ISP Question.

[a1jonuk]

Hi,
I have been with AOL for a long time and was paying £9.99 a month.
This has recently jumped to £14.99,when I phoned to complain about this I was told "if you bring your phone calls etc over to aol we will do you a deal at £12.99 a month for a 24 month contract"
I do not want to use aol for phone calls so declined their offer.
I am still paying £14.99 but have no fixed contract so can change isp,s if i find a better deal.
My question is this: my wifes main e-mail address is an aol one (she has had this for years and does not want to change it)also,she has many buddies who are also on aol that she regularly im,s with, if we change isp,s will she lose her e-mail address and the ability to im friends on aol?

Andy.
p.s. apologies if this post is in the wrong section- admins please move if it is.

 

[floppybootstomp]

In short - yes.

If you phone AOL and tell them you're leaving they may very well offer you your old deal back, that's what my sister done and she's still paying a tenner a month.

Any ISP you leave will delete any e-mail addresses you had with them and if you leave AOL you will no longer have access to all their chat rooms etc.

 

[Taffycat]

Flopps is correct regarding AOL email lapsing if you change ISP, but AIM (AOL's instant messanger) is available to anyone, using any ISP, so I think Andy's wife could remain in touch with her buddies via that app.

Quote from AOL's FAQs:

All you need is the AOL Instant Messenger(TM) software and a computer with a connection to the Internet. AOL Instant Messenger(TM) runs on your existing Internet connection, so when you connect to the Internet (in your usual way), you can use AIM the same way you use any other Internet program

HERE

Maybe a compromise?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Ah-ha. I was unaware of AIM. But I was on AOL with dial-up for six years and used to visit their chat rooms sometimes. I can't get into them now. Which is possibly a good thing

 

[a1jonuk]

Thanks for replies , I guessed we would lose any e-mail addresses so will probably have to grin and bear it.When I spoke to aol I said i would be looking for another isp if they could'nt do me a better deal and they basically said "good luck but we don't think you will find a better deal than £15 per month.
I may try phoning them again to say i am leaving and see if they come up with another offer.
Andy

 

[Taffycat]

Thanks for replies , I guessed we would lose any e-mail addresses so will probably have to grin and bear it.When I spoke to aol I said i would be looking for another isp if they could'nt do me a better deal and they basically said "good luck but we don't think you will find a better deal than £15 per month.
I may try phoning them again to say i am leaving and see if they come up with another offer.
Andy

Don't think AOL is quite correct about that, there are a few sub-£15 broadband packages around. Have you seen this, for example:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4122-be-broadband-to-offer-7-50-month-broadband-service.html

BE Broadband to offer £7.50/month broadband service

Friday 01 January 2010 09:15:34 by (e-mail address removed)

This morning, BE Broadband has reduced the price of its BE Value product from £13.50 to £7.50 making it the UK's cheapest standalone ADSL2+ broadband service. The package will not be subject to any traffic shaping but does include a 40GB usage allowance.

The service is an 'up to 8 meg' product but unlike most other entry level packages, features a free ADSL2+ modem, 24x7 support and an up to 1.3Mbps upstream rate which is becoming increasingly important as users generate more content by uploading photos and videos. As before, a 12 month contract applies but at £90 per year, it's still a bargain. BE Broadband was recently in the news following their success in our Customer Service Awards which are based exclusively on ratings by users, showing that its value services are still backed with excellent customer support.

"The trends we're seeing are for no traffic management allowing more freedom and of course lower prices. Our members demand the freedom to prioritise and think for themselves, not have their broadband provider do it for them. We believe there a lot of customers that will leap at the chance to get a service that doesn't slow down based on the content of their downloads but don't use the internet enough to justify an unlimited product."

Tom Williams (Head of Operations), BE
​

​

Source: Thinkbroadband

Even if you are not interested, it might be useful to quote to AOL

 

[a1jonuk]

Hi,

Thanks for reply Taffycat.
I looked at BE broadband , it seems like a very good deal but unfortunately when i entered our phone number it came up with "your phone line cannot support our broadband" but i guess i could still quote the deal to aol and see what they say.
I,m not sure why our phone line isn't suitable,is it because it's not fast enough or something?
Andy.

 

[Taffycat]

I think it might have something to do with BE offering LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) which has not been enabled at all BT exchanges.

It explains a bit more about it - and shows you a few more of the cheaper packages here. At least if you know what is available, you can maybe persuade AOL to be reasonable

 

[a1jonuk]

Thanks again , some good info via that link.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I can't get BE or 02 (basically the same thing) either and the reason given to me by BE was that our local exchange only has so many slots whhich BT currently don't plan to expand and that BT are not letting any more slots to third party ISP's.

BT are keeping all slots for themselves so I suppose I was lucky to connect through my current ISP, Zen.

Which is a shame as BE/02 are currently offering the best deals in the UK, as far as I can see.

There are certain ISP's you should avoid as well such as Tiscali, Orange, Talk Talk and many others, cos they are not very good (I'm being polite here ).

And I personally wouldn't touch BT with a barge pole because basically all my life they've managed to let me down and upset me, even as recently as last September.

But that's just me and others here use BT and seem satisfied.