Most internet users have at least heard of some of the giant names in the industry, like BT Total broadband, O2 broadband, Orange home broadband and Sky broadband. But what about some of the smaller beasts out there in the web jungle? Here’s a quick overview of just one of them.
TalkTalk Broadband (which recently absorbed Tiscali broadband) offers two well-priced packages, depending on how frequently you use the internet. The “Essentials” package caters for those who do a little casual surfing to book holidays, indulge in a little retail therapy, and so on. At £18.99 a month (which includes £11.49 line rental), it beats the cost of equivalent packages offered by some of the industry giants. BT’s option 1 comes in at £27.53 and Virgin’s XL will set you back £34.45, although it does offer an unlimited download allowance. Over 18 months, including the connection fee, this translates into a saving of £108.91 over BT and £252.47 over Virgin. And you’ll get a generous 40GB download allowance in comparison with BT’s10 GB.
TalkTalk’s “Pro” package offers a similar speed to Essentials (up to 24 Mbps) but caters for those who like to download lots of music and video files, it has an unlimited download allowance and allows calls to UK landlines, including 0870 and 0845 numbers, any time (Essentials offers UK landline calls for weekends and evenings only). You can also call UK mobiles at a flat rate of seven pence per minute. The cost is a mere £28.48 per month (including line rental and security), which compared with £41.02 for BT’s equivalent (a total saving of £171.73 over 18 months) and £40.45 for Virgin’s (a saving of £143.64) proves that sometimes, going small can lead to big savings.