The Best Broadband and Home Phone Deals

By Julia Kukiewicz Staff Writer Monday, 21 April 2008

Best broadband and homephone packages What are the top three broadband/home phone deals? Talk Talk Broadband: • Free Broadband • 8 Mb/s • 40 GB monthly allowance Home Phone: • International Evening & Weekends Plan • Free weekend and evening calls to UK landlines • Daytime Calls to the UK 3ppm • Free calls last 70 minutes • Connection fee doesn’t apply to free calls Total Price per month: £16.39 Read our review and sign up for TalkTalk Free Broadband and International Evening & Weekends Tiscali Broadband: • Superfast Broadband Option 1 • 8 Mb/s • 5 GB download limit Home Phone • Free Weekend & International Plan • Free weekend UK and international calls • Daytime UK calls 3ppm • Free calls last 60 minutes • Connection fee doesn’t apply to free calls Total Price per month: £12.99 Read our review and sign up for Tiscali Superfast Broadband Option 1 Virgin Media Broadband: • Broadband Size M • 2 Mb/s • Unlimited downloads Home Phone: • Phone Size M • Unlimited weekend UK landline calls • Other calls to UK landlines 3.25ppm • No connection fee on free calls, otherwise 7p Total Price per month: £15.50 (£20 after 30th April) Read our review and sign up for Virgin Media £4.50 Broadband Special Offer Compare the broadband packages of: Compare broadband packages from TalkTalk Compare broadband packages from Tiscali Compare broadband packages from Virgin Media Related Best Broadband Articles See our other recent related 'Best broadband for...' guides: Best broadband for unlimited downloads What is the best broadband package for unlimited downloads? With so many to choose from, and so much nonsense about what 'unlimited' really means, Julia Kukiewicz has waded through the small print to find the best broadband for unlimited downloads. Best broadband for online gaming IF you're tired of being fragged by a teenage punk in South Korea who happens to have a 100Mb broadband connection, you'd do well to widen the odds by signing up the best broadband package for online gaming. Julia Kukiewicz uncovers the best broadband for gamers. Best Broadband for Students YOU'VE got your Che Guevara poster neatly blu-tacked to the wall, so now its time to sort out your broadband? Helen Storey moves aside the baked beans and uncovers the best broadband for students.

Want to save on your broadband and your home phone? Well, it’s simple when you know how. Take a look at our top broadband and phone deals to see how – by combining your broadband with a homephone package from the same provider - you can get more for your money.

With BT’s line rental on the rise and cheaper call packages than ever there’s never been a better time to switch to a better package, so take a look at these top deals and see how they compare to BT’s call rates.

Best Broadband and Home Phone Deal #1: TalkTalk Free Broadband with Talk International Evening & Weekend

Yes, we know Talk Talk got an awful lot of bad press when their ‘free broadband’ deal failed to anticipate demand but since then they’ve really improved their service.

The cheapest total price per month – ‘free’ broadband with £10.50 line rental (which you must take) and £5.89 call plan - comes in at £16.39

For that price broadband is pretty speedy at 8 Mb/s with a fairly indulgent 40 GB monthly allowance.

While it may not be unlimited in the true sense of the word (who really does offer truly unlimited broadband?), 40GB is a huge amount to play with, and you’d have to be a serial peer-to-peer downloader to come anywhere near to that limit.

• What does the TalkTalk home phone package include?

The Talk International Evening & Weekend call plan offers free weekend and evening calls to UK landlines with daytime calls to the UK for 3p per minute. BT’s equivalent costs 4p per minute.

A connection charge of 6p applies to all calls, the same as BT’s equivalent.

Your free call lasts for 70 minutes, as opposed to BT’s 60 minutes cut-off.

Calls to other TalkTalk customers are free (BT doesn’t offer this) and calls to UK mobiles are 12p on peak and 7p off peak (that’s half a penny cheaper than BT)

Best Broadband and Home Phone Deal #2: Tiscali Superfast Broadband Option 1

The cheapest Tiscali deal – Tiscali Superfast Broadband Option 1 - costs £6.49 per month but that rises to £12.99 after three months.

Broadband comes in at 8 Mb/s and there is a rather measly 5 GB download limit. That’s pretty tiny for anything other than viewing web pages.

Anyone that does more than that will find it difficult to avoid paying for extra downloads.

However, for just £2 more a month you could upgrade to Tiscali Option 2 with unlimited downloads on the same 8mb speed service.

• What does the Tiscali home phone package include?

The call plan included with this super-cheap broadband package offers free weekend UK calls as well as free international weekend calls to 10 top destinations.

Like BT, your free call can last 60 minutes before you have to hang up and redial.

Daytime calls are charged at 3p per minute, a penny cheaper than BT.

There is no connection charge for your free calls, but you will have to pay a 6p minimum charge on each weekday or weekday evening call you make.

The free international calls are to ten countries including America, Canada, New Zealand, France and Germany. BT doesn’t offer free international calls at all.

Best Broadband and Home Phone Deal #2: Virgin Media £4.50 Broadband

Virgin Media have made the biggest splash with their £4.50 Size M broadband when you take the £11 per month size M home phone package.

Since this is a cable service, you do not need a BT landline, nor do you need to pay any line rental.

This deal doesn’t last for long: after the 30th of April the £15.50 per month overall price will go up to £20, however Virgin Media are pretty good at extending their offers and we see no reason why this won’t continue after 30 April.

The M broadband package has speeds of 2 Mb/s with unlimited downloads. A fair use policy does apply.

• What does the Virgin Media home phone package include?

The call plan offers unlimited free weekend UK landline calls as long as those calls last less than 60 minutes.

At other times calls to UK landlines 3.25p per minute, just marginally cheaper than BT.

Calls outside of the weekend are subject to a 7p connection fee (a penny more than BT’s 6p).

There is no connection charge applied to any free calls.

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