Be Clever with BE Broadband

June 11th, 2010 | Broadband, Broadband Providers, Broadband Reviews

Many of us opt for the most prominent market names such as BT Total broadband, Sky broadband, O2 broadband or Orange home broadband when we’re signing up to a broadband connection. But it could be well worth the effort to do a little consumer research, before signing on the dotted line.

BE Broadband for example, quietly owned by 02, is now one of the UK’s fastest growing service providers. Its first connected customer received a highly creditable transfer rate of 18.5MBps, and the company continues to offer a fast, reliable service. All of BE’s packages come with unlimited download allowances, so you won’t be faced with hefty penalty fees for exceeding your usage cap, and even customers on its lower end 8 Mbps package can reach upload speeds in excess of 1.3 Mbps.

The advertised speed, as with all providers, is the maximum possible. It will be impeded by factors such as the distance of your home from the local telephone exchange, signal interference and the quality of the copper wire used for the connection. But you can still bank on some fairly zippy download and upload rates all the same. The company operates an exceptionally generous ‘fair usage’ policy which has never, so far, been implemented, which makes BE Broadband an excellent choice for heavy-duty internet users like gamesters and download addicts of all kinds. More information about the various packages on offer can be found on the company’s website, www.BeThere.co.uk.

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Curb Your Enthusiasm: ‘Unlimited’ Downloads and Fair Usage Policies

June 10th, 2010 | Broadband, Broadband Providers

You might be surprised to find that your unlimited broadband internet service has a sneaky download limit tucked away inside it after all. Currently, only Sky Broadband Unlimited and Virgin Media XXL are offering truly unlimited services, just about everyone else employs a ‘fair usage’ policy. These can range from the miserly to the surprisingly generous (BE Broadband’s policy, for instance, has never been implemented). As millions of us are cheerfully downloading music, or catching up on missed TV programmes via BBC iPlayer, we might find the cold touch of a fair usage policy fingering our collars (or our bank accounts), especially as internet television and film downloads are catching on like wildfire.

If you’re one of the more heavy-duty downloaders, you’d be wise to cut down on your usage or confine your downloading/uploading to the wee hours when fewer people will be browsing locally; you can generally download as much as you like then without inconveniencing anyone else. Fair usage penalties can take one of several forms: charging you an excess fee, throttling your connection so that you can only download a limited amount, reducing your usage at peak times or limiting your access to peer-to-peer sites.

 If you love movies and download, say, ten quality films a month, you’re already guzzling 40 GB. If you upload and download pictures on social networking sites like Facebook, too, you’ll almost certainly be feeling that cold finger slipping inside your collar. Installing a free Broadband Download Monitor can help but, ultimately, you might need to upgrade to a beefier package, if you can’t curb your download enthusiasm.

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Dial-up Replaced by Broadband

June 7th, 2010 | Broadband, Broadband Providers, Mobile Broadband

Dial-up connection to the internet has been almost completely replaced by broadband, with only a few remote UK communities unable to access it. Broadband is basically a much faster connection, its most common form being ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line). Using it, you can make calls on your landline at the same time as you’re on the internet, the connection is permanent, and download times are much faster because data is converted over a wider frequency range and much more efficiently. The way that broadband is accessed takes a number of forms, such as through a cable line or through a wireless network, or via a satellite link. Broadband is also available via mobile telephone networks and is usually sold as mobile broadband.

The choice of broadband provider depends on many factors. There is an increasing trend amongst broadband providers to offer bundles, packages that also cover the telephone and/or cable TV as well as the broadband line itself. This is proving very popular, as taking out such a contract for a bundle of services reduces the cost. Virgin Media broadband and Sky broadband both offer competitive packages.

For the business sector, and the public sector as opposed to the home user, a raft of factors has to be considered when choosing between the broadband providers such as TalkTalk broadband, O2 broadband and Plusnet broadband, all of which offer business broadband packages.

Check a few of the broadband comparison websites such as Broadband Finder before coming to a decision on the one that’s best for your needs, and see what deals are on offer.

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Four Common Broadband Bellyaches and How to Fix Them

June 4th, 2010 | Broadband, Broadband Equipment

There are many advantages to having a broadband internet connection; but there’s a downside, too. Here are a few common broadband bellyaches and some straightforward remedies.

Let’s start with those fair usage policies on ‘unlimited’ download contracts, which end up restricting your usage if you download particularly heavily in a month. Here, a broadband download monitor (available free from a wide number of broadband consumer websites) can help, or you could opt for companies that have ditched fair usage policies altogether, such as Sky Broadband, BE Broadband or O2 Broadband.

If you do decide to switch, you may come across a delay, your previous provider may fail to send you your Migration Authorization Code (MAC) promptly. Should this happen, get in touch with OFCOM, which has made it compulsory for ISPs to pass on this code within 5 working days.

With the rise of mobile phones, increasing numbers of people no longer wish to have a telephone landline. But for many service providers, a landline is a pre-requisite, and it costs. You’ll have to part with £130 for installation and around ten pounds per month for line rental. If you object to this, check if you can get a cable connection from Virgin Media in your area (cable installation only costs £30) or consider a mobile broadband package.

Finally, if you don’t want to be locked in to an 18 or 24-month contract, look for ISPs offering 12-month contracts, or consider PlusNet Broadband’s one-month contract. The Wireless Flexi deal from AOL is also worth a look.

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Getting broadband in rural areas

June 3rd, 2010 | Broadband, Broadband Equipment

One of the most challenging aspects of the broadband industry in the 21st century is the expansion of networks to offer Internet beyond the infrastructure of city grids into the rural communities where the necessary wiring infrastructure does not already exist as standard fare. This is especially true of areas where the population density is extremely low, such as small villages or areas up in the mountains. It is usually easy to provide broadband service to customers within the city, because the equipment costs can be recovered through population density, or subscription numbers, but in low population areas each customer requires a unique series of connections that are fairly expensive to provide at such a distance. Options these days are fairly limited, but they are getting better, and if you happen to be someone who lives in the countryside and you need to make broadband comparison it is important to understand the limitations.

The most popular option for those living outside of an infrastructure is wireless Internet portals. While there are line-of-sight issues that can hamper the connectivity, such as heavy fog or foliated terrain, wireless is a viable option for those living in the countryside. Towers are set up to relay the connection, and while speeds are significantly slower than traditional broadband, it is far better than dial-up or satellite, where the connection is limited and has to deal with the latency to ping information to a satellite and back. Check with the various broadband providers to determine who offers wireless access in your area.

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Sky Broadband for free when you sign up to Sky TV!

May 31st, 2010 | Broadband Providers, Broadband Reviews

Sky Broadband is a UK provider of in home broadband solutions and services, known for its high performance, and relatively low pricing scheme.  Sky Broadband offers a few services, at a few different price levels, on a few different packages, however as a whole they typically remain relatively inexpensive across all levels.  As a whole, Sky Broadband achieves optimal levels of service for a wide variety of customers, while maintaining high (yet not unlimited) download caps for its subscribers on most plans, while still making available an unlimited plan for heavy users.

Sky Broadband’s plans start at just five pounds each month, which grants unlimited calling to land lines in the UK, and up to two megabits per second of download speed, with a cap of two gigabytes per month.  This is a very low price for casual users of the internet, with little need to stream media to their computers, and is a level of service often completely unavailable with other providers.  Everyday service is available at 10 pounds monthly, offering 10 megabit per second download speeds and 10 gigabytes of monthly download capacity, while their unlimited plan operates at 20 megabits per second with no download cap.

All in all, their services are moulded to meet a wide variety of needs and desires of their existing customers, as well as prospective customers.  As a whole, their unlimited plan offers excellent download rates at a reasonable price, while offering cheaper alternatives to those with lesser needs.

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Where To Find Cheap Broadband Services

May 30th, 2010 | Broadband Comparison, Broadband Providers, Mobile Broadband

Broadband on a budget is not as hard to find as you may think.  In fact, there are several ways to go about locating plans for both broadband and mobile broadband services.  By taking the time to investigate all your options, you can find the ideal plan and enjoy access to the Internet at a price that does not impact on the household budget.

A good place to begin is with your current mobile or home phone service provider.  There’s a good chance they have more than one broadband package to choose from.  If one of those packages has everything you want, you may be able to further reduce the cost by bundling it with the service or services already in place with that vendor.

For broadband deals on stand-alone packages, spend some time online researching your options.  Some companies (such as Virgin Media Broadband) offer low rates in exchange for committing to a contract for one, two, or three-year intervals.   There are a number of consumer sites that will allow you to compare broadband services offered by different providers, making it easy to identify those that come with a low price tag.

Keep in mind that while price is important, you also want the service to be reliable.  This is true when looking for business broadband as well as residential broadband services.  Unless the price is backed up with reliable service, eliminate the provider from your list and focus on the remaining options.   In the long run, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and frustration, and enjoy your service a lot more.

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The Age of 40 Megabits per second is here!

May 23rd, 2010 | Broadband, Broadband Providers

If you thought 8 Megabits per second (Mbps) was fast for a broadband internet connection, fasten your seatbelt, hold onto your hat and remove any loose jewellery: BT Total Broadband is set to provide a lightning fast internet service which dwarfs this speed so comprehensively that it’ll make it look like a hung-over tortoise. Until now in the UK, only Virgin has been in a position to offer such a super-fast service (50 Mbps) but O2 has now laid enough optical fibre cables to deliver a 40 Mbps broadband connection to up to 4 million homes.

Virgin Media’s XXL ultra fast internet reaches its dazzling velocities because it does not utilise your home’s BT-installed telephone cable, an independent line no thicker than a pencil is run under your front garden to a box just outside your home: this is the cable link to the Virgin network. BT’s fibre optic network now joins with Virgin to provide the fastest internet services presently available in the UK: you can watch catch up TV in high definition, surf the web and play online games at virtually instantaneous delivery speeds. Whilst Virgin offers an additional 10 Mbps, BT Total Broadband’s ultra fast service is cheaper (£19.99 per month compared with Virgin’s £28).

Should you find that neither Virgin nor BT Total broadband is available at these super-fast speeds in your area, you could try O2 Broadband’s Premium Package, which comes in at a creditable 20 Mbps and a reasonable £15 per month (£10 if you’re an existing O2 customer).

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Tesco Broadband Service – get connected today!

May 19th, 2010 | Broadband, Broadband Deals, Broadband Providers

Of course, the Tesco brand is familiar to you already, but did you know that you could find out information about broadband providers and even sign up at a Tesco centre or even at the Tesco internet site?  Tesco sells mobile phones and other services from several different providers, so this may be one way for you to compare rates, coverage and services.

In fact, the Tesco phone shop has an interactive comparison guide that shows you the various offers side-by-side.  They currently show offers from TalkTalk, Orange, O2, BT, and Virgin.  One thing they don’t show on their comparison chart is the coverage area; if you’re in or near a metropolitan area this probably won’t be an issue, but if you live in a rural area, be sure to check.  The best way to proceed is to find two or three plans that seem to suit your interest, wallet and estimated usage, and then call the companies to ensure you’ll have coverage where you live.

Of course, there’s always wireless broadband if you’re in a remote area, but check the usage charges on those services.  They can add up quickly under some plans, and you don’t want to be surprised when the bill comes!

One very handy feature of the Tesco site is that it shows you “bundled” packages that may include landline telephone service, mobile telephone, broadband and even wireless broadband services.  Sometimes by bundling two or more services together you can save on the overall cost.  But remember, this will save you money only if these are services that you need and will use.  Otherwise, you’re still wasting money.

But since few of us can live without phones these days, and increasingly that means our mobile phones, bundling is becoming a more popular option for saving money.

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Check out the Latest Broadband Offers

May 17th, 2010 | Broadband Comparison, Broadband Deals, Broadband Providers

To compare broadband providers and the different packages they offer, go to one of the many broadband or mobile broadband comparison websites that give you information on the latest deals and special offers. Mobile broadband, for example, often comes with a laptop thrown in, which it would be a pity to miss, and many broadband providers offer to match anything you can find cheaper, such is the level of competition.

Many domestic users go for one of the Virgin Media broadband or Sky broadband packages, not only because they have a good name and are easy to understand, but because you can tie in the cable TV and telephone as a part of the bundle, with discounts on offer for doing so. But if you don’t want cable TV and are happy with your telephone provider, it might make sense to choose another broadband provider after checking their credentials on the broadband comparison websites. Broadband Finder is one of the leading broadband comparison sites in the UK, bringing all the latest news and broadband deals on offer in the world of broadband providers. It also has speed tests and runs forums, and has a separate section for mobile broadband. It makes a good starting point in your search for a suitable broadband provider.

Business users of broadband will usually have a wider and more idiosyncratic range of requirements, and for them Broadband UK or one of the other specialists may cover their needs better than a more general package that won’t be tailored to business broadband requirements.

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