Networking & Communications

Broadband Phone

Compare broadband phone and TV packages

It can be difficult to organise your finances with many different debits and bills arriving at different times of the month, especially when some bills like energy costs change every month. Sometimes, this is unavoidable, but when we're talking about entertainment bills, you can make your broadband, phone and television costs much easier to bare by combining all three into one entertainment package, giving you a single monthly bill and only one company to deal with if things go wrong, not 3!

 

When you <a href="http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/digital-tv-and-broadband-bundle-guide.html">compare broadband phone and tv packages</a> online, There obviously isn't as many options when looking at getting all 3 things combined, but there's still a good amount of choice when looking at bundle deals. The two big players right now are Virgin Media and Sky, who all offer their own brand of television services. With all three things differing between each company, there's clearly a lot on offer here, so here's quick rundown on what you can expect for each service!

 

Virgin Media

Virgin media offer their services through cable technology, which means you'll only be able to access their services if you live in a cable area. Around 50% of the population of the UK should have access to cable, but keep in mind that's 50% of the population, not 50% of the country - there's very little chance you'll find cable services available outside of larger towns, and no chance at all of finding it installed in the countryside.

 

Broadband: Broadband services through Virgin are both reliable and very fast, with some areas capable of reaching a massive 50 Mbps, twice as fast as even the fastest ADSL package. Most of the Virgin Media services employ some sort of cap to their unlimited broadband, though it's pretty high and shouldn't affect most people.

 

TV: Virgin offer television packages from basic to premium and offer a wide range of content including a content on demand system. While there isn't the range and quality available from Sky, Virgin TV should suit nearly everyone. In terms of a direct comparison with Sky, you're only really missing a few movie and sports channels, so unless these are you priority for a television service, there two are fairly similar.

 

Sky

 

Sky uses ADSL as their broadband service, so it's available just about everywhere. However, it's limited to your distance to your phone and not capable of supporting the sort of speeds you can reach with cable. The television service uses a satellite connection so nearly every house in the UK should be able to access both services, with the exception of remote rural locations.

 

Broadband: Sky broadband is well known for offering an unlimited service without any bandwidth caps or throttling. As an ADSL service there's a few options for speed but mostly this will be determined by how far your house is from a BT exchange.

 

TV: Sky television is the 'best' in terms of pure content, offering hundreds of channels including premium sports and movie channels and a ton of specialised content. Obviously not all channels will appeal to everyone and Sky has more than its fair share of shopping and gambling channels, but overall it offers more choice. It also has the widest range of HDTV content if quality is your priority.

 

There are other services that bundle TV, phone and broadband together, but these use a service called IPTV, which is essentially 'broadband television' using a set top box to bring up pictures on your TV through your existing internet service. These services are typically cheaper but lower quality and with less choice than that offered by Virgin and Sky.

About the Author

Broadband Choices are an Ofcom accepted broadband comparison website. The site contains info about such things as having broadband no landline. When you are looking for a cheap broadband without phone line their site is one you should visit.

I don't have a phone line, is there any broadband I can get without going to BT for a phone line?

I cannot receive cable in this area so I am stuck with ADSL (broadband over phone line) however, I want to know if anyone knows of a broadband where you either don't need a phoneline (no dialtone - they have it in USA) or I don't pay sperately for a phone line (it is in with the proce of the broadband). Thanks!

Satellite.

The problems with satellite are cost, AND that if "oversold" it can become slower than dial-up during peak usage hours.

First attempt at reading email on Debbie's phone broadband