Posted by Admin on July 27, 2011 – 11:20 am
Plusnet had been offering a half price deal for nine months but this offer has now been replaced by an offer of free internet for four months instead.
The offer still applies to Plusnet Value broadband deals when they are taken on line with home phones.After four months the packags costs just £6.49 per month with line rental at £11.99. Anytime calls are an extra £3.50 per month. This is a very competetive deal from Plusnet.
BT is offering its BT broadband and anytime call deal at 4 months free and then £18 per month. BT’s cheapest package is £16 per month, which is suprising when you compare the Plusnet deal which uses the same lines as BT. It is worth noting that Plusnet also include unlimited downloads in some of their deals.
Tesco offer a better priced deal than O2 with unlimited downloads all round. They charge £8.50 per month after the first 3 months of the contract.
Orange offer the first 3 months free with their off peak calls deal. It is then £7.50 per month.
There are some good deals out there and it is worth shopping around for the one that suits you.
Posted by Admin on March 20, 2011 – 6:42 pm
This week O2 launched its superfast mobile broadband network for customers in key cities.
The 900 Mhz network will be serving London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds and other cities can expect to be connected in the next few months.
O2 is the first UK broadband provider predicted to deliver a 50 % increase in capacity to its excisting network. Mobile broadband customers who have compatable devices such as media tablets and smartphones should benefit from a 30% improvement in speed when receiving data and a 50% capacity boost in cities where the network is available. Before January the network was only available for 2G services.
Siroda carried out tests which concluded that O2 offered the best data services in 12 out of 13 cities between October 2010 and January 2011. Siroda, network specialists , found that O2 enabled customers to access web pages in 1.4 seconds which is three times faster than the slowest service provider.
Chief Technology Officer for O2 , Nigel Purdey, was reported to have said ” This 3G900 switch- on is the latest in a series of network enhancements for O2. We have acted quickly to bring the benefits of 3G over 900MHz spectrum to our customers and we’re thrilled with the results. Quite simply, on O2′s network , more customers can use more data and experience it quicker ”.
Posted by Admin on May 17, 2010 – 2:11 pm
Oftcom has revealed findings in a mystery shopper test conducted in March this year.
BT and Sky were found to be the two least likely Internet Service Providers to inform new customers of the maximum speed achievable on their line when signing up for an internet connection
O2 came top in this catogory in the test by informing 58% of callers with the information. BT provided the information without prompting to only 28% of callers and Sky to 39%.
However when prompted by the callers O2 came out worse by providing only 80% of the shoppers with the maximum speed information. Pulsnet, after prompting, provided 93% with the requested information. They came top in that category.
Overall Ofcom said that 15% of mystery shoppers failed to obtain a likely speed for their line , with 42% having to prompt the provider for the information. In addition 40% were told that the speed was an estimate and 31% were warned that a number of factors were involved in the actual speed.
Ofcom is planning to work with Internet Servics Providers to tighten the Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds by creating a universal speed measuring test in an attempt to ensure UK customers are provided with more consistant and accurate information.
Posted by Admin on December 21, 2009 – 2:18 pm
Watchdog Ofcom has published a document which shows that broadband users in the UK pay less than other users in America and Europe for broadband services. Plus is seems that prices are still going down.
Included in the survey were the UK, France, Germany, US,Spain and Italy. Ofcom found that a typical household using a fixed and mobile phone.broadband and pay TV would pay £102 per month here is the UK. This is almost 28% lower than Italy. According to the Internation Communications Market Report the UK has the cheapest broadband services.
Some service providers such as Orange and O2 are said to be giving free broadband with some of their mobile phone contracts.
However broadband speeds in the UK are slow compared to services in Europe.
Posted by Admin on September 6, 2009 – 8:40 pm
Customers who recently signed up to Virgin Media UK’s ADSL broadband package have found that there are lengthy delays getting accounts activated.
There has been a huge demand for the 20 Mbps package , which is intended for customers who live outside Virgin’s cable coverage, and want to bundle their broadband and phone lines together.
The package appeals to users wanting a single bill from one provider.The package boasts faster download speeds of up to 20Mpbs and its own telephone line rental. The problem is that Virgin has been unble to cope with demand and was struggling to post out modem kits to customers.Users are leaving BT and rushing to Virgin’s new deal.
Virgin say that they have now resolved the stock problems and everything should be up and running very soon. It is possible that Virgin Media will cancel the £30 set up fee for customers who have experienced problems so anyone affected is urged to to e-mail the company and lodge a complaint.
Virgin have also reduced their 50 Mbps package for a limited period. The service with a Virgin phone line is now £18 a month for the first 3 months and then £28 per month. Without the phone line the cost has reduced from £50 to £33 for the first 3 months and £38 per month after that. They have not yet announced how long the deals will last.
Virgin Media are also celebrating after a recent study found that they have the quickest download speeds of 7.243 Mbps compared to the overall average of 4.331Mbps.
Although O2 had the best overall score in the survey Virgin only came second in terms of connections speed recording a score of 0.489 Mbps
Posted by Admin on July 27, 2009 – 4:17 pm
Ofcom has pledged to investigate the mobile broadband market to find out why there are so many gaps in 3G ( third generation) coverage, particularly in rural areas. These areas are known as’ notspots’. Ofcom will also look at mobile broadband speeds which vary considerably.
3G services allow people to connect to the Internet via a wireless network using either a phone, a dobgle or a datacard which can be plugged into a laptop or PC.
Broadband Communications Company Epitiro has been researching mobile broadband download speeds and found that the average speed was just under IMbps. Mobile broadband users are only getting a quarter of advertised speeds. There are over 200,000 different tarrifs on the market for mobile broadband customers. Not an easy task when searching for a good deal.
It seems that consumers are now opting for mobile broadband and discontinuing their fixed line phones. Mobile calls increased by 11 billion minutes in 2008 ,while fixed line minutes fell by 8 billion.
The Digital Britain report initiated by the Government plans to free up more 3G spectrum to help reduce ‘notspots’ and hopefully to increase mobile broadband speeds.
Orange ,O2, T- Mobile, and Vodaphone are some of the service providers who offer mobile phone braodband packages.
Posted by Admin on July 20, 2009 – 1:01 pm
Research by independent analysts show that Virgin Media is topping the tables in UK broadband speed tests. The average speed of 6.14Mbps is almost 2Mbps faster than the UK average of 4.3Mbps. The findings were calculated using thousands of broadband speed test results nationwide, over the month of June 2009.
O2 and Be broadband were runners up, both providing an average of 5.6Mbps download (the two companies results being the same as they share a common infrastructure). For people living outside of the areas supplied by the top 3 providers broadband speeds were below average, with the majority of the UKs other providers not managing to supply broadband with a download speed over the UK average.
When comparing how much of a broadband connections theoretical speed is actually provided to the customer Be broadband came out on top. On average Be provides over 120% of the speed that an average ADSL customer in the same area might get.
Although Virgin tops the chart for fast download, it is also notable that O2 and Be have a faster average upload speed of 748kbps, with virgin managing 467kbps. The national average upload speed is 433kbps.
