Virgin, Be up UK broadband speeds

Posted by Al Warmington on Tue 16 Dec 2008

Broadband wars hot up as speeds increase - but who's the top dog?

Finding the right broadband provider can be a delicate art. Once wrong move and you've signed up for a year of financial servitude to a company providing a service that's escaped from the dark ages. It's a lot like finding a decent mobile network.

With Britains criminally outdated phone networks struggling under the pressure of a broadband usage, how do you find the best place to put your money? Do you want to stream videos for 18 hours a day or would you rather your hard-earned didn't fund the twilight activities of copyright thieves? Read on for T3's rundown of the best that Britain's ISPs have to offer:

Virgin Media

Speeds: 2Mb/s on M package, 10 Mb/s on L package and 20Mb/s on XL package. 50Mb/s is now in the process of rolling out across the cable network. Virgin also offers an 8MB/s service for ADSL users (those not able to receive cable services).

Fair usage and caps: Virgin has one of the most severe Traffic Management policies. If you exceed certain download threshold in peak times (4pm to 9pm), your speed can be throttled by as much as 75% for 5 hours. The threshold for the 10Mb/s and 20Mb/s services are 1200MB and 3000MB respectively. Day time limits also apply. The limitations on the 50Mb/s service have yet to be confirmed. More info can be found here.

Extras: Virgin also offers Digital TV and Mobile bundles and a free wireless router on its two higher priced packages

Prices: £9 per month for 2Mb/s, £16 per month for 10Mb/s, £20 per month for 20Mb/s,

Ideal for: Speed freaks, but not heavy P2P users

Speeds: Up to 8Mb/s on Option 1, Option 2 and Unlimited packages

Fair usage and caps: Option 1 and Option 2 broadband are capped at 10GB and 15GB respectively. Over-usage comes with a £0.58 per GB charge. P2P traffic is throttled on all services at peak times, normally 4pm to midnight on weekdays and 9am to midnight on the weekend. More info can be found here.

Extras: BT also offers Digital TV and Mobile broadband services (unlimited BT FON access and 500 mins of BT Openzone access) and a (dreadful) free Home Hub wireless router and hub phone.

Prices: £15.65 per month for Option 1, £20.54 per month for Option 2, £24.46 per month for Unlimited.

Ideal for: Wrapping your phone line, TV and broadband into one neat package.

TalkTalk

Speeds: Up to 8Mb/s on all packages (can be increased with Speed Boost extra)

Fair usage and caps: 40GB per month download limit (can be increased to 80GB with Download Plus extra). TalkTalk doesn’t mention what happens when you exceed this. Fair usage policy restricts high bandwidth (P2P) activity in peak hours. More info here.

Extras: Free wireless router, plus broadband and phone service enhancements at £4 each.

Prices: £6.49 per month plus £4 each for any extras.

Ideal for: Budget broadband browsers

Sky

Speeds: 2Mb/s on Base package, 8Mb/s on Mid package, 16Mb/s on Max package

Fair usage and caps: Sky has famously removed its fair usage policy from its Sky Broadband Max service. On other packages, the small print says you may be throttled if you usage is considered ‘excessive’ during peak times (5pm to midnight). Only bandwidth heavy applications will be limited if you fall foul of the limits. Base package has a 2GB cap (yikes!), Mid has a 40GB cap. If you exceed this, Sky generously won’t charge you, but may send you nice letter asking you to curb your net addiction. Or upgrade. More info here.

Extras: Something called Sky – it’s a sort of satellite TV thing, apparently. Free wireless router.

Prices: You need to be a Sky TV subscriber. Base package is free, Mid is £5 per month and Max is £10 per month.

Ideal for: Telly addicts and anyone who thinks Fair Usage should be ‘fair’.

Speeds: 8M/s on Be value package, 24Mb/s on Be pro and Be unlimited. Be has just completed trials of a 48Mb/s service.

Fair usage and caps: Unlimited, uncapped, unthrottled usage. A fair usage policy exists and warns against nefarious net activities, but action against naughty users will be performed in writing, not on the web connection. More info here.

Extras: Free wireless router. It’s the internet; pure, simple and unadulterated

Prices: £13.50 per month for Be value, £17.50 for be unlimited and £21.50 for Be pro

Ideal for: The internet illuminati

Tiscali

Speeds: 8Mb/s service

Fair usage and caps: Unlimted downloads. Customers downloading in excess of 100GB per month will feel the icy glare of Fair Usage, which means a stern letter and only in extreme cases, traffic management. More info here.

Extras: Tiscali also offers Digital TV and phone bundles.

Prices: Broadband service starts from £6.49 per month.

Ideal for: Tight-fisted torrent tinkerers

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User Comments

By ilovemynips

16|12|2008 18:32

Virgin are in a real mess at the moment.

In the four/five calls I've had with them over the last couple of days I've been told...

I can have it, it's been applied your account (it hadn't)

I can have it, but not yet as it's going to be free in the future for existing 20Meg customers (not from what I've read)

I can have it but I have to pay a £50 activation fee (even though I'm with Virgin already)

50Meg broadband doesn't exist (was told that by a Virgin Cust rep at around 12pm today)

It has launched, but nobody in Virgin has been given the relevant codes to allow agents to apply 50Meg BB to customer accounts.

Think I might wait a little while, see how things are when the dust settles...

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