Best and Cheapest UK Broadband Internet Providers

With more and more people getting broadband connections at home, the competition between broadbnd service is getting keener all the time. This web page aims to provide you with an up-to-date list of some of the best broadbadn offers available in the UK. As many people looking at this page will want to use broadband to it's full, we'll try where possible to only include offers when the following free conditions apply (1) you get a free broadband modem or router, (2) you get free connnection and (3) there are no bandwidth or usage limits, plus of course the monthly frees are as low as possible. 

NTL Broadband with speeds upto 3Mb which will be increased to an incredible 10Mb in the near future

NTL Broadband offers some of the fastest cable based services available in the UK.   At the moment they have 1Mb, 2Mb and 3Mb services, the 2Mb and 3Mb each having a 30Gb per month cap.   What is so exciting about their service is that they have recently announced that all their broadband subscribers are being upgraded in the near future to an amazing standard 10Mb speed (about 200x the speed of dialup), this being coupled with an increased usage limit of 75Gb which should suite the vast majority of users.   In terms of specific offers, they have a great range of options not just for broadband but for their telephone and TV services. For example, you can get the 1Mb broadband service, telephone line rental and 40 digital TV channels for a package price of £30 a month. Note :  The telephone rental element of this would replace your existing BT line which costs about £11 a month on it's own.   In terms of pure broadband, their 1Mb service seems to be the best bet at a penny under £10 a month for the 1st 12 months. This includes free modem and setup and even free phone support. This package could be very very attractive when upgraded to 10Gb!   As NTL use their own cables, you don't even need a BT phone line, so if you're one of the new breed of punters who uses their mobile phone for all voice calls, all you need is the £10 broadband service and not the extra £11 for the BT line.   Overall Rating : *****(*) - (When they upgrade to 10Mb)

Telewest Cable Broadband Unlimited 512Mb for £9.99 a month

Telewest like NTL are a cable provider, who offer broadband in addition to their cable telephone and TV services.   At the moment, their best offer seems to be £9.99 a month for an unlimited 512Mb package including free modem and connection when purchased in conjunction with their telephone service which costs only £10.50 a month and replaces your existing BT line and also includes unlimited weekend calls for free. You can even get their basic cable TV package for only an extra £5 each month.   For their faster packages they offer £19.99 for 3 months on 1Mb, £35 a month for 2Mb and a whopping £50 a month for a 4Mb service. None of these are really brilliant, but they are all unlimited and do include free modem and connection.   Overall Rating : **** - (if you only need a 512Mb unlimited service and are in a Telewest area)

UK Online - Unlimited 2Mb Broadband for only £19.99 a month

UK Online offer a great selection of broadband packages with speed upto 8Mb and unlimited usage.   As they are one of the few ISPs which used unbundled lines, if you're lucky enough to live in an area which they service directly, they have unbeatable packages such unlimited 2Mb broadband for under £20 a month which should suit most users, 512Kb unlimited for less than £10 or for speed demons an unlimited use 8Mb service for only £29.99.   Unfortunately, most of the country still is outside there core scope, so it may be that you will have to pay a bit extra cos you are being cabled via standard BT lines and exchanges. In this case, the 2Mb service costs £29.99 and the 512Kb service a penny under £20. At the end of the day, it's definitely worth checking if you are on their core network and if so you will find their prices and service hard to beat. If you're not, it's probably worth looking into the other alternatives available.   Overall Rating : *****

Virgin.net 2Mb Broadband with a 20Gb limit for under £25 a month

Straight from Richard Branson, Virgin are offering a range of broadband packages which to be truthful are not the best buys ever.   Probably their best package is a £24.99 a month 2Gb package which has a usage limit of 20Gb. Hardly ideal, but it does have the benefit that it includes free activation and a free broadband modem. This package would be best for someone new to broadband who is going to use the service regularly, but not go mad on the massive downloads.   They also have a basic 512Kb service with 3Gb usage per month at under £15, again with free activation and modem, you can get an extra 3Gb usage for £3 more a month. Even so both of these packages are likely to be of use only to very lightweight users.   Overall Rating : ****

Beaming Broadband and Telephone Services

Beaming are a service provider who offer a range of Broadband and Cheap Telephone Services. Their prices are not groundbreaking, but may be worth investigating if you want  a combined unlimited broadband and unlimited telephone call package from one provider.   Their 512Kb Anytime Plus service is probably their best offer with unlimited downloads at 512Kb together with unlimited UK landline calls (upto 1 hour each) at anytime of day or night for an all inclusive price of £24.95.   Their higher speed services are not that good value, with the daddy of them all being nearly £40 for unlimited 2Mb broadband and unlimited phone calls.   Overall Rating : ***

Tesco Broadband - First 3 months at £9.97

At the moment Tesco only have one broadband package which is a basic 512Kb service for which they are offering the first 3 months at £9.97 a month. After that it reverts to an OKish £17.97 a month.   Their main selling point is that they offer unlimited bandwidth, so you can download as much as you like, albeit a little slowly in current broadband speed terms.   With other ISPs now offering upto 10Mb speeds, I doubt if Tesco will be able to keep to such an offer without either increasing speed or lowering costs.   Overall Rating : **** (if you only need 512Kb that is)

V21 Broadband from only £12.50 per month

V21 probably offer the best low user rate that I've seen for general release. Their most basic 512Mb brodband package costs only £12.50 per month and does not have bandwidth limits as such but a limit of 60 hours of online time per month. Given that, that's 2 hours per day every day of the month, it should be more than sufficient for many users who just need to do a bit of surfing and email checking each day, but don't want to be hung if they download the odd big file.   For higher level users they offer 100 hours a month for £14.50 or unlimited 512Mb access for only £16.99 a month which is not at all bad.   Gor higher speed access, their 1Mb unlimited at only £19.99 is pretty good, although it does seem to be a very big jump to £39.99 for 2Mb unlimited.   For me the star package would be the 1Mb one which should suit most broadband users who are not overly impatient.   The only slight downer on this package is the fact they charge £70 for connection and it seems that you still get charged this even if you are migrating from another ISP. Plus you have to pay for your modem or router if you don't already have one.   At another level, they offer a range of dialup accounts from £3.99 a month which would be ideal for those unfortunates who still cannot get broadband.   Overall Rating : **** (especially for low usages)

Tiscali Broadband with special offer 2Mb package for £17.99 a month including FREE modem and connection

If you're a medium level user Tiscali offers a range of packages at very good prices all including free modem, free connection, free anti-spam and free anti-virus.   If you're line will only support 512Mb connections, then their £14.99 a month package including 30Gb of bandwidth would be probably the best bet.   Their headline special offer package at £17.99 a month for a 2Gb package, seems to be ideal, but with a 15Gb limit, it seems to largely defeat the point of having such a fast connection. That said, on their product comparison page, it does have a * alongside the 15Gb limit with the following linked text...   30GB monthly usage allowance, fair usage policy applies. Now from reading this, does it mean that you actually get 30Gb, I don't know. If you're interested in the 2Mb package it will probably be worth asking to find out what this blurb means.   Overall Rating : ****

Boltblue Broadband with speeds of upto 2Mb and unlimited bandwidth on certain packages and a low user 2Mb package for only £14.99 a month

Boltblue is probably not the cheapest or best bargain available in terms of broadband packages. Though it is worth mentioning them as they do offer speeds of upto 2Mb at the amazingly low price of £14.99 a month, although for this package they have a bandwidth cap of 1Gb which is next to useless. For higher bandwidth allowances their 2Mb package is £24.99 for upto 7Gb and £34.99 for 13Gb, but if you're likely to go for that you can pay just £1 extra to get unlimited data. Their lower speed packages are hardly worth it if your phone line will support the 2Mb rate, though their 512Mb unlimited service at £24.99 is not a bad deal if you're line will only support that speed. They do offer free connection if you're migrating from another service, but you do have to pay for your modem, which they offer from about £25. Overall Rating : **