Its a jungle out there.
Im with Virgin BB and touch wood in 5 or more years have had no need to call omn them other than to upgrade.
So i'd stay as you are.
I looked at this for my dad when he needed a new service provider and wanted a laptop. With the 18month tie in and the monthly cost, coupled with the rather crap spec of the laptop, i got him signed up to Virgin with free evening and weekend calls for about £12 per month and he bought a laptop from Dell that was way better spec'd and effectivly about £100 cheaper than doing the Aol deal. The offers from the 2 might have changed now but it depends on how much of a hurry you are for both things.
I've been with Virgin/Telewest for about 5 years and they're pretty good, not brilliant but not too bad either
a couple of bits that you ought to be aware of...
because virgin's service is a cable service they should give you what they advertise... for example a 10 mb service should be a 10 mb service....
because providers like AOL/orange/bt use a BT line..... the further you are from a bt exchange the slower your line speed will be so if you are one of these check what line speen you can get 1st... and then choose the packages accordingly...
we are with virgin and they are pretty good, not sure if what Fabio said was right thou as we pay for " upto 2 meg" but when we told them we only just break over 1 meg they said it was something to do with exchange.
The good thing about virgin is you can just get the broadband without the phone
I had the Sky deal last year and it was crap. I managed to get out of the 12 year contract on the basis they weren't providing me with a service, ie. I couldn't keep a connection. It dropped every ten mins. It was an excellently priced deal though.
I wouldn't touch AOL with a bargepole. That's just my opinion and I'm with others in saying why would they give away a laptop? bit of an expensive lure isn't it? Also probably worth remembering it'll be basic naf laptop.
I'm with Orange right now and I've never looked back. At a month it is a bit pricer but I'm always connected with no problems. BT was pricier at but they were good also.
Nothing in my opinion can beat the Virgin all for but I don't have the cables in my area.
Good luck in your decisions petal, it's difficult cos once you sign up you're stuck for a year (sometimes 18 months!).
We have the full Sky+ tv package
BB with Sky (8meg for £10 I think)
Phone with BT (Which we never use as we have free mins on our mobiles and O2 to O2 is free)
Was with Telewest cable and it was great, then NTL tool over and it was good but I started having occasional problems. When Virgin took over it turned to brown smelly stuff within 3 months:-( However I know some people are happy with Virgin and like most things it depends on the area you live in, % utilisation of the UBRs etc.
Now with Sky for TV (Sky+ rocks!), broadband and phone calls over a BT line. It's been great for the 6 months I've had it, and having a BT line means I can change easily if either broadband or phone service gets worse in the future.
) so decided to look into it. Fuck me, it's confusing!
Think I'll stick to the devil I know for now and maybe get the son a new lappy for his birthday. 