myTalkTalk competitive product?

[#1]

My mother wants broadband. I was going to set her up with a plusnet account, but she has been offered myTalkTalk 8mb/40Gb for £6.49 plus line rental. She is already a talktalk CPS customer.
Can you advise which  Plusnet product is competitive, or will it have to be talk talk?
thanks.
L.

[#2]

There are several things you should consider. The standard of / existence of? "Customer Service" in the case of TalkTalk.  I bumped into a salesperson in the shopping centre yesterday who claimed all sorts of things had changed - a number of which I know haven't - so I told him that Customer Service as a CPS customer had gone down the drain which is why I left them and would not go back.
The service you are being offered is presumeably a full LLU service. You may not get the full 8M, that depends on how far you are from the exchange, you will get similar speeds which ever ISP you go with - it's the same wires. If you want to move to another provider in the future, how much might that cost moving from LLU? Also how easy will it be to get out. Someone trying to move from TalkTalk has been trying for 4 months,  read this .
You need to try and assess how much usage you are likely to need. If it is low, then BBYW option 1 may suit and with the phone moved to PN a total monthly cost of £19.50 including line rental (excluding any introductory offers) for evening and weekend landline calls included.
Only the end user can tradeoff the value they put on the things I've mentioned vs. usage.
Have a look at the packages available from PN and come backwith any questions, there are plenty here who will offer opinions.

[#3]

Quote from: Anotherone

you will get similar speeds which ever ISP you go with - it's the same wires.

TalkTalk are ADSL2+ and are now offering (for a small fee) to remove the 8meg cap, so not necessarily. 
And there are other ADSL2+ providers of course, including BT (and PN) in some areas.

[#4]

ADSL2+ is not the £6.49 + line rental offering to be clear, or any benefit if they are not close enough to the exchange.

[#5]

Quote from: Anotherone

ADSL2+ is not the £6.49 + line rental offering to be clear.

I suspect its ADSL2+ but capped to 8mb/sec, not sure. She would only get about 3.5mb/sec anyway.

[#6]

Hi Lorian,
What sort of usage are we talking about here?
I'd dread to think that someone would go to TalkTalk over us.  What happens if the activation doesn't go as planned, given it's a fully unbundled activation?
I'd like to think that we can come to some sort of arrangement - such as the 10GB special offer on Option 1.

[#7]

James, Hi
I don't really want to send them to talktalk, We are talking about OAP's who have never had internet, with primary interest in email and reading the news. Cost would be an issue for them.  Its quite possible they may never go over 2GB, but I wouldn't want them to have to pay extra if they did on the odd occasion. I guess they could probably stick reasonably poor service for less than £7 a month, and they won't really need any technical support from the ISP.
Its interesting that they have never previously expressed an interest in having Internet access until it was offered to them at £6.49, so TalkTalk clearly have hit a winner from a marketing point of view.
Feel free to PM me if there is something good you could offer....

[#8]

Hiya
If they took our Option 1 special offer on Broadband, average cost over the first 12 months would work out at £8.69.  Appreciate that it's not quite as cheap, but it's not far off!
If they took the 10GB special with Home Phone, they:
a) Wouldn't have to pay ANYTHING to TalkTalk
b) Would be £5.50 for the first three months and £19.50 afterwards.
c) Averages out at £16 per month
What's the line rental on TalkTalk?  £10?  If so, we'd work out cheaper.

[#9]

Quote

What's the line rental on TalkTalk?

It's £10.50. 

[#10]

Can someone point me at the web page for the Option 1 10Gb offer?
Thanks.

[#11]

GRR, when I find a link that I can get to work I will post it

http://www.plus.net/residential/broadband/option1_10gb_gc.shtml

[#12]

Quote from: Santiago

http://community.plus.net...and-offer-broadband-only/

shows me a service status report on network capacity.

[#13]

Have a look at http://community.plus.net/blog/2008/12/11/new-10gb-special-offer/

[#14]

...or with phone
http://community.plus.net/blog/2008/12/11/new-10gb-special-offer/
I can't find a link to the web page on the PN main site and the link on the Community site will only raise a ticket on your account.

Edit: adiewoo beat me to it!

[#15]

Just had some bad experiences with a friend's TalkTalk connection (dropped connections which I suspect were due to lack of capacity).  Customer Services were dire - 40 minutes+ in the queue listening to endless musak and being put through to India. Older people can tend to have difficulty understanding (as do I). The whole episode probably took aproximately 8 hours in total to solve, with telephone calls etc.
Also, bear in mind the contract term of 18 months and as has been said it can be expensive to come off an LLU line, although I understand that PN will help with this if migrating in.
Have just connected an older couple's computer to broadband Option 1 (they are brand new to computers) and I had no problems at all. If they do, I am confident that they can telephone PN on a geographical number and they will get help, although it is more than likely that they will ask me first!
I know that TT are 'cheaper' but it might be at the expense of good service and I feel that this is important with less experienced users.