Online magazine on Britain

For more information on each ISP and to register online, click on the name of the Internet Provider.

Internet Provider	Description
TalkTalk	TalkTalk has a current offer of up to 8Mb Broadband for free when a customer signs up to the Talk3 International phone tariff, which gives unlimited number of inclusive calls to any local and national UK landline number, anytime, international landline calls to 28 mainland countries worldwide. TalkTalk is the home phone and broadband company from The Carphone Warehouse, and it guarantees to be cheaper than BT. Broadband available to 70% of the UK. Strong point: Free high-speed (8Mb) broadband if taken in conjunction with home phone.
	BT Total Broadband has several packages of different prices to choose from, all high-speed at 8Mb, all strong on online security with Security software included in the price, all with free internet voice calls included in the price. Free video calls are also included in the price of some packages. Strong point: up to £40 cashback if you switch from another provider. Good value fast connection broadband, with other software and services included in the price.
Telewest Broadband	From Telewest you can get award-winning blueyonder broadband, phone services and digital TV (over 40 to 100 digital channels). You can choose them either in a bundle, or just any of them separately. A bundle obviously is cheaper. Signing up from its website gives you further discounts. Strong point: internet, TV and telephone provider, with the choice of packages or separate services. Substantial savings for buying online.
Onspeed	Onspeed is a revolutionary new software that gives you some of the benefits of broadband at a lesser cost. Onspeed works with any Internet connection and ISP. There are no ties, no contract, no set-up fee. For about £2 a month, it will increase your existing Internet connection speed by up to 5 times. Web pages that normally take 13 seconds to load will load in less than 4 seconds. Onspeed will also speed up broadband connections by up to 3 times. The most dramatic effect is with GPRS mobile phone connections, with speed improvements averaging 300 - 600%. It was voted Technical product of the year behind i-Tunes by Computer Active and Future UK Internet Awards. Strong point: some benefits of broadband spending less, with no ties and no contract.
Toucan	Toucan can give you broadband access on its own, but is also a way to save money with packages. You'll save on your Internet, Home and Mobile phone bills. Toucan offers Broadband and Dial-up Internet, home telephone services, line rental, and mobile phone service, all at low prices. Toucan’s Unlimited Broadband is particularly good value. It is one of the UK's fastest growing communications providers. Strong point: internet and telephone provider in one package, with savings on both services. Stand-Alone Broadband is inexpensive as well.
Boltblue	Boltblue broadband gives different connection speeds, all starting at the same low price. It offers a lot of freebies included in the package, among which free mobile entertainment, free text messaging, free weblog and others. In addition, if you join the Boltblue Club, you get a free download or 60 free SMS. Boltblue Club is a weekly subscription service with unlimited access to over 35,000 mobile content downloads, including MP3, ringtones and many others. Strong point: low price, freebies included, access to MP3 and other mobile downloads through the Boltblue Club.
	Fasthosts, the largest UK web hosting company, also offers broadband access. There are various broadband packages, all with: #No ties, Just a one month minimum contract for new connections. #Unlimited downloads, no download limits, no time limits. #No restrictions, unlike most broadband internet providers they let you do what you want with your broadband connection. #Free migration, move your broadband internet to Fasthosts with no setup fees. #Backup local-rate dialup internet access included. Strong point: no tie, only one month minimum contract for broadband.

Tips on how to choose a Broadband Internet Service Provider. 5 things you need to know.

1. There is an inverse proportion between the price of the broadband service and the minimum length of contract, ie the shorter the minimum contract the higher the price.
   This is indeed understandable, because they give away offers like free modem, router etc, so they need a one-year contract to avoid losses and make a profit.
   One-month contract is obviously the bare minimum, because you pay broadband monthly, but they will tend to be more expensive if they give you a 1-month contract.
2. Make sure that you choose an established company that has been around for some time. Some of the newest companies might go bankrupt or disappear and leave you with nothing. It happened to me a few years ago with BigBlueSky, a company based in Scotland, although the money was refunded under the Consumer Credit Act because it had been paid with a credit card (that acts as a guarantee). In fact, the price was too cheap to be credible (£25 for a year broadband).
3. Broadband companies will let you terminate your contract earlier than agreed if you upgrade your package with them, but they will require you to take another 12 months contract with the new package.
4. Read the small print, although most companies will say clearly in big letters that there is a minimum one-year contract.
5. As with many other things, remember that cheaper is not necessarily better value. A Broadband Provider has to offer a reliable service that does not let you down when you need it, has to have a good customer support, be easy and quick to contact by phone, promptly respond e-mails, and obviously the connection speed is an important consideration. Otherwise, if you base your choice of a provider only on price, you'll end up spending more in Internet cafes because you can't use it or on phone bills trying in vain to contact them.

What users think of ISPs

• "We've been with NTL dialup for quite a few years now....but over the past few months the "service" has gone COMPLETELY DownHill. It's usual to have to make 6 attempts to get a connection...and then it can be dropped for no apparent reason. I'm convinced it's NTL and not my system as we have a totally new PC running windows XP (the old system ran windows 98) and the same thing happened with both. Their "Customer Service" is Absolutely APPALLING, getting through is a Nightmare, then the staff are Completely unhelpful, almost to the point of rudeness! (Apart from one girl - Thankyou Shagusta Khan!- You were Brilliant!). I've made approx. 6 phone calls and sent 4 emails recently (NONE of which have received a reply!)...Appalling. Stay well clear. Many thanks for this site! PS...Haa haa...says it all really, I've just clicked submit....only to find the connection has been dropped! Wish me luck!"
  Charlie Fox
  charlie@charliefox.co.uk
• "NTL World offer a competitive deal on dialup but don't have the resources to meet thier commitments. I'm having frequent problems with email, the service is often down messages aren't delivered and they cannot be bothered to post on help pages when there is a problem. I'm not willing to pay for a technical help costs to report problems. I'm now looking for an alternative supplier."
  Martin Buck
• “i think that virgin net is da best its fast and cheap!”
  Zoe Foster
  www.Bigmumma@hotmail.com
• "Virgin Net Fine when all is going well. If you have a problem thet're awful and their customer services are absolutely appalling. They simply refuse to respond to emails and when you 'phone the customer line they deny having received them. It's a lovely closed arrangement designed to keep customers 'out of their hair'.I recommend that you NEVER allow them to access your credit card for payments. I am currently in dispute with them about misuse/fraudulent use of my credit card. Needless to say the account is going asap."
  Peter Cossey
  xpeter.cossey@virgin.net
• "Don't go to virginnet! Sounds great, but as I explored it's just a leapboard for other Virgin companies."
  Gail Barry
  slemish@highstream.com
• "We have been with Tiscali Broadband for 12 months now and the service was appalling. Nine times out of ten could not get a connection. When complained to their customer services (which is in India) could not understand the operator nor they me. Could not cancel the contract, even though the service was most of the time zilch. Needless to say we have now cancelled our contract with them and are looking for a new ISP, so your site has come in useful."
  Cathy Bridges
  cathyzz1@hotmail.com
• "Got onto Supanet in the hope of a reasonable ISP and phone deal - my phone bill's worse than anything I ever paid with BT and I'm sick of all the network offers and other drivel I get. There's a few other things I don't like about it, so I'll be moving as soon as I find something decent. I'm still using my yahoo link rather than have to suffer the strings of garbage ads."
  Anne Weight
  pumaproject@yahoo.co.uk
• “Hi I thought I'd tell you about my favorite ISP. I don't use the Internet much - mainly for email and occasional software downloads and so I didn't want to pay for a monthly service - I also travel quite a bit and so using a fixed telephone number isn't possible either. So I tried a few of the free ISPs - most are quite reasonable but I ended up with Aardvaak - not only are they fast (5 - 7kbps downloads on my 56k modem) but they are also very good at answering support emails - something which a few of the others seem to be awful at doing. Anyway, if you want to add info about a free isp for people like me who don't want to pay monthly fees then I'd recommend Aardvaak wholeheartedly. Keep up the good work. Peter.”
  Peter Oram
  peter_oram_at_work@hotmail.com
• “Have used onetel's penny/minute deal for about 18 months. Lately have had trouble connecting and now they are increasing the cost to 1.5p/minute. I know this sounds cheap but a 50% increase is just too much!!”
  Paul McDougall
  paulj.mcdougall@virgin.net
• “i have tried most of the isp providers and believe me v21.co.uk is a corker for 9.99p per month you get 42 hours per week i have been on it for 2 years and not one single problem, TOP CLASS V21.
  dave shaw
  shaw_394@hotmail.com ”
• “I use an subscription free ISP called www.12free.co.uk. I've found it to be very fast and recommend it.
  dprice@imgi.co.uk ”
• “Payment methods stop me from changing ISP, since I don't use credit cards and won't use direct debit because of the sloppiness with which it is usually administered. If an ISP wants my custom the best thing they can do is offer an unmetered service that will go on my bill that can compete with my current metered option (which shouldn't be difficult really).”
  Jason Evans
  jason@kalavinka.freeserve.co.uk
• “I have used Onetel's Broadband service for 7 months and find it very satisfactory. However the problem that I have as I am sure others also suffer is the high cost of none geographical calls ie 0845 no.s etc. Although 01 & 02 calls are covered by my bundle it seems to me that more and more companies are using 08450 no's. I would be interested in other peoples comments.
  Richard King ”

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