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).