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Post by MartinT on Jun 26, 2014 7:31:14 GMT
I've recently had cause to look for a new Internet Service Provider (ISP) at work and thought the costs of obtaining a commercial internet connection may interest those used to home broadband pricing.
For the last five years we've had a contract with Virgin Media to provide a dedicated leased line, via fibre, to the premises. This is 100Mbps on a 100M bearer (the maximum capacity of the line), totally dedicated and uncontended, with rapid response support during business hours, for £1,500 per month. We have a BT Infinity 48Mbps service as a fallback should a digger ever hit the main feed, which we can crank over to within a few seconds. A reliable internet connection is vital to us as a school since streamed video is often used for classroom lesson support, as well as all the normal internet usage by teachers and students, e-mail traffic, server cloud backup, external remote access etc.
Virgin just recently sent me a letter announcing a price increase to £1,612 per month. This came without even a courtesy call from our account manager, and with no change to the service. When I finally managed to speak to someone about it, they could give no real reason for the change except to say that the increase affects all their customers. Quite what investment could justify this price increase, when we are well established, all the equipment works and we hardly ever use their support, is hard to imagine.
So I set about looking for a new provider. Well, how very interesting! Everyone I contacted quoted me a better price than Virgin, despite only BT or, yes, Virgin being able to provide the bearer to our premises. When I challenged Virgin on this, they would not change their pricing, so I informed them that they had just needlessly lost a customer.
I have now decided on a company called Exponential-e who will provide a 200Mbps service on a 1G bearer for £1,341 per month. Together with 24/7 support and monitoring. That 1G bearer means it will be easy for us to crank up the bandwidth in future should we need it. Oh, and their being located in London means fewer hops along the Thames Valley trunk, rather than the current hub in Manchester, so page response should be faster. Installation is set for late August.
So we're getting higher speed, better support and future expandability for a lower price than we pay now. Can't be bad! |
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Post by John on Jun 26, 2014 7:38:16 GMT
Sounds like a good deal
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Post by MikeMusic on Jun 28, 2014 11:13:26 GMT
Always good to drop Virgin or BT. Such a satisfying feeling  I recommended an envelope printer to a friendly print company we know well. (most normal print companies do not print envelopes as they are a pain) He trumped me with a company I had never heard of, 30% less - and highly recommended Those lower prices can be there if you go looking |
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Post by MartinT on Jun 28, 2014 18:33:27 GMT
Always good to drop Virgin or BT The problem is, you can't really. Between them they own all the core fibre in the UK. You can use a different provider, though, which is plain silly as you think they would have the price advantage.
I can speak highly for BT Infinity, though. Good service.
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Post by MikeMusic on Jun 30, 2014 9:45:27 GMT
Maybe BTInfinity has a different setup
We had BT do all the install work when we moved in, different supplier for phones and broadband though, ICUK
Much prefer talking to them rather than BT or Virgin
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2014 10:37:32 GMT
Always good to drop Virgin or BT The problem is, you can't really. Between them they own all the core fibre in the UK.
different kettle of fish if you live where I live...don't get me started Kingston communications..........there are no BT lines in the hull area it's just not worth their while to rent infrastructure from KC. The only alternative to KC as far as I know is radio at the moment....although things may have changed recently. In the few years I've been here KC have upped their game considerable, presumably to avoid being scrutinized on the monopolies issue. |
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Post by MikeMusic on Jul 1, 2014 7:55:56 GMT
I have heard of KC
You have my sympathies
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Post by MartinT on Sept 13, 2014 16:51:55 GMT
To wrap this up, we went with Exponential-e, who provide an excellent fully monitored service. We now have 200M dedicated uncontended symmetrical fibre over 1G carrier with much lower lag (Virgin were based in Manchester, Exponential-e are in London). We cranked over to it a week ago and it's extremely fast and reliable.
Our cost went down from £1500 per month to £1341 per month. Result!
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Post by Chris on Sept 14, 2014 7:20:45 GMT
Have Virgin Media not been sold? Don't think it's Bransons anymore which might explain price rises and a serious drop in customer services. This is just from a domestic not business viewpoint obviously!
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Post by MikeMusic on Sept 14, 2014 10:33:51 GMT
Did Branson still even own it ?
Most Virgin companies are owned by others
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Post by MartinT on Sept 14, 2014 17:25:17 GMT
No idea, but the prices going up and service quality down are direct experiences of ours. They used to be good when we took them on 5 years ago, but are now beaten by many others.
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Post by MikeMusic on Sept 15, 2014 12:07:26 GMT
Customer service can be circular in some organisations........
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