No need to be so hard on them.... (btinternet.com)

Member Name: Marcus_T

Product:	btinternet.com
Date:	18/12/00 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 24/7 Unmetered Access, Reliable, Cheap, No 2 hour Disconnection.

Disadvantages: I cannot think of any.

I have been with BT Internet for the best part of a year now and, bearing in mind the problems so many other ISPs have had / are having with Free Net Access, this service is VERY hard to beat. I dial in every day without fail and can count on two hands the number of occasions I have failed to connect first time or get cut off unexpectedly. OK, they have the monopoly (at the moment) but at least they have been consistent for the whole of this year. The email is reliable - I have not been let down once. The main site content is nothing to write home about but nonetheless there is enough to get you back there from time to time, competitions to take part in etc.

This weekend (17th/18th Dec) I received an email inviting me to pre-register for their 24 hr Anytime Service which I should be able to use in January for £14.99 per month - bargain!! I am also getting Openworld installed when they get round to me so I will write about that when it happens.

29 Jan 2001.
Last Friday, I was invited to sign up for the 24hr Anytime Service and I am getting it for the same price as the old service, £9.99 per month, until the end of March 2001. It could not have been easier to complete the changeover (all done online) and I am not experiencing any deterioration in service but the service is new and we shall have to wait and see what happens. Perhaps one downside is, from April, you have to have a BT line to use the service (thankfully that does not affect me) so this may cause existing BT Internet customers some inconvenience if they do not have a BT line. I will keep this opinion up to date as matters develop.

Re BT Openworld - put my name down on the 4th December - I am still patiently waiting and was told in mid-December that it would be 3 months minimum before they got around to me - this I will also keep you up to date on.

11 April 2001

I have now been using BT Anytime since the end of January. I have no hesitation in praising BT
for the quality of this service. I have hardly had any problems at all with my dialup connections and my webmail has always been accessible. I have not used my webspace with them yet so I cannot report on that. As Cookie36 has reported, there is no 2 hour disconnection anymore and if I had been with certain other ISPs.. (PlusNet for one) I would have been kicked off weeks ago. On Sunday alone I used up what would have been 10% of my monthly quota with PlusNet.

I was only charged £9.99 per month for the first 2 months because I was an existing customer but my charge will increase to £14.99 from this month. With the quality of service I get from them, I have no complaints about that.

ADSL UPDATE...

Now.... if BT were as slick with Openworld as they are with Anytime, this country would not be so badly off in the broadband connection stakes. It has now been 4 months since I signed up asking for the service and I am still waiting...

More to follow as and when.
:o)

Summary: