Friday October 13, 2006
Published on Guardian Unlimited
"Broadband is just another utility, the same as water or electricity," says Rosemary Haworth, features editor of PC Advisor magazine. And just as switching your electricity supplier can cut costs, choosing the right broadband supplier can also save you money.
At first sight the broadband market looks hopelessly confusing, but it's relatively simple. There are, according to Haworth, three types of broadband deal: unlimited-broadband deals, pay-as-you-go deals and bundled-broadband deals.
Unlimited broadband is just that: you pay around £22 a month and get a fast connection speed and unlimited downloads.
Pay-as-you-go is budget broadband: monthly costs are less at about £15 a month, but you are subject to a download limit or "cap".
Bundled-broadband is broadband with other services: phone calls, free wireless router, Wi-Fi minutes, web space or cable TV can all be included.
Free broadband also fits this category - to get it you will need to sign up to another service.
The hugely popular Carphone Warehouse free broadband offer, for example, depends on signing up to a mobile phone and line rental contract costing £21 a month. If not free, then, bundled-broadband costs about £25 a month.
Others offer mixed deals, such as Tiscali's heavily promoted £12.99 a month package. With this you get a relatively slow 1 Mb speed but unlimited downloads. You also get free calls at weekends, but no helpline service. It's essentially a basic unlimited broadband deal with some free calls bundled in as a sweetener.
User habits
Before signing up or switching broadband suppliers you should consider three things. How much you will use it, how fast you want it and whether you need unlimited downloads.
How much you use it is easy - you'll either be a light, medium or heavy user. Do you use broadband for browsing in the evening, an iTunes habit or online gaming into the wee hours?
"Most of us at home are actually fairly light users," says Ms Haworth, who has carried out surveys on internet use. "We use broadband all day at work, but when we're at home it'll be a couple of hours in the evening and at weekends."
Speed is next. The old dial-up internet offered a glacial 56k connection. The average web page would take 14 seconds to load and a 5Mb mp3 file about 12 minutes to download. Now speeds of up to 8Mb are normal - 160 times faster than dial-up, which is basically instant.
But do you need that speed? Yes if you're a heavy user, no if you're a light user.
Standard broadband speeds are around 2Mb, but 8Mb is what gamers and video junkies lust after. However, 1Mb will suit many light users - a webpage will open in under half a second and the mp3 download will take around 40 seconds.
The third question is whether you need unlimited downloads? Downloads are measured in gigabits (Gb) a month. A 2Gb download cap will let you view the equivalent of 21,000 web pages, or download 410 songs, before an extra charge kicks in. It sounds alot, but is it?
"Most of us will struggle to use 2Gb a month," says Ms Haworth.
That's worth knowing because you can save money by choosing a broadband deal with a download cap. "It tends to be £5 cheaper [a month] if it's capped," she adds.
What's more, if you do go over your download limit, extra gigabits are cheap: "The pay-as-you-go model is £1 for every extra gigabit," says Haworth.
You can also get your broadband with extra facilities or supplied with your cable TV package. There is no difference in performance and the cable companies often provide great deals. Sky, for example, offers broadband free to their TV customers.
Typical extras include free phone calls, free monthly Wi-Fi minutes (which means you can use your laptop at Wi-Fi hotspots for free), free voice over internet calls and free wireless routers. Proposals have been announced for free TV over the internet.
Quality of service
Of course, the level of service is also vital. Jason Lloyd, broadband channel manager at online price comparison website moneysupermarket.com, says that service comes second only to price as the main reason for switching supplier.
"Tiscali and TalkTalk are two of the most competitive internet service providers (ISPs) in the market on price right now. Unfortunately, they are also two of the most complained about ISPs in terms of customer service.
"Consumers need to understand that in most cases you do get what you pay for. So with Tiscali and TalkTalk don't expect a high level of customer service, but you will get highly competitive products that will save you money."
He adds: "It's important to recognise that there are still many satisfied Tiscali and TalkTalk customers."
You can gauge the quality of a service by visiting online forums to see what other users say about the ISP you're interested in. Use a service such as ADSLguide, or moneysupermarket.com's forum which tells you how users rate ISPs for speed and technical and customer service.
Make sure you check the terms and conditions of any ISP to avoid hidden extras or catches. You can also check with the communications watchdog, Ofcom, to make sure they have signed up to the migration authorisation code (Mac) of practice.
You will need a Mac if you are going to switch from one broadband supplier to another. If your supplier is slow to give it to you it will delay the process of switching.
With more than 80 broadband providers in the UK, but only a dozen or so main players, a good place to begin your search is a price-comparison website such as Guardian Unlimited's compare and buy site, uSwitch, Moneysupermarket.com or UKOffer.
Enter your specifics - size, speed, any extras etc - and they churn out all the providers that match your requirements.
While such sites are independent, be aware that they get their information from broadband suppliers, promote the latest deals and get a commission on everyone who switches through their site.
"Price comparison websites are quite good, but you have to look beyond the headline deals," says Ms Haworth. "It's a matter of deciding whether the introductory offer price outweighs the annual cost."
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