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BROADBAND (ADSL) BEST BUYS
Are you looking to buy Broadband for
the first time or perhaps you are now looking to shop around for a
better deal? Before you rush ahead with what looks to be the best price
on your ADSL connection, just slow down a minute and consider what
you're actually looking for from your intended supplier. Broadband isn't
all about price, as you need to think about what restrictions will be
imposed by the company you choose.
There are at three key
considerations when choosing a Broadband service. In no particular order
these are price, bandwidth and download speed. There are other factors
like service reliability and the length of the contract, but these are
things you normally think about when purchasing any product or commodity. Price: The price will vary significantly from FREE -
£30. There will be people paying more than £30, but this will tend to be
for a more specialist service where the customer needs more than the
customary features. OK, so why not go for the free service we hear you
ask? Well, for one thing, a free service will only be offered by a
company as an incentive for you to buy other services from them. In
other words, the Broadband will be bundled into a package. We won't
attempt to suggest what the best price point is, as it largely depends
on the next two considerations. In any event, this is a highly
competitive marketplace and things can change very quickly. Bandwidth: This is fancy name for a simple concept. To
the lay man this is the amount of data your service provider will allow
you to download in a given period. This can vary quite a lot from as
little as 500 Mb - 1 Gb of data per month and can almost be unlimited.
If you consider that a CD download in MP3 format will typically be
around 60 - 70 Mb, this means that a Broadband provider that is limiting
you to 1 Gb of data is effectively saying that you can download the
equivalent of 14 albums per month. You also need to consider that normal
Internet browsing and e-mail will eat into your monthly allowance.
Frankly, if you never plan to download music or movies, it is
almost a sure bet that you will be able to stay within normal limits.
Another thing to consider, but don't take our word for it as things can
change, there are Broadband suppliers out there who do not actively
manage the bandwidth restrictions. But be careful not to rely on this,
particularly if you are committing to a 12-month contract!
Like what you see? Download speeds: As the name suggests, this is the rate at which you
can download data. There are just too many variables to explain this in
detail (like where you live in relation to your local exchange etc.) but
we can definitely say that a 1Mb and higher service will generally
suffice for most people. As far as Internet browsing is concerned,
higher speeds than 1Mb are almost irrelevant and it is only when you get
into serious downloading and online games play that you might need to
worry about faster speeds.
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