PICK THE RIGHT BROADBAND
THE cost of communications at home – from TV entertainment to internet access – continues to creep higher. LAURA SHANNON explains how you can get the right deal at the best price.
TYPE OF DEAL
THE first essential question to ask yourself is whether to opt for a bundled or unbundled deal.
If one single provider delivers all the communications elements – TV, phone and broadband – this is a bundled deal. If you choose broadband and a landline phone from one supplier and a television package from another supplier it is an unbundled arrangement.
Virgin Media’s Big Easy is a bundled deal. It provides unlimited superfast broadband, digital TV and free weekend phone calls and costs around £32 a month including line rental. It is also possible to throw in a fourth element – a SIM card to insert into a mobile handset you already own, which provides a given allowance of calls, texts and internet access.
A deal made up of four components from the same provider is often referred to as ‘quad play’.
One such offer from BT – at about £40 a month with set-up and line rental costs included – provides unlimited medium speed internet access, weekend calls, Freeview TV channels and a SIM card. This allows 500 minutes in calls, unlimited texts and 2GB of internet access each month – enough for heavy usage and downloads – at the fastest speed possible. This is ‘fourth generation’, or ‘4G’ for short.
BUNDLE OF FUN
BUNDLES are the cheapest way to manage costs if you want certain added extras – such as Champions League football matches on BT or programmes such as The Last Panthers exclusively on Sky Atlantic.
Laura and Wayne George, parents to Finley, four, and one-year-old Beckett, started looking for better broadband last month, as they were receiving a poor connection at their home in Herne Bay, Kent.
Since they were looking at alternative options 39-year-old sports fan Wayne, who works in property development, researched deals with BT so he could watch Champions League matches.
Secondary school teacher Laura, 30, says: ‘We had not changed our deal with Sky for a long time so it was old. We visited comparison website uSwitch knowing we had a preference for BT if we could get it at a good price because of the sports deal. The package we got ended up £5 a month cheaper than what we had already. So it was worthwhile for the money saving alone. We also got a £50 Sainsbury’s voucher as a bonus.’
BROADBAND/PHONE
BEHIND every cheap broadband deal is expensive landline rental. Anyone comparing deals based mainly on price, rather than speed or usage allowance, should factor in the ever-rising line rental fee – now typically around £17 a month.
Hannah Maundrell, editor of consumer website money.co.uk, says: ‘The cost of both line rental and Sky voicemail are increasing from the start of next month and some packages are being scrapped altogether.
‘Sky customers will ill have been written to confirming how much more they will have to pay.
‘Anyone who is affected should take this information and use it to shop around because they may be able to find the same deal for less elsewhere.’
Despite Sky’s price hike for line rentall to £17.40 a month,, other providers are e charging just as s much. Those happy y to stay put shouldd still try to drive a hard bargain.
Maundrell adds: ‘If If you’re keen on stickking with Sky but have ve found a cheaper deal al elsewhere, it’s worthth giving Sky’s customer er services a call as they’re notoriously receptive to haggling.’
Prices generally have been creeping higher, so taking a fresh look at what you are paying and the cost of alternative contracts is worthwhile.
Broadband and home phone prices have risen 40 per cent in four years. Those who have stuck with the same provider over this period now collectively pay £61million more than they did, according to price comparison website uSwitch.
Once all costs for a new deal are built into the calculations, the next choices are: type of deal, speed, cus-
tomer service and reputation. When it comes to reputation, provider TalkTalk is suffering after its systems were hacked last month.
Personal details of 157,000 customers were exposed in the cyber-attack – but the broadband connections were not affected. Existing custom- ers must take care to monitor their finances and beware of likely phone scams but there should be no interruptions to their usual connection or service.
And from December 1, the company will offer customers a free upgrade – which could include extra channels, unlimited phone calls or a free broadband ‘health check’ – as a result of the recent hacking.
TalkTalk has warned that despite efforts to ‘constantly review and update’ its systems to make them secure ‘cyber-criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated and attacks against companies that do business online are becoming increasingly frequent’.
So there are no promises about further attacks or the company’s ability to prevent them. But keenly priced offers are available for those undeterred by recent security problems. For example, a package comprising unlimited medium speed broadband, TV channels via a YouView box and evening and weekend calls, is available for around £26 a month including line rental.
Smaller suppliers are also making waves in the broadband market – with cheap, fuss-free packages.
Grandfather Peter Loud, who lives in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, found one such deal in June this year – saving himself hundreds of pounds.
He switched to a lesser known provider, Direct Save Telecom, paying £1.95 a month for unlimited medium speed broadband and free evening and weekend calls.
He paid for a year’s worth of line rental upfront, equating to £11.50 a month. It is a two-year contract with set-up fees of £34, but it works out £300 cheaper than a similar deal with BT over the same period.
Peter, 69, is a photographer and has uploaded his work on to the internet, so relies on a decent broadband connection in order to share his hobby.
He says: ‘I started looking for a new deal because TalkTalk were going to charge me to replace my router. I thought it would still be cheapest but the price I pay for broadband now is unbelievably good value.’
Direct Save Telecom was created in 2003 and its customer services team is based in this country. Cus- tomer numbers have risen 17 per cent over the last 12 months.
Chief executive Stavros Tsolakis says this is a reflection of a wider change in how households manage bills.
He explains: ‘People are switching from Sky and Virgin and using streaming services such as Netflix and Freeview for their viewing needs.’
Other challenger providers POP Telecom and Fuel are offering free broadband deals.
POP Telecom gives nine months free unlimited broadband at medium speed before charging £10 per month. Line rental is £17 a month. The deal ends this Friday.
Fuel Broadband is offering free internet for a year at medium speed with line rental at £16.40 a month – and free evening and weekend calls.
It also comes with a free Amazon Fire TV stick – a USB that makes a TV more sophisticated, so you can rent films via the internet or watch catch-up TV on the likes of BBC iPlayer. The deal is available until the end of the year.
TELEVISION
EXCITING changes in technology have radically changed the way we watch television. The latest films and box sets can be selected, paid for online and streamed direct to the living room. There are also a number of cost effective ways to bring a TV set up to date.
Smart TVs have inbuilt ‘apps’, just like on a smartphone. So you can either watch television live or use an app such as Blinkbox or Netflix to select and pay for a film or TV series – which you can watch at a time of your choosing.
They also have catch-up apps such as BBC iPlayer, All 4, ITV Player and Demand 5, which feature recent programmes from the major channels that can be watched at any time.
These TVs range in price from £130 to thousands of pounds depending on size and features.
Alternatively, set-top boxes and USBs can be plugged into ordinary TVs to make them ‘smart’.
For example, YouView, Freeview or Freesat boxes can be purchased for between £40 and £320.
For exclusive shows not on ordinary Freeview channels there is Now TV from Sky.
You can see big blockbusters, live sports and programmes exclusive to Sky with no need for a contract.
The box costs £15 and a monthly pass can be purchased from £7 depending on whether you want entertainment, sports or films.
Alternatively, USB gadgets such as Amazon Fire TV Stick and Roku can be inserted into a TV to provide a wealth of channels and catch-up options for a one-off cost of between £30 and £80.