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, getting yourself a better service at the same time.

But 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?

There is no doubt that you can save a bundle by combining your broadband with a home phone package or other bundled service. Bundled providers offer very competitive rates and you can get high speed broadband, inclusive phone calls and line rental all for less than £20 a month. But there are still other factors that you need to take into consideration.

However, while cheap broadband is important, price isn’t the only thing that matters. Research by Broadbandchoices.co.uk found that broadband connection reliability was the most important factor when it came 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 additional costs line rental that will have to be paid on top. For example, TalkTalk Broadband's (www.Talktalk.co.uk) Essentials package has a headline rate of just £6.99 a month and comes with 24Mb broadband a 40GB download allowance and inclusive evening and weekend UK landline calls. When you take the £11.49 line rental into account, this rises to a total of £18.48 a month - though it’s still a very competitive offer.

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.

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 Broadband (www.BT.com), Virgin Media (www.Virginmedia.com) and Sky Broadband (www.Sky.com) - charge more for their home phone calls, while smaller providers like Primus Saver (www.Primussaver.co.uk) and YourCalls.net (www.Yourcalls.net) 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 fastest, widely available package with speeds of up to 50Mb broadband as well as 20Mb and 10Mb cable broadband packages - and will even be launching a 100Mb broadband package at the end of 2010.

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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