Having had my broadband Internet provided by Tiscali now for almost 4 years and on the whole they have been alright.  However I have found that the service has not really moved with the times in recent years although it is still providing a decent service.  It was time therefore to look elsewhere.

Speaking to a number of people at work it seemed that there were two best choices for switching to a different provider – BeThere or O2.  As it happens they are the same company I think.  I could also have gone with Sky Broadband however I have read and heard nothing but bad reports about this as so I decided not to go with it at this time.

Looking on the O2 website their deals seem to be excellent.  They were offering the same broadband package that I was on with Tiscali for a few pounds cheaper or I could more than double the speed to 20 meg (estimated 18 meg for my phone number) for the same price as I was paying now.  Therefore even though there would be some hassle involved I decided to bite the bullet and go for it.

In order to transfer your broadband from one supplier to another you need to obtain what is called a MAC code (Migration Authorisation Code) which allows the new company to transfer the service over to the new provider as you cannot have two companies providing broadband down the same telephone line.  Therefore I got onto Tiscali, my current provider and explained that I wanted to cancel the account and obtain a MAC code.  At this point you get all the questions about why you are wanting to move and are you unhappy with the service etc.  I explained that I could get it cheaper which is when the assistant did what I have hoped and offered me exactly the same service for half the price!  That was 8 mrg unlimited broadband for just £7.99.

Decisions, decisions?  I had previous problems with tiscali broadband when we moved house about a year ago and conversations with colleagues at work had suggested that not only was the O2 service very good but the customer service was good too.  What a dilemma!  Well in the end I decided to stick with Tiscali and take them up on their super cheap, pretty fast service.  After all the terms of the deal had not changed and therefore I was still under no more than a 30 day contract as I was before.  If things got terrible with them I could leave and go with O2 in the new year.

So thats that, I am staying with Tiscali and paying a rather cheap £7.99 for an 8 meg speed (I actually averahe about 6.1 meg) and unlimited downloads.  Pretty good result that I think!