Top five ISPs for downloading
Garnet Roach garnet@consumerchoices.co.uk
If you want to download lots of movies, music and all your missed favourites from the BBC iPlayer, you need a provider that’s fast, reliable and won’t penalise you for all your downloading.
We’ve put together a list of our top five ISPs for heavy downloaders:
Be Broadband (www.BeThere.co.uk) - Be offers the UK’s fastest headline rate, and it’s Be Unlimited and Be Pro packages - which offer speeds of up to 24Mb - both come with “unlimited” downloads, and uploads of up to 2.5Mb. Although a fair usage policy does apply, Be was designed for the next generation of broadband use, and copes well with high downloaders. Some of the BroadbandChoices.co.uk team have road tested Be’s broadband at home, and have all given it the thumbs up.
O2 Broadband (www.O2.co.uk) - When the mobile phone provider launched it’s home broadband service in October last year - over the Be Broadband network that it owns - it promised to be transparent and honest, even offering a money back guarantee to unhappy customers. It offers three speeds, at 8Mb, 16Mb and 20Mb - all with fair usage unlimited downloads. And like Be, it provides a fast, reliable service that copes well with high levels of downloading.
O2 mobile phone customers can also get a £5 discount on all packages, reducing costs to only £7.50 a month, £10 a month and £15 a month for speeds of up to 8Mb, 16Mb and 20Mb respectively.
PlusNet (www.Plus.net) - PlusNet, which won the Best Consumer ISP award at the 2008 ISPA awards, offers four broadband packages, all with set download limits. These range from 1GB a month on Option 1 to 40GB a month on Option 4. However, you can download as much as you want overnight without it affecting your allowance and you can easily buy more usage when you need it.
PlusNet doesn’t believe in offer “unlimited” downloads that are tied to a fair usage policy, and so not really unlimited. Instead, it restricts access to peer-to-peer networks and download sites on a tiered basis. The restrictions range from none at certain times to 384Kb at peak times and customers on more expensive packages will face fewer restrictions.
Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com) - The UK’s cable provider is consistently at the top of our monthly speed test results, delivering more speed, on reliable connections, than its ADSL competitors. It offers speeds of up to 2Mb, 4Mb and 20Mb - all with “unlimited” downloads (fair usage applies) - and is currently upgrading all of its 4Mb customers to speeds of up to 10Mb for free.
Sky Broadband (www.Sky.com) - Sky’s broadband service has been a rather surprising success, offering speeds of 2Mb, 8Mb and 16Mb with 2GB, 40GB and “unlimited” allowances respectively. The Mid and Max packages, with speeds of up to 8Mb and 16Mb and a 40GB and “unlimited” allowance, are great for downloaders, and PC customers can even use the free Sky Anytime service to download missed shows.
Although we have had very few complaints about Sky’s fair usage policy, the provider is very vague about what penalties it applies to customers that exceed its limits.
What to think about when choosing your provider:
If you know that you’ll want to download lots of music and movie files, and use peer-to-peer networks and download sites like the BBC iPlayer and Channel 4’s 4oD then make sure that you do your research before signing a new contract with a broadband provider, compare broadband providers online.
Although the vast majority of providers now offer “unlimited” downloads, these will all have fair usage policies attached, the effects of which vary from one provider to the next. Some apply heavy-handed traffic management, slowing your connection down to non-existent speeds if you try to download during peak hours, while others - like the ones listed above - seem far better equipped to deal with heavy downloaders.
To read what other BroadbandChoices.co.uk customers think about your chosen provider, visit our Customer Reviews section from the HomePage.
| 
contact us 
