I recently switched from Virgin broadband to Sky. As I was already a Sky customer for satellite I was able to get an 'up-to-8mb' package with 40gb per month download limit for only £5 compared with £17.99 with Virgin. Speedwise Sky seems to have a slight edge on my old Virgin connection, but as I live quite a distance from my phone exchange I only achieve speeds of 1.7mbps.

I am a Sky customer and have opted for their bundle package inclusive of Sky TV, Sky Talk and Sky Broadband. Previously I used to pay £43.50 for all the TV channels, but by dropping Sky Movies and adding Sky Talk Anytime (for £5 a month) and 2MB Sky Broadband (for free) I only pay £42.00 pm now!! Sure, the connection isn't the best and can become frustrating especially in the evenings, but hey it's free so I'm not complaining :) 

I get free broadband as part of my mobile package from Orange.  £5 a month buys free landline calls to 100 countries, which is useful to some.  Speed is not that great though.

Yes advertising speeds 'up to' does seem to be standard practice and is very misleading.

I am with sky wireless, seems fine but then i do have a good computer. Last night though it wouldn't work unless I plugged the router into my computer... i called sky and they were really unhelpful, ended up saying they didn't know why and to phone my computer maker (acer).
Does anyone know which provider is the best for remote customer service?

I completely agree if service were like this in other areas im sure people would be complaining much more. To get less than 50% of the advertised speed is not acceptable. If you only received 50% or less of your calls on your mobile while it was advertised to have great reception all over the country you wouldn't use it but fact is if you can download and stay connected most people are happy and the providers love it that no one has complained. You should pay for what you get not what they claim to offer. I couldn't keep up with handling calls for my business so I just got a answering service setup instead.

When I moved to this house nearly 3 years ago I decided to go with Tiscali for my telephone and broadband. At the time I paid £19.95 / month for 1 meg broadband plus unlimited landline call to geographic UK telephone numbers. In addition I paid approx £11.00 / month line rental. In practice I got 1.20 meg of broadband and I was, at the time quite happy and recommended Tiscalic to various friends and neighbours, who were also happy.

Last autumn one of the friends saw the new improved version whereby for the approx the same £19.95 Tiscali would include the line rental and also include certain international call and upgrade the broadband speed to the nominal 'up to 8 meg' speed. He approached Tiscali and they duly up graded his service.

He is now getting approx 5,2 meg of broadband. He lives about 300 yards further from the telephone exchange that I do, just across the road.

Last December I also approached Tiscali to do the same upgrade and they agreed to a change over date of 2 Jan. 2008. The change over duly took place and BT refunded the surplus on my a/c. So I have saved money. unfortunately the speed has not changed and I am still getting 1.2 meg. BT's website says my phone line is capable of 6 meg.

I have spoken to Tiscali until I am blue in the face. They keep promising that they will fix it within 5-7 days and giving me £10.00 cash back but nothing happens. I have written to the Chief Exec. but no reply.

Tiscali's prices are good, their promises are good, but their performance is rubbish. They really need to stop advertising for new customers until they have sorted out the ones that they have got.