Latest Broadband Deals
Virgin Media Plans 400Mb Fibre Optic Broadband
Virgin Media (virginmedia.com) is already planning for future fibre optic broadband speeds up to 400Mbps as it gears up to launch its up to 100Mbps service in Q4 of this year.
According to techradar, the ISP is launching a new modem by the end of the year that will be up to 400Mbps capable and that’s in addition to the ongoing commercial trials of its up to 200Mbps broadband speed service.
Commenting on the capabilities of Virgin Media’s fibre optic broadband network, Jon James, Virgin Media’s Executive Director of Broadband said: “The DOCSIS 3 network really gives us a dial we can turn to give more speed to customers if we think that is the right thing to do both for those customers and commercially”.
James continued: “We will continue to give Virgin Media customers free upgrades on an equipment basis because we are the speed leader and we think it’s going to continue as a way we do broadband”.
Around 55% of UK homes are currently capable of receiving Virgin Media Broadband speeds up to 50Mbps, with prices starting from £15 a month when taken with a Virgin Media phone line.
Readers can find out further information at the virginmedia.com website.
Sky.com/happy Offers Broadband Happily Ever After
Sky (sky.com/happy) is offering free broadband with speeds up to 20Mbps in its latest ‘Sky Broadband Happily Ever After’ campaign.
New customers switching to Sky Broadband ‘can live happily ever’ after with free broadband, plus free evening and weekend UK phone calls when they order online a Sky TV package starting from £19 a month.
Sky’s free broadband package is called Broadband Everyday Lite and is designed for daily internet browsing & online shopping.
A 2GB monthly download usage allowance is included, together with a free Sky wireless router (worth £50), 24/7 technical support, plus a free 3 month trial of the McAfee Internet Security Suite.
New customers wanting to switch to Sky Broadband and use it for downloading movies and music can opt for Sky’s Unlimited Broadband package which provides an unlimited monthly download usage allowance.
Priced at £7.50 a month when taken with Sky TV, Sky Broadband Unlimited also includes free evening and weekend UK phone calls plus a free 12 month trial of the McAfee Internet Security Suite.
New customers who do not wish to subscribe to a Sky TV package can just take Sky Broadband Unlimited with Sky Talk Freetime by paying an extra £2.50 a month (a total of £10 a month).
Interested readers can find out further information at the sky.com/happy website.
BT Broadband Users Get Unlimited Wi-Fi Access
BT Broadband (BT.com) customers can now get unlimited Wi-Fi access to 1.5 million BT FON and BT Openzone Wi-Fi hospots across the UK.
Prior to today’s announcement, BT Total Broadband customers had a specific number of Wi-Fi minutes available to them depending upon the BT Total Broadband package they had.
BT’s FON network is a community of Wi-Fi users who share their broadband access with other BT FON members, enabling users to securely take their broadband with them when out and about across the UK.
BT Openzone’s Wi-Fi network can be accessed in locations like airports, hotels, coffee shops, motorway service stations and city centres.
Commenting on the news, BT Retail’s Consumer Managing Director, John Petter, said: “Because of the growing number of BT customers with mobile devices such as tablet computers and smartphones, we know that mobile access to the internet is needed more than ever before”.
Petter continued: “Our BT FON and BT Openzone networks expanded by 800,000 hotspots during 2009 and we expect to have over 2.5m hotspots by the end of 2011. This continuing level of expansion means that these networks are rapidly becoming the simplest way for people to access the internet when out and about”.
Unlimited access to BT’s Wi-Fi network is automatically included for free within all the BT Total Broadband packages.
New customers switching to BT and taking BT’s Talk and Surf Plus package can also get their first 3 months free.
BT Talk and Surf Plus provides up to 20Mb broadband speeds plus anytime phone calls to UK landlines. A £75 Dabs.com voucher is currently being offered to the first 1,000 people ordering online.
Readers can find out more at the BT.com website.
BT Broadband Offers £75 Dabs.com Voucher
BT (BT.com) is offering a £75 Dabs.com voucher to customers ordering BT Broadband or a new BT phone line online before the 30th June 2010.
Limited to the first 1,000 orders, the offer is available to customers ordering online any BT package which contains a new BT line or new BT Broadband, or any standalone order for a new BT line or broadband.
The incentive means new customers opting for BT’s best value broadband and anytime phone calls package, known as BT Talk & Surf Plus, can get their first 3 months free (saving £47.97), plus the £75 Dabs.com voucher.
Dabs.com is a leading consumer electronics retailer selling a wide range of laptops, netbooks, PC’s, printers, digital cameras and digital TVs – to name but a few.
Customers can claim their £75 voucher once their new BT service has been installed and/or activated. They will need to enter their BT online order ID on the claims form at www.dabs.com/btvoucher.
The £75 Dabs.com voucher is valid for use between the 1st and 31st of July 2010.
Readers are advised to place their BT Broadband order on the BT.com website over this weekend or early next week as the offer only applies to the first 1,000 online orders received by BT.
Sky Broadband Without TV Now Available
Sky (sky.com/broadband) has unveiled its first broadband only packages which do not require a Sky digital TV subscription to be purchased.
Provided you live in a Sky Broadband network area (coverage is over 70% of the UK), you can now sign up to Sky Broadband Unlimited with Sky Talk Freetime for just £10 a month.
This package gives you up to 20Mb Sky Broadband download speeds with an unlimited monthly usage allowance, plus free evening and weekend phone calls to UK landlines.
Sky’s wireless router worth £50 is included in the package together with around the clock technical support and a free 12 month trial of McAfee Internet Security for your PC.
A further £5 a month is required (total of £15 a month) if you simply require the Sky Broadband Unlimited package on its own and without Sky Talk’s free evening and weekend phone calls.
New customers can also opt to take Sky Talk Line Rental for just £11 a month or continue paying BT for their phone line rental, though this is likely to be higher at up to £12.79 a month if a BT paper bill is received. Sky Talk customers can request paper billing at no extra charge.
Sky Broadband only customers can also access Sky Player, Sky’s on demand Internet TV service which enables them to watch and download hours of great Sky TV, film and sport content on their PC or Mac.
Readers can find out more on Sky’s new broadband only packages at the sky.com/broadband website or compare them against rival broadband provider deals using our broadband comparison service.
Sky.com/broadband Offers New Fairytale Deal
Sky (sky.com/broadband) has launched a new ‘Fairytale Deal’ which offers Sky Digital TV, Sky Broadband and Sky Talk home phone calls for under £20 a month.
To qualify, new customers must order Sky TV online at the sky.com website and choose at least one Sky TV Entertainment Pack which costs £19.50 per month.
Sky’s free Everyday Lite broadband package, with speeds up to 20Mbps, can then be added to a customer’s online order, together with Sky Talk’s free evening & weekend UK landline phone calls.
New customers will also receive a free Sky+ box which usually costs £49, plus free standard set-up, saving a further £30.
And if that’s not enough, Sky are offering new customers ordering Sky TV online a free £25 Marks & Spencer voucher.
Sky’s up to 20Mb broadband service has the most reliable speeds of any major broadband provider according to the Samknows Broadband Performance Panel for April/May 2010.
Readers considering taking out Sky’s new ‘fairytale deal’ of all 3 for under £20 a month can find out further information at the sky.com/broadband website.
