commitment to making fibre-based services available to 40 per cent of UK households by Summer 2012 and 66 per cent by 2015.
It’s also doubled the speed of its basic fibre service from 40Mbps to 80Mbps, which is sure to give Virgin Media a fight.
In selected areas, BT has also launched even faster fibre services which provide speeds of up to 160Mbps, with 330Mbps coming in 2013.
The Home Hub 3 is a cut above the usual broadband modem/routers supplied free, and includes USB ports, Gigabit Ethernet support and WiFi N for high speed connections. It’s one of a basket of free extras, which notably include security and family protection, unlimited WiFi at BT Wi-fi hotspots, and online storage.
The BT Vision TV package is perhaps the weakest part of BT’s offer, since the Vision+ box is now pretty out of date and the on-demand library is fairly small. Much of BT Vision is now also available on YouView for BT Broadband customers, alongside the full Freeview HD channel range and BBC iPlayer-type catch-up TV for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
Ofcom’s research into customer service satisfaction in 2012 showed overall continued improvements for both BT’s phone and broadband. Overall, around two-thirds of BT’s broadband and landline customers said they were satisfied with its customer service.
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BT offers both ADSL broadband over your phone line, or ultra-fast fibre-optic broadband with BT Infinity. All BT Broadband contracts are over 18 months, and exceeding your monthly usage allowance on BT is expensive, at £5/GB. Unlimited broadband contracts are truly unlimited, however.
In the package
As one of the UK’s biggest broadband providers, all BT Broadband packages come with a BT Home Hub wireless router (for which there’s a £6 delivery fee), free access to WiFi hotspots around the UK, security software, online storage, a personalised Yahoo! home page, Yahoo! email, and free customer service.
The BT Home Hub 3 is a unique product that’s a little more advanced than most free broadband modem-routers, and would cost £99 on its own. On paper, it’s an ADSL2+ modem with four Ethernet ports and support for WiFi b/g/n.
One of the Ethernet ports supports Gigabit Ethernet, for connecting network hard discs to get high speed streaming. There are three USB 2.0 ports for connecting network hard discs or printers, and the WiFi has a smart mode which finds the WiFi channel with the least traffic - useful if your neighbours are also using WiFi.
The Home Hub 3 can be set to save power by turning off for a set number of hours per day, and you can restrict the hours it can be accessed by different devices, such as games consoles and children’s computers. It’s also possible to take part in BT’s FON WiFi-sharing club by sharing part of your wireless and broadband capacity with other BT FON members.
BT Broadband subscribers get unlimited free access to BT Wi-fi hotspots - with more than 4.8 million in the UK and three million overseas - and the BT FON WiFi-sharing club if you’re a member. There are Android and iOS apps for easy access on mobile devices.
Security software is delivered by either McAfee Family Protection for all broadband packages and McAfee NetProtect Plus, which is free with all Unlimited packages, or for £3.49/month. Family Protection lets you monitor and control your family’s internet use, while NetProtect Plus covers up to seven PCs or Macs with anti-virus, anti-spyware, danger ratings for websites, firewalls and protection against identity theft.
The BT Cloud gives you a basic 2GB of online storage for important files or for private sharing, including automatic back-ups. Unlimited extra and BT Infinity 2 packages get 50GB, or you can upgrade for £4.99/month.
BT Yahoo! gives you 10 email addresses with high quality spam protection and ‘never ending’ online storage. As a Yahoo! service, it also connects to Facebook for messaging via your Yahoo! Mail page, and has dedicated iOS and Android apps for accessing your emails on your phone.
If you have a problem, free help is available via a 24-hour helpline, online chat, Twitter, email, forums and BT’s website.
If your ADSL broadband connection is slower than expected, BT can supply a Broadband Accelerator to filter out interference on your domestic phone cables, which is free with some packages.
Broadband packages
BT’s ADSL services come at up-to-20Mbps if your exchange supports ADSL2+, delivering around 8-10Mbps downloads speeds (around 800kbps up) on average according to Ofcom’s May 2012 research. By Spring 2013, around 90 per cent of the UK will be upgraded to this service, with the rest on older up-to-10Mpbs ADSL exchanges.
All of BT’s broadband packages include free Evening and Weekend Calls, starting at £13/month plus line rental (£129/year or £15.45/month) for Broadband up to 20Mbps with a 10GB monthly allowance, rising to £16/month for Unlimited Broadband with no traffic shaping or usage allowance, and £26 for Unlimited Broadband extra with 50GB of online BT Cloud storage and NetProtect Plus security.
The up-to-38Mbps Infinity 1 delivers an average speed of 34-37Mbps downstream (Ofcom, May 2012), with upstream speeds at up-to-9.5Mbps (average 8.8Mbps). It costs from £18/month plus line rental with a 40GB monthly limit and inclusive evening and weekend calls, or £23/month plus line rental for Unlimited Infinity 1 with no traffic shaping and unlimited usage.
The up-to-76Mbps down/up-to-19Mbps up Unlimited Infinity 2 option delivers average speeds of 63.1-68.8Mbps down and 16-18Mbps up, starting at £26/month plus line rental for unlimited usage with evening and weekend calls. As the name suggests, there's no usage allowance or traffic shaping, and you get 50GB of online BT Cloud storage.
More than 13 million homes can now get the FTTC BT Infinity connections, rising to two-thirds of the UK by the end of 2014.
Up-to-160Mbps FTTP Infinity 160 (with up-to-20Mbps upstream) costs from £35/month plus line rental, for unlimited usage with evening and weekend calls.
FTTP is only available in a small number of trial areas around exchanges in High Wycombe, Bristol South, St. Agnes and Edinburgh Waverley, with Basingstoke, Cardiff, Manchester Central and Watford coming in 2013.
Also in 2013, a new set of tariffs for FTTP up to 330Mbps will be available, and FTTC customers will be able to upgrade to FTTP by paying for the final leg of the connection. This could cost around £1,500 on average, but BT may cover the cost to attract high value customers, as they do with existing services.
BT Openreach has also announced that the technology is capable of handling speeds of up to 1Gbps, hinting at the shape of BT broadband to come.
BT Vision is a low-cost digital TV service that gives an ‘enhanced’ Freeview experience, plus access to a library of on-demand TV and films delivered over your broadband connection.
The standard BT Vision offer comes through the new YouView box, which is a twin-tuner Freeview HD recorder with a 500GB hard disc (enough for more than 250 hours of standard-definition TV). Like most DVRs it can pause, rewind and record, with support for series links to record favourite shows every time.
Using your BT Broadband connection, you can get to BBC iPlayer-style catch up from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, and connect to the BT Vision library of on-demand and live TV channels.
The YouView box is free for customers who agree to an 18-month broadband contract and 12-month TV contract. Existing customers can get it for £49 but they still have to sign a new 18-month broadband contract and 12-month TV contract.
If you want the Sky Sports and ESPN channels, you'll have to get the special Vision+ box. It's offered at the same price and terms as the YouView box.
This is also a twin-tuner Freeview digital TV recorder with a 500GB hard disc, an Ethernet connection for linking to your BT Home Hub, and catch-up from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
However, it doesn't pick up the Freeview HD channels, and doesn't have any of the other on-demand services you can get through YouView, like Now TV.
Freeview gives you up to 70 TV channels and 20 radio channels, depending where you live, and on the YouView box you can get BBC HD, BBC One HD, ITV1 HD or Channel 4 HD.
BT’s on-demand library is in six sections: Kids, Sport - and archive of classic sport, Music with videos and live concert, and TV entertainment from the US and UK, Box Office films and the catch-up service, Replay.
The Box Office has 600 films, including around 40 HD titles (with 10 new films every month), plus a small selection of 3D films if you have a 3D-compatible TV.
BT Vision TV packages
TV Essentials is the £5/month entry-level package for BT Vision, giving you the full catch-up service and access to on-demand TV shows from 50p each, and films from £2.50.
TV Unlimited costs £12.50/month and gives you everything except the on-demand for free, plus 75 modern ‘classic’ films in Film Club, and the ESPN Freeview sports channel.
If you’re a sports fan, Sky Sports 1 and 2 can be added for £15/month each with a BT Vision+ box, or £20/month for both, and ESPN is free with TV Unlimited - but there’s also a £10 one-off charge for your viewing card. They're not available yet on the YouView box.
Other extras include the Bolly & Beyond archive of on-demand Asian films for £7.20/month, and movie archives from PictureBox (Universal Studios) or WarnerFilms (Warner Bros), which cost £5.10/month each.
Not surprisingly, you can’t buy BT Broadband or BT Vision without some kind of phone package and you have to buy your line rental from BT (who else?). However, you can get a BT Phone service without broadband or TV.
If you don’t have a BT phone line, BT usually waives the £130 connection charge for new or returning customers.
Line rental costs £129 for a year in advance (equivalent to £10.75/month), or £15.45/month paid. To get the lower rate, you must make at least two BT calls a month (or six per quarter) otherwise a monthly charge of £1.50 (or a quarterly charge of £4.50) will be added to your bill.
If you don’t need to make many landline calls, you can start with the Unlimited Weekend Plan, which costs nothing on top your line rental, and has a one month minimum term (except for new telephone lines or customers switching to BT from another provider, where a 12 month contract applies to line rental).
The Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan costs £3.30/month plus line rental (evenings are 7pm-7am). It also has a one month minimum term (except for new telephone lines or customers switching to BT from another provider, where a 12 month contract applies to line rental).
The Unlimited Anytime Plan is £5.15/month plus line rental and is available to new Unlimited Anytime Plan customers who sign up for a 12 month contract.
In BT terms, unlimited UK calls means calls of up to an hour to numbers that begin with 01, 02 and 03 (some areas, including Channel Islands, are excluded). These plans also include 60-minute calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers during your unlimited period, otherwise 0870 numbers cost a maximum of 10.2p a minute plus a 13.87p set-up fee.
BT’s calling plans also come with three free call features such as call waiting, call barring, call diversion, caller display and ring back, which are otherwise charged at £3.30/month each (£6.60/month for two to four features, £8.80/month for all five).
For cheaper international calls, Friends & Family International costs £1.05/month and gives access to 234 international destinations for as little as 2.5p/min (a 13.87p call set up fee applies to each call) or you can have inclusive calls to 36 countries and discounted calls to the remaining 198 countries with International Freedom for £5.20 a month.
BT SmartTalk: landline via your mobile
Any BT calling plan subscriber (except BT Basic) can download the BT SmartTalk app to iOS or Android smartphones and use it to call UK landline, 0845, 0870 and 0800 numbers using your smartphone's data allowance or a WiFi hotspot.
Up to five users can have the app per BT landline subscription, and it can be used to access your landline minutes from anywhere in the world (although evening and weekend rates will be determined on UK time, not local time).
BT User Reviews
"36 Meg... Awesome. Much better than EE would recommend"
5
"Just about every house I know that has gotten Broadband has had to deal with a terrible connewction speed for the first 6 months. BT will take your money, provide you with less than a 300kbps speed, then tell you its your fault over and over again, or that you "just" need to wait 10 days. My mum pays full price for her connection and now the contract is nearly over yet it is still consistantly at 330kbps, never any more for more than a second. My girlfriends internet was the same and it was only after persistant calls, that the problem seemed to fix itself. The most odd thing about this situation was the guy on the phone asked me to do something i had already tried many times, only this time i lied and said i hadnt done it. The connection jumped up to 700kbps almost instantly. Bt are liars and cheats. Do not trust them unless you are living somewhere like a city, where the connection is going to be good regardless of who you go with."
0.5
"Rubbish when i asked why i have only 0.2 meg i was told all sorts of excuses also basically if i didnt like it i could go elsewhere was also told we to supply any kind of listed "speed" dont have to have a given quality( i sometime get 5000 ping) we only have to supply broadband ...snigger ... which you have!""
0.5
"Im impressed with the consistancy of the speed of the broadband, even during busy times. The wireless signal from the Hub is fantastic and means i can use the internet outside if i wish, Bt are always helpful if theres any questions or quearys. The one thing though is how the contracts are lengthier than most other companies, but maybe thats the price to pay for getting a good deal on the contract. Its worth keeping an eye on your usage so you can change to another download limit if needed to avoid the charges incurred by going over the limit, its pretty easy to keep an eye on the usage level. Overall im happy with the broadband service i have, its so much batter than the company i had before moving to BT."
3.5
"I am a new customer with bt, i signed up as i have just moved to a council flat.. i had no connection so had no phone or net, i was advised that BT would be the best company to go with, however i have no end of trouble with them since i signed up with them, and my line went line on the 12th march... there seems to be faults on my line.. on the 20th i was told it was to do with the BT RETAIL SERVER... and now im told its a NETWORK issue... again.. i have been without the internet again and resulted to my tmobile dongle!!!
I am paying £35 a month.. and so far im unable to get online.... and when i can get online its slow.. and then switches off half way threw!!!!! On the up i got £50 sainsburys gift card when i joined...which i think was the only good thing about it!!! Fingers crossed will work soon!"
2.5
"I have not recently had a very good experience of BT's customer service and that to me is the most important factor when I am paying for a service. I have been with them for four years now and was only just out of a current contract when my BT provided Router refused to give me any broadband signal. I contacted BT and they were rude and unhelpful. They demanded a new contract be signed for 12 months before they would give any advice or assistance. I argued my loyaltly and it fell on deaf and/or uncaring ears. I was disgusted. Prior to this I had not really had too much issue with the product itself. The download amount was on par with usage so no charges and the speed reasonable. There is a problem when too many devices connect with the broadband and the speed definatley slows."
1.5
"I am with BT and the service is great. Soon to be upgraded to Superfast BB so should be even better!"
4
"Generally good but a bit slow to connect sometimes and occasionally cuts off,maybe issues at the exchange but it would be nice to get infinity in my area or possibly Sky Broadband which on paper may work out cheaper"
3.5
"Can sometimes be slow to acknowledge there is a problem. I have Infinity good strong signals and openzone is brilliant."
4
"I am with b.t. The customer service is great,always helpful,and they don't leave you on hold for long. The internet coverage is reliable,and the broadband speed is good. Prices are a bit higher than others,but its worth it"
4
"I used to work in the Broadband environment and had experience of many of the main players. When choosing my own supplier I opted for BT because of their targets for getting intallation right first time and their fault fix timescales. I have had service with BT for over 3 years and have been extremely satisfied. I did suffer a problem approximately 6 months ago but the issue was quickly identified and resolved by installing a new router. I like having access to a large number of wifi sites that I can log onto free of charge using my home user name and password. I have used this service a lot in London and it is great to know that I can usually find a wifi hotspot within a half mile radius. I have the total broadband package so there is no download limit. I am online for many hours per day and this package means I never pay any more than my monthly rental. Total Broadband is slightly more expensive but I called BT in February to ask if there was a cheaper option and they offered a good discount on phone line rental."
4
"I have been a long suffering user of BT Broadband now. My reason for suffering is up until recently I did not have a choice of provider, not a better one anyway! We are the end of the line and my Broadband speed is 0.2meg!! I complained several times as actually I am paying for a service that I am not getting as 0.2 meg does not constitute the definition of Broadband!. No I could not watch iPlayer etc due to buffering issues.
HOWEVER, now at last an alternative - I have just had VFAST installed - a WIFI signal is sent/received as opposed to phone line and I now have 12MEG!!!!
Sorry BT but just about to cancel! Get your act together and sort out your rural customers"
2
"BT have been great with phone services and customer service, but the internet is really patchy. Drops out at least twice a day, and while it comes straight back after a reset it's still frustrating. Also supposed to have unlimited internet but that doesn't seem to be the case."
3
"BT have been great with phone services and customer service, but the internet is really patchy. Drops out at least twice a day, and while it comes straight back after a reset it's still frustrating. Also supposed to have unlimited internet but that doesn't seem to be the case."
3
"Living in a rural area, BT are the best option, so long as there are no problems. I went through an 8 month period trying to get my broadband speed up from 120kps to its usual 2mb. They were just so reluctant to send an engineer out and I must have made around 20 calls and made to go through the usual checks every time before they accepted there was a problem. Customer service leaves a lot to be desired, but once the broadband is up and running, it's fine"
2
"I have been with BT for 3 years now and I have never had a problem with them, once when I couldn't connect I called them and let them remotley set the settings on my computer which is great as I didn't know much about computers then. I now have 3 laptops and 4 mobiles connected to my broadband and the speed is ok but BT is the fastest in my area so can't complain. I'm no longer in a contract with them but I will be staying with BT."
4
"The BEST provider in the UK, helpful, considerate, amazing deals especially on renewals, reliable and super fast speed. I have my telephone/internet both with BT. So many hotspots all over the UK too. I would certainly recommend BT to all my friends and family."
5
"excellent installation service - kept us well informed
excellent perfromance (infiniti)
openzone excellent feature"
4.5
"I chose BT so I could get BT Vision as well (which is not really much better than Freeview). For the Internet, I have the Home Hub 2 - it's okay, but needs resetting every few weeks as all connections drop off now and again (Grrr...) The speed is adequate for my needs, but nothing to write home about. They're not the cheapest provider and they don't offer all that much to me as an existing provider - if I want a new hub, or the fiber-optic service, or sky sports on the TV (to be fair, it's good that they do offer this) etc., then I need to sign up for another 2 years... When I move house, I doubt I'll stick with BT as I've not been blown away by them, but similarly I wouldn't be too upset if I had to go with them, as I haven't been too annoyed with them either. All in all: "Meh...""
3.5
"Overall reliable and value for money. Useful to have unlimited access to BT Openzone WiFi."
4
"Good when don't have so many people using together in my house"
4
"too expensive for the speed you get in the islands. It is generally a reliable service with few interruptions."
2.5
"Have recently gone to BT for both landline and broadband, have no complaints about them as had no problems with either landline or broadband as of yet."
5
"good broadband speeds, generally helpful when speaking to customer services, willing to reduce prices for existing customers. overall very happy with the service BT provides"
4
"Our BT package includes BT Vision at £4 per month - bargain!! And we've had no problems with our broadband which is highest speed in our area and trouble free - no downtime, which is great. Our unlimited phone also means communication with friends and family happens more often and more spontaneously. Can't fault it."
4
"I have BT Broadband, Calls and Vision. The services are great but the prices are a bit on the expensive side compared to other such providers. Contract length is too long and at the time or renewal, they did not offer me any competitive or special offer to extend my contract. What they are offering are the same offers for any new or regular customer. My contract is over and now I will move to different provider simply because they are offering better price."
3
"Mostly good service but wireless drops out intermittently. On calling for assistance some customer Service Representatives were great, but others totally rude and disinterested. They were unable to find a solution, merely saying they don't guarantee a wireless signal in my area and there must be interference and denying equipment failure. Not satisfactory service."
0.5
"What we get is very slow with lots of drop outs and buffering. It would be great to have a fibre-opticsystem."
0.5
"Great at fixing problems. But...we've been promised an upgrade this summer to our broadband service, going from 5Mps to...(wait for it!!!!) 6Mps. Wow! I'll be staying up late to wait for his one!"
4
"although service good quite expensive and use 20mbps up quickly with 4 people in the house"
3.5
"Switched from TalkTalk to BT, BT way better, customer service is good as well"
3.5
"Good value for money but we live in a rural area and the download is less than 1MB. Despite the poor speed we have had a really consistent service and they have been very flexible on contract and price"
3
"I've used BT for Broadband, Phone and TV for the last 6 months. Overall I'm very happy, the only slight weakness is the user interface of the TV box is a little slow and unresponsive at times. Overall though I would recommend the service and products I use from BT."
4.5
"I use BT Infinity for my broadband, I have tried a few others over the years but none match up to the super high speed of Infinity, not only the download speed but also the upload speed is brilliant. We are a multi user household and we can use it at the same time wirelessly with no adverse affects what so ever...BRILLIANT!"
5
"Faster & cheaper than Virgin. we have phone line only so very slow anyway but this is best so far"
4
"I use bt for my broadband and phone and overall think they are good value for money. I had a problem with my broadband where it stopped working and they were very efficent in sending an engineer round to fix the problem. I get free evening and weekend calls which I find very useful."
4.5
"Only two stars because BT is being way too slow rolling out faster broadband to smaller exchanges, local upgrade was originally planned for a couple of years ago and we are still waiting. BT stop ignoring us and get on with it, your holding this country back."
2
"I've had quite a few problems here, mostly because of a faulty extension connection. BT took a while to solve the problem but were always very helpful. They are generally quick to send out a replacement hub and supportive on the phone. I do find the speeds a bit patchy but I live around earls court so when there is a show on I suspect we have capacity problems"
4
"I have been using BT broadband for last 6 years and it has given me good service."
3.5
"I have been with BT Broadband for several years. Generally speaking they have been a reliable service provider.
When I have had problems the service they have investigated it and endeavored to rectify it quickly. Unfortunately the problem hasn't always been rectified the first time round.
I feel BT's prices are higher than many of their competitors. The main reason I stay with BT is because I particularly like the BT Vision service. You need BT Broadband to be able to access this."
3.5
"I'll start by saying BT isn't the worst service I’ve used, not by a mile (of badly laid fibre optic cable), however, it is certainly the most annoying. The service is capped - you can pay more and have it uncapped but seriously, don't bother, it cuts out, and the router they provided, well my 3 year old child can throw further than the signal reaches, which I wouldn't mind if they didn’t refer to it with such pride. The most annoying thing about BT is their commitment to calling me day and night to offer me BT insanity I mean Infinity, I'd love to have BT infinity but I've only got 6 months left on my contract so I don't want to sign up for another 18 months. I've changed the router now and whilst the signal is a bit better I'm still having a problem at peak times."
2
"Usually reliable and fast, but there is noticable slow down during peak times. Most Noticable when playing games online. Also the max rated speed we don't get, fair enough if i was far away from the exchange but i am not hover it is the end of the street. Also on the pricier side."
3.5
"Very slow - been with them for 8 months had engineers out, had a lift and shift onto a different circuit but download speeds less than 1 mg most of the time. With sky previously and that was fine."
1.5
"Easy to switch from another ISP. Excellent service from engineer. Decent speeds from BT Infinity makes watching BBC iPlayer much better."
4
"We have broadband (no chance of optical any time soon where we are) - the speed is good and we don't seem to suffer from dips in speed at peak times. Many many problems with getting bt vision to work, so we have given up on that. I do think BT are very expensive and will probably try Talk Talk when contract term is up."
3.5
"Great level of service - I'm using Infinity and have been for over 12 months, great speed - TV okay, probably don't use it as much as I should."
4.5
"Great service, recently upgraded to Infinity and that has been great with the added bonus of free wifi at loads of places around the country."
5
"Excellent service, reliable and relatively stable, our experience of customer service has been really excellent. The only downside is the comparison in price with their competitors, i would say on the expensive side."
4
"We upgraded to Infinity and get the published speeds but we are only a few meters from the exchange box which does make a difference, so I would always advise you to ask BT to work out your distance from the exchange.
My only negative is their awful customer service if you have a problem as you can end up going around in circles within the Indian call centre. If you do need an engineer to come out however I have found them to be knowledgeable and efficient."
3.5
"I changed over to BT Broadband about a year ago. We don't have the luxury of optical cables in our area so cannot get the super fast service. I have unlimited broadband and it never slows down and never cuts out. An excellent service."
4.5
"Haven't had many problems with them, but I find they are a bit expensive. Looks like my colleges at work are paying much less with Sky and Virgin, so I think I'll move over to one of these soon, as I could be saving around 15quid a month."
4
"I left BT as I found their service very expensive and also I didn't like the length of their contracts. I was paying £50 a month for phone and broadband which is extortinate compared to other providers. On the plus side, the connection was always reliable."
2
"I'am in a very rural area and our exchange only has BT which I feel is unfair as I cannot shop around for the best deals. Our speed is OK but unacceptable at weekends as it drops about half the normal rate."
3
"I changed broadband & telephone provider last year from Virgin to BT & have varying views about their service. They really messed up initially as they set up 2 accounts so I was paying twice then decided to charge me £230 for cancelling the account that they set up in error. It took 5 months for them to sort out but since then I've had no problems. When I was with Virgin if I had a problem I had to call to try & fix it & they never did manage to & I could go without internet connection for a couple of days but with BT they have an online fix facility & any problems are easily fixed myself. I get free anytime calls including the dreaded 0845 numbers so I'm extremely happy with that & the Broadband is far better than Virgin. Overall I'm very happy"
4.5
"I currently have unlimited calls to uk landlines phone package (which is great to call friends/families homes) and broadband with a max allowance of 10gb (which is plenty for surfing within the month) very happy with the packages and prices also considering getting a tv package in the near future... =)"
4.5
"Great service all round :) fast internet connection and reasonable priced packages. Thinking about getting BT Tv now :)"
4
"living in a remote area in scotland, broadband speed can be sluggish but service is generally consistent. telephone helplines are good but you can wait a while in a queue unless you have a specific direct number. my only complaint would be that bills are not always as clear as they could be - and if you are in the mood to do some tough talking, you can get a good deal by asking for putting line rental, calls and broadband all together - you will have to sign up for twelve months and pay upfront, but you can save some readies."
4
"Good provider, never had any problems, there is a lot of people in our house using various wifi gadgets at the same time & the home hub 3 handles this without any probs or loss of speed."
4
"Almost 3 miles from the exchange, speed is dire, 80-90 KB most of the time. However, mostly reliable."
3
"I can't really fault them - easy to set up, and as the hub is so economical to run we just leave it on! Connection is fast and reliable, and great to have access to these free wireless networks around the country."
5
"good all round, they do take a long time to install though"
4
"Having relocated from being based overseas, we were somewhat baffled by the choice of broadband providers available.. having weighed up all of the options we chose BT Infinity as we were impressed by the speed being offered... sadly we are only receiving approx 12MB as opposed to the 20MB we were promised.. However I can honestly say that we have experienced not a single issue since installation in November.. I would thoroughly recommend BT as a provider as I have a number of friends and colleagues who use alternative providers and have experienced many issues with downtime and slow speed.."
4.5
"Have had no real problems with the service - when we have they have been fixed quickly"
4
"Good response to problem solving 24/7
Speed acceptable although not as fast as they say ( but whose ever is ??)
Good number of options available.
Sometimes difficult to understand operators accents !"
4
"BT broadband has been faster than we expected in our rural area. Overall we are pleased with the service, but had difficulty with the foreign call centre when we needed help. Can be a bit sluggish at busy times."
4
"We actually use BT Business broadband as my wife works from home but have never had any problems with the service. We're out in the sticks in Mid-Devon so speed isn't great, currently average around 2.2Mbs but the service is always on and recently contention at peak times has reduced so it works for us. Another advantage of business broadband is unlimited downloads which is great for watching iPlayer!"
4
"Living out in the depths of the country the broadband is not fast, despite all promises.Howeever that said Talk Talk wanted to charge us an extra £15 because we lived in the countryside, whereas at least BT were more reasonable in prices.Normally no problem during the day but in the evening it can suddenly grind to a halt and nothing may happen for ages."
3.5
"I'm with BT for broadband, calls and Vision. Any minor problems I have ever had (and I mean minor) have always been sorted out with the minimum of hassle, and ease. After seeing all the problems my friend have had changing providers, my Facebook newsfeed full of people complaining about *won't mention any names* ISP, I won't move. Sometimes cheaper isn't always better. I also don't find the 18 month contract a problem - you wouldn't renew it if you weren't happy, would you? The speed isn't as good as we could be getting, but after coping with dial-up for years..."
5
"Apart from some early teething problems BT Infinity has been great. Wifi has been solids and as a household of many gadgets this has been fantastic for saving some £'s. By not breaching mobile data limits. I do not have BT Vision."
5
"I have always had a good experience with BT Broadband. The BT Home Hub is easy to set up and use and BT's customer service are always helpful. The broadband is sometimes a little slow during peak periods but overall I think you get a good service for your money."
4.5
"Having been a BT Broadband & Calls customer since I was responsible enough for a phone line, I have had no problems at all with the broadband service that BT provide. Although probably not the fastest on the market in terms of speed, I am limited by choice within my area, it's been very realiable though. I would certainly recommned BT Broadband for it's reliability, but it is probably not the cheapest on the market, if you have the choice, but when you are limited by where you live, what can you do!!! I also upgraded to BT's new hub/router about 2 months ago and that has improved my connection. The hub doesn't look to bad either! Overall, if you live out in the sticks, BT is perfect!"
Like many providers, BT has simplified its phone tariffs to a simple line rental-only, evenings and weekends, and anytime calls, with options like discounted international calls on top. However, it’s also insisting on lengthy 18-month contracts for broadband.
