The 3 months free plus gift certificate launches on the 1st of September 2011. BT Broadband‘s most popular packages are now even cheaper

1. Online exclusive! Broadband and Anytime Calls ? FREE for 3 months and then £16 a month + claim a £25 Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate

2. Online exclusive! TV Essentials + Broadband and Anytime Calls ? £4 for 3 months and then £20 a month + claim a £25 Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate

3. Online exclusive! TV Unlimited + Broadband and Anytime Calls – £12.25 for 3 months and then £28.50 a month + claim a £25 Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate

Please note that to claim your voucher you must www.bt.com/claimvoucher to claim your voucher

This offer is available until the 29th of September 2011, and available to new BT Broadband customers who choose to order Broadband and Anytime calls on it’s own, or with BT Vision Essential or Unlimited via www.bt.com. You must claim your £25 Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate by entering your details on www.bt.com/claimvoucher once your broadband is installed in your home. Your voucher will be sent to the email address supplied within 14 days. One certificate per household. Amazon, Amazon.co.uk and the Amazon.co.uk logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Amazon EU S.à.r.l.or its affiliates.

Virgin Media have a special ‘students deal page‘ which contains full details of the offer.

Virgin home broadband is available on a 9 month term contract, so students don’t have to pay for the Summer months!

Deals Include:

• 10Mb broadband, available on a 9 month contract for only £21 a month!

• 30Mb broadband is available on a 9 month contract for only £28.50 a month!

• Broadband, TV & Phone packages are also available to students on a 9 month deal!

• Order online and get free activation, worth £20!

If you’re a new or returning student and want to take care of your pennies, then be smart, and checkout the special virgin media student deals

The key benefits of BT Total Broadband’s evening and weekend calls package are:

• Basic Security
• BT Home Hub
• FREE Wi-Fi minutes
• 18 month contract

So that’s just £7 per month for the first 3 months for BT Broadband option 1, plus all of your evening and weekend calls completely free!

Now that BT’s ‘Spring Watch’ offer is coming to an end (your last chance to grab this offer is on the 30th of June), BT have put together a new offer, which is running for a limited time only and which caters for those of your looking for all inclusive calls with your broadband package from BT. From today, BT have a special offer on their Broadband and Anytime Calls package, which includes Broadband option 1, and Anytime Calls. Checkout the BT Broadband website for more information.

In a somewhat coordinated statement, BE’s sister company O2 Broadband have also announced that they intend to run fibre optic trials later this year.

Based on the current positioning of each of the companies, we can assume that BE’s fibre effort will look to satisfy their speed and bandwidth hungry customers with a truly unlimited offering. O2 on the other hand will be catering for the more mainstream audience with more varied packages which will most likely involve some kind of cap on speed and bandwidth.

It’s worth saying that at this stage this is pure speculation as neither company have announced any solid details of the plans that they’ll offer. It should also be noticed that both ISP’s will be utilising BT’s existing fibre network so speeds will be capped at 40Mbps, like many of the other ISP’s who are utilising BT’s wholesale network (including the likes of  Talk Talk, Plusnet and BT themselves.

Chris Stening from BE gave the following statement:

“There’s terrific demand for a fibre service and I hear all your feedback online and by phone. We’re determined to offer a fibre product with all the things you love about BE – great service, award winning support and super fast speeds, no matter how much you download.

BE members know that speed is affected by much more than the materials of the cabling that runs into the cabinet though. In practice that means an unlimited, unthrottled connection from BE could be faster for downloading films than a fibre connection with traffic management.

So our plans for fibre have to be something unlimited and unshaped too, otherwise it simply defeats the object of having greater speed. It’s great to be told you could get speeds up to some high level, but with traffic management it is unlikely you’ll get it for long. We are unlikely to be the cheapest in the market but we are determined to be the best.”

O2‘s Head of Home and Broadband, Felix Geyr, said:

“While I can’t give too many details of the service at this stage we want to ensure that we will provide the right customer experience in place before we go live. As a result we are currently looking at the infrastructure and where in the UK we run the trial.

What we are determined to do is offer a service that has all the things you love about our existing LLU broadband packages – great service and support and of course super fast speeds. The fine tuning of the packages, including pricing, is currently being decided and I will update you over the coming months when we have more detail.

As a result our current planning is for a service to be available later this year. Nearer the time we will launch a pre-registration programme, prioritising our existing customers first.”

If you can’t wait for either BE or O2 to launch their fibre offering, don’t forget that Talk Talk, Plusnet, Virgin Media and of course BT Broadband all have their own fibre optic products ready for your consumption. As soon as more news is announced from O2 and BE Broadband, we’ll be the first to let you know.

Which? only officially recommends four broadband providers including the newly commended Eclipse, and bases their recommendation on providers who can offer services to their users that ‘want to be sure to get broadband that delivers on quality and service’ – a high commendation.

The recommendations are created from feedback of thousands of customers based on their real life experiences of a providers service – much like the Broadband.org – broadband reviews section, which collates our users broadband reviews to help you to make the best decision about who to choose.

Ceri Stanaway from Which? commented that ‘Over the last few Which? broadband satisfaction surveys, Eclipse has slowly but surely increased its customer score and has now attained the coveted status of Which? Recommended Provider. Only broadband providers that offer a great all round broadband experience for their customers make it as Which? Recommended Providers, and Eclipse‘s achievement goes to show that an ISP’s investment in its service can really pay off when it comes to customer satisfaction.’

Eclipse have consistently featured in the top 10 Which? recommended broadband suppliers – spending the past year at number six before moving into the top five this month.

Director of Eclipse, Clodagh Murphy says, “Commendations like this from such a consumer-based watchdog as Which? are the most significant for us because it’s based on our real reputation among our real customers. I’m incredibly proud that our hard work and dedication to becoming the UK’s best broadband provider has now been recognised.”

Eclipse offer both home and business broadband, and have the capacity to offer fibre optic connections to give you the best possible speeds. Checkout the Eclipse Broadband website today to see their entire product range.

The state of the art fibre optic network is now in over 100 towns and cities, and Virgin Media have confirmed that they’re still on schedule to deliver their target of 13 million UK households being connected to their network by the middle of 2012.

Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media, said: “As data consumption rises and consumers grow increasingly reliant on their broadband service, only Virgin Media’s unique network is primed to cater for the UK’s impending data explosion. With four million homes now able to ‘get in the fast lane’ with our 100 Mbps service, the UK is racing up the broadband league tables and we’re delighted to be playing the leading role in boosting the UK’s digital infrastructure.”

The company is also in the throes of trialling even faster broadband connections offering speeds of up to 200Mbps as well as trialling an innovative 1.5Gbps service in East London.

Today we’ve got a top tip for you that can make a significant and instant difference to your broadband speed.

Follow our guide to disconnecting your bell wire

The bell wire is the wire which comes into your bundle of wires from BT, which traditionally has provided power to your telephones bell, or ringer. Modern telephones don’t generally require this wire, so the only thing this wire will be doing is providing interference your the rest of your cabling. disconnecting and removing this wire will allow your broadband connection to run without interference.

As with all of our tips, we recommend running our broadband speed test before trying this  out, so that you can accurately measure the impact it’s had on your broadband speed.

Follow these instructions to disconnect your bell ringer wire;

1. Locate the wire in your phone socket connected to pin 3 (if it’s been colour coded correctly, then it’ll be orange)
2. Disconnect this wire, and any other wires that aren’t connected to pins 2 and 5

Do NOT:

1. Disconnect pins 2 or 5 – these deliver your phone and internet signals
2. Be careful not to mess with the wiring behind BT’s master socket

That’s it! Now run our broadband speed test again to see how much extra speed your connection has to offer.

The site, which has been enabling its users to review their own broadband providers for over 5 years, has collated all of their broadband reviews to give a snapshot of how their users have rated their broadband providers based on speed, reliability, cost and customer service.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Broadband.org broadband reviews have been announced as:

Cheapest broadband provider

O2 Broadband

O2 won this category with a perfect 10 out of 10 rating from their users

- runner up

Sky Broadband & BE Broadband

Be Broadband and Sky Broadband were runners up in thBE Broadbandboth with average ratings of 8 out of 10 for price.  It’s worth pointing out that BE Broadband are owned by Telefonica Group, who also own O2 – they obviously know what their customers like when it comes to cost.

Fastest broadband provider

O2 Broadband

O2 won this category, with an average rating of 9 out of 10 for broadband speed, a nearly perfect score.

- runner up

BE Broadband

O2‘s sister company – BE Broadband narrowly fell short of the top spot in this award, with an average rating of 8 out of 10 for speed. O2 and BE run off the same network, which doesn’t rely on BT’s wholesale product, this means they’re able to set their own standards for fast internet. Something which their users have recognised with their great broadband reviews.

Most reliable broadband provider

BE Broadband & O2 Broadband

It’s hardly surprising that BE and O2 have scooped the joint top prize for this category. They both share the same network which is effectively owned by their parent group company Telefonica. BE Broadband sell their product as a high speed and highly reliable solution, whereas O2 Broadband have positiioned themselves as a more accessible and mainstream provider – however it looks as though both companies are quite capable of keeping their users satisfied when it comes to reliability. Yet another advantage of not having to rely on the BT wholesale network like so many other providers. Both companies scored an exemplary 9 out of 10 for reliability.

- runner up

Plusnet Broadband

Plusnet Broadband were the runner up in this category, achieving a respectable 7 out of 10 rating by their broadband subscribers. With such cheap prices it’s good to see that their users feel that they’re receiving a reliable service as well.

Best customer service ISP

O2 Broadband

O2 Broadband have again scored a perfect 10 out of 10 when being reviewed by their broadband users on the customer service that they provide.

- runner up

The runner up in this category is again BE Broadband, who have been pipped to the post by their sister company O2, by scoring an extremely respectable 9 out of 10, for customer service. AgaBE Broadbandat O2 Broadband and BE Broadband are owned by the same Telefonica Group, it’s hardly surprising that they offer such a similar service. It is however highly commendable that they both appear to such high levels of service , a real credit to their owners.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

So there you have it. Telefonica Group compadres O2 Broadband and BE Broadband have both come out on top in all cateBE Broadbandresults are reflected in the average broadband rating that each provider received. BE Broadband had an average customer rating of 8.4 out of 10, and O2 received a near perfect average rating of 9.5 out of 10.  It’s also worth noting that 100% of BE Broadbandnk”rel=”nofollow”title=”O2″ >O2‘s customers rated them positively, with 91% of BE Broadband’s customers leaving them a positive review.

The internet villans include ACS:law who were the law firm employed by the some rights holders to bring highly controvertial lawsuits against alleged illegal filesharers. Incidentally the UK boss of the company has recently been reported as driving a Bently and living in a mansion, despite the fact his company was recently let off a £200k data breach fine due to having ‘limited means’ …. A true internet villan.

The internet heros include the Judge Colin Birss who bought ACS:law down, as well as a nomination for social networking site Twitter, for the role that the site played in facilitating the ‘Arab Spring’ revolutions throughout the middle east.

A full list of the finalists is provided below:

ISPA Internet Hero Finalists 2011

• Rory Stewart MP – For his trailblazing efforts to bring broadband to his rural constituency of Penrith and the Borders.

• Prof. Ian Hargreaves – For authoring a review that makes recommendations on how IP can be made fitter for the digital age
Villain.

ISPA Internet Villain Finalists 2011

• ACS Law/Andrew Crossley – For demanding payments from members of the public on behalf of certain rights holders with poor evidence which brought the “legal profession into disrepute”, and for failing to secure the data of those accused.

• Commissioner Barnier – For the lack of transparency and cooperation with industry and other commissioners on the IPR enforcement and IPR strategy as a whole.

Don’t forget that you can see what the great British public think are the most villainous and heroic internet providers by going to the broadband reviews section on our main site.

“We are delighted that our growing reputation as the ISP of choice for businesses has been recognised by the industry through the achievement of not one but two business ISPA awards. But ultimately, it’s customer satisfaction that we strive for above all else, and to this end, we’ll keep investing in the type of services and the level of customer and technical support that businesses want.”

Eclipse have a range of business internet options suitable from a single teleworker up to a larged sized wireless office – packages start from £16.99. To complement their business broadband packages there is also a range of business email / security and ecommerce solutions available.

Please visit Eclipse Broadband for more information on their packages