Well I suppose it depends on what you consider the most important aspect of an internet service provider (ISP). If money were no object, then obviously the best ISP service in the UK would be the quickest. However, if like me, you're looking for a balance between cost and speed then I would recommend Virgin Media.
Which ISP?
I've recently just opened a new Virgin Media account which includes a 500GB Tivo box and 30mb internet connection for a very affordable price. I've used Virgin Media for my ISP many times before and whilst the speed is not astronomical, we've had very few problems and it should be plenty fast enough for home use.
More recently I've also been a customer of Sky Broadband. I've found the internet to be plenty fast enough, although they are slightly more expensive than Virgin Media, especially when it comes to including TV in any contract.
The top 10 ISP providers in the UK (by number of users):
- BT Retail (Plus Net): 6,569,000
- Virgin Media: 4,465,000
- Sky Broadband: 4,235,000
- Talk Talk (AOL, Tiscali): 4,053,000
- EE (Orange): 693,000
- O2: 560,000
- Kingston Coms: 178,200
- Zen Internet: 94,000
- THUS group: 87,000
- Entanet: 70-80,000