Tiscali Broadband is a broadband company that has since become a part of TalkTalk Broadband.  For all intents and purposes they are the same company, with the same offerings in both telecommunications services and home broadband internet services.  Tiscali Broadband is well known for offering customized plans, with very specific add-ons at very specific prices, allowing these two plans to quickly turn into any combination of offers that best suits the buyer’s needs.  In this sense, they have managed to create the most immersive, and best fit plans available in the UK for broadband service, all while maintaining a relatively low price.

Tiscali Broadband offers just two plans, both at an impressive download rate of 24 megabits per second.  The only distinction between the two plans is the download cap of 40 gigabytes per month, with evening and weekend plans at £6.99 monthly, versus the unlimited plan with unlimited downloading and unlimited calling to UK landlines at £14.99 monthly.  While some may argue that these two plans vary significantly, and do not offer a significant middle ground, with additional features called “boosts”, download cap can be raised to 80 gigabytes monthly, allowing Tiscali Broadband’s offerings to be entirely tailored to individual needs.

All in all, the Tiscali Broadband website offers a great service at a reasonable price, with a high degree of customizability along the way.  With some of the highest download rates available to home consumers in the UK, and the availability of an unlimited plan for a reasonable price, Tiscali is sure to meet the needs of most broadband users in the UK.

Regulators including the Advertising Standard’s Agency (ASA) are due to look at the practice of broadband providers who sell services with ‘unlimited’ usage yet limit user’s connections when their usage goes over a ‘fair usage policy’.

The process has been put in place because the telecoms sector is changing so quickly and because consumers are changing their idea of what they deem to be acceptable. The ASA says that a broad policy on unlimited usage and the associated fair usage policies is preferable, rather than the current case by case consideration of the practices of broadband providers.

ASA’s investigation is coming when more and more providers are already moving away from ‘unlimited’ offers. This is happening as the latest internet applications are starting to use such vast amounts of data that service providers could no longer manage the few heavy users via a fair use policy.

Previously it would only have been a very small minority of a broadband provider’s customers that use extremely high amounts of data. Such users could be dealt with on a case by case basis by the service provider. However the extent to which users now make use of the internet has made it difficult to promise unlimited usage if it is likely that the user will make heavy use of their connection in any case.

Regardless of whether ASA standards or broadband provider policies are the first to settle the issue, it is very likely that heavy internet users will have to pay up front for their usage allowance.

As you probably know there are three main types of broadband access options on the market – ADSL (or Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line), cable access and mobile broadband. Whilst there are numerous ADSL providers – including Talk Talk broadband, Sky broadband and BT Total broadband – there is currently only one provider of cable broadband, Virgin Media broadband.

ADSL uses the old copper phone lines we have been using for decades, albeit with more advanced signalling technology. An ADSL modem uses a high frequency to send a signal across the copper wire to your local BT exchange. The exchange is then connected to the broader internet. Installing ADSL requires no substantial installation work, as long as you already have a phone line.

Broadband over cable transmits data over a special ‘cable’ line which is connected directly to Virgin Media’s infrastructure. Cable infrastructure was originally designed to deliver television signals but was adapted to also carry a broadband signal. Installing cable broadband involves an engineer visiting your house and installing a dedicated cable line from the street corner box to the inside of your home.

Choosing between ADSL and cable broadband can be a tricky affair. For the moment Virgin Media broadband offer speeds superior to those offered by ADSL providers and especially so if you live far from your local phone exchange. However cable broadband is not as widely available as ADSL. Whilst phone lines are laid to most homes; not every area has been equipped with the necessary cable broadband infrastructure.

Part of your choice would be determined by which deal is recommended to you when you visit a broadband comparison site, so keep an open mind.

Virgin Media, the cable broadband provider of Virgin broadband, TV, phone and mobile services have stepped up their campaign to gain more market share. For the first time, Virgin is now offering Sky Sports 1 and 2 in high definition – and with the football season starting next month, it could be the clincher.

Sky is also offering broadband, phone and TV packages but have the entire range of Sky Sports channels in HD. However, Virgin has 30 whilst Sky has 50 channels available in full high definition making much more use of everyone’s high definition ready widescreen televisions.

However, those choosing not to be customers of Sky or Virgin can still watch Sky Sports via Top up TV over Freeview. With the recent release of a new V+ box made by Cisco, Virgin is undoubtedly hoping that its bundled services will be enough to entice customers away from Sky and other telecommunications providers; with the lure of these and other sources of HD content, including the entirety of the BBC iPlayer output.

Although, if you’ve got broadband then presumably you can already view BBC iPlayer in high definition but many haven’t made the jump from computer with broadband to a TV with broadband. Once this switch happens, many will find it possible to watch all their TV channels over a broadband connection without installing cable access or a satellite dish.

However even now BT and other broadband providers offer special set top boxes that can uses the ADSL connection to stream content directly to the TV television so you don’t necessarily need to connect your TV directly to your broadband link.