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Questions about broadband, phone and tv

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Helloo,

I want to get broadband in my house as theres currently no internet connection.
I've been looking at deals online and have decided to go for tiscali as they offer broadband to suit my needs, free phone line rental with free weekend calls, and a tv variety pack all for £20 per month.

But I have 3 questions...

1) I currently have freeview and get a few channels that i dont want to lose. However, when i look at the list i would get with tiscali it doesnt have the ones i want to keep- would i get my existing freeview ones and then the tiscali ones in addition? Or instead?

2) There's no phone line in this ancient house, how would i go about getting one set up? I dont have much money to be paying for this so is it possible to get that for free?

3) In regard to the digital switchover, how will i be affected if i have my current freeview, or if i sign up for tiscali digital tv? The tv itself is not digital so when the switchover happens will i lose my freeview? Its just connected through an old style ariel plug thing that connects to the freeview.

4) How quickly (realistically) could i get a phone line fitted and have everything up and working?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ok.

    1. I'm not really sure how the Tiscali option works, probably tv over broadband. In any event there's nothing to stop you keeping your current digital box.

    2. Pay BT one hundred and something pounds and they will connect you. No you won't get it for free.

    3. Freeview is digital, it doesn't matter what your TV is.

    4. About a week for provision of a new line, probably another week after that for broadband. Probably longer if they actually have to lay a cable.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    yeah Bt charge £125 or there abouts currently, but you've no choice in that.

    i'd have a search for reviews on tiscali as i've heard bad things in the past, not too sure how they are currently tho.

    the only other channels you get other than freeview look to be the sky 1 2 and 3 channels, if thats something you want then maybe not a bad deal
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    the only other channels you get other than freeview look to be the sky 1 2 and 3 channels, if thats something you want then maybe not a bad deal

    In my area i can't pick up many freeview channels so most of the ones that tiscali offer i dont already have. But there's a couple i do get that i dont want to lose and tiscali dont list, not sure if i'll get all the tiscali ones and then ones picked up by freeview in addition?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    from looking at it i recon it's just a freeview box with a viewing card to allow the non free channels such as the sky ones i mentioned, therefore if you struggle to get channels now you'll struggle to get them with this without a signal booster or a new aerial.

    i may be wrong, but i dont think this is TV over broadband
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I think you'd need to ask them how they deliver their tv service. I couldn't find the info on the website.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    just had a scoot around and it looks like it delivers TV via the phone line, must be similar to that BT thing they do, also looks like a lot of it is PPV, so be careful with that.

    but should get you more channels!

    the box records as well, so thats all good in the hood
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Virgin media is your friend!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Im steering clear of virgin ghostgirl due to having recieved bad customer service from them in the past

    My parents have been using tiscali broadband for about 7 years and never had any problems with their service or customer service so im definatly going for that

    LuckyStrike, what do you mean by "tv over broadband" ? And what is PPV? And am i likely to need one of these signal booster things regardless of whether i get tiscali tv, when the digital switchover happens?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    does your tv support digitial? if so i wouldnt worry just yet, if not, you'll need to swap tellies anyway.

    your tv apparently comes down your phoneline, never used it to be honest, but technically should mean you dont need any aerial at all....

    PPV is pay per view, the movies and music on tiscali seems to be pay for it if you watch it.

    tiscali is rated 2 out of 10 on ispreview and 2.5 out of 5 on thinkbroadband

    they've got a forum over at thinkbroadband which is good, so might be worth posting on there

    also if you download at all, p2p etc.. they throttle the connection which means you'll get piss poor download speeds
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    My parents are on Tiscali broadband and apparently get disconnected quite often, and at weekends sometimes cannot get connected at all. Your experience may vary.

    Getting the TV over broadband would mean that you should get the whole channel list, but the quality will depend on the standard of your line.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Blah wrote: »
    Im steering clear of virgin ghostgirl due to having recieved bad customer service from them in the past

    My parents have been using tiscali broadband for about 7 years and never had any problems with their service or customer service so im definatly going for that

    LuckyStrike, what do you mean by "tv over broadband" ? And what is PPV? And am i likely to need one of these signal booster things regardless of whether i get tiscali tv, when the digital switchover happens?
    Oooh, how horrible.

    I've always had great service off them. They even refunded my bank charge they caused me to have. Twice. Bargain!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I personally have no issues with the sky tv/phone/broadband package for £26 a month. I know people say bad things about it, but it's been good for me so far...5 months in now. For an extra £6 a month I wouldn't hesitate to get sky tv rather than the tiscalli option either.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    We have the Sky package and it's good.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    sky is the way forward, excellent service
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    im looking at the sky package now but it says i can get tv, broadband and phone for £26 a month which sounds fine but in addition to that its an extra £11 per month for BT line rental! So errr its not actually £26 a month its £37 = not affordable to me :no:

    Is this likely to be the case with all packages i look at, including tiscali?

    Im overall quite confused. I'd prefer to have the type of broadband before where it didnt use a phone line, it was cable. Dont think i have a socket for that though so i gather i'd have to pay extra to have one installed :/
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Don't use The Post Office, My friend singed up 2 months ago and still no service :shocking:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Don't use The Post Office, My friend singed up 2 months ago and still no service :shocking:

    Fuck that, those guys are still struggling with a form of communication invented centuries ago.

    Virgin Media or Zen are the way forward :thumb:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Im very confused!

    Im not in a cable area so cant get cable broadband. My only option is adsl broadband but theres no phoneline in this house. I was under the impression that i need to pay £125 to have a new phone line installed and then i can get something like tiscali adsl broadband. But... on the bt website it says that if i have a phone line installed then i have to pay at least £10.50 per month just to have the phone line??

    Why can't i just get a phone line installed by bt and thats that from them, then choose whichever broadband provider i want to get adsl from, without having to pay a monthly fee to bt in addidion to my broadband supplier?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    In fact, even bt want me to pay both if i get broadband with them! Its £12.99 per month (first 3 months) for the broadband but when ordering a new phoneline from them there's no option for no line rental which means the line rental must be in addition
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Someone has to pay the line rental, you, be it to BT or any other phone provider.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    RubberSkin wrote: »
    Someone has to pay the line rental, you, be it to BT or any other phone provider.

    even in addition to adsl internet though? Seems a bit unfair thaat if i got a bt package that i would have to pay line rental on top of that
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yes. The vast majority of people do. We pay line rental, and on top of that our internet. Even when i had a BT line and BT broadband i paid for both.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Blah wrote: »
    even in addition to adsl internet though? Seems a bit unfair thaat if i got a bt package that i would have to pay line rental on top of that

    Why would you expect to have a phone line for free? Someone is providing you with the service, you'd pretty much expect to have to pay them for it.

    If you consider it as erksome to have to pay a phone line rental as well as paying for your broadband service, then just think of it as one bill. That'd be easier with BT 'cos it most likely is one bill.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Mist wrote: »
    Why would you expect to have a phone line for free? Someone is providing you with the service, you'd pretty much expect to have to pay them for it.

    If you consider it as erksome to have to pay a phone line rental as well as paying for your broadband service, then just think of it as one bill. That'd be easier with BT 'cos it most likely is one bill.

    Yeh i guess so im just shocked at how much this is all going to cost, especially as im used to cable broadband where line rental hasn't been an issue

    I'll need to have very low speed broadand in order to afford it
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Blah wrote: »
    Im steering clear of virgin ghostgirl due to having recieved bad customer service from them in the past

    My parents have been using tiscali broadband for about 7 years and never had any problems with their service or customer service so im definatly going for that

    LuckyStrike, what do you mean by "tv over broadband" ? And what is PPV? And am i likely to need one of these signal booster things regardless of whether i get tiscali tv, when the digital switchover happens?
    just being nosy

    did you have bad experience with virgin cable or non-cable?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've heard that migrating from Tiscali can be a task and a half.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Blah wrote: »
    Im steering clear of virgin ghostgirl due to having recieved bad customer service from them in the past

    Hell yeah, they're absolutely shocking. Used to be ntl, I never had a problem but my boyfriend was with them and kept trying to cancel cos he was moving out and every time he did they just hung up on him (obv on commission). In the end he canceled, and a year later they sent him a bill for all the months he hadn't been there. Argued but said no record of him canceling. There was nothing he could do so had to pay it

    Now we're with virgin media and they've been a hassle. Sent us the stuff for tv, net and phone cos the lines were already installed. Couldn't even register the net for a week because the system was down (but still paid for it). Wasn't given a scart or a remote and had to ring up no less than 20 TIMES to get sent one. Got through to foreign people all the time and transferred to different departments. 2 weeks later remote and scart arrived. Finally we were told that no-one would have to come round at all. Someone turned up unexpectedly to set up the phone line at a very inconvenient time. The incompetent fucks :mad: :mad: :mad:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    .
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