There’s a nip of credit crunch in the air. It is taking its toll on the ‘normal earning’ people like me. It’s time we find ways and means to stretch that £££ a little bit more. I am starting this series of post with my own snippets of wisdom as I try to get more out of my money. And the topic that I choose to discuss first is broadband.

I don’t need to tell and convince you anymore all that broadband is so much better than dialup. There are plenty of offers to choose from in the market today as providers battle for your hard-earned cash.

I am currently with Tiscali and have been since I moved into London back in 2005. I know that lots of people are not happy with Tiscali but in my case, the relationship has been okay. My broadband connection at home does not suffer from intermittent drops as many had claimed. The things I find unsatisfactory with my current ISP is their customer service and their price.

I currently pay £17.99 for an up to 8MB unlimited broadband. With that information alone, I know that I am able to get a cheaper deal. Before I go shopping around, I need check the actual speed of my connection is. Why? Because if I am only able to get, say 4MB, then why would I pay for 8MB? This is important! Don’t be fooled by your ISP in thinking that they are able to provide you with the advertised speeds. Remember, your broadband connection speed is dependent on your distance from the exchange. According to thinkbroadband.com speed test:

Based on that, I am not prepared to pay more for a 20MB connection, say. So, here are some of my options as advised by broadband.co.uk, Broadband Choices and Broadband Finder. Each list is sorted from the cheapest monthly price.

broadband.co.uk
1. TalkTalk Broadband Talk Global Evening & Weekend – £3.25 (for 1st 3 months, £6.49 thereafter) for 8MB ADSLMax 40GB; plus £29.99 connection fee
2. Tiscali Broadband 8MB – £4.49 (for 1st 3 months, £12.99 thereafter) for 8MB ADSLMax 5GB; currently with a free wireless router deal
3. O2 Broadband Standard – £7.50 (for O2 mobile customers), £12.50 (for non-O2 mobile customers) for 8MB LLU unlimited

Broadband Choices
1. TalkTalk Broadband Talk Global Evening & Weekend – £3.25 (for 1st 3 months, £6.49 thereafter) for 8MB LLU IP 40GB; plus £29.99 connection fee
2. Tiscali Broadband 8MB – £4.49 (for 1st 3 months, £12.99 thereafter) for 8MB ADSL IPStream unlimited; currently with a free wireless router deal
3. BT Option 1 – £4.95 (for 1st 3 months, £15.99 thereafter) for 8MB ADSL IPStream 5GB; 18-month contract

Broadband Finder
1. AOL Broadband Wireless Flexi – £4.99 (for 1st 3 months, £14.99 thereafter) for 8MB 10GB; NO CONTRACT and free wireless router but with a £29.99 connection fee
2. AOL Broadband Wireless – £4.99 (for 1st 3 months, £9.90 thereafter) for 8MB 10GB; get first month free but an 18-month contract
3. Tiscali Option 2 – £8.49 (for 1st 3 months, £14.99 thereafter) for 8MB unlimited

It is strange seeing that my own provider is not proactively offering me these wonderful deals, which are clearly cheaper than what I am paying them right now. Of course, these attractive packages are designed to lure new customers. Yet nothing is done to keep them.

Which brings me to the second point — customer service. The reason I don’t like Tiscali’s customer service is that they have separate numbers for different departments. One for billing and accounts and another for technical support. Moreover, the numbers are 0871, which costs 10p/minute. Then, of course, there is the issue of length of time I wait for a call centre agent to attend to my query. With Tiscali, my personal experience tells me I wait an average of 7-10 minutes before I get a real live person. It is costing me an average of 70p-£1 for each call I make!

What about the other ISPs listed above? Surely not all of them offer 0800 (toll free) customer service. Well, among those listed, O2 is the only one that clearly indicates a toll free customer service line. I’ve been with O2 for my mobile before and the quality of their agents are superb.

So, with these information at hand, I am inclined to switch my broadband to O2. But wait…

The final twist in my reasoning here is largely due to my recent discovery of Vodafone at Home broadband. It was launched only last year and is only available for current Vodafone pay-monthly contract customers. The service costs £25 per month and includes line rental — meaning I don’t have to pay BT anymore, yipee! My current line rental costs me £11 each month so adding it up with my broadband service, that’s £28.99. If I switch to Vodafone at Home, I am only able to save £3.99 each month. So, what makes the offer sweet then seeing that I won’t be able to make much savings as I would if I picked any of the ISPs listed above? My answer: convenience. See, if I switch to Vodafone, I am only dealing with a single provider for my mobile, landline and broadband and I am quite impressed with Vodafone’s level of customer service! I may not be able to save more money but it is still less than what I pay now.

So, will I switch?

Not yet. I’ll wait till the end of June 2008 because of rumours of Tiscali being in the market and Vodafone is the front runner to buy the combined UK and Italian operations. There might be even better deals if Vodafone takes over Tiscali. Fingers crossed.

Fate of Tiscali known by end of June 2008
Friday 06 June 2008 16:22:17 by Andrew Ferguson

For those watching the unfolding story of what will happen to the 1.9 million broadband customers of Tiscali UK it seems they will have to wait until the end of June 2008 according to Tiscali chief executive Mario Rosso.

To date, Vodafone is rumoured to be in the running, but many other names are mentioned. Not all the companies interested in Tiscali want to buy the combined Italy and UK operations. According to DigitalSpy some of those interested such as Sky, Fast Web and Wind (Italian mobile operator) are interested in just parts of the group.

(source: thinkbroadband news)

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