Ask Our Expert

Holiday home broadband

Our Broadband Expert says...

Hi Fay, there are a number of options that you could try, such as no contract broadband, cheap broadband deals and mobile broadband.

No contract broadband

There are very few no contract broadband packages on the market at the moment. However, Be Broadband (www.BeThere.co.uk) offers three month contracts on two of its broadband packages.

Be is a great provider for gamers, offering super fast speeds of up to 24Mb and “unlimited” downloads with a very generous fair usage policy.

The two packages that offer three month contracts are Be Unlimited and Be Pro, which cost £22 a month and £27 a month respectively when taken on a short-term contract.

Instead of your contract immediately expiring, you have to give Be three months notice, so bear in mind the date that you want your broadband contract cancelled.

Run a post code search to check if Be Broadband is available in your area.

Cheap broadband

Alternatively, you could opt for a very cheap broadband package on a 12 month contract. Plusnet Broadband (www.Plus.net) currently offers the cheapest standalone broadband on the market, at just £6.49 a month for speeds of up to 8Mb and a 10GB monthly allowance.

However, if you’re heavy gamers, a 10GB monthly allowance might not be enough to cover your needs.

Plusnet also offers “unlimited” downloads for just £11.49 a month and packages with inclusive line rental and calls.

If your holiday home is in an area covered by TalkTalk Broadband (www.TalkTalk.co.uk), pioneer of “free broadband”, you could get a cheap broadband package that comes with optional Boosts to make your connection faster, and give you a higher download allowance.

TalkTalk’s Essentials package costs £6.50 a month, plus £14.50 a month for line rental, and comes with broadband at speeds of up to 8Mb, a 40GB monthly download allowance and a call plan with inclusive evening and weekend calls and free local calls from 1 May.

You then have the option of adding monthly Boosts to your package. For £4 a month you could increase your broadband speed to the fastest that your line can handle and even double your download allowance to a massive 80GB a month.

Mobile broadband

A good pay as you go broadband option is mobile broadband, though as gamers it might not be suitable for your needs as speeds are often slower and download allowances far lower than with a fixed-line connection.

The highest monthly download allowance currently available on a pay as you go mobile broadband connection is 7GB from 3 Broadband (www.Three.co.uk) for £25 a month.

However, out of bundle charges are very high for mobile broadband - especially on pay as you go packages - if you exceed your download limit, which is easy to do when you’re playing online games.

Install our free Broadband Download Monitor to track downloads and make sure you never exceed your limit.

Alternatively, you could go for a mobile broadband contract and use it when you’re at home as well as at your holiday home. This way you could get as much as 15GB a month from 3 for just £15 a month on a 24 month contract or £30 a month on a 12 month contract.

Before signing up to any mobile broadband contract, compare the coverage in your area.

Broadband deals

There are loads of broadband deals around at the moment, with providers such as Be, TalkTalk and award-winning ISP O2 Broadband (www.O2.co.uk) offering three month’s free broadband when you sign a 12 month contract.

Compare broadband providers and look out for special deals that can cut the cost of your broadband and get you a package better suited to your needs.

NB Best buy tables (orange background) are always current.

Examples in the text of the article (white background) are correct at time of publication.

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If you have a general switching or provider query please email us at OurExpert@broadbandchoices.co.uk

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