I have to admit, I switch providers alot.
He's my reviews of providers in the London area.
Net logic aka Skyscape Communications
Price: Not bad but could be better. I had prepaid for a year, and then they changed the rates halfway through the year! It costs an extra $5 to go from 300 hours to unlimited. That seems a little outrageous to me, seeing as they have no 56k lines.
Connection: Only 33.6, but I could never connect at higher than 28.8. The also have a 2 hour disconnect. I suspect this is because they don't want to set up more incoming lines.
Tech Support: Pathetic. Their server was poorly set up, and would go dead on certain IP addresses. I let them know, but they never fixed the problem. I had to get into the habit of checking my IP everytime I logged in, and disconnect if I got a problem IP.
Usenet News: The best I've ever seen. They used to run one themselves, and it sucked. Then they got a feed from Supernews, and it was fantastic.
Overall: The only reason to go with these guys is if you have a slow modem, use less than 300 hours a month, you are a heavy usenet user, and like aggrevation.
Price: Not bad.
Connection: 56k Kflex modems, not x2 and not v.90. I could connect at 33.6, but no higher. Since the v.90 standard was set, there's no excuse for not upgrading the modem pool. They also have a 4 hour disconnect.
Tech Support: I never needed it.
Usenet News: Ok, but lotsa incomplete binaries. Could be much better.
Overall: If they ever get their modems upgraded, not a bad choice.
Price: A little high.
Connection: 56k v.90 modems, but I always connected at 48 000. Still, pretty good. They have no set disconnect time, just an idle disconnect.
Tech Support: Crap. Long wait times on the phone, and the email tech support is a joke. Until I complained bitterly, they didn't want to help through email. Their email system doesn't work right with many email programs either. How irritating.
Usenet News: Quite a few incomplete binaries, and the messages roll off extremely quickly. The server needs to hold messages longer. It also doesn't send the right responce when a message is unavailable, so the news server just hangs.
Overall: Great connection, it's a shame the rest doesn't match up.
Price: Premium pricing.
Connection: 56k support, connected at 45 333. Not bad.
Tech Support: Never needed it. Their billing system sends message at random, it seems. They claim it was a new system, but you'd think computer professionals could test these things ahead of time, eh?
Usenet News: Not very good.
Overall: Their support is supposed to be very good, but I never needed it. Still, unless you need _alot_ of handholding, there ain't much here.
Price: Premium pricing
Connection: 56k support, usually 45 333, sometimes less, sometimes 50.3.
Tech Support: Very quick email support, never used the telephone support. The best support WWW pages I have ever seen.
Usenet News: Not too good. They recommend using Dejanews. What does that tell you?
Overall: Not cheap, and I doubt it's worth it, unless you need the handholding. I have to give them credit though, for offering a free 2 week trial if you use another provider in the area. They must believe in their service.
Price: $40 a month, $80-150 install fee, modem rental $15 (waived for the first 6 months) and you have to have cable or pay an extra $10.
Connection: Really freakin' fast, but not as fast as the ads would suggest. The speed comes and goes though, and my service tends to come in bursts. Not very good for online gaming, when you need a solid steady connection.
Tech Support: You'll wait on the phone forever, and they still might not help you. They seem completely out of touch with any network problems.
Usenet News: Pathetic. There newsgroups, while fast, are down almost 50% of the time since I signed up. Their selection of groups is fragmented and many are missing. Cable users tend to use any server in the @home network they can find that is currently working. That's not a good sign.
Overall: The costs really add up, but compared to an expensive ISP+a phone line, they seem almost fair. The speed, although fantastic at times, is so flakey it can make you wish for your old dun account. Better consistency would make this service a hands down winner.
There doesn't seem to be much price competition between ISPs. I suspect this is because most users are newbies, and setting up a new ISP can be a big pain. Apart from Skyscape/New Logic/whatever, most are pretty expensive.
Cable is a mixed bag. It's cool, no doubt about it, but it ain't cheap.
Another problem is usenet news. I can't believe how crappy most of the news services were. If you run an ISP, consider using a 3rd party that specializes in news services. As the user base becomes more savvy, they will be demanding better quality from this service.
I'm setting up a network, and I can't believe how much most places are gouging me for networking supplies. Most computer stores have the services they offer painted on the front window. I went into one that had "networking" written in foot-high letters on their window. I asking for a t-connector and 2 terminators. The guy said they didn't carry those items. I, of course, referred him to the window. We then proceeded to have an argument about false advertising, customer satisfaction, and bad word-of-mouth.
Any-hoo... I ended up getting most of the stuff at Radio Shack. They actually had the best prices on the stuff I needed. Go figure!
I gotta give the guys at Daewoo credit. I had some problems with a motherboard they made, and I actually got a responce with an attached file with the latest version of their bios flash. I guess I'm so used to being ignored that any positive responce amazes me.