Broadband, at the moment, is very big political news. A government report insists that the entire UK should be linked up to broadband digitial services by 2012. That is, everyone. A quote further reinforced the view that broadband was, like the roads and rails, essential for the recovery and growth of the British economy.
Now, quite aside from being a possible political football, broadband on a personal level is something very important to alot of people, for their jobs, their leisure time, and in the way they live their lives. The internet has truly revolutionised every aspect of our lives, and as such it is very important. One thing to remember though is that with broadband, advertised speed might no be the speed you receive; distance from the exchange and the quality of wiring, as well as availability full stop, are all issues affecting your broadband choices.
Also important, however, is the price we pay for our broadband and the service we get for that money. First of all, you should budget according to what you use your internet for. It is unlikely to be useful to you if you only use the internet for email and general surfing to have the fastest, most expensive speeds. However if you, for instance, use one of the many catch-up sites like BBC`s iPlayer or Channel 4`s 4OD, or maybe downloading music or films (legally I might add!), then the high speeds might just be worth the extra money for you.
When looking for the best broadband deals, it is worthwhile looking at comparison websites, and a brief survey of the main providers here might be useful.
The top three providers are, arguably, Virgin Media, AOL Broadband and BT, in no particular order. Virgin Media ostentatiously advertise their broadband using film star Samuel L Jackson, and to an extent their claims are justified, with very quick internet speeds at good prices. BT too have their “Home Hub” system, and the two aforementioned both have broadband as part of other communications bundles, including digital TV and phone calls.
AOL, who arguably were an internet company before telecommunications, unlike the above two, do do bundles as well, with free weekend phone calls thrown in.
It is actually rather hard to recommend one over the other, as they all offer cheap deals, with still relatively quick 2MB speeds, and all go up to the extremely high speeds. I would advise that, in a lot of cases, match up your TV and home telephone requirements in a balance with your location as, as mentioned above, this too affects the quality of the signal you will receive.
To pick a couple out from the crowd, I would tentatively put forward Virgin Media`s 2MB service for twelve months, or AOL`s Broadband Wireless Flexi Off-Peak deal, as they both are around a fiver a month and though the latter has a download limit (10GB) both offer good value cheap deals with added services attached.