by Tom on August 28, 2009
If you are looking into mobile broadband, then it may pay to take a look at some of the offerings from T-Mobile. For the third quarter in a row T-mobile have topped a YouGov survey. YouGov questioned 2,068 people who use mobile broadband and T-Mobile were placed first in 8 categories. In these categories T-Mobile was rated number one for the fastest upload and download speeds. Along with having great speeds T-Mobile has also received high scores for their customer service and been marked highly for how easy they are to use and set up.
For anyone interested in mobile broadband, this survey is sure to help. Especially as T-Mobile were first in eight out of the fifteen categories. From the results it is shown that the T-Mobile mobile broadband offering is easy to use and really good value for money. Steve Mitchell who is the head of post-pay marketing for T-Mobile has said “Customers have the added assurance that we remain the only network to offer unlimited browsing without charging run-on rates.”. Being able to not worry about how much data you use can only be a good thing.
I’m getting in early this month, with what are sure to be some of the best broadband deals for June 2009.
Switching from Tiscali
If you’re currently a Tiscali customer, then BT, Sky and Plusnet are fighting for your customer. Each company is offering a decent incentive to move to their broadband service, now that Tiscali has been bought by TalkTalk. For instance, Sky is offering customers £50 credit against their bills and a free, £99, set top box. BT are offering £50 off your bills as well, along with a free home hub. Finally, Plusnet are offering 3 months free broadband - again, not something to turn your nose up at!
All three ISPs, fighting for Tiscali customers are all good options, so I would be really tempted to look into one of them. If I was after a digital TV service, I would definitely choose Sky’s plan. Not only do they offer a competitively priced TV packages, but they also supply a reliable broadband connection. A friend of mine has been using their largest plan, for some years now and it typically runs at the correct speed, without issues.
When moving, good customer support will no doubt be a big issue for Tiscali customers, as Tiscali lost a massive 68,000 customers in the first quarter of the year.
Best Deal for Movers
I’ve already mentioned this, but if you’re planning on moving in June, then TalkTalk have a good plan for ‘home movers’. This plan reduces the costs involved with setting up a new BT line and could save you around £120!
Best Mobile Broadband Deals
For June, one of the best deals I have found for mobile broadband is Vodafone’s 3GB plan. This should give you enough download allowance, for a fair bit of internet browsing, sending emails and uploading silly photos onto Facebook. It costs just £15 a month, and you get the first 3 months free.
Vodafone’s mobile broadband boasts speeds of up to 7.2mb, which is one of the fastest mobile broadband speeds available in the UK.
Another good deal is Virgin Media’s 1GB plan. If you use their higher two broadband connections you get it for just £5 a month…and the dongle is free! Over the course of the year, this is cheaper than some providers charge just for the dongle. Virgin Media recently came out on top by a test carried out by Broadband Genie.
I got an email the other day from someone called Luke, asking for advice when it comes to student broadband packages.
Hi, I’ve just finished my first year at UNI and I’ve been put in charge of finding the best broadband supplier for me and my 2 mates who I’m sharing a house with next year. Though we will have a TV, I think we’ll all still end up downloading and streaming quite a lot of large files of the internet (iPlayer and Spotify….). I did think mobile broadband might be a good idea, as we could use it when we’re not at UNI and not pay for a telephone line, but I can’t find any plans where you can really download that much.
What would you recommend for the 3 of us?
Cheers,
Luke
Okay, hopefully more people will find this useful, hence why I’ve replied to it on the website (if anyone else does have questions they want answering, email me at: thomas.futureinsites@googlemail.com).
As a student the price is probably quite a deciding factor, though it is important to remember, you do get what you pay for. Don’t expect a super fast broadband connection, with unlimited downloads to actually work if it costs 50p a month. The other factor is that you probably won’t be in the house for a full 12 months, which most broadband contracts are for.
Mobile Broadband
You’ve already mentioned mobile broadband and the low download limits associated with it. However, Vodafone’s mobile broadband plans do offer an “all your can use” plan. With this you would get the advantages of mobile broadband, without worrying about how much you download. It isn’t cheap at £18 a month (assuming you each had one). You do get a free dongle on an 18 month contract, but it costs £25 on their 12 month contract. If you multiply this out, it would cost your house £54/month for this package, so even with a higher download limit, mobile broadband may not be your best bet.
Be broadband
The next option would be to look into normal broadband plans. I would have thought it is unlikely that you’d be able to use a cabled service, such as with Virgin Media, so you would need a telephone line and to use ASDL. I’ve had a look around and you might want to think about Be Broadband. You may not have heard of them, but they are a well respected company who offer a good quality service and good customer care!
All of their plans come with unlimited downloads. Unlike with some companies, Be do not ‘throttle’ your connection if you start to take advantage of being able to download as much as you like. I’d probably recommend their Value plan (8mb downloads), which costs £13.50 a month with no connection fee (and you get some freebies like a wireless router). This is on a 12 month contract, but would only cost you £54 a year (the equivalent to one month of unlimited mobile broadband). Be currently have a 3 month half price offer on…and it is likely they’ll have s similar promotion when you would be signing up. If they don’t, always try asking for a student discount when on the phone - you never know!
Sky Broadband
You mentioned you would be having a TV, but not if you would be signing up to a TV service, such as sky. If you were, maybe look into their plans. They’re quite good value and are cheaper than a lot of companies, because you’ve bundled services with them. Along with this plan, you could also sign upto sky talk, which offers free evening and weekend calls.
12 Month Contracts
Most broadband suppliers insist on 12 month contracts. Now, as a student it is likely that you won’t even rent your house for that long, never mind be there that long. Don’t let this put you off though, most shorter contracts (or 1 month contracts) have very high set up fees and do not offer any free wireless modems, etc. You may also find in the small print that they have cancellation charges, if you aren’t with them long enough. AOL are one of the few companies to offer a shorter contract, but I’d be tempted to use a provider with a 12 month term.
I hope that’s been useful…anyone got any questions? Leave a comment!
In a recent test, by broadband information site, broadband genie, where they went on a train journey from Cambridge to Bournemouth via London’s Kings Cross, they decided that Virgin Media offered the best quality mobile broadband connection, with Vodafone coming second. They tested the connection on a collection of popular internet services, such as BBC’s iPlayer and streaming music platform, Spotify.
Broadband Genie editor Chris Marling said, “They completed the majority of challenges and maintaining reasonable average upload and download speeds throughout. However, both still suffered disconnects and long periods of downtime in rural locations…Mobile broadband has come a long way in a short time, but consumers need to be aware of its limitations. We feel the service is often oversold, which can leave customers disillusioned and likely to turn their back on mobile broadband”.
Mobile broadband is great for most people who live in a mobile broadband hot spot as it means you can use it in different places, as well as having the advantage of not needing to pay for a BT landline.
Virgin Media have some competitive plans, such as their 1gb plan which is only £5 a month when taken with certain broadband connections. Until the 30th June this plan also comes with a free dongle (usually £25) so there is a saving to be had.
Usually introductory schemes run for only a few months and are there to attract you with an artificially low initial price. Be Broadband are currently offering a long, 6 month introductory offer where you will get the monthly price, half price.
Usually Be would only offer a 3 month reduced rate, but this deal is part of a partnership between be and broadband comparison site, Broadband Choices.
If you are interested in this deal you need to get in quick, as it finishes on 31st May 2009.
You may have heard about this in the news recently, but some research has been published into areas which get poor broadband access. These areas are described as ‘not spots’, rather than ‘hot spots’.
The common assumption would be that these ‘not spots’ are in quieter, rural areas, however the findings show that even streets in major towns can get poor connection speeds. A lot of the ‘not spots’ are within commuter belts, so a lot of people are getting connection speeds of less than 2mbps.
By 2012 the Government have planned for every household to be able to get download speeds of at least 2mb. To achieve this, an exchange needs to be within 4km of the house that uses it for it’s broadband connection.
50% of the exchanges in Basingstoke are over 6km from the houses they supply broadband to and around 25% of homes in Hampshire struggle to even get speeds of 1mb. Now, though these speeds are slow, I’d rather be in this percentage than the 1% of homes that cannot receive any broadband at all. The problem is, that to achieve higher speeds, broadband companies will need to spend more money on better infrastructures and they do not believe that it is economically beneficial at the moment.
Recently in the new, the Goverment have said they will set aside £1 million for research into Fibre Optic broadband. This is good news for high speed broadband lovers, but is it really enough money?
The £1 million will be split between 13 different research groups, which equates to just under £80,000 each. In the scheme of things this isn’t much money, so it might not be as good news as it may at first seem.
Therefore, this might be a bit of a PR boost for the Goverment, making them seem like they are doing more to try and beat the recession than they actually are.
I’d be interested to hear your views on this money set aside for research into fibre optics…why not drop a comment?
Moving home can be a stressful time and it isn’t made any easier by having to swap broadband suppliers and setting up the internet. TalkTalk have introduced their Home Mover plan to try and make things easier. Wendy Becker (TalkTalk’s MD) said, “Customers have more than enough to worry about when moving home, so we’re pleased to be able to take the hassle - and a lot of the cost - out of the process of getting your home phone and broadband up and running.”.
Generally, when you move, assuming there isn’t an exisiting bt line (or cable), you’d need to get one installed. Once you’ve signed up to the BT line you’d have to cancel the line if you wanted to use someone, other than BT for your broadband. This isn’t cheap as it costs £120 to cancel the line.
TalkTalk’s Home mover plan stops people needing to register to BT, therefore saving you the £120 for the line. If you used TalkTalk in your old house you can pay a £29.99 installation fee and if you are a new customer you pay a little bit more at £59.99, which is still reasonable.
If you’re interested in this plan, then check out the TalkTalk.co.uk website.
If you use Virgin Media for your home broadband then you can sign up to their 1gb mobile broadband package for only £5 extra a month. This offer has been extended to June 30th and I am thinking about taking it up my self.
Best of all - you don’t have to pay for the dongle, so that’’s a £25 saving!
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/mobile/broadband_tariffs.html
Virgin Media are currently giving a £20 credit for all online purchases for their bundle’s package. If you’re after a new provider and want to snap up a deal then I wouldn’t wait around too long for this one.
Virgin Media are a reliable provider and offer many plans, with speeds from 10mb to 50mb download speeds. I’ve used Virgin Media and NTL as they were before for years without any major complaints. I’ve had the odd little niggle, but compared to some horror stories mine are very tame, so I would recommend them.
Visit their website to find out more about their £20 online credit: http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/bundles/triple-builder.html