Broadband issues

[Tugster999]

Thanks for your reply but sorry I think you are missing the point, 24 month contract with gigaclear £17 per

month for 300mbs, Sky £39.50 for 55 to 60mbs, I was trying (badly obviously!) to feedback to Sky/Openreach that they no longer seem to be competitive in the broadband marketplace, shame I'm still in contract at the moment. I do though appreciate your comment and explanation. Many thanks 

[Nicki22]

This is great information thank my ou! I am out of contract at the end of the month. I have bed. Loyal to Sky for 10 years but the broadband has been getting increasingly slower despite boosters. I will look into those deals 

[Tugster999]

No problem Nicki,  luckily our entire town has recently had fibre optic installed by gigaclear and then Virgin media. I definitely cannot recommend either supplier as I am not a customer of theirs yet! But it does show how competitive the market is getting, that also forced BT Openreach to then pull through new fibre optic cables to every telegraph pole too, as I guess they realised they would be left behind in the race for business. I can't though see Sky or BT supplying via that network at the same low prices advertised by those other suppliers 

[TimmyBGood]

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@Tugster999 wrote:

I can't though see Sky or BT supplying via that network at the same low prices advertised by those other suppliers 

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They probably can't, because wholesale costs on the Openreach network are higher than that.  However it's worth noting that the altnet companies (apart from Virgin) don't yet have a sustainable business model and are burning through startup capital to try and reach enough prospective user addresses: longer term there's very likely to be individual supplier failures, consolidation/merger and subscription price rises in that sector.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2023/05/alternative-full-fibre-isps-cover-8-2-million-uk-premi... 

[Nicki22]

So what do you advise then? If these companies are unreliable do you think it's best to stay put and move to fibre with Sky albeit more expensive? 

[TimmyBGood]

@Nicki22 

I wouldn't say unreliable, just rather more uncertain.  It's fairly unlikely that Openreach won't be here tomorrow, given it's the 'official' national telecoms/broadband infrastructure provider: the same can't be said of some (particularly smaller) full-fibre altnet ISPs.

It's perhaps also worth noting that unlike the electricity supply network there's no provision for automatic takeover of service from a failed ISP by a competitor.