Broadband Providers - How to compare
The main things to consider when comparing broadband providers are:
Price.
This usually is a a one-off install fee, then a monthly fee. Knowing the length of your contract is also important. Don’t be fooled by low monthly fees such as £3.99, that is usually for a limited period only, such as 3 months, then the fee is much higher than the industry standard.
Speed.
Broadband connections are now getting faster and faster. At the moment you can obtain anywhere between 2MB and 8MB but beware not all postcodes in the UK are able to obtain 8MB. 2MB should be fine for most home users, even offices still use 2MB. Some providers offer up to 24Mb - handy if you downloads music and play games online. But its always worth finding out what your postcode is capable of before ordering your package. It is pointless ordering an 8MB services, if you are only capable of obtaining 2MB. 1 thing to note however is usually broadband providers will upgrade your speed when it upgrades its packages at free of charge for you.
Download Restrictions.
Monthly downloads limits are important if you use your broadband connection to download videos, music, games etc.. Providers will charge you extra if you go over your limit. It always worth knowing what the limit is, even if you don’t do much downloading of large files.
Availability.
Always check your postcode on a free Postcode Checker, because not all broadband providers will be able to provide you with a package. Some also insist on you having a BT phone line. A few years ago this was not a problem, but now an increasingly growing number of people are with other phone line providers. If your phone line is with another provider, you may only be able to obtain broadband from them.
Additional Extras.
Price is affected by what additional extras are included by the provider. Just make sure that you are not adding on an extra that you don’t really need. Security software can come as standard with some providers, but if it doesn’t, it is a valuable extra to add on.
Brand.
Price is also affected by the brand, older more established companies can tend to charge more. But you may find that cheaper newer companies are actually part of a larger group of companies. This can be a marketing strategy used by larger companies. It is always best to pick your broadband provider based on all the above mentioned factors, rather than brand name alone.
