Syllabub.net

Several people have asked so I thought I would do a bit more than a few lines on an email.

If you already have Sky and you are in their area then I would go with them - customer service isn’t great, but it’s really cheap.

Check to see if you’re in a Sky Broadband area - http://check.skybroadband.com/

Sky provides 3 options for the 3 broad types of user (light/occasional, normal, addict)

• Base - 2Mbs download speed, 2Gb limit per month (good for occasional use)
• Mid - 8Mbs download speed, 40Gb limit - plenty for anyone
• Max - 16Mbs download speed, no limit - only if you are downloading movies regularly

Pricing / Comparison sites

You can compare Sky prices against the other main providers here

• http://broadbandcomparison.sky.com (Sky’s own, only shows a few packages for the big 4 providers)
• http://www.confused.com (provides first year costs and is very simple to use)
• http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk (uses same comparison engine as confused, lots of useful consumer advice)

Many of the providers will also give you a better deal on your home telephone, so if you still use your landline it would make sense to switch this at the same time. Likewise Orange also provide broadband so if you use Orange for your mobile I would start there.

Customer Service 

I think you’re going to struggle with this regardless of who you choose - my experience of call centres is almost uniformly bad. 

• BT - the broadband service is fine, but pricing seems to be deliberately confusing (you genuinely need a spreadsheet to figure out how much it costs) and you get really bad customer service (they’re idiots), so if you can get away without having to contact them then all is fine, otherwise it’s pretty painful.
• TalkTalk - has the worst reputation of all for Broadband (avoid)
• Virgin - their service should improve but it’s still NTL under the covers, proceed with caution