Ask Our Expert

BT 20Mb broadband upgrade

Dear Michael, I’m a BT Broadband customer and have recently read about the free upgrade that customers are being offered. When will I be able to get it? And is it really free?

Derek, via email on 16 June 2009

Our Broadband Expert says...

Dear Derek, there has been a lot of press coverage about BT Broadband's (www.BT.com) free 20Mb upgrade.

BT announced a couple of weeks ago that it would be offering all Total Broadband customers a free upgrade to 20Mb. Business customers could take advantage of this straight away, but home broadband customers would have to wait until later in the year.

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Free upgrade coverage

According to BT, around 10 million homes in the UK will be offered the chance to upgrade their broadband speed from the current up to 8Mb, to speeds of up to 20Mb by this summer.

This represents around 40 per cent of the UK, and if demand is strong, it will then roll out the faster speeds to 55 per cent of homes and businesses by 2010.

In order for you to qualify for the free 20Mb upgrade your local telephone exchange needs to be upgraded to the ADSL2+ technology that allows the faster speeds. You will need to contact BT to find out if your area has been upgraded, or is due to be upgraded over the summer.

Is it really free?

Although as an existing BT customer you won’t have to pay any extra for your faster speed, you will be required to recontract. This means that you would be able to get speeds of up to 20Mb from just £15.65 a month on Option 1 - though you would be tied into your contract for at least another 12 months.

Supplier	Package details	Speed (up to)	1st year cost	Monthly charge	Download limit	Go
	Option 2 Broadband (12 months)	8Mb	£251.88	£20.99	20GB	Call BT on 0800 028 2122

Is it a good deal?

Although BT is offering a free upgrade - so you won’t have to pay any more than you already do - it isn’t the cheapest in the superfast market.

BT hasn’t yet said if it will be increasing Option 1 and Option 2 customers’ download allowances once they're upgraded to 20Mb. The new faster speeds will allow you to download a lot more in a lot less time and you could soon find yourself exceeding your allowance.

Use our free Broadband Download Monitor to track your downloads and make sure you never go over your limit.

Other 20Mb broadband providers

BT isn’t the only ISP offering superfast broadband speeds. Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com) currently offers the UK’s fastest package over its cable network, with download speeds of up to 50Mb for £35 a month. However, it also offers a 20Mb package for £10 a month for the first three months, £20 thereafter if you take a Virgin Media phone line for an extra £11 a month, or £30 a month for the first three months, £53 thereafter as a standalone product. Both the 50Mb and the 20Mb packages come with “unlimited broadband” downloads and a fair usage policy.

Supplier	Package details	Speed (up to)	1st year cost	Monthly charge	Download limit	Go
	Broadband: XL + Phone M	20Mb	£235.00	£20.00	unlimited
	Broadband: XL	20Mb	£380.00	£25.00	unlimited
	Broadband: XXL	50Mb	£496.00	£33.00	unlimited

Two other very reliable ISPs are O2 Broadband (www.O2.co.uk) and Be Broadband (www.BeThere.co.uk).

O2 offers discounts to its mobile phone customers, meaning that they can get its 20Mb Premium package for just £9.79 a month. Non-mobile customers can get the package for £14.68 a month.

Supplier	Package details	Speed (up to)	1st year cost	Monthly charge	Download limit	Go
	Premium - O2 mobile customers only	20Mb	£120.00	£10.00	unlimited
	Premium	20Mb	£180.00	£15.00	unlimited

Be offers speeds of up to 24Mb on two of its packages, with the Unlimited package staring at £17.50 a month.

Supplier	Package details	Speed (up to)	1st year cost	Monthly charge	Download limit	Go
	Unlimited (12 months)	24Mb	£214.56	£17.88	unlimited	Call Be on 0808 101 3421
	Unlimited (3 months)	24Mb	£269.16	£20.43	unlimited	Call Be on 0808 101 3421

Both O2 and Be are designed with heavy downloaders in mind. Both offer “unlimited” downloads with very generous fair usage policies so you won’t immediately be charged for exceeding your set allowance and will be far less likely to have your connection slowed down for heavy downloading.

What can I do with 20Mb broadband?

Superfast broadband speeds not only let you do everyday tasks like surfing the net and sending emails at much faster speeds, they also let you download a music track in as little as 1.6 seconds, upload photos to Facebook in less than eight seconds and even watch high definition programmes on the BBC iPlayer.

NB Best buy tables are always current.

Examples in the text of the article are correct at time of publication.