Broadband Guide

Best broadband deals

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If your broadband contract is coming to an end, now is the perfect time to start comparing deals and find the best offers on the market.

2 Months FREE Bundle Up to 10Mb broadband speeds FREE installation First 2 months FREE

Broadband and Calls Lightning speeds up to 20Mb Includes BT Home Hub From £7.49 a month

Comparing broadband packages like for like is virtually impossible, as each has a different emphasis. The best way to find the perfect deal is to think about your needs as a user.

Talk to your supplier

The first thing you should do, especially if you’ve been with your provider for more than 12 months, is to call your ISP and ask if there’s a better deal on offer that’s been introduced since you signed. Don’t be shy when approaching your supplier; you could get a great deal without even having to switch broadband provider.

Compare deals

Before you sign up to a new package, make sure that you compare what else is available. Look at first year costs, line rental and any other hidden charges to make it easier to compare one package with another.

Broadband speeds

If you want a superfast broadband connection, you should definitely consider fibre optic broadband from either Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com) or BT Broadband (www.BT.com).

At the start of 2010, BT Broadband (www.BT.com) launched its own superfast broadband in the form of its fibre optic BT Infinity (www.BT.com/Infinity) packages.

Starting at just £19.99 a month for an up to 40Mb broadband package with a 20GB monthly allowance, or £24.99 a month for its Option 2 package with “unlimited broadband”, subject to a fair usage policy, with massive 10Mb upload speeds.

It was only available to around 500,000 customers at launch, with plans to increase coverage to a further 2.5 million homes by summer 2010 and four million customers by the end of the year.

If you don’t live in a fibre area you might still be able to take advantage of 24Mb broadband speeds from a range of ADSL2+ broadband providers, including BE Broadband (www.BeThere.co.uk), O2 Broadband (www.O2.co.uk) and TalkTalk Broadband (www.TalkTalk.co.uk).

Download allowances

You also need to think about the kind of download allowance you will need. If you don’t do a lot of downloading then you don’t need to fork out for a high-end broadband package that will just be a waste of money. At the same time, if you do think that you'll be online a lot, downloading and streaming movies and music or playing a lot of online games, then you'll need a package to suit your needs - you don’t want to end up paying for extra data at the end of the month.

Bundling

Bundling your broadband package with other services such as home phone, digital TV or mobile broadband can save you a packet. However, you should be wary of signing up for services that you're not certain you'll use - no matter how cheap they are, if you don’t use them, they’ll simply be a waste of money.

Line rental

Our price comparison tables include everything you need to know, from first year costs to connection fees and download allowances. However, you will also need a landline for most broadband packages - which isn’t included in the first year cost. Line rental can vary from less than £10 a month to around £11.50 a month - or more if you choose not to pay by direct debit.

Virgin Media is the only home broadband provider that doesn’t require a landline to deliver broadband, though it does offer discounts to customers who also take its landline as part of a broadband bundle.

Alternatively, mobile broadband doesn’t require a landline at all, though download allowances are lower than fixed-line connections and speeds are also slower.

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