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Free broadband
TalkTalk launched its “free broadband for all” offer back in April 2006 with other providers soon launching similar deals. The packages are cheap, but are they good value for money?
Today, it’s not just broadband that comes for free; line rental, laptops and even PlayStations have all been given away to customers who are willing to commit to ever longer broadband contracts. Compare UK broadband packages and check availability.
Free broadband offers
| Supplier | Package details | Speed (up to) | 1st year cost | Monthly charge | Download limit | Go |
| Home Starter (Orange Pay Monthly only) | 8Mb | Free | Free | 10GB | ||
| Broadband + Phone - Essentials Package | 8Mb | £107.87 | £6.49 | 40GB | ||
| Base Broadband + Sky TV (1 Pack) + Talk Freetime | 2Mb | £228.00 | £16.50 | 2GB |
Is it really free broadband?
Of course nothing is really free. But since most households are already paying around £11.25 a month for their line rental, as well as the cost of digital TV or home phone calls - which BT Broadband (www.BT.com) customers will find are not the cheapest around - “free broadband” offers are almost guaranteed to save you money, simply by cutting out the additional £14 or so a month you would have to fork out for your internet connection.
But money isn’t the only thing that you need to take into account. Free broadband got off to a poor start and a subsequent bad rap - TalkTalk Broadband (www.TalkTalk.co.uk) was so inundated with subscriptions that it was unable to connect many people for weeks at a time, and connection speeds for both TalkTalk and Orange Broadband (www.Orange.co.uk) were poor.
However, Sky Broadband (www.Sky.com) was more successful in its free broadband launch, having learnt from TalkTalk's previous mistakes, and across the board, free broadband is now better value than ever.
Any catches?
Although it’s important to remember that when you get a free add-on, you might not always get the highest quality service, TalkTalk has injected more than £15 million into improving its once poor customer services, and Sky has won a number of awards for its reliable broadband service - and was named Best Bundled Services ISP at the BroadbandChoices.co.uk customer satisfaction awards 2009.
Free broadband experienced some serious teething problems, but as the offers have become more established, the services they provide have stabilised and massively improved.
Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, said: “Free broadband has come a long way since TalkTalk first launched the revolutionary product.
“But remember that it’s not just about cheap broadband. You need to think about how you will use their broadband. If you only need it for very light-weight activities like checking emails and online banking, Sky’s free broadband, with its 2GB limit, would be fine. However, if you want to download movies and music, you’ll need a higher download allownce.
“But free broadband isn’t the only way to save these days, so anyone wanting to cut their costs should also check out the “free line rental” and hardware offers on the market, which might come with a more suitable broadband package, plus there are many reliable, low-cost deals around” he advised.
Are there any other freebies available?
TalkTalk’s free broadband revolutionised the market, spurring competitors to offer not only free broadband, but also free line rental from Tiscali Broadband (www.Tiscali.co.uk), free laptops from providers 3 Broadband (www.Three.co.uk) and Vodafone Broadband (www.Vodafone.co.uk) and even computer consoles from AOL Broadband (www.AOL.co.uk).
| Supplier | Package details | Speed (up to) | 1st year cost | Monthly charge | Download limit | Go |
| Standard - O2 mobile customers only | 8Mb | £73.40 | £7.34 | unlimited | ||
| Broadband + Free Line Rental + Free Weekend Talk | 8Mb | £209.88 | £14.99 | unlimited | ||
| Home Max | 8Mb | £293.64 | £24.47 | unlimited |
Mobile phone operators like Orange and O2 who have branched out into the broadband market have also taken advantage of their considerable customer bases by offering discounts to mobile customers who sign up to their broadband packages, as well as the more traditional “free broadband” offers.
“When choosing your new broadband package, compare prices and then weigh costs against the kind of service that you want. There’s no point saving on a service that you can’t use in the way you need,” concluded Mr Phillips.
Comments
BT still make money by bulk selling line rentals to people such as talk talk O2 etc, so their not fussed about people moving to other providers as they still get the custom in the end, and, they do not have to give any customer service as this is down to the provider, the only provider they are worried about are Virgin as they supply the free line rental through there own cable netowk and not BT's. It is very much the same as gas and leccy, BT will just wholesale the lines etc and the likes of TT O2 etc will then sell it on to you.
Dave.
Surly to keep customers from switching, they could reduce this, i am a bt customer and i will be switching when my contract runs out,
Its a wonder people are still with bt at all, with so many offers available with free line rental, and cheap broadband packages, i can not understand why bt won't reduce there
line rental, to say half, at least .
Is there a reason why they won't do this,do they like to loose customers, i must be the only one left out of all the people i know who have switched to other providers.
BT must know that people will go for the better deal, so why carn't they scrap line rental.
and also, how can these other providers, not charge you line rental