Broadband: How to buy
Prices depend on connection speed and how much data you download
Cost of broadband
Standalone broadband services start at around £10 a month in some areas, rising to about £50 for high speed internet services; prices vary according to the broadband connection speed you opt for, and how much data you download.
Unlike with some dial-up internet services, you don't pay for the time spent online.
Contract length
Many broadband ISPs insist you sign up for a year or even 18 months, although some smaller ISPs, such as Eclipse, Metronet, PlusNet or Zen Internet, offer monthly contracts.
Details of fees for cancelling within a 12 month contract are available in our reviews, which you’ll find on the Overview page.
Start-up costs
You may need to pay upfront for broadband line activation (around £60), although some ISPs waive these fees in return for tying you to a 12-month contract.
Some also throw in a free broadband modem or router in exchange for a 12 or 18-month contract (inclusion of routers or wireless equipment is relatively rare), although you may have to return the equipment if you switch away.
Broadband usage limits
Many ISPs put a limit, or cap, on how much you can download and upload of anything from 250 megabytes (MB) to 50 gigabytes (GB) a month. A limited service could save you money but, if you watch TV or video on the net, download large files and send lots of emails with attachments, an unlimited deal is a better option.
1GB a month would let you surf for two hours a day, send and receive 100 emails a week, and download 30 music tracks a week. Note, there’s no mention of video in that estimate - downloading or streaming TV or film can really bump up your broadband usage.
Some ISPs charge for exceeding the limit, from around £1.50 for each extra GB.
Fair usage policies
If you opt for a broadband service with no limits, look out for ‘fair usage policies’, which may result in warning letters, restricted speeds or, at worst, cancelled services for people who abuse the policies.
You’d have to try pretty hard to exceed most fair usage limits though – for example, AOL gives the following examples of excess downloading in a single month: more than 12,000 music tracks, more than 30,000 high-quality photos or around 60 movies.
ISPA (the Internet Service Provider’s Association) has told its members that they must inform customers of fair usage policies in their sales and marketing literature. Telecoms regulator Ofcom also requires this as part of its broadband code of practice.
Broadband speed
In the past many people opted for broadband speeds of 512Kbps – about 10 times faster than dial-up. This should let you download a 3MB file (a three-minute MP3 track, say) in about 45 seconds, rather than eight minutes.
Over the past couple of years, broadband speeds have been on the rise. For really speedy downloads, up to 8 megabits per second (Mbps) is becoming much more common – you could download the same three-minute music track in a matter of seconds – and a few companies have even introduced speeds of up to 24Mbps.
Advertised speed vs actual speed
However, what you pay for isn't necessarily what you get - a 2007 Which? speed test found that most people promised up to 8Mbps actually achieved less than half that speed on average. For more on this, and reasons for the difference, take a look at the Which? broadband speed guide.
Which broadband speed to choose
In practice, most people will find broadband speeds of 1 or 2Mbps are adequate for their needs if all they want to do is surf the net, send emails and download the odd music track.
But if you fancy taking advantage of some of the newer, more data intensive things you can do with broadband – like downloading films, watching TV over the internet, or online gaming – you’re more likely to see the benefits of faster speeds.
Technical help
Check how much it costs to call the ISP's technical helpline, particularly if you’re new to broadband. Prices range from free to 50p a minute – if you run into difficulties a free or low-cost technical helpline could be a life saver. We give details of technical helpline costs on the Which? broadband product pages.