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Save £240 A Year With A Broadband Bundle

Jane Baker

By

Jane Baker

My latest blog

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25 September 2008

Published in Your Money on 4 April 2008

Are broadband bundles really worth it? Find out whether you can save money here.

The broadband market is going through a purple patch. Prices are falling while take-up is rising. Ofcom, the industry watchdog, say 65% of us now have internet access with most using broadband. It's not surprising then that the market is fiercely competitive and the range of broadband deals on offer can be truly bewildering.

So how do you navigate your way through the broadband fog? One of the easiest ways is to combine your broadband, TV and phone into a single package. This sounds like a more simple approach than finding a separate provider for each, but does it really provide value for money?

I'm going to look at some of the best bundles and compare these with competitive options for each one separately. In a follow up article I'll look at how to go about switching to a new deal.

I'll also compare options for light users and heavier users.  If you're a light user you won't tend to use the internet for downloading say, music or videos so unlimited downloads (shown in Gb*) are probably more than you'll ever need. If you're a heavier user, you'll find this feature more useful and you'll also need a faster download speed (shown in Mb**).

So let's look at the three-in-one deals first.

Three-in-one deals: light users

For a bargain basement price, Sky See Speak Surf is offering a three-in-one bundle for just £16 a month. The price includes free evening/weekend calls, one Sky TV entertainment mix (any Sky TV package provides more than 200 TV and radio channels for free), a 2Mb download speed and a 2Gb download limit per month over a 12-month contract.

Now for the nitty gritty - you'll also need to pay a set-up cost of £30 and pay £11.75 per month for BT line rental. But beware these bundles are only available to 70% of the UK population while Sky try to cast the net further.

Monthly cost including line rental: £27.75

If you want more Sky TV channels, a faster broadband speed and larger download limit then be prepared to pay more.

If you can live without a lot of Sky TV channels, for a rock bottom price you could try BT's Broadband Option 1 which is £7.95 per month for the first three months and then £15.99 with a £30 connection fee if you install it yourself. The package includes free evening/weekend calls and 70 digital TV and radio channels as well as on demand programmes. The deal offers an 8Mb download speed and a 5Gb download limit per month over an 18 month contract, but you'll need to pay BT line rental.

Monthly cost including line rental: £25.73 (averaging the two tariffs over the year)

Three-in-one deals: heavier users

For heavier users, Tiscali Option 2 has a great bundle for £19.99 per month for three months and then £24.99. But, best of all, it includes free line rental.  It offers a download speed of 8Mb and unlimited downloads. Bear in mind that most deals which offer unlimited downloads are subject to a Fair Usage Policy. That means you may be charged extra if your usage is considered excessive.

The package also offers free weekend calls and over 60 TV and radio channels including some Sky channels. Again, you'll need to pay a connection fee of £30.

Monthly cost including line rental: £23.74 (averaging the two tariffs over the year)

Phone only deals

I've discounted these because you'll need a phone line for your broadband, so there's no sense in doubling up!

Phone and broadband deals

TalkTalk has an excellent deal with Talk2 International. This provides free evening/weekend calls to landlines plus free 8Mb broadband speed and 40Gb download limit at a monthly fee of £5.89 with TalkTalk line rental at £10.50. The contract lasts for 18 months with a £30 connection charge.

Monthly cost including line rental: £16.39

Broadband only deals: light user

If you're not fussed about super fast speed, go for Plusnet's Option 1 which costs £9.99 per month and offers a download speed of 8Mb and a download limit of 1Gb with a contract of just 1 month. You'll have to pay line rental but it doesn't have to be with BT.

Monthly cost including line rental: £21.74 (if you use a BT line)

Broadband only deals: heavier user

One of the most competitive deals I can find is O2 broadband premium at £15 per month. You'll get a download speed of 16Mb and unlimited downloads over a 12 month contract (as long as you're set up by 30th April 2008). You'll also need to pay BT line rental.

Monthly cost including line rental: £27.75

TV only deals

One of the cheapest ways to get extra TV channels is through a Freeview digibox which will set you back around £35 for a reasonably low cost digital TV receiver. This will allow you to access to 40 channels. Over a year this will cost less than £3 per month. If you want access to more TV channels via Sky, the basic package costs £16 per month with a one-off set up charge of £30.

Monthly cost: £3 or £16 if you want more Sky channels.

The Results

Finding the best deal is a bit of a minefield. But one thing's for sure, adding broadband to an existing BT line and arranging your TV separately is expensive.

For light users who want more Sky TV, the three-in-one Sky bundle comes in at £333 a year. This works out at a £120 saving over a year when you compare it with Plusnet's broadband only deal plus a basic Sky TV package which costs £453.

For heavier users, Tiscali's Option 2 costs just £284.88 for a year. This is £240 cheaper than broadband and phone from O2 plus a basic Sky TV package which costs £525 a year. This bundle is so low-cost that it's worth considering even if you don't use the internet regularly.

Finally, if you don't care about lots of Sky channels, then a good bet is TalkTalk with phone plus free broadband with a digibox bought separately. That way, you can get all three for a cheap as chips cost of less than £20 per month.

*Download limits are measured in gigabytes (Gb). To give you an idea 1.5Gb provides roughly 60 hours of web surfing. This should be sufficient if you're a light user and you're not an online gamer or you don't tend to download videos, movies, music and so on.

**Download speed is measured in megabits per second (Mb). A light user should find 2Mb is enough. But if you want to use downloads go for 8Mb at least. Note the actual speed achieved may be lower than the Mb quoted depending on how close you live to the exchange and the contention ratio. The higher the contention ratio, the greater the number of users that may be trying to use the actual bandwidth at any one time and, therefore, the lower the effective bandwidth and speed offered, especially at peak times.

More: Six Steps To Cheaper Broadband | Save £203 A Year With A Dongle

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Comments

The opinions expressed here are those of the individual writers and are not representative of The Motley Fool. If you spot any comments that are unsuitable hit the flag to alert our moderators.

mastang 05 Apr 2008, 6:54am

For a broadband only deal Madasafish offer 8Mb speed, 5Gb a month, and free installation for 9.99 a month. I've been with them for years.They also offer a broad band/phone deal.

moluki 05 Apr 2008, 8:06am

Eclipse Broadband offer £14.99 per month Broadband and £5.99 for the equivalent of BT's option 3 phone deal (free national calls up to 1 hour to no's starting with 01/02, line rental in addition payable to BT). On the whole Eclipse's UK support team are excellent and if you don't want a modem or buy your own you can ask for a monthly contract!! I then use www.saynotp0870.com to avoid paying for 0845/0870 calls so only pay for my rare calls to mobiles. We have Freesat (like Freeview which sadly we can't get) from Sky so our total TV/Phone and Broadband is never more than £25 per month. Eclipse do a great referral incentive scheme too. I totally recommend Eclipse and I am surprised they are not mentioned here!

moluki 05 Apr 2008, 8:09am

Sorry, typo in my post about Eclipse! it is www.saynoto0870.com! You can type in most numbers starting with 0845 or 0870 and find the standard geographical number behind it, or even a freephone number sometimes.

tipsy2 05 Apr 2008, 8:13am

The deals from the Post Office look interesting. I find it hard to work out the best deals as they all seem to vary slightly. Any thoughts from anyone on the Post Office deals?

thurlwood54 05 Apr 2008, 8:21am

I have just left Virgin (Formerly NTL) for my Dial-up as they have stopped supply and now do Broadband only.
My new Orange Home starter Including Line Rental has Averaged £21.21 over its 1st 3 Months, and has 8 meg available in my area.
Also FREE calls to landlines are available through its Livebox 2nd line !!!!

danxs 05 Apr 2008, 8:35am

Like Thrulwood54 I have just joined Orange for broadband but as I already have a mobile phone with them I got their Home Max package for £15.00 for 18 months. Not only do you get a decent download speed up to 8 meg but you get unlimited usage, line rental is also included. Free daytime evening and weekend calls to landlines and free calls to 30 countries. Previously I paid Bt for line rental and AOL for broadband at a lower speed I am saving about £18.00 a month and I'm getting free calls too!!

oswald51 05 Apr 2008, 9:05am

I note that the deals you have described are all focused on free evening and weekend calls. My need is for free calls and I get this plus up to 8 meg broadband from Orangehome for £24 per month which gives an extra line with VOIP and allows free calls to orange mobiles and several countries abroad. For my daytime call needs a real winner.

Naizby 05 Apr 2008, 9:28am

The myth that you will need a phone line for broadband do not apply to the whole country. There are areas (outside London) where we cannot get any of the Talktalk etc packages, except at very high prices for parts of the package, but do have the advantage of a Wireless Broadband system, which most of the time works as well or better than BT which my daughter uses in South London.

VicLud 05 Apr 2008, 9:29am

There are no faster (or slower) speeds, only higher (or lower). However, when discussing broadband services, what is being considered is the download (or upload) RATE, not speed. (The speed of a data signal is at or near that of light!) Download rates for broadband connections are certainly measured in Megabits per second, but the abbreviation for that is Mb/s, NOT Mb. When considering the Contention Ratio (ie. how many users areconcurrently using the same service), the word 'bandwidth' is erroneous (even if widely, and wrongly, used). Bandwidth is a range of usable frequencies for a given system, not the maximum capacity or throughput of a data link.

carbolic 05 Apr 2008, 9:39am

I have just done a BT broadband speed chec, firstly by entering my telephone number, then by my postcode.
THe first gave me max. 2.5Mb/sec,
the second 6Mb. Both pathetic, considering I live less than 400 yards from the local BT broadband station.
I subscribe to Demon Home Office but am not reaping the benefits.
Can anyone explain,please? Offer guidance?
THanks

allule 05 Apr 2008, 9:39am

This week's Radio Times has a Sky offer on the back which sounds good: entertainment mix; movies or sport; 2Mb broadband; free evening and weekend calls. It says £26 a month, plus line rental My husband is interested in the sport, so I went to their website for more details, but this package there seems to cost £37.
At the moment we have Freesky (no monthly payment), Toucan broadband and line rental, and it works well for around £27 a month all-in. The extra sport is the only temptation.
I am still waiting for details of the new FreeSat service from the BBC, which is still said to be launching in Spring 2008, but all seems to have gone quiet on this.

axeman101 05 Apr 2008, 10:00am

Even though I prefer Cable I've had to move into a BT only area.
I now use Broadcall package. LLU exchange, so have phone and 8mb Broadband ( 40GB limit ) and includes line rental for £19.99 per month. Got Gas/Elec as well, so get free anytime calls. YUVME.CO.UK

Wickmesh 05 Apr 2008, 10:01am

Fair usage policies - read the small print, as many providers also implement traffic shaping.

If you are a heavy user and attempt to use your broadband connection to anything approaching its capabilities, then your ISP can artificially reduce your connection speed to spread out the load on their systems. Their justification is to prevent a few users hogging the majority of their capacity (but if I am paying for the connection, why can I not use it)? In my experience, Eclipse (recommended above) are absolutely terrible for this - with our router sync'ed at 8Mb/s to the exchange, we routinely had maximum download rates more akin to 0.5Mb/s. We're now with Free Software Network - cheap no but Foolish yes - at least for our usage!

algazr 05 Apr 2008, 10:05am

I notice that Talktalk is among those listed above. After their "free" (nothing of the sort)broadband fiasco of a couple of years or so ago, of which I was one of their many victims, I still can hardly read their name without feeling my blood pressure rise. The treatment I received from them was the worst that I have ever received from ANY company - and I have known some shockers!
My point is that the consumer is occasionally (perhaps frequently, from what I read!) subjected to greed-fuelled maltreatment from various companies, and that this largely goes unpunished. My attitude is that NO company which is found to be guilty of serious commercial malpractice should ever be welcomed back into the public fold. Only be doing this collectively can the (individually fairly helpless) consumer ever hope to obtain redress. To run the serious risk of virtually going out of business permanently would surely make companies think long and hard before attempting to perpetrate what sometimes amount to serious scams upon the innocent public. I have read about one or two of them in Foolish articles and blogs, and am compiling a list of firms with whom I shall NEVER deal. Might this not even become an official Foolish crusade?

dayvem2003 05 Apr 2008, 10:18am

Ive been with aol for years and have had no problems with them at all. We can only get a max speed of 256k here in my part of cornwall so faster speeds are not worth paying for I changed to 25 percent off mobiles on a new 18 month contract for 2mb broadband unlimited download use subject to fair usage policy and unlimited local and national calls and 25 percent off mobile calls for around £21 + line rental from BT its not so bad. I also prefer to use msn premium explorer rather than aol explorer but thats personal preference. I think I have a good deal AND when faster speeds become available in our area 2mb will seem like heaven.

taffrik 05 Apr 2008, 10:24am

Ref Post Office, have had Post Office now for 4 months and received my first bill this week, no surprises only £78 for 3 months Bband and all telephone calls, very pleased with connection also. Took the £22 per month option.

PaulOz 05 Apr 2008, 10:47am

Its always an idea to phone your current provider, as for customer retentions team, and saying youre changing unless they improve their offer. I was on Orange broadband at £27 a month. Rang them and advised O2 offered me £7.50 a month which they matched immediately, gave me 3 months free on top, and sent me a wireless router meaning that i could sell my recently purchased netgear router! Well worth a 5 minute call.

wn123 05 Apr 2008, 10:52am

I have O2 Broadband. As im also an O2 Phone user (Line rental) you get a discount for being a customer. I only pay £10 per month for 16mb unlimited downloads. its only £7.50 for 8mb & £15 for 20mb. Ok u still have to pay BT for the line rental but if your on a mobile contract then this is a great deal, especially if you have another person in the house that uses the broadband then they can go halves with u & iths cheaper still.
The broadband is very good too, they bought BeThere.co.uk and use there Lines/Exchanges.

lindleytvr 05 Apr 2008, 10:58am

Just a tip for those on BT. My BT Broadband Option 2 contract was up for renewal. The best deal for me was with BT themselves. I used the old fashion phone method and spoke to a real British person in the UK! He was great. As an ongoing customer they offered me £3.00 a month discount for my full 12 month contract (this is available to others aswell) AND an extra £5.00 a month discount for the 12 months as a reward for renewing with them. I test my broadband speed every week and consistantly get 3mb (which is great considering my distance from the exchange) and as I've never had anything but excellent and reliable service from BT I shall stay put.
I've experienced myself (or had family experience) difficulties with some other companies in the past as I'm not in a city (where many of these deals are available). Some problems have been terrible: Orange (cut off broadband for a month and cancelled email addresses), Talk Talk (took 6 months to organise connection and disallowed all National phone calls in that time)and Virgin (cut broadband connection). I will never use Talk Talk again no matter how cheap they are.
My Foolish tips - ask people in your own area about their experiences (as a company offering a great deal in one area might not be so great in another); shop around; don't automatically discount the older providers; check the best speed you can hope to get before signing (it's no good paying a premium for high speeds in many suburban and rural areas as they're too far from the exchange); speak to the companies direct as you often get a better deal; get a package that offers what you need (do you really need 200 TV channels?)
Good Luck!

barbus18 05 Apr 2008, 11:01am

> Hello, barbus18

Please be polite and on topic when you post


Line breaks are converted automatically.
You may use the following tags in your post: - bold, - to quote text. All other tags will be removed from your post.<

Sorry can someone explain my impolite post, and missuse of 'tags'

I'm new here so please enlighten me.

barbus 18

xh558 05 Apr 2008, 11:05am

We use Tiscali which is good value at £16.00 for up to 10mb although they also can supply a static IP address for free which we use but have had a few problems with it not working.
Customer service in India is awful, they only have a basic understanding of your enquiry or problem and if they cannot fix it they will escalate it to the next level within the UK but this takes many days, and mean while you still have to put up with the problem.
Overall - Broadband service is trouble free and works well and we would recommend them on value for money.

lindleytvr 05 Apr 2008, 11:10am

To anyone who wants to check their internet speed I use the following.

http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/speedtest/

This morning I've had a rate of 3.126 mb/s which is fantastic for my location.

sandspider2000 05 Apr 2008, 11:14am

I also would never use Talktalk (Carphone warehouse). Absolutely dreadful customer service. Impossible to talk to anyone, and even harder to actually get them to stop billing you, even if the "service" they "provide" has been cut off.

WorkHard100 05 Apr 2008, 11:29am

Don't forget, cost is only one factor when choosing an ISP. They may be cheap, but if you can't get connected in the evenings or weekends, then what's the point?

I would highly recommend using ADSL Guide's Comparison Tool to compare the quality of service:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html

PS. o2 offer interesting discounts on their broadband if you are an o2 mobile user, i.e. 8Meg, unlimited downloads, no connection fee for £7.50 a month (12 month contract).

electrictrumpet 05 Apr 2008, 11:32am

Jane, you haven't done your research properly. Otherwise you would have mentioned the Orange Home Starter and Home Max packages (£12 6Gb and £24 'unlimited' but even cheaper if you have a mobile contract with them). NO line rental; includes a second number over voip. Or there's just free broadband (2Gb I think) with a mobile contract.
NB I don't work for orange, I'm just a happy customer.

Best wishes, Neil

bbarny 05 Apr 2008, 11:35am

I had broadband with Tiscali. and would like to point out that after my first phone call to cs, I decided I would ditch them when my contract was up. Unfortunately I was only a weak into a 12 month contract. Worst cs I have ever dealt with Orange being 2nd. I judge a company on cs and would rather pay slightly more to avoid bad service providers.

bbarny 05 Apr 2008, 11:38am

Just a PS to the above. I am with madasafish and they are very good. Good tec support and cs and also good service providers I have been with them 3 years and would recommend them. I think BT have Taken over madsa now so I hope things remain as they are. Up to now still good though.

Kapid 05 Apr 2008, 12:21pm

I am a virgin media user, (known as ntl before VM tookover). This is a cable line/brodband service. However, when I enquired about the sky package, I was advised that I should have a BT line. unfortunately I do not have a bt line, and it is understood that most of the offers are in fact based on existance of BT line before one can switch over. The sky saleperson advised I need to pay at least £150 for installation of new bt line and then ofcourse the line rental, by the time you add up all the costs, i feel i am ok with VM.

russelm2 05 Apr 2008, 12:47pm

Good day all,I had a few issues with Virgin Media(Previously Telewest)but now experience fast reliable service constantly. Yes I have the 20MB option, but as several users in the house access at the same time, this is perfect. I currently get free basic tv,a landline that gives me free calls to my friends(also VM customers)and a good broadband service-what more could I ask for.
I'm a strong believer of-you gets what ya pays for.

whiteburn 05 Apr 2008, 1:19pm

How lovely to have such choice.
I live in the country and live so far from the exchange that only BT will give me broadband. True I might have had an ugly satellite dish. I am just so happy that I no longer get disconnected which happened with dial-up. Once it took me all day to do some simple on-line banking. BT is not the cheapest and when its frosty I cant always get a connection, but apart from one occasion when my neighbour ploughed through the cable and we had no connection for a whole day, it has been a lifeline. Speed is a luxury.
Most of these companies listed are like the postal courier service, concentrating on the urban areas and overchargeing or neglecting the rural community who have most need of these services.
Perhaps broadband suppliers should be obliged to offer a percentage of their services to the rural community.

slughead91 05 Apr 2008, 6:20pm

GOOD ON YR TALK TALK: I feel I have to stick up for talk talk. I used to be with BT broadband but had a trouble free migration to talk talk, it looks like I am one of a minority as I have found them excellent. With BT I found I was forever troubleshooting due to connection failures, this was cured with the move to talk talk. I have no intention of changing my provider.

pete2bram 05 Apr 2008, 7:04pm

I quote the comment from Wickmesh above (saves me typing in the same complaint]:-

"Eclipse (recommended above) are absolutely terrible for this - with our router sync'ed at 8Mb/s to the exchange, we routinely had maximum download rates more akin to 0.5Mb/s."

I am with TOUCAN now PIPEX and have exactly the same trouble [8Mb unlimited inc line rental @ £27 p.m]. At least 30% of the day my download speed is less than 512Kb for supposed 8Mb connex [I am only 500yds from exchange]. On a GOOD DAY it rarely rises to above 3\Mbs DESPITE ME KEEPING LOG'S AND CONTINUALLY COMPLAINING. Usually Upon complaint my speed averages around 4Mbs ONLY for A MATTER OF DAYS and then reduces to what it was. Needless to say I am now seeking an ISP with a lower contention rate.
Dr. W. Peter Koerner
Sheffield

pete2bram 05 Apr 2008, 7:09pm

Sorry VicLud - last post should read Mb/s and not Mbs and RATE not Speed....cor pedantic or wot !

AlanPreston 06 Apr 2008, 12:05am

I do think that you should point out that the Sky deals are for NEW customers only! (Something that they will never admit to on the phone) We have been with Sky TV for years but I'm afraid that client loyalty counts for nothing with them! PS. I'm just about to leave for Virgin media.

Marblefinder 06 Apr 2008, 12:13am

A deal for "Up to 8Mbps" means little:

Apart from sharing the line with (typically) 200 other people you might find that the maximum achievable bit rate for your address is less than half the advertised "Up to" value and that many web sites other than ISPs and computer services companies are limited to sending 0.25Mbps anyway.

You can buy lower contention ratios (from some providers including BT) but if you want your own line it will obviously cost about 200 times as much as the cheapest shared line.

A wireless internet connection can be better for people who are a long way from their exchange but close to a radio mast. Beware though that as more people adopt wireless connections contention will rise and the benefit might fall as a result.

nickthecrip 06 Apr 2008, 4:55am

One problem with moving to a deal including a phone line rental, like TalkTalk or Virgin Media, is that should you not like the new service & after the minimum period decide to return to a BT line, or migrate to a package that requires a BT line, then you will incur a reconnection charge of around £125 to £150 from BT. This would wipe out any savings you may of made by switching in the first place.
I have a Sky package, with the Max on broadband, costing £10/month. A rate of 'up to' 16Mb/sec is quoted but I have never got anywhere that rate. Maybe I should complain more? My phone line has stayed with BT-I didn't take the Sky offer, but BT offer the same deal now, anyway.

sparkyscientist 06 Apr 2008, 10:44am

I have to echo the negative comments about TALK TALK. I had a dreadful experience with them, lasting over 8months and more emails/phone calls/letters that I can remember. As I've heard many times before, cost isn't the only consideration - quality is really important. Unfortunately, it's often difficult for any of us to easily measure that until we've actually signed up with a provider. I recommend that people do a bit of research (there are plenty of comments on the net) before committing.

fenemore 06 Apr 2008, 12:24pm

I seem to be at odds with everyone else as I would NEVER opt for a bundled deal. Cost isn't the issue - but having all your eggs in one basket certainly is. I have broadband with Virgin Telewest, phone with BT and TV from Sky. All 3 have been pestering me to take their other services - but no! If I have a problem with one service it doesn't take down the other two. Saving a few pennies just doesn't cut it!

icening 06 Apr 2008, 2:23pm

I have a BT Together Option 1. Phone and Broadband - no television. My phone calls cost 13 pounds and ten pence for last quarter and other quarters are similar. I pay 38 pounds and 50 pence a month. Obviously I am being robbed. What do I do next?

scousepie 06 Apr 2008, 3:17pm

BT WARNING!

I'm just considering a move for my broadband and phone - not bothered about TV - Freeview has enough rubbish on it for me to grouch about. I used to be with TalkTalk for my phone/mobiles but only because I was scared of leaving them until they resolved an overcharging issue. It only took them 18 months...

So I thought I'd move the deal to BT. Wow! If TalkTalk was bad, BT is proving an absolute nightmare! They 'accidentally' overcharged me £204 when I swapped my broadband. I wrote to them in January and the matter is hopefully about to be resolved (4 months later). I was overcharged over £100 for a feature on my landline that I was told would be free - this has been refunded (only after I could prove they had offered the deal in the first place by identifyingthe salesperson), but I have asked them to verify that I am not owed more. I was sent a payment of £130 for another overpayment.

This is over £400 in 6 months! AND the package on my phone and mobiles used to cost about £45 per month plus BT line rental. This is now about £100 per month, plus BT landline call charges!!

If you can get through to anyone, it is invariably 'not their department' and the number they redirect you to tells you the same. I spent over two hours on Thursday afternoon/Friday morning tryingto resolve their latest demand for money on my mobile bill. They can't take the money they owe me from my broadband account and credit my mobile, because BT consists of lots of different small subsidiaries that are separate entities. I can't physically afford to give them any more money, so have to wait for the cheque from the broadband overpayment and use it to pay for my mobiles. In the meantime usage of my mobiles is restricted to incoming calls only and risk being disconnected soon.

Avoid avoid avoid!!!

Willcx 06 Apr 2008, 6:41pm

O2 Wireless
£7.50 for if you are a O2 mobile customer.
I have been with them for a few months. Upto 16mb speed with unlimited downloads. Efficient service, free customer support phone numbers.

The times I have phoned, i was served quickly and efficiently and very politely. Top class service!

During the transfer process, you are kept updated regularly both by email and SMS text!

They also remind you once a month automatically by SMS when your bill is due.

I am one of the oldtimers having been using the internet for about 20 years. This is the best ISP i have used to date.
I cant speak highly enough of the service as a whole.

a note on BT Broadband. AVOID!
It took over a month to transfer from them to O2. Customer care phonelines always busy. Sent them an email to their MAC office and they replied instantly giving me a counter offer to retain me. I said no thanks please send me a MAC code and got no response for weeks. Finally got through on the phone to them and requested a MAC code. Then there were problems with 'tags' on my line and hence it was not possible to transfer to O2. Eventually my line was cleared but then the MAC code expired. All in all, BT's constant cockups left me without internet for over a month. I was not pleased!

BT Broadband : AVOID!

Willcx 06 Apr 2008, 6:42pm

O2 Wireless
£7.50 for if you are a O2 mobile customer.
I have been with them for a few months. Upto 16mb speed with unlimited downloads. Efficient service, free customer support phone numbers.

The times I have phoned, i was served quickly and efficiently and very politely. Top class service!

During the transfer process, you are kept updated regularly both by email and SMS text!

They also remind you once a month automatically by SMS when your bill is due.

I am one of the oldtimers having been using the internet for about 20 years. This is the best ISP i have used to date.
I cant speak highly enough of the service as a whole.

a note on BT Broadband. AVOID!
It took over a month to transfer from them to O2. Customer care phonelines always busy. Sent them an email to their MAC office and they replied instantly giving me a counter offer to retain me. I said no thanks please send me a MAC code and got no response for weeks. Finally got through on the phone to them and requested a MAC code. Then there were problems with 'tags' on my line and hence it was not possible to transfer to O2. Eventually my line was cleared but then the MAC code expired. All in all, BT's constant mess ups left me without internet for over a month. I was not pleased!

blkbrd101 06 Apr 2008, 11:00pm

Thinking about switching to the Post Office to get away from BT. However, is it true that BT charges an exorbitant reconnection fee if I want to switch back. Don't know why I would mind you. Not while they are charging people £4.50 per quarter to pay a bill.

blkbrd101 06 Apr 2008, 11:06pm

Know what you mean. BT rips people off. I still have their phone line but I wouldn't touch their Broadband. If you want good value for Broadband check out PLUSNET.

beemerich 07 Apr 2008, 12:21am

I have to say I've had good experience of Plusnet. They've been really good, excellent customer service and technical help. Their tech help number is a geographical 01/02 number so that I can call it as part of my inclusive calls. I pay something like £30/month for broadband, inclusive calls 24/7 including (I think) 60 minutes a month to something like 20 international destinations. And the price includes line rental. All in all I'm pretty happy with it. (Plusnet also rank highly in independent satisfaction reviews).

My ha'pennorth!

tjfsteele 07 Apr 2008, 11:45am

My mum's been with Talktalk for two years now, no problems at all, she's very happy.

I am with Virgin Media, if you call 150 ask for Retentions and mention Talktalk they put you on a special package which costs £20 a month and you get free UK calls anytime (up to 1 hour per call, redial to continue free), telephone line rental, cable TV, and 2Mbps broadband (no limit but STM). Get your bill by email and save 50p a month so we now pay £19.49 a month, which is pretty good for what we get.

Corban07 07 Apr 2008, 1:32pm

It is always interesting how our opinions are formed from very little experience outside of our own. If we are happy with our current ISP we praise them. If we have had one bad experience with them, we urge people to avoid, even though we are often talking about the same companies!

I am on BT Broadband Option 1, and couldn't praise it enough, following a dreadful year with TalkTalk. The speed is very close to the advertised 8mbps, the connection is always on, and it came with a wireless router and IP phone.

Here's a tip though for BT Broadband users. Stay on option 1, even if you regularly go over your download limit. The cost per GB over the limit is just £0.30. I regularly use 10-12 GB per month, well over my 5GB allowance, but it works out at just £2 extra on my monthly bill!

If I switched to Option 3, as they recommend to me every month, it would cost an extra £7 per month. I would need to be using 30GB a month before it would be really worth it.

HelenHutchings 07 Apr 2008, 10:35pm

I have also had good experience of TalkTalk. Speeds are usually between 4.5 and 6 Mbps and when I have had problems (usually problems with my router) I have had prompt help from their service staff - although it can be tedious being escalated through increasingly expert staff. The total cost for my calls and broadband is usually less than £22 per month and far fewer problems that I had with BT.

icening 08 Apr 2008, 3:05pm

Your advice is very confusing. I now dare not leave BT in case I don't like the new server and am penalised heavily on returning to BT. For every good word for a supplier there is a bad word. Does anyone else pay thirty eight pounds fifty a month for broadband and the minimum use of the telephone?

dogstarJBS 09 Apr 2008, 3:04pm

BT have changed!! Shock horror. Broadband problems; phone them on free 0800 number. They can now log on to your PC and fix problems. Previously the Broadband line was chargeable and if the problem was your PC, then they used to walk away.

Hev30 11 Apr 2008, 5:54pm

I'm glad to hear that other people have the same opinion about TALKTALK and Carphone Warehouse. The service i recieved was appaling. They had entered my sort code incorrectly (correct on the contract) and therefore my bills were not being paid but the first thing i knew about this was when they blocked my landline. All my bill said payment recieved!. The internet (the whole reason I signed up to the package) was still working fine. This was because the suppliment charge I had to pay to get broadband was being paid (someone managed to process this correctly!). I sorted the outstanding payments and details problem the next mornuing as soon as customer services opened. I enquired how this could happen and was told that this was a different system even though they were on the same bill. Despite full payment I was then sent baliffs demands, my phone was disconnected and they kept my phone number! I spent days and weeks trying to sort this out. The record was 3.5 hours calling from my mobile trying to talk to the right department. I sent copies of all of my bills, records of phone conversation, times and dates to customer services and the MD but recieved no reply. I will never use TALKTALK or the carphone warehouse. They do not seem to value there customers and use the logic of the "computer says no!" no common sense is used.

Honky81 12 Apr 2008, 11:41am

Hey everyone, hello Icing,

I am surprised that nobody has mentioned the Virgin deal yet: £15.50 for Broadband and Phone a month. 2Mb speed, no download limit and you get £10 cashback "for every calbe service you take". The Phone only includes UK weekend calls, but hey, isn't it nicer to meet somebody at the pub, rather than phoning for an hr??? ;-)

I find this bundle ideal for light users, then have a freeview box and you get a very good deal I think.

I have been with Virgin before and never had any problems. Ok sometimes you stay on the line for 20 minutes until you can talk to someone, but dial 150 from your Virgin phone and this call is free. plus it seems common practice that you wait a bit until you can talk to someone, with just about every company.

Feel free to comment.