Broadband Options

Broadband Options

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This month I thought I would briefly summarise the main broadband options.

The three main options:

(Key for this article: MBs = Megabytes Per Second)

Virgin Media: Virgin provide the best speed available, as a customer myself for over 10 years I have always found I get the speed I pay for and it really is very fast.  Virgins entry level broadband speed is 50MBs, which dwarfs the standard non-fibre average for this area of 6-10MBs.  Virgin does tend to cost more than other provides but I think you get what you pay for and all repairs and replacement equipment is included in your month cost.   So no silly threats of extra charges if they come to your house and don’t find a fault!

Broadband through the BT Line:

If you are not on cable or mobile broadband then it will run through your BT phone line.  Common providers are BT, TalkTalk, SKY, EE and PlusNet.  Broadband that runs through the BT line is either standard broadband or Fibre Optic.  Standard in this area is anything from .5MBs (in more rural areas) to 20MBs (in areas close to the BT exchange).  Fibre Optic broadband is available in the majority of Torbay now and is commonly in 20MBs, 40MBs and 75MBs speed options.

While this is generally cheaper than Virgin not all of the repairs are covered.  Most suppliers will charge for replacement routers and will charge for repairs if they are found to occur in the home and not on the home BT line or external connections.  The charges can be as much as £130.00.

Mobile Broadband: This is a good option for light users, you can Pay as You Go or have a contract for your monthly usage.  Speeds are slower then the other options but for general browsing of the internet and emails it can be the most cost effective option.  Speed is highly dependent on your signal strength though.

The best deals are package bundles from the same provider.  So if you are with SKY it will be more cost effective to move your broadband and phone to them as well.  The same with Virgin, BT and TalkTalk who all provide the three services.

I have had to be quite brief on this subject but there really is a huge amount of other information to tell you but if you have any queries please get in touch.