Not happy with your Internet provider? Or you just simply move to a different area of the country and don’t know what would be the best choice there? Confusion about what is today available on the market is big, but I will try to help you to diminish it at least a little bit. Here are first four important points to be aware of:
- Think about Broadband coverage in the area you like to live and check the estimated line speed to your home. Most internet providers give that information freely at their websites.
- Verify the length of the contract – small print is where the tricks are always hidden. If you move for only one year why would you pay a longer contract?
- Check well all the fees, like start-up or set-up fee and be aware if after first year the provider will not change the monthly price. You may get a very nasty surprise there.
- And finally check if there is a bundle package. In many cases, if you add telephone or TV services it works out cheaper than just one service or each service from different provider. You may not watch TV so much, but if you obtain your internet cheaper with it, then why not.
Let us now look into some data I have compared for you, and see if based on them any sound decision could be made.
| EE Broadband |
Plusnet |
Virgin Media |
Post Office BB |
TalkTalk |
|
| Contract length |
All packages: 18 months |
All packages: 12 months |
All packages: 12 months |
All packages: 18 months but 12 months also available |
All packages: 18 months but 12 months also available |
| Usage allowance |
All packages: unlimited |
All packages: unlimited |
All packages: unlimited |
All packages: unlimited |
All packages: unlimited |
| Price range monthly (including line rental) |
Starting at £21.50 |
Starting at £14.49 |
Starting at £32.25 |
Starting at £18 (depends from 12 or 18 months contract) |
Starting at £17 |
| “Up to” speed with cheapest package |
17 Mb/sec |
10 Mb/sec |
100 Mb/sec |
11 Mb/sec but depends from postal code |
11 Mb/sec |
| Set-up fee |
YES (starting at £10) |
YES (starting at £35) |
NO |
YES (starting at £7) |
NO |
As you see, if you like to go cheap and you are not one of those “heavy users” of Internet, you just need it to check your e-mail and make some basic search, Plusnet or TalkTalk might be a good option, because even if you add to the monthly fees the set-up fee, you will end up paying about £17 per month for each of the providers. It seems however, that the cheapest packages are not providing the speed you would like to have at your disposition.
Thus, if you care for the speed because you like to see lots of movies, you love to watch YouTube, you download a lot or you are a gamer, I like to provide you with a different comparison.
| EE Fibre Plus BB |
Plusnet Unlimited Fibre Extra |
Virgin Media Vivid 100 |
Post Office unlimited BB Plus |
TalkTalk Unlimited Faster Fibre |
Toople (only for business) Fibre Ultimate |
|
| “Up to” speed |
76 Mb/sec |
66 Mb/sec |
108 Mb/sec |
63 Mb/sec but depends from postal code |
35 Mb/sec |
80 Mb/sec |
| Price per month |
£33 |
£32.99 |
£38 |
£31 (24 months contract) |
£22.50 (18 months contract) |
£33.25 (24 months contract) |
| Set-up fee |
£35 |
£25 |
£20 |
£25 |
£30 |
NO |
As you may see, in relation to speed nobody really beats Virgin Media, which has even better speed in the package called Vivid 350 providing the download speed of 362 Mb/sec for the costs of £48.
If you build a bundle with Virgin Media, adding TV player and a Phone line you will suddenly pay only about £32 per month. All that with 12 months contract and download speed of 108 Mb/sec. There is no other provider who would meet this plan.
PostOffice BB might be worth to check, for two reasons. First they claim, that their pricing does not change after one year, second if you would like to add a Phone line for £9/month you will obtain unlimited calls over the country.
Teresa