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Bundle all the way
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Bundle all the way
If you’re not already bundling your home telecoms services Perhaps its time you joined the millions of people who have already signed up for digital TV, and home phone with their broadband. As the Government switches off the old analogue signal, everyone will all have to find a digital alternative if you want to keep up with all your TV favourites.
compare broadband and digital TV bundles.
Leading digital TV, phone and broadband packages
New players are entering the triple play market all the time, but the three major players when it comes to broadband, home phone and digital television are Sky Broadband (www.Sky.com), Tiscali Broadband (www.Tiscali.co.uk) and Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com).
All three providers have different advantages over their competitors; Sky offers the best digital TV, Virgin Media has the fastest broadband, and Tiscali has by far the cheapest prices.
Once you have added on the £10 a month line rental with the Sky package the monthly total goes up to £37 a month. However, there are other things to be considered.
- TV channels - Sky offers a much better selection of channels in its Surf See Speak than Virgin Media does in its 3 for £19 package, though Tiscali customers still have access to Sky’s basic channels - including the much coveted Sky One - that Virgin Media famously lost in 2007.
- Broadband speed - Virgin Media is definitely doing the best here. Its connections are more reliable and faster and Virgin Media won the Gold award in the BroadbandChoices.co.uk speed tests in 2007 for its 4Mb and 20Mb broadband packages. All of its 4Mb customers have now been upgraded to 10Mb for free. However, Sky also took the Gold in the 8Mb category, and its 16Mb broadband is the only truly unlimited broadband package in the UK, with no fair usage policy.
- Phone rates - Call charges on all of these packages are expensive, though Virgin Media is the worst offender of the three, with higher call costs and a set up fee of 7p per call.
- Bundle price - Tiscali is definitely the cheapest with its triple play, plus free line rental, from just £9.99 a month for the first three months, £14.99 thereafter.
- Functionality - If you want to go for high definition television, video on demand and digital video recording, then Sky definitely comes out on top. However, both Virgin Media and Tiscali now offer similar services and hardware.
Overall, Tiscali is cheaper than both Virgin Media and Sky but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s better. You simply need to think about what your priority is.
If your main concern is the number of digital TV channels that you’ll get, then Sky will be your best option. However, if your primary concern is the speed and quality of your broadband, then you will be better off going for Virgin Media and finally, if you want all three for the lowest possible price, then it will be hard to beat Tiscali’s triple play bundle with free line rental from only £14.99 a month.
Is it better not to bundle?
If you want all three services, but are worried about the costs of call charges, as Sky, Tiscali or Virgin Media don’t offer very competitive packages, then you might be better off taking your home phone line from someone else.
Consider Toucan Broadband’s (www.Toucan.co.uk) for your line rental and home phone package. At £8.99 a month its line rental is the cheapest on the market and its All You Can Off-Peak call package for £3.75 is very competitive with low call rates outside of your inclusive minutes.
Price wise, it’s very hard to beat Tiscali’s bundle price because of the free line rental, which you get automatically, along with inclusive weekend UK and selected international calls when you take out just the broadband and TV - as long as you live in a Tiscali local loop unbundled (LLU) area.
As with all such deals, you really need to take your needs into consideration. If you doubt that you will even use one of the services but are just getting it because it’s a good deal, then don’t - unless it really is still cheaper than the next competitor. Be realistic with yourself and don’t be tempted into signing up for something that will just be a waste of money.
What’s the future for bundling?
If you love the idea of bundling and want to take it to the next level, then Virgin Media also offer a deal with up to 2Mb broadband, L TV, a home phone line and a mobile phone with 300 minutes and texts for just £29 a month - and you can even add mobile broadband into the equation too.
BT Broadband (www.BT.com) also offers mobile and digital TV services in the form of BT Vision, though not as part of a bundle, and Tiscali has plans to become the UK’s second quad-play provide after taking over ToucanMobile.
The development of BT’s Openzone wireless network, and Fon service, bringing wireless broadband to mobile phones, PDAs and laptops everywhere could has become a further element to the ISP’s offerings.
Whatever the next phase in bundling - mobile TV packages or Facebook on your phone - the convergence of services is unlikely to stop soon.
Use our Broadband Comparison Calculator to compare services and bundles and find the right deal for you.
Or click here to read our other articles on bundling home phone and broadband.
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