Best For Broadband

To capitalise of the popularity of the mobile broadband market, T-Mobile have launched a brand new offer for consumers with a new an all-in-one Laptop and Mobile Broadband offer. For only £30 a month you get a free Acer Laptop, Mobile Broadband Plus, 200 online texts a month and a free USB Modem Stick. The drawback to the offer is that you’re contracted for 24 months.

The computer you will receive is the Acer TravelMate 5320 Laptop, which is worth £349.99.

T-Mobile’s Mobile Broadband Plus package includes:

4.5MB download speeds (”consistently the fastest of any of the UK networks” PC Pro, August 08)
3GB fair use policy data allowance (no run on rates)
Inclusive HotSpot Access
Dedicated UK based customer support

Is this a good offer? Well you get Mobile Broadband Plus and a free laptop with an outlay of £720 over the two years. However, if you sign up for Mobile Broadband Plus without the laptop you’ll pay £360 over the two years (at £15 a month – although there’s a saving of £5 a month for the first 3 months at the moment). So in effect you’re buying the laptop on a 0% interest credit agreement over the 2 years and paying £10 more for the broadband service.

If you’ve got the money to buy a new laptop then you may find that your £360 could get you a better computer – or even the one on offer (Acer TravelMate 5320) – cheaper than £360.

Plusnet have undergone a total re-brand of their site and thrown in a brand new logo to match! The site is now bathed in silver and plum complete with countryside scene and all in all it has a much better web 2.0 feel (awful description). The logo is a puffed out “plus sign” with plusnet underneath (although they really should not allow it to be cut off as it has been at the bottom of the homepage).

To coincide with the new look, Plusnet are launching an additional new bundle and updating their current product offerings.

The new bundle combines a basic broadband and phone line package as follows:

Essential Bundle

Broadband
Up to 8Mb download speeds
1GB usage allowance
Free usage between midnight-8am
£6.99 a month

Home Phone
Line rental included
Weekend calls to UK landlines
Free calls to Plusnet customers
£10 a month

With Essential you’re getting Plusnet’s cheapest ever broadband and phone package. You don’t get any freebies that you don’t need, just good value for money. You’ll get just one online bill for Essential and it comes with a 12 month contract.

If you’re already a Plusnet customer on Broadband Your Way Option 1 then there’s good news for you!

Usage allowance has now been increased from 1GB to 2GB, so you get twice as much roaming for the same price! In addition, the price per extra GB has changed to £1 pre-paid and £1.25 pay-as-you-go.

If you’re thinking of taking out a mobile broadband deal then here’s a nice offer from O2 that might well be worth considering. From 1st August until the end of October you can get free Home Broadband with any purchase Mobile Broadband online.

The 8meg O2 Home Broadband package for £7.50/month (price for O2 customers) will be offered for free to each person who takes out an O2 Mobile Broadband contract in this promotional period.

If you choose a package with a monthly price higher than £7.50, i.e. the 16meg or 20meg O2 Home Broadband packages for £10 and £15 a month respectively, you will need to pay the difference. For example if the 16meg package was chosen this would be £2.50 a month for the life of the Home Broadband contract (12 months).

This also applies to SME Broadband too where a customer is also entitled to receive £7.50 (inc VAT) discount when they buy Mobile Broadband.

If you’re searching for Web n Walk Mobile Broadband packages from T-Mobile then you’re in for a bit of shock – there won’t be any! The powers that be have decided to rebrand their well known name and have come up with some alternatives to better reflect the differences between USB mobile broadband and mobile mobile broadband.

From now on Web n Walk will be known as:

Mobile Broadband Plus
Mobile Broadband Max
Mobile Broadband Daily

It seems that Web n Walk will continue as the name for their internet on your mobile service – just to confuse things for you!

Whatever it’s called it’s high time T-mobile sorted out mobile broadband charges in Europe. The prices they charge consumers for accessing the internet when abroad is an absolute disgrace.

Be Broadband are launching a new 888 promotion to coincide with the 8th of August 2008 (08/08/08). Customers can take advantage of up to 8 meg broadband for £8 per month for the rest of 2008. That’s up to 8meg for £8 for ‘08!

Be Value is the perfect service for light online users, which is not light on features. It offers up to 8 meg download speeds, upload speeds of up to 1.3 meg, unlimited usage, a free 24/7 support hotline and a free wireless Be Box modem, it represents great value for customers and is reduced from the normal price of £14 a month.

Oli White, Head of Marketing at Be Broadband, said: “Be value offers an up to 8 meg service for a generation of users for who broadband is an essential part of their lifestyle, complete with a level of customer service that has earned us a strong reputation among the broadband community”.

He continues “This 888 promotion, along with the additional features that are included in the package, means that for customers who Be Broadband is their life-support system we will deliver the best Be Value possible.”

Note that: Be Value will be £8 for the rest of 2008, then the normal price of £14 a month from January 1 2009. New customers are also subject to a £24 connection fee.