Articles

How to Compare Fibre Optic Broadband Deals

by Sam Jones Content Creator and Link Builder

The broadband market is somewhat confusing.  When we come to choose a broadband provider, whether it’s the first time or we’ve done it before, we can get a feeling of frustration because of the difficulty in actually choosing which service is best, and why.

The first thing to state is that if you have the decision between fibre optic broadband providers you’re ahead of more than 40% of the population in the UK.  Only around 60 out of 100 people can actually get on to one of the fibre optic broadband providers, and the rest are left with the choice of ADSL mobile broadband or even satellite broadband.

This article will go through:

·         How you can check which broadband providers are available in your area. 

·         Consider broadband speeds on fibre optic broadband. 

·         Look at the price of fibre optic broadband

·         Consider some other things that you need to know.

Checking for Fibre Optic Broadband

When you come to look for a broadband provider, the first thing to do is to find out what’s available to you in your area.  You no doubt will have spoken to your provider before and they have explained to you that they will check what speeds you can get.  This used to be the case more so with ADSL broadband through which speeds were heavily dependent on the distance you were from the telephone exchange.

The great thing about fibre optic broadband is that the cables are fit for purpose because they’re actually designed to carry internet data.  Therefore there’s no loss of speed down the cables as they are the right make up for data transfer of this type.

To find out what‘s available to you, it’s best to jump online and go to a postcode check service.  There are many services available online.  Some of the best are on cable.co.uk and uSwitch.  You simply plug in your postcode and will be brought up a list of providers available in your area through which you can source your target providers.  You may also be able to see what speeds different providers can provide at your postal address. 

The second type of service offers the ability to see the speeds of connection of different service providers in your area.  The way this is achieved is that data is shared when individuals test their actual connection speeds in their homes.  On some sites you can look at a map of your area and see the exact upload, download, and latency speeds of the different internet service providers in your area.  This is also a great way to do a shortlist of providers from which you can choose.

Speeds of Fibre Optic Broadband

Fibre optic broadband has the ability to pass data at incredible rates.  We see business packages offering 1GBps connection speed.  The fastest consumer broadband tends to be from Virgin Media and measures around 100Mbps.  The great things for consumers is that you tend to get approaching to your advertised speed on fibre optic broadband because of the technology, and so Virgin Media, 100Mbps connections tend to operate around 95Mbps or 96Mbps. The slowest fibre optic broadband speeds are generally around up to 38Mbps.  Different providers have different speeds that they quote.  You will have to pay more for the highest speeds and some providers you will find just won’t offer the kind of speeds you require at the top end of the spectrum.

The Contracts You will have to Commit To

Generally, you will have to commit to a 12-month contract to get fibre optic broadband.  Some providers, such as BT internet, require you to connect for 18 month minimum contracts.

It’s important to assess your needs while you’re looking at the contract because generally you will have to pay off the full duration of the contract if you want to exit early.  New legislation means that sometimes you only have to pay off the amount that it will cost to run the contract for the remaining period, but nonetheless there are often quite hefty exit fees.  If you’re moving into a residence for 12 months then you should probably avoid an 18-month contract tie in.

Pricing of Fibre Optic Broadband

Fibre optic broadband varies markedly in price.  You can also get better deals if you sign up for a bundle including phone line or phone line and digital TV.  Sky broadband has a very good offering of fibre optic broadband with their TV package only costs £20 per month and is truly unlimited. 

Virgin Media offers their broadband at around £10 more than this on an unlimited basis.  It really is important to shop around because there are often deals available that can offer you three or six months free broadband when you sign-up for a mini bundle or a full package.  It’s important that you assess the cost of your broadband over the entire duration of your contract and not just look at the upfront cost.  The market leading headlines are there to tempt you in and the reversion rates are there to make the profit for the provider.

Add all the costs up for the service, including line rental if necessary, and then divide by the number of months in the contract to get the average cost per month.  This should be your basis for the comparison and not the introductory rate.

Other Considerations

You should understand fair usage policies and traffic management in order to make a good decision about the broadband you choose. 

Fair Usage Policies

Fair usage policies make a mockery of the term ‘unlimited broadband’.  Essentially many providers will put a cap on the monthly allowance of data that you should be consuming even if you have an unlimited package.  The majority of providers have such a policy and it’s only a few that give you actually unlimited broadband.  The ones that do are Sky, BT, BE broadband and Virgin Media on their top costing package.  Virgin on their other packages will cap you at a certain limit and may also throttle your connection if you’re doing too much… too fast… too often.  Look out for the fair usage policy to ensure that you don’t get restricted in your activities and get your HD movie stopped because of excessive data consumption.

Traffic Management

Traffic management is there in theory to ensure every consumer on a certain broadband connection can get a level of service that is sufficient for their package.  Often, Peer To Peer networking is controlled and many other activities are too.  Check out the traffic management policies of the providers on your shortlist to ensure that your providers of choice don’t heavily limit the activities that you engage in.

Most providers have a tiered structure of prioritised traffic so it’s important to understand this as you don’t want to have your experience hampered because you chose the wrong company with the wrong traffic management policy.

A Note on Business Solutions

If you’re looking for a home broadband business solution, then you probably should look for a broadband package for business.  These packages will have better upload speeds, prioritised traffic, better customer service and better stability.  You’re likely to get a much better service by paying for a business package because the providers understand how important it is that you have a stable broadband connection.

UK businesses lose a lot of days per year because of broadband issues and this can be reduced by adopting the decision to get a business broadband deal.

Finding offers on fibre optic broadband was not difficult for Sam Jones.  He often used comparison services such as uSwitch and made sure that he was not paying over the odds.


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About Sam Jones Freshman   Content Creator and Link Builder

3 connections, 0 recommendations, 30 honor points.
Joined APSense since, April 24th, 2013, From London, United Kingdom.

Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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