Broadband: Compare features & prices
Side-by-side comparison
Displaying 1–4 of 4 Broadband
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Be Value
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BT Total Broadband Option 2
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O2 Access
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O2 The Basics
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| Price | £17.00 Exclusive to 1 retailer | £23.80 Exclusive to 1 retailer | £27.50 Exclusive to 1 retailer | £13.50 Exclusive to 1 retailer |
| Launch date | - | - | - | - |
| Type of package | ||||
Package types
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Standard broadband | Standard broadband | Standard broadband | Standard broadband |
| Package type
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Broadband | Broadband | Broadband | Broadband |
| Package type
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Broadband | Broadband | Broadband | Broadband |
| Contact details | ||||
| Website | www.bethere.co.uk | www.bt.com/broadband | www.o2.co.uk/broadband | www.o2.co.uk/broadband |
| Broadband sales phone number
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0808 101 3424 | 0800 800 150 or 0330 1234 150 | 0800 380 0402 | 0800 380 0402 |
| Subscription costs | ||||
| Monthly cost notes | n/a | To get BT's broadband only options you will need to call 0800 800 150 (or 0330 1234 150 from a mobile) | £5 cheaper for O2 mobile customers | £5 cheaper for O2 mobile customers |
| Promotions and special offers | None | None | None | None |
| Speed | ||||
| Maximum download speed (Mbps)
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10.0 | 16.0 | 8.0 | 16.0 |
| Maximum upload speed Mbps
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1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Contract and cancellation | ||||
| Minimum contract term (months)
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12 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Line activation cost
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Free | Free | £30 connection fee | £25.53 (Free connection for O2 customers). |
| Cancellation fee £
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Remainder of contract excluding VAT (minus Ofcom discount) | The number of months remaining on the contract term muliplied by £12.25 | £15.83 if less than 30 days notification given, plus any outstanding subscription charges. | £15.83 if less than 30 days notification given, plus any outstanding subscription charges. |
| Cancellation fee conditions | 1 month's notice at end of term | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Equipment | ||||
| Free equipment?
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Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Equipment cost
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Free | Free | Free | Free |
| Equipment provided
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Wireless modem | BT Home Hub | O2 Wireless box V (wireless router) | O2 Wireless box V (wireless router) |
| Equipment notes | n/a | £49 fee for equipment if leaving before end of agreement. There is a delivery charge of £6.95 for the BT Home Hub. | O2 Wireless box is leased to you for duration of contract. | O2 Wireless box is leased to you for duration of contract. |
| Switching | ||||
| If a customer switches to another ISP do they get to keep this equipment?
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No | Yes | No | No |
| Switching ISP conditions | £35 fee applies if modem not returned | BT Home Hub broadband equipment won't work on other services. | Equipment must be returned to O2 in pre-paid envelope provided. If equipment has not been returned 30 days after contract termination, an additional £50 charge may apply. | Equipment must be returned to O2 in pre-paid envelope provided. If equipment has not been returned 30 days after contract termination, an additional £50 charge may apply. |
| Other costs | ||||
| Bundled package?
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No | No | No | No |
| Bundle details | Landline (Line Rental) packages, including calls, available at monthly cost of £10, £11 and £14 | n/a | You can add O2 home phone line rental, the basic package is £13 | You can add O2 home phone line rental, the basic package is £13 |
| Phone line rental included?
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No | No | No | No |
| Limits | ||||
| Unlimited data transfer?
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Yes | No | No | No |
| Monthly data transfer limit (GB)
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Unlimited | 40 | 20 | 20 |
| Data transfer limit conditions
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n/a | Customers can go over their allowance and charges will apply for any additional usage required. Customers have the option to upgrade their package. | O2 has usage counters for customers to monitor data usage. We will notify you when you've reached 75%, 90% and 100% of your plan usage allowance. If you use more than 20GB in any month, O2 will give you a written warning (by email or otherwise). In extreme circumstances, if the levels of activity dont decrease in line with O2 instructions after the warning, O2 may terminate or suspend your Services. | O2 has usage counters for customers to monitor data usage. We will notify you when you've reached 75%, 90% and 100% of your plan usage allowance. If you use more than 20GB in any month, O2 will give you a written warning (by email or otherwise). In extreme circumstances, if the levels of activity dont decrease in line with O2 instructions after the warning, O2 may terminate or suspend your Services. |
| Cost for usage above data transfer limit (£/GB)
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n/a | Usage is charged in 5GB units, at £5 per 5GB. Charges apply from the second month the customer goes over their allowance. | n/a | n/a |
| Is there a fair usage policy?
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Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Fair usage policy conditions
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If a customer's usage proves detrimental to other BE customers, or contributes disproportionately to congestion in a particular exchange area, BE will contact the customer and request that heavy usage is limited to off-peak hours until the congestion can be resolved. Ultimately, the Broadband service may be terminated if the customer is unable to cooperate with the request. | There is no fair usage policy in operation. | If you're using the service excessively e.g. by downloading lots of large files during peak times, O2 may warn you to lower your usage. Continued excessive usage may result in your account being terminated. | If you use more than 20GB in any month, O2 will give you a written warning (by email or otherwise). In extreme circumstances, if the levels of activity dont decrease in line with O2 instructions after the warning, O2 may terminate or suspend your Services. |
| Is there a traffic management policy? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Traffic management policy conditions
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BE does not operate traffic management | Peer-to-peer traffic speeds are restricted during peak times (weekdays 4pm-12pm, weekends 9am-12pm) | At busy times (midday to 2am) we make sure the speed for things like browsing the web, instant messaging, streaming and making calls is the best it can be. So everyone gets a good experience. And we limit the speed for file-sharing (including using Rapidshare and Megaupload) to 50kbps. The rest of the time we don't limit the speed for file-sharing. But we still prioritise the speed for browsing, streaming videos etc | Typically applied from 4pm to midnight on weekdays and 12pm to midnight on weekends. Traffic managed - videos and streaming, and sharing files (peer-to-peer) |
| Extras | ||||
| No. of email accounts
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None | 11 | 10 | 10 |
| Free web space (MB)
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None | None | n/a | n/a |
| Cost of telephone support (£ per minute)
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Free from a BT landline | Free from UK landline - 0800 number | Free | Free |
| Mac compatible
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Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mac compatible notes | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Free spam filters | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free antivirus protection | No | Yes. Customers are also eligible for free Family Protection software | Yes | Yes |
| Webmail | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free parental controls | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Is service available with a static IP address?
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No | No | No | Yes |
| Static IP details and costs
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n/a | n/a | n/a | £5.11 per month |
| Is this package available in all areas?
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No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Does package cost more outside a certain geographic area?
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Unavailable outside Be's LLU areas | No | n/a | This package is not available in non-LLU areas. Customers outside the LLU area have the option of the Access package |
| Approximate percentage of UK households covered by restricted geographic area (includes LLU or lower cost areas) | 70 | BT Total Broadband up to 16Mb is available to 80% of the UK popluation as of the end of May 2012. | As per BT | 70 |
| Overall | ||||
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| Help and support | ||||
| Customer Service
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| Online technical support
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| Connection | ||||
| Reliability of Connection
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| Connection speed
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Help
Package types
Whether this package advertises standard broadband speeds or superfast speeds(above 24Mbps)
Package type
Shows the type of broadband technology this package uses
Package type
Is this package broadband-only or a broadband and phone package including line rental.
Broadband sales phone number
Phone number for sales only (unless otherwise stated)
Maximum download speed (Mbps)
The maximum advertised speed - applies to things like surfing the web or downloading media files. Actual speed will vary depending on your distance from the exchange and the number of people online at the same time.
Maximum upload speed Mbps
The maximum upload speed applies to things like sending emails or adding photos to online albums - it's often much slower than the download speed.
Minimum contract term (months)
The minimum term you'll be tied in for without being able to switch provider. If you want to change company within your minimum contract you'll have to pay a hefty fee.
Line activation cost
Some companies charge a one-off fee for setting up your phone line to support their broadband service.
Cancellation fee £
The fee you will be charged if you cancel your service within the term of your contract.
Free equipment?
Whether the company provides equipment to connect to the internet as part of the deal
Equipment cost
Whether you get your broadband equipment for free
Equipment provided
What type of equipment you get for free, such as standard modem, router, wireless router etc.
If a customer switches to another ISP do they get to keep this equipment?
Some companies that include equipment for free will require it back if you switch away from them - it's more of a loan than free equipment.
Bundled package?
Whether the broadband service is bundled together with other services, such as telephone calls or digital TV.
Phone line rental included?
Whether the bundled service includes phone line rental. All broadband packages require you to have an active phone line, which means if line rental is not included you will have to pay another company, such as BT, for line rental. BT charges between £10.50 and £12.50 for phone line rental.
Unlimited data transfer?
Whether or not the service has a cap on the amount of data you can down- or upload every month.
Monthly data transfer limit (GB)
The limit on any data transfer. You'll usuall have to pay extra if you exceed it.
Data transfer limit conditions
What happens if you exceed your data transfer limit. Some services have different limits depending on the time of day you use your service (eg unlimited between midnight and 6am).
Cost for usage above data transfer limit (£/GB)
If you exceed your cap, how much will you pay per GB of usage.
Is there a fair usage policy?
Most 'unlimited' broadband packages have a fair usage policy, which comes into affect if customers are slowing down the broadband speed for others, due to 'excessive usage'.
Fair usage policy conditions
What happens if you exceed your fair usage policy
Traffic management policy conditions
The contention ratio is the maximum number of people who can be sharing your connection at a given time. This will affect the speed of your service. The lower the number, the better. Some companies now use other traffic management systems to ensure bandwidth is shared out fairly at busy times.
No. of email accounts
How many separate email accounts you can set up.
Free web space (MB)
How much web space is provided for you to set up your own web page.
Cost of telephone support (£ per minute)
How much it costs to call the ISP's technical help line.
Mac compatible
Whether the service is compatible with Apple Mac computers.
Is service available with a static IP address?
A static IP address will allow you to access your computer from anywhere in the world. This could be particularly useful if you work as an independent and need to access files remotely.
Static IP details and costs
Not all broadband providers offer static IP addresses. You may have to pay additional monthly charges for this service with some providers.
Is this package available in all areas?
If this package is available in all geographic areas. Some packages are only available in certain areas. This includes local loop unbundled (LLU) packages which allows the service to offer faster speeds and lower prices, but may make it more difficult to switch away.
Does package cost more outside a certain geographic area?
Some packages are either unavailable, or cost more outside of certain geographic areas. Where additional costs apply outside these areas, we list these as separate packages.
Ease of set-up
How well the ISP did for ease of set up in our latest customer satisfaction survey.
Value for money
How well the ISP did for value for money in our latest customer satisfaction survey.
Customer Service
How well the ISP did for customer service in our latest customer satisfaction survey.
Telephone technical support
How well the ISP did for overall broadband telephone technical support. If there are no stars, we didn't have enough responses to rate the provider on this aspect.
Online technical support
How well the ISP did for its overall broadband online technical support. If there are no stars, we didn't have enough responses to rate the provider on this aspect.
Reliability of Connection
How highly the ISP was rated for reliability of connection in our latest customer satisfaction survey - this rating combines both reliability of connection and frequency of connection problems.
Connection speed
How highly the ISP was rated for speed of connection in our latest customer satisfaction survey.
