Broadband providers in Oxford, England?

September 1, 2004 8:35 AM

Can anyone recommend a good broadband company for a 1Mbps connection on 1 year contract in Oxford? We don't want to have a phone line and will probably stick it on a wireless router to 5 computers around the house.
posted by Mossy to shopping (7 answers total)

Oxford, Mass? New Jersey? Shoe? Guess you mean England.
posted by ParisParamus at 8:39 AM on September 1, 2004

Oxford, ye olde England would be good ^_^
posted by Mossy at 8:42 AM on September 1, 2004

Crikey - I don't think Demon go up to 1Mbps, and I think you're out of Telewest's range. Unfortunately Home Choice haven't broken out of London yet. Those would have been my recommendations. Off the top of my head this leaves, hmmmm...

Wanadoo (the rebranded Freeserve) - complete with poo software and typical corporate customer support. Beware their monthly transfer limits - the highest of which seems to be 30 Gb :/

AOL is a tiny bit more expensive, but you avoid the limit. Similar situation on the customer support front, and probably even more poo on your computer.

BT/Yahoo are the same price as AOL but still have the 30Gb limit. Also, in my experience when BT was still open world, bad bad bad bad customer support.

You might want to investigate UK Online, One.Tel and Tiscali, which I know less about. In my experience, though, smaller dedicated ISPs provide much better support than telecoms companies and larger coorporations.
posted by nthdegx at 8:59 AM on September 1, 2004

I'm afraid if you don't want a phone line ADSL is out and you'll need a cable modem.

Try typing your postcode into Telewest's or NTL's site. I've had NTL 600K for 2 years and can't recommend it highly enough
posted by derbs at 9:28 AM on September 1, 2004

Pipex goes up to 1Mbps. You will need a phone line though.
posted by john_son at 9:30 AM on September 1, 2004

Tangent question: here in NYC, the "meter" on my DSL indicates a download rate of above 1mbs (something like 1.4). Is that wrong, or is Mossy asking for 1Mbs+ upload as well?
posted by ParisParamus at 9:35 AM on September 1, 2004

ntl:Home is the cable provider in the Oxford area. The service can be a bit spotty, the service support line can be diabolical, but the deal is great - I've had broadband 600mbps for 3 years installed since I got cable TV, and recently got a free upgrade to 750kbps. The phone costs are negligible. Cable modem costs me £20/month to hire [TV selections cost extra. I dunno if this offer is still available.]
posted by dash_slot- at 4:29 PM on September 1, 2004