Broadband Guide

Broadband and phone packages

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You can make great savings by bundling your home broadband with phone calls, digital TV or even mobile broadband. Compare best-selling bundled packages from BT Broadband (www.BT.com), Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com), TalkTalk Broadband (www.TalkTalk.co.uk) and others.

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With so many promotions and offers around at the moment, bundles can get a little confusing. Do they really save you time and money, or is it better to get your services from the cheapest individual providers?

While bundles can offer the cheapest broadband, price isn’t the only thing that matters. Research by Broadbandchoices.co.uk showed that broadband connection reliability is the most important factor when it comes to choosing a package, followed by broadband speeds and value for money in third place.

Think about your personal needs; what you want and what you will actually use, and take each ISP's customer service and technical support into consideration too.

Although headline rates can make a package seem attractive, you need to take into account things like additional line rental that has to be paid on some packages. For example, TalkTalk Broadband's (www.Talktalk.co.uk) Essentials package has a headline rate of just £6.99 a month and comes with 8Mb broadband, inclusive evening and weekend UK landline calls and anytime local calls. But when you take the £11.49 line rental into account, this rises to a total of £18.48 a month.

Call rates

Before rushing to buy a broadband and phone bundle it is important to look at the details of your chosen package, and call rates are one particular area where companies can make back some of the money they lose on their low headline rates.

There’s more to any broadband and home phone bundle than just the headline rate. If you are a high, or even moderate, home phone user you might benefit by paying for a slightly more expensive option that could save you money in the long run through cheaper call charges.

For example, many of the big triple play providers - BT, Virgin Media and Sky Broadband (www.Sky.com) - charge more for their home phone calls, while smaller providers like Primus Saver (www.Primussaver.co.uk) offer far more competitive rates.

Superfast broadband

On the other hand, if you’re a light home phone user and your main priority is to have high quality, fast broadband then Virgin Media is a great choice. Regularly appearing at the top of broadband speed tests, it offers the UK’s package with 50Mb broadband as well as 20Mb and 10Mb cable broadband packages.

Ditch the bundle and build your own

The final option, if you want a cheap call package, with cheap line rental, but don’t want to sacrifice the quality of your broadband, is to ditch the whole idea of bundling and go for separate providers that will give you the best of what you want.

Combining providers like Be Broadband (www.Bethere.co.uk), O2 Broadband (www.O2.co.uk) or Virgin Media with a low cost home phone provider might save you money on your calls.

However, you should compare any savings you make against the cost of choosing an anytime package from one of the big bundles - which could be cheaper, while eliminating the need to watch your talking time.

Click here to compare more broadband providers or bundles.

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