Broadband

Comparing and buying Broadband

Read all about it

Before comparing broadband services, it’s worth reading about the different types of services available. You can find up-to-date information on all things broadband, on each of our broadband categories pages: All Broadband deals, Just Fibre Broadband, Just Standard Broadband, Cheapest Broadband, Fastest Broadband, Without line rental. From these pages you can read details on what speeds are available, costings, what to look for ‘pros & cons’ and compare current deals.

Get connected

Once you have selected a broadband service from our categories above, you can then compare all available deals.
When you are happy with your selection press ‘See deal’ or ‘more information’, we will then pass you on to the relevant provider. From there you can re-check the details, customise your service further and order securely online.

What kind of broadband is right for me?

Download allowance – Usage

Most broadband packages now come with unlimited data allowance. However, there are some products on the market which cap (or restrict) your usage. These kind of packages may cost a little cheaper, so if you are a light internet user, i.e. just check emails, watch BBC iPlayer, shop and browse social media – then a capped service may be something to consider.

To give you an idea on how much certain activities use in terms of data, please see the following guide.

Type of use Data used
60 mins browsing 2mb
Download a MP3 4 – 6mb
60 mins of social media 20 – 25mb (not including uploads)
60 mins audio stream 150mb
60 mins of YouTube or iPlayer Up to 350mb
60 mins SD Movie stream 500mb
Download SD Movie 1GB
60 mins HD Movie stream 2GB
Download HD Movie 4.5GB
Download BluRay Movie 10GB
*Abbreviations: mb = megabytes | gb = gigabytes | SD = standard definition | HD = high definition

What can I do with different broadband speeds?

Just as with data allowance, getting the right service for your home is vital, especially when it comes to both needs and cost. Just how busy is your household online? Large downloads, online gaming and streaming video are all ‘data-hungry’. If this describes your home, then depending on availability you really need to go for a fast as you can afford. A super-fast Fibre Broadband service is what you need. Typically fibre broadband speeds currently go from 38mb to 300mb.

As mentioned in the data allowance section above; If you are a casual user simply checking emails, shopping online and browsing social media, then save some cash and go for speeds of up to 17mb with a Standard Broadband deal.

The following chart gives you an idea of what can be achieved with various speeds.

File Type V’s Speeds: 4mbps 16mbps 100mbps 300mbps
MP3 (5mb) 10 secs 2.5 secs 0.4 secs 0.1 secs
YouTube clip (50mb) 1 m 45 secs 26 secs 4 secs 1 secs
TV Show (450mb) 15 m 46 secs 3 m 56 secs 38 secs 13 secs
DVD (4.5GB) 2 hrs 30 m 37 m 30 secs 4 m 41 secs 2 m
DVD BluRay (10GB) 5 hrs 58 m 1 hr 29 m 14 m 19 secs 4 m 46 secs
*Abbreviations: mbps = megabits-per-second | mb = megabytes | gb = gigabytes | hrs = hours | m = minutes| secs = Seconds