"Simon Davies" <simond20@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:40ef07ce$0$64224$65c69314@mercury.nildram.net
Well I have used both BT Openworld and Bulldog but not Nildram...
With BT Openworld ( I was with them for a couple of years) I never had any
speed or reliability problems - however, they were definately (by the time I
left) at the top end of the residential pricing ladder but were not
providing any of the additional features, cheaper ISPs were.
Then they announced their tie-up with Yahoo... which wasn't the type of
internet service I wanted.
My experience with Bulldog has also been pretty good - when I first joined
(9/10 months ago) I had started getting constant disconnections but Bulldog
kept on at BT until the ADSL line card at the exchange was swopped out.
Its also in my opion the "best value" ISP there is.
I have also written this in the past, so will just paste it in 
--
What part of the country are you in and what service where you thinking of
getting?
Bulldog supply their service using several different methods for backhaul -
depending on where you are.
If you are in the Central London area you get put on Bulldog's own LLU
network with which you get 400K upload. (instead of 256K that the rest of us
have) and these customers seem to have almost no problems as Bulldog
directly control 100% of that equipment.
Its also worth pointing out that Bulldog has just been taken over by Cable
and Wireless, who have also announced that the number of LLU exchanges* is
going to be increased from 38 (all in Central London) to around 200
(nationally)
If you are elsewhere in the country, the Primetime service is normally
provided over a "DataStream" connection - now most people using these also
have no problems but a few do. These problems however, tend to be
"localised" to a particular exchange until Bulldog upgrade their link to
that exchnage (which they do appear to actively do)
Personally, I am in South West London and tend to get good speeds most of
the time. During the day, when its supposed to be capped to about 60k
(512K), I can get up to 90/100k and in the evenings get 200k + when I am
downloading.
You may also want to look at
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist...&Board=bulldog - unfortunately,
many of the comments there are historically negative but thats mainly due to
the fact that those who are happy with the service don't post. It might be
difficult to believe when you read there but the number of "complaints" are
a lot less than there were a few months ago as Bulldog gradually resolve
individual issues.
I think Bulldog have previously said that over 95%+ of their customers have
no problems (and I imagine the figure is higher how as problems are
resolved). It is a 12 month contract but if you have problems and they are
not resolved Bulldog appear to be willing to release you early with no
penalty.
---
Now having said all that, their are some disadvantages with going with
Bulldog compared to BT:
- the Bulldog helpdesk is not 24 hours (until 8pm weekdays and 4pm saturday)
- it can take a while to get through to a person on technical support (at
least it did last year)
- Bulldog don't like replying to emails (in common with a lot of other ISP's
in my experience)
- they don't provide their own newservers
- they don't provide email accounts as standard.
As I say, I don't know how this compares to Nildram...
If you/anyone does decide to use Bulldog would you mind quoting my
referral code when signing up - just quote "bdol 87431" when signing up
online (under "How did you hear about Bulldog?/Referred by a Friend") or by
telephone.
Also, if you have any other questions about Bulldog's service - let me know.
Regards
Sunil
*worth pointing out if you are of the 38-200 current/future LLU exchanges
and Bulldog's current tariffs don't change, you could get 4MB ADSL for
£30/month - an option that isn't currently open to either of us...
