Broadband offers from NTL, Telewest, BT

There is an excellent UK cable offer running until midnight Friday 24 November 2006.

Sign up with NTL or Telewest for a cable product before the deadline - broadband, digital TV, home phone or a mix - and you'll get a FREE Motorola L7 Pay As You Go phone from Virgin Mobile. Plus a SIM with £5 airtime to get you started. This offer is for new customers only, taking out a 12-month contract, and conditions apply.

Cable tends to be available in urban areas in the UK - you can check to see if you can get it in your area by using the UK broadband availability checker at my broadband website www.ukbroadbandfinder.com.

If you can't get cable, there are other broadband offers available - there's currently a great BT Total Broadband offer of up to £40 cashback if you switch to their residential broadband provider from another DSL broadband provider - this offfer finishes at the end of the month, if you want to know more check out my BT home broadband page here.

Okay this next offer's not about broadband, but if you're wanting to save money before Christmas then check out the Sky digital TV offer - sign up now and get the first three months for half price. So you can get your Christmas entertainment package sorted now! This offer ends 30 november 2006. Find out more about this Sky offer here.

By Sarah, at UK Broadband Finder

BT Wholesale to charge rivals whose broadband customers move - but Wholesale prices are also set to drop

BT's Wholesale division has announced that it will start charging rival broadband operators if their customers move from them to another provider. The charge will be £33.75 ex VAT and will also be charged to BT's retail division if their customers up sticks.

However it won't be charged if the customer is given - and uses - a MAC (a migration authorization code - which many providers give to customers moving to other broadband providers and which facilitates a much smoother switch).

BT Wholesale says that as they are rejigging their prices, this penalty charge cost will be made up for in better overall BT Wholesale prices which are poised to fall once 1.5 million LLU lines have been enabled (LLU providers - local loop unbundlers - put their own equipment into local BT exchanges, meaning they can often offer much faster broadband speeds than the "up to 8Mb" that a typical ADSL Max reseller can offer.) BT reckons this will happen in May 2007. It has been prevented from dropping Wholesale prices until the 1.5 million marker was reached to give the LLU sector a competitive chance to get going.

These price changes mean that the rental charge for its most widely used product, BT IPstream, looks to fall 9% next May and more the year after. There are other proposed price changes and it looks as if the market could get more competitive among ISPs using BT Wholesale, though the LLUs are unlikely to be happy...

Even before any wholesale price change occur - and make it through to end user prices - there are some great deals for broadband in the UK, whether for home or business. If you're looking for broadband (yup, it's time for the sales bit) try our UK Broadband Finder availability checker - just go to www.ukbroadbandfinder.com.

By Sarah, at UK Broadband Finder

NEW - Virgin.net broadband bundles

Before I forget, Virgin.net have introduced some great new bundled broadband packages in the UK, for broadband and phone. The packages start at a mere £9.99 per month - that bundle includes:

• up to 8 Mb download speeds
• Only £9.99 per month
• Package includes Virgin.net Talk - free evening and weekend calls to UK landlines.
• Free Activation
  
• Free Starter Kit
  
• Free Anti-Spam & Email Virus Protection
  
• Free Webmail
  
• Google Web search
  
• 5 Virgin.net email addresses
  
• 10 MB free webspace
  
• Free online customer support
  
• Free £20 Virgin Wines voucher

Find out more about that Virgin.net bundles and other Virgin.net broadband packages here or browse my website, www.ukbroadbandfinder.com

By Sarah, at UK Broadband Finder

Vodafone to offer broadband in the UK

Vodafone has announced today that it will offer home broadband in the UK from January 2007. The UK broadband market has been in a state of change this year with broadband increasingly being offered as a free extra.

Vodafone's Broadband at Home will include up to 8 Mb unlimited broadband, inclusive landline calls to any UK landline, and line rental, for £25 per month. It will be launched to Vodafone consumer contract customers on 8 January 2007.

You can check out loads of UK broadband offers on our UK home and business broadband website, www.ukbroadbandfinder.com.

By Sarah, at UK Broadband Finder

Welcome to my UK Broadband Finder blog

I run a broadband comparison website for home and business broadband in the UK called www.ukbroadbandfinder.com. The broadband market is in a state of flux with free broadband deals, phone broadband and TV bundles, and loads of other new stuff. I'll try to bring you some broadband news - and info on new packages, providers and information from www.ukbroadbandfinder.com. One of the "always bubbling under" stories on broadband concerns broadband speeds - and how our "fast" speeds just aren't fast enough. In France and some other countries people zip along at up to 24 Meg as a matter of course, but in the UK if you're getting the advertised 8 Meg from your broadband provider you're doing really well (that's why broadband speeds are always stated as "up to"). There are lots of reasons for slow broadband, but if you want to check your current broadband speed, check out our free broadband speed test.

By Sarah, at UK Broadband Finder