Best Broadband and Phone Packages?

stripee

Fellow Moneysavers,

I am looking for a package for my Mum as her quarterly bills are astronomical. She now has access to Broadband on her exchange. I am looking for a basic broadband service (512k, 1 or 2gb limit), alongside an all inclusive phone package - unlimited any calls any time. It would need to be free connection and free modem, and ideally wouldn't tie to a 12 month contract.

Pricerunner seems to check broadband (if a little ineffectively) but I have yet to find a site that compares broadband/phone packages. My two good spots so far are:

- Homecall £25 monthly. 90min call limit. You can even get your line rental from them saving 50p. Does anyone know how that works? What happens if you have a fault on your line? Who do you phone? Mysteriously they are not on adslguide, although a friend of mine has had no trouble with them. It appears they also go by the name Caudwell Communications?

- Tiscali £19.99. Almost seems to good to be true. I'm very suspicious of big companies. Especially when it comes to technical support lines etc. Is there a catch? I would like to know. There is a 60min call limit. Apart from that everything seems peachy. Which is why I doubt it - cynic that I am!

So that's either £34.50 or £30.50 a month all-in respectively including the line rental (either BT's or Homecall's)

As an aside I'm looking for a friend for the DB's in terms of Broadband - fast 2mb or upwards unmetered along with the calls all included? It's a fresh search which I'll save for another evening. Would be grateful to hear stories

Would be very interested to hear anyone's opinions!

THanks

Stripee

mrJ_5

zazizam's basic broadband (2mb + 2Gb usage) and phone package is £12 a month - so £22.50 a month including line rental - which isn't too bad. You can get a usb modem, and a filter from somewhere like ebuyer or ebay for under £20. They do list call rates - so see their site for those.

I use their unlimited 512k service + phone, for £15.99 a month - can fault them really

IvanOpinion

I am currently looking to sort myself out a package and have been looking at various deals. The one that is currently attracting my attention offers
- broadband 2Mb line (1Gb per month limit - although you can buy more)
- free modem and connection
- 1 year contract
- phone line rental
- free evening and weekend calls (01/02 numbers)
- discount (over BT rates) at other times

All in this looks like it is going to cost about £26.49 per month from utv internet. I am not sure if this is available outside of Northern Ireland though.

I would be interested in other similar deals

Ivan

Edinburghlass_2

Generally Ivan, the advice is don't change your line rental from BT. As a rule if another company has your line rental they won't allow you to use companies such as 18866/1899/18185, links to these companies are here.

It is very easy for any company to offer cheaper rates than BT as BT charges are so high and these companies mean you can make a call through the day to 01/02 numbers for 3p no matter the duration of the call and very much cheaper international calls.

My main concern with shifting line rental from BT would be where about in the queue would you be with repairs as if you have a fault on your line you would have to report to the company to which you pay your line rental and then they would report to BT, all of which would take extra time.

However, having said all that it seems a reasonable deal for the money but I haven't checked out the T&Cs yet