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After years of being the provider for people who don't know any better BT's broadband, phone and TV deals have been experiencing a bit of a resurgence.

That seems to be, in large part, because the provider has finally started to play to its strengths: decent quality, mid-market price consumer deals.

The UK communications giant offers home broadband at two speeds - up to 20Mb and up to 40Mb - as well as home phone and TV. Here's a quick run down of those three.

Broadband

The up to 40Mb BT Infinity broadband service is provided through BT's fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) network which means that it's only accessible to about six million UK homes.

For that reason we'll focus on the 20Mb deals in this article. Take a look at our BT Infinity review for more on fibre.

Up to 20Mb broadband deals are divided by usage allowance as follows:

Broadband	More Broadband	Unlimited Broadband
10GB	40GB	Unlimited (fair use)

Check availability and compare all the packages on our BT deals page.

Speeds and downloads

BT's up to 20Mb ADSL service delivers average speeds of around 7Mb to 8Mb, according to Ofcom.

That places them around the centre of the market for ADSL services: not the slowest but not as fast as competitors such as the O2/Be network.

The Unlimited broadband deal imposes a fair use policy on the very heaviest downloaders.

In addition, the provider slows all peer-to-peer activity during peak hours: 4pm to midnight on weekdays and 9am to midnight at the weekend.

Finally, it's worth noting that BT Vision's on-demand TV viewing (see below for more information) doesn't count towards your broadband download usage.

BT Home Hub

A major selling point for BT is their Home Hub. Other providers tend to offer a bog-standard wireless router from a big brand like Thompson or Linksys.

Aside from looking a lot more glamourous than a standard modem, the Home Hub offers Smart Wireless technology.

That means that the Hub constantly scans for interference from other devices and dynamically changes the wireless channel users are receiving to maintain a better connection; most modems just check for the least crowded channel when they're set-up.

Given that speeds lost through wireless routers reduce broadband speeds by 30% on average a good router makes a significant difference to broadband connections.

There's also room for a USB port, acting as a network storage space or printer sharer and power saving features that aren't appearing on other provider's routers.

Free Openzone wi-fi and other extras

In addition to the router, provided free, there are other bundled services here which aren't often found with other providers.

All BT customers can use the network of Openzone wi-fi hotspots, the UK's largest network, for free by logging in with their BT username and password when they're out and about.

Users also get free secure online storage to back up files.

The point is that while BT broadband deals aren't the cheapest provider around it's not a totally empty price hike hidden behind a strong brand.

Calls

To get broadband, customers must take BT line rental.

The price of line rental stays set across any BT bundle, although you can pay extra for inclusive UK landline calls anytime or evening & weekends. Free UK weekend calls are included as standard.

BT's call deal comes with all the basic features you'd expect: services such as 1571 voicemail, free texts every month and even security extras like caller ID.

However, line rental is now £14.60 a month (£14.60!): BT have managed to get themselves into the somewhat ridiculous situation of charging more for line rental than any other provider.

Over the past few years, we've got used to seeing them increasing prices and other providers - semi-shamefacedly - following, but this time even TalkTalk - who are never shamefaced - have stayed significantly cheaper.

BT do allow customers to pay for a year upfront which brings the price down to the equivalent of £10 a month but it's a lot to shell out in one go.

Note, though, that those that do need a new phone line installed will be able to get it done for free with their broadband. See our new phone line installation guide for more details.

TV

Last, but not least, BT have recently revamped their TV deals, replacing a confusing 'bronze, silver, gold, platinum' line up with just two packages: Essentials and Unlimited.

What's the difference?

Both Essentials and Unlimited offer all 70 Freeview channels, a free Vision+ box (which allows users record, rewind and pause live TV) and free on-demand from BBC iPlayer, ITV player and 4OD.

However, Unlimited also includes all of BT's standard on-demand content for free. There are five on-demand 'packs':

• Vision TV: drama and soaps many of which are unavailable through Freeview
• Film Club: 75 movies a month (20 swapped in every month) from a variety of genres
• Kids: cartoons, Disney channel shows etc
• Sport: 'non-premium' sports like wrestling and football highlights
• Music: music video playlists, albums and documentaries

With Essentials this on-demand content starts at 50p for a show, video playlist or movie.

What do you need?

To get the Freeview services you'll need to be in a digital-enabled area and have a TV ariel. For BT Vision you need BT broadband which comes with the provider's Vision+ box.

Currently, all broadband bundles with TV are subject to a £40 set-up fee.

What about sports?

TV Unlimited includes ESPN for free.

You can add Sky Sports 1 & 2 for £12.30 each or £17.40 together with either deal, though, which is what you want to watch the Champions League or Rugby Union.

The viewing card to watch Sky Sports is £10 but monthly prices are just lower than Sky and Virgin Media's

In addition, BT have the edge over those two because they offer Sky sports on a one month minimum term contract so you can pay just for the sports seasons you actually watch.

Customer service

Let's be honest, you don't go to BT broadband for the UK's best service. They're a huge provider with huge, variably trained, call centre staff.

They've improved a lot over the past year or so - at one point we might as well have replaced this section with a giant thumbs down picture - and now we'd say, overall, they're pretty good.

Big providers' service has its downsides but one of the upsides is a really well-staffed and useful online customer forum which can help with niggling service problems.

So: is BT broadband any good?

All in all, BT have really improved their broadband offering over the past 12 months.

They've become much better value for money and Infinity offers better speeds and reliability than we've seen before.

But they're also bringing innovation to the market: the new BT Home Hub's smart wireless, secure online storage and free BT Openzone minutes among other benefits justify, for those that will use them of course, the provider's less-than-rock-bottom prices.

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