BT Option 1 Broadband

• Super-fast 20Mb BT broadband
• Free 1GB mobile broadband for 18 months
• Free Wireless BT Home Hub
• Free evening and weekend broadband calls
• Decent but basic Yahoo! security suite
• 250 free BT openzone wi-fi minutes per month
• 10GB usage allowance

BT broadband review: Option 1

SOMETIMES we just like to go with a name we trust, and while BT's broadband offerings have traditionally been more confusing than bucket of rubik's cubes, they've simplified it all down now and BT Total Option 1 is the company's bottom-rung-but-still-pretty-cool beginners package.

10GB of usage

Offering speeds of up to 20Mb with a recently doubled usage limit of 10GB (it was 5GB), most web users will find this BT Total Option 1 more than enough.

If you are serious about using your BT broadband connection to the max though, you should consider BT Total Option 3 which allows unlimited downloads, within the realms of their fair use policy of course.

Features and Extras

BT Total Option 1 comes with a free wireless BT Home Hub. The new BT Home Hub uses "N" technology, which means it's easy to connect multiple devices like gaming consoles, other computers and laptops.

The BT Home Hub has a built-in firewall and even automatically downloads security updates as well as new features.

BT Total Option 1 also comes with a few other 'extra features'. You get some basic security from Yahoo!, including anti-virus and anti-spam e-mail accounts. Plus, you get 250 free wi-fi minutes to use on the new BT Fon network as well as any BT Openzone hotspots (such as airports or hotel lobbies).

Even more, you'll also get free 5GB secure online storage with the BT Digital Vault. It's the perfect place for securely backing up important files, like valuable photos and important documents. If you need more than 5GB or want auto backups (and you're not on a mac - the auto backup feature doesn't support macintosh computers unfortunately) you can upgrade to a whooping 50GB of secure storage for just £4.88 a month.

Plus, you also get BT Broadband Talk, which effectively lets you plug in any phone to the BT Home Hub and get free UK evening & weekend calls.

Keep in mind that these are free broadband calls, and not calls made over your normal telephone line.

Not to worry though, as BT is now offering free evening and weekend calls via your landline if you commit to using their calling package (ie. you don't use another third party for your calls) for a 12 month contract.

Free Mobile Broadband

New to BT is their bundling of mobile broadband with all 18-month BT home broadband packages.

You have to sign up with the 18 month contract and pay a one-off £49.99 hardware cost (for the USB dongle), but you'll get 1GB of mobile broadband usage free every month for the length of the contract.

If you want to use more than 1GB, you can add it at pre-pay costs of £10 for 1GB or £20 for 3GB.

BT mobile broadband makes use of the Vodafone mobile broadband network, quoted speeds are 7.2Mbps, however this is the technical top speed and realistic speeds are more around the 1Mbps to 3Mbps mark - of course it will depend upon the network coverage in your area.

This is a great deal for light users though, mobile broadband usually costs from around £15 a month for 3GB of data, here you're getting the first 1GB for free and you can choose to add on extra usage at a reasonable cost if you want to.

Get visual with BT Vision

As a BT customer you can get BT Vision for free. You just have to buy the Vision+ box digital recorder for £29.36 one-off fee plus a connection charge of £29.36. The free version of BT Vision will give you freeview, a PVR digital "pause,record,rewind" box, and access to pay-per-view channels from tv, sports, music and children's channels (pay-per-view films are not included though).

Get Connected with free Evening & Weekend calls

BT offer broadband Option 1 as a standalone broadband service (just requiring BT line rental), but you can also get BT broadband Option 1 with a free evening & weekend call plan - Get Connected - and this is charged at the exact same cost as taking broadband on it's own.

In fact, Get Connected is free for the first three months at the moment, so it's cheaper.

Bear in mind however, the broadband & phone bundle is only available on an 18-month contract.

Payment by direct debit

Be prepared however to pay by direct debit, or you'll unfortunately be charged heavily for the privelege of other payment methods.

The only downside to BT's broadband packages as a whole is that they are slightly expensive compared to similar offerings from rival broadband providers.

Having said that, BT is probably one of the best equipped broadband providers to deal with any technical issues that may arise with your broadband connection.

A little more detail...

Broadband		Special Note...	Any good?
Package:	Option 1	-
Connection:	ADSL2+	Telephone line
Max Speed:	Up to 20Mb
Usage Limit:	10GB
Totally Unlimited:	No
Hardware:	Wireless BT Home Hub	Built-in firewall
Internet Security:	Available	BT Net Protect available for £3.43 per month.
Online Gaming:	All major consoles supported

Payment, Installation & Contract
Setup Cost:	Free
Hardware Cost:	Free
Line Rental Provider:	BT (£11.54/mth)
Minimum Contract:	from 12 months
Payment Method(s):	Direct Debit and Paperless billing (+£1.50 for non-Direct Debit payment, +£1.25 for Paper billing)
Support:	Free 0800 24/7 telephone support
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