Loss of Virginity
March 14th, 2024Since before this blog existed, I’d been a customer of Virgin Media or its predeccesor, Telewest/Blueyonder. Back when i took it out, in around 2001, it was the only option for broadband here, with no ADSL service, and I can still remember the blistering speed of 512Kbit/sec (that’s 0.5M, kids) that, actually did seem blistering compared to the 30-something K a so-called 56k dial-up could deliver.
We had TV too, with the demise of OnDigital, but not the phone: that came later with a package upgrade courtesy of a colleague’s sister that worked for VM at some point.
So, all in all, about 23 years of custom. The speeds have risen, and the price crept up, but overall, it’s been a reliable service.
Late last year, though, it wasn’t, and I started looking around. The relatively high cost, recently announced 8.8% price rise, and the arrival of fibre on the BT Openretch poles in the street convinced me it was time.
I’d heard great things of Andrews and Arnold: a small, UK-based, techie-friendly ISP who aim to be up front, simple, and clear. so i enquired, and got a real answer from a real human refreshingly free of marketing. They could also port my landline, an anachronism I’m not ready to lose yet, over to SIP with very cheap line rental and reasonable charges. I explained what my knowledge level was and what I wanted, they told me what to order and advised me against giving notice until the phone line port completed, as that can fail if a service is due to be ceased.
At the point of writing, the new connection is to be installed, but the phone port has happened- and thanks to a borrowed ATA, a config guide on A&A’s website, and prior experience with SIP means that the phone is working over the VM connection at the first attempt, despite the fact that SIP and NAT can be problematic, having ported in the timeframe given with no fuss whatsoever. Having the line in SIP with a tech-friendly provider means flexibility and features at no extra cost now, too. The end of POTS in the UK means all phones will move to IP in time, but moving to a more conventional ISP would leave me with less control and being forced to use their router if I wanted the landline phone. This gives me flexibility, at the cost of having to handle some tech myself.
Now the port is complete, I’ve told VM that I’m off. They did, of course offer to improve my package, but I have the same approach here as with car insurance: if you can offer me better, you should have done that, not waited for me to call and say I’m off. I now have a few weeks to play about with the new connection, while the old one still works. I have an ISP-supplied router and at least one alternative to try. The new connection will give me about 3 times the speed.
As to TV, we found that a lot of our watching was either Freeview, streaming from free-to-use services like All4, or a bit of Amazon prime, so the cost of VM’s TV seems excessive: we will try Freeview and consider other services if needed.