Gigaclear Broadband experience anyone?

Tue 16 Aug 2022, 16:56 (last edited on Tue 16 Aug 2022, 18:55)

What other options are there for a higher speed SYNCHRONOUS internet connection? My wife works from home a lot and pushes very many columned spreadsheets about on the cloud with other senior managers and charity board trustees. Gigaclear has the monopoly on high bitrate (physically optic fibre) to the premises that she needed so that the *upstream* bitrate was high enough to suffice.

By the way it pleased my son, captain of Durham U E-sports team (rowing move over, e-sport is a thing with massive international meets like in Cologne this summer, the maths and sciences nerds have had their revenge over the jocks - and are successful! - because of the much lower latency rate and response times.

But what synchronous up/downstream alternatives are there if Gigaclear start playing monopoly pricing games once they've suckered us in with cheap initial offers.

Infrastructure - physical infrastructure - is a natural monopoly and should be on a "common carrier" purpose.

Tue 16 Aug 2022, 09:27

Hi Katie, I was tired of dealing with BT and the way they raised prices on my father ( ex BT engineer ) while he was alive. I eventually moved to Zen Internet and never had to deal with BT again also the land line rental was cheaper which was great if you received calls more that making them. Zen uses BT infrastructure but have their own support lines and are quite helpful.

Tue 16 Aug 2022, 08:40

Hi Birgit

You are right that it will become more expensive at the end of the initial term. I haven't yet reached that point, but I would intend to haggle on that and if unsuccessful, I'd still be happy to pay a little more for a more reliable and faster service than BT (and avoid BT's horrendous "Customer Service").

Mon 15 Aug 2022, 16:59

I think you will find that with the gigaclear resellers the price you pay happens to be exactly the same or more than gigaclear directly. This is because they operate differently than Openreach/BT. 

Mon 15 Aug 2022, 16:16 (last edited on Mon 15 Aug 2022, 16:17)

On the gigaclear web pages they list selling the wholesale service to other providers who are listed here:

https://www.gigaclear.com/our-partners

So no different to open reach/BT who own the copper network and resell to other providers, or Virgin in a select few cities who provide a cable service over cable they own.

Mon 15 Aug 2022, 15:50

The problem with Gigaclear is that they own the fibre and provide the service exclusively on that fibre. So you are stuck with them if you no longer have a landline. I believe WODC used taxpayer funds to pay for half of the fibre installation in rural West Oxon. They should have insisted that Gigaclear would allow other operators on the fibre, but didn't.

Mon 15 Aug 2022, 13:23 (last edited on Mon 15 Aug 2022, 13:41)

We’ve had no problems with Gigaclear since we moved over to them last year. Working from home, streaming tv etc. and the speed holds up without issue. We also had the landline taken out as we only ever take/make calls via our mobiles anyway, which now just piggy-back the Wi-Fi, meaning much better call quality than our intermittent mobile signal used to give us.

With regards to the pricing, it’s much like with any fixed deal on mobiles for instance, you simply ask them when coming to the end of your fixed term what new fixed deals they have available. Ours is due to run out soon, from £26/month for 400mb when we signed up. At the moment for the same price they are now offering 600mb, so we will simply switch to that/the nearest equivalent available at the time. Similar to how mobile contracts over the years maintain price levels but improve the amount of calls/data etc. you get as tech develops/customer base increases and so on.
I very much doubt anyone would need to go on to the higher rate once the fix runs out, unless they tend to be the kind who don’t move deals when they run out and just accept higher rates, but each to their own on that one. Usually you just threaten to leave if they can’t offer you a price you want/match current packages on offer and you go via customer retention teams to get one :)

Mon 15 Aug 2022, 11:24

Thanks Hamish and Katie re original line not being removed. That was my main issue and so am happier with them now I know switching should be easy. 

Mon 15 Aug 2022, 11:13

Hi Gigaclear aficionados,

Thank you for all the info so far. Like Anna, I am considering switching - like most, I work many hours from home, could do with faster broadband, and also would not miss a landline. However, I don't understand how it would be cheaper, like some of you say. I am now with the Phone Coop - many years of happy service (someone picks up the phone when you call) - for which I pay £33.95 a month. The deals offered by Gigaclear, although for the first 18 months much cheaper, then become much more expensive (Hans's point). For instance, the deal for 'busy broadband users' is £20/month for the first 18 months but then becomes £44/month. Even the cheapest deal would end up becoming £40. What am I missing? Or are you saying it is worth the extra cost? Thank you!

Sat 13 Aug 2022, 16:52 (last edited on Sat 13 Aug 2022, 16:54)

 We've just had it installed and this time it was seamless. It's much cheaper, faster and more reliable than BT and we don't use a landline or VOIP, just Wi-fi calling on our mobiles. All four of us can stream or make calls at the same time and it's brilliant. The router they provide and the Linksys app that comes with it is very good and makes controlling internet access for the kids very straightforward. I wouldn't go back to BT in a million years.

They also have not removed the BT line here, it is still available if we want it. They also did not remove the landline from either of the previous 2 houses we had it in, so not quite sure about that-maybe businesses only?

Thu 11 Aug 2022, 19:46

Can't fault Gigaclear, it's faster, cheaper and more reliable than previous broadband. The phone line is still physically sat there should I ever choose to go back to copper. Using VOIP so just transferred home phone number across to that so no disruption at all.

Wed 10 Aug 2022, 20:30

Like Richard, I’m very happy with Gigaclear. Two people working from home with constant video calling that I’m yet to experience a drop on. One of my biggest draws was not paying BT any more money to be honest. All I’d say is, keep an eye on renewals. Deals are there to be had but you need to talk to them before your current one ends.

Sat 6 Aug 2022, 14:35

We’re very happy with Gigaclear.

The connection is very fast, which is essential for me as I move large files around a lot, and customer service has been fine on the rare occasions we’ve needed it. The free wireless routers are good, much better than the Plusnet one we had previously.

We chose just to give up our landline number and that’s been fine: friends and family have our mobile numbers, so the main effect is losing out on the countless junk calls about “This is your Amazon Prime delivery” that we used to get on the landline.

I’d recommend them to anyone.

Sat 6 Aug 2022, 14:24

I would not touch Gigaclear with a bargepole. 

My reason? Simply this ... if you sign up for Gigaclear and then at a later date change your mind, I understand that it is very difficult to get rid of them in favour of another ISP. I try to avoid what I will describe as "private pseudo-monopolies" in my life ... and Gigaclear is a prime example.

Sat 6 Aug 2022, 12:46 (last edited on Sat 6 Aug 2022, 12:48)

In my dealings with Gigaclear I have found them to be very inflexible so have not decided to purchase their plan. I’m going to stick with Zen internet until that changes. Gigaclear would only offer one static IP address ( which you have to pay for £2 monthly!) with their domestic plan, if you wanted two static IP addresses you have to have the business plan which starts at £80 per month. I understand this will not be an issue for most users but it is for me as Zen gives me 5 static IP addresses for free and I use them.

On another note, remember that Gigaclear is not an traditional ISP so you will not get an email account or a land line/phone number and will have to provide this another way if you want them.

If you purchase a voice over IP device/service to replace your telephone line ( and keep your number ) please get one which is encrypted ( think of your conversation going via the internet where any node could drop in on your conversation on those banking verification calls ).

If I do ever move to Gigaclear fiber I will keep my land line until the Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) is switched off. The Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) is aging and will reach the end of life in December 2025.

Fri 5 Aug 2022, 18:59

Thanks Miles and Hans - I think I'll stick with BT for the time being!

Fri 5 Aug 2022, 16:11

I am on BT and was paying about £ 55. I called and complained and got it down to about £ 30. I hear gigaclear is a fine service from users, be aware that the cost goes up a lot after the first 18 months or so. Then as Miles said you may be stuck with their fibre, so you can't (easily) go back to BT, or any other ISP using their network such as Sky, Vodafone etc.

Fri 5 Aug 2022, 16:04

Mine is ok. I have been thinking about it and one issue is, they come and take out your by line and charge to put in a new line. Presumably if one wants to cancel now a new BT line or other has to be installed at quite an expense.

Fri 5 Aug 2022, 15:51 (last edited on Fri 5 Aug 2022, 15:52)

My BT Broadband contract is up for renewal and I'd be interested to hear from people who have moved to Gigaclear. BT works fine but Gigaclear seems less expensive although it's important o know how reliable it is in practice. Thanks.