Thinking of leaving Plusnet - Any advice

[#1]

I am thinking of leaving Plusnet in the new year so I can get Sky Broadband.  I have sky TV and the prices are going up £3 a month not including VAT from September and the 20% hike in VAT in January and having £60 plus a month for entertainment and sport, getting a bundle will cost a lot less a month than it is now. 
With the budget cuts possibly affecting my income in future years, this is the reason why I am thinking of leaving Plusnet.  Any advice on this will be extremely useful.
Thanks
Idem

[#2]

Make sure your exchange is provisioned for  Sky LLU broadband, you do not want to be on their BT IPstream product called Connect.
Sam Knows >  link for exchange search.

[#3]

I have just moved to Sky from Plusnet because it worked out cheaper to get their "free" broadband............... only being with them 2 weeks though so cannot comment on them very much yet- speed was higher than PN at first but now varies. However I am a distance from exchange so did not expect any different.
The process on Sky's part was straightforward and the information they give is very clear and easy to understand. The router arrived a week before activation date.
I also changed my telephone line and calls over to them as they worked out cheaper and got a surprise as the first 3 months of "anytime" calls are free.  I have had a few problems with the accounts side of things at PN regarding telephone though but I am hoping that is sorted.
They have a Skyuser Forum which is different to this one but informative.  It is worth having a read of that before you decide.  
I have kept a free email account ongoing with PN in case I decide to return!  also in case I forgot to tell anyone new email address. And of course I can still come on here and meet my old friends!

[#4]

Is the "free" Sky Broadband not restricted to 2GB a month?

[#5]

If I have the bundle with sky (TV, Telephone and Broadband) it is under £20 a month but if I just have broadband it is free 2GB or unlimited for £12 or £13 a month.

[#6]

I'm currently staying at a friend's house whilst I'm buying my new place (exchange on Monday!) and we have Sky free 2mbps broadband there. All I can say is it's absolutely horrendous. DNS lookups don't complete half the time, it's throttled very heavily in peak times across various protocols, pings are awful... I've reverted to my dongle from 3 and get a significantly better connection. Roll on Plusnet in my new place...

[#7]

What will you do when the Digital switchover happens?  You either need to need to get Freeview or if you like Sport and/or Movies you need to get Sky or Virgin.

[#8]

Ahh, not really!  I can't have a dish so sky is unavailable to me but yesterday I bought a Humax HDR-FOX T2 which is a Freeview HD box with hard drive but importantly has the ability to use Sky Player so I should be able to subscribe to Sky and download the shows over the internet, a bit like iPlayer only with Sky.  Not recommended on a package with low allowance but the 60Gb package should manage it quite well.
I wonder if Sky Player does full HD....

[#9]

If you need more than 2GB and are on Value then would you not be better staying with PN? The reason is that you would have to pay additional amount to Sky for 'unlimited' anyway.  This is assuming that 10GB is enough of course.
These days 2GB is a pathetically small amount when you consider all the Windows updates, antivirus and of course entertainment like watching iPlayer or listening to Spotify.  Also, I can't imagine that their support is anywhere near what we get with Plusnet (even though we do have our gripes at times).
The other thing (AFAIK) is that to get the 'free' broadband you have to have one of their telephone products even if it is just using them for calls.

[#10]

I forgot to mention that I already have Telephone from Sky.  I chose PN because it is one of the best buys from Which Magazine but Sky Broadband was not recommended.

[#11]

Sky broadband is OK providing it is LLU - if it isn't avoid like the plague

[#12]

Quote from: idlewis

What will you do when the Digital switchover happens?

Freesat HD

[#13]

Quote

assuming that 10GB is enough of course

If you do *just* surfing over 6 or 7 hours a day, 10GB is not enough for using iPlayer or any streaming broadcast at all. You can watch a few short YouTube clips but that's it.
The way around it is to download the programmes during the small hours, in the free downloads time.
I think Plusnet would be fairer to consumers to "fess up" on this fact. People will easily over-shoot the limit and end up forking out another £5 or even £10 before they know it, given the new charging structure. Yes, they're in business to make a profit, but no-one likes getting unexpected bills.  They deserve to be told, so they can choose.

[#14]

Quote from: drmiket

. People will easily over-shoot the limit and end up forking out another £5 or even £10 before they know it, given the new charging structure.

That is completely wrong. The receive this email warning at 80% of the limit 

Quote

You're approaching your product's broadband peak-time usage allowance of 10GB for this month. We've sent you this email to help you manage your usage, and ensure you don't face unexpected charges. There's no limit on how much you can use, but once you've used your 10GB allowance, additional usage is charged at £5.00 per 5GB.

[#15]

I checked my usage over the previous 3 mths before switching to Sky as I found I was not using anymore than  the 2GB so felt that I could continue to mange that.