Joined up at www.no-more-9to5.com
Customer Service
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I have only had to call the Broadcall customer service number once. When I received my free modem, the account details were missing. I called the support number and got the details I needed within 4 minutes.
Line Speed
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Firstly I am aware that line speed is to do with the technology under the ground and the distance from the exchange, not the provider. According to my Netgear broadband router I consistently get:
DownStream Connection Speed 4342 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 800 kbps
For me this is plentiful, I can surf, watch video's and game!
Speed Consistency
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I often download large ISO files from Microsoft Technet, these are typically between 1GB and 6GB file sizes. I am yet to have any speed or disconnection problems during a download.
Video streaming is good most of the time, it can be choppy 2 or 3 times a week but it's difficult to know if this is my connection or the website source i.e. youtube or bbc iplayer. After a quick break it seems ok again.
I game a lot and pings are in the 60's and 70's, I have never had ping spikes or stages of slow connection speeds.
Uploading large files is quite slow at 800kbps. Uploading things like images for facebook is fast enough. I've not had disconnection during an upload.
Connection Consistency
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At least once every month I will come home from work and cannot do anything online. When I look on my Netgear modem there is no IP address, Gateway or DNS Server, the modem seems to get stuck in a loop trying to reconnect. A manual disconnect and reconnect via the router's web interface works, (for non technical people its the same as turning it off and on again). As a technical person this is a minor problem, I know how to sort it and it has never happened when I've been actively online, only during periods of inactivity.
Package
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You are not forced to use their free modem. I have replaced the free one with my own wireless one. 40GB data transfer is plenty considering I do a lot of downloading and gaming. I have never reached the limit. Unlimited is only an extra fiver / month so if I did start to reach it, it's not going to hurt the bank balance at the end of the month.
The big advantage of the Broadcall package is free line rental, I do calls by mobile phone so Line Rental for something you dont use would be very annoying. I combined this package with Gas and Electric so also get free calls anytime to (01,02,03, 0870, annoyingly not free to 0845 compared to some of BT's packages which are).
Overall this is a great package at a great price!
Before you switch suppliers it's worth knowing that as every telephone exchange is different and as everyone is at different distances from their exchange then you may not have the same experience as someone else. If you are experiencing slow speeds, chances are its not your provider's fault, its the technology surrounding it that needs fixing or updating. If you are experiencing constant discconections you may need to get your line tested or get your speed re-optimised which is free of charge from your ISP, just you may enter a long queue.
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