Poll confirms Reg Hardware readers' verdict

We have to agree with Broadband Genie: O2 and Virgin Media are currently the country's best service providers. The two Reg Hardware Readers Awards winners both topped the broadband price comparison site's own survey, Broadband Genie said today. BG's results came from 3000 punters across the country who were questioned by …

[Anonymous Coward]

Best or most popular?

Is the survey adjusted to consider the number of people who have used each service?

SuperDuperISP could be the best thing ever and have only 10 users take the survey, so come in low.

[Anonymous Coward]

SuperDuperISP

That would be Be then. In a different class altogether.

The ONLY ISP who's technical support are happy to answer your question about attenuation/Annex m /FastPath or Interleaved, without having to google it first.

Shame.

[Anonymous Coward]

virgin are good

It just needs a couple of disclaimers, you must be using their cable broadband service, and you probably shouldn't have had to use their tech support!

[D@v3]

good news for me then

im just in the process of moving to O2 :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

STOP right there...

have you considered Be?

if you want techie BroadBand, Be is the only option.

[Steve Todd]

O2 Own BE

And use the BE network to provide their own branded version. O2's customer service and provisioning need some work (I switched from Tiscali/Talk Talk LLU and they didn't seem able to cope with transferring BOTH the telephone line & broadband at the same time, then they took 2 weeks to provide me with a new router), but once the service is up it goes like a train (19.95MBits synch speed, 17+ Mbits transfer speeds according to speediest.net).

[Anonymous Coward]

re: O2 own BE

But O2 will resell you BT where Be are not in the exchange. check that your exchange is BE enabled! - Im not certain but I think O2 limits to 20mb as BT does, wheras the Be routers are capable of 24mb via the Be trickery. I can get the full 24mb when I do not have annexM enabled.

[D@v3]

I did

And being an O2 mobile customer, it is marginally cheaper, for a very similar service.

[mr-tom]

Virgin also deserve the award for the worst non-provider

I've had a 6 year running battle with them to stop them from sending me unsolicited mail. I'm on the mailing preference service, the post office's list and I'm registered with Virgin themselves as somebody who doesn't want to receive their junk mail, but still it comes.

The irony is that their service isn't even available in my area.

[Sarah Davis]

dang - think i missed that pole

having been a beta tester for Blueyonder before it became Telewest before it became Virgin, and also having tried BT, Talk Talk, and BE, I can confirm BE are best by a mile. They have support who are actually able to offer support, engineers who are actuall engineers, and their 'unlimited' service is actually unlimited - i think they're also the cheapest, and faster than all but Virgin !

[Anonymous Coward]

I voted but still...

As a tester for NTL's first cable broadband trails (originally Diamond Cable) from 1999 (I had to import a modem from the states myself as they did not supply them then!) then a customer of virgin, then following a move, AOL ADSL, Orange ADSL Then Be ADSL I can whole heartedly agree Be is the best I have ever used! to the extent that when move house again I would pay more for a house near a Be enabled exchange!

[squilookle]

Virgin are crap.

I see this as proof that there is a lack of decent providers out there, rather than a pat on the back for Virgin.

[Mr Young]

Sweeping comment

I'd like to rate a Fibre Optic Broadband connection so just stop whining please

[drmexico]

Another happy Be customer

I too voted for Be as they were fast, cheap and with good support. Was with them for years but unfortunately I've moved house to an exchange which Be doesn't cover so I'm stuck with Sky who are cheap but so, so slow in comparison.

[Dave Robinson]

Zen?

What about Zen? PC Pro's best broadband provider for the last 10 million years or something?

Just looked at Be's website... unfortunately I typed in my phone number and it reported that their availability checker is broken :-)

Think I'll stick with Zen. Reassuringly expensive.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup, it is very difficult to take these results seriously...

... when they didn't even include all the ISP providers in the country in their survey, and especially not the one that, as you have pointed out, has been top-rated every year for almost a decade. I left that answer (and probably eight or more others) blank in the Reg survey because my response was effectively none-of-the-very-limited-selection-you-have-listed-above.