Prices Drop For Super-fast Broadband-00-3255

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With an up to 50 Mb/sec broadband service you can expect to download a two-hour movie in three minutes or less, compared with between one and two hours for a standard 2 Mb/sec connection. Downloading a single song is almost instantaneous. It is also possible to live stream HD-quality content on large screens without a reduction in quality.
Additionally, busy families, who may have more than one member of the family online at any one time, will notice a big difference, as all family members will receive a fast connection simultaneously.
Virgin Media drops the price of its super-fast broadband deal
To date, Virgin Media has been the pioneer of super-fast broadband in the UK having spent the last 18 months tripling its fibre-optic network capacity. As such, it's the first company to offer broadband speeds of up to 50Mb/sec. Having launched super-fast broadband at the end of last year, they've already announced a price drop. From 1st September, they are decreasing the monthly cost of their 50Mb/sec broadband service to £28 for existing customers when taken with a Virgin Media phone line or £38 for standalone ...
... (that's a monthly saving of £7 and £12 respectively).
Virgin Media also announced last week the launch of their Freedom netbook which is a bespoke laptop that has been optimised for 50Mb/sec speeds and will be packaged with top of the line software. Both new and existing customers will be able to get the laptop at no additional charge when they take selected great value bundled packages. The IT gurus at Virgin Media aren't stopping there though; they are also piloting the deployment of a 200Mb broadband product to various lucky residents in Ashford, Kent!
Virgin Media aren't the only players in the race to offer super-fast broadband. BT has also upped the ante with their announcement that they have committed to invest £1.5 billion in a fibre optic (fibre to the cabinet) broadband network that will cover 40% of the country by 2012. BT's so-called 21st Century Network will have a footprint similar to Virgin Media's fibre-optic network and will initially be rolled out to approximately 500,000 customers in six UK cities starting in early 2010. However, whilst their aim is to provide speeds of up to 100 Mb/sec to 40% of UK homes and businesses by 2012, this clearly significantly lags behind Virgin Media in terms of timings.
The fact remains, however, that despite these apparent investments in a fast broadband network, at present the average UK broadband speed is still only 3.6 Mb/sec and many households are becoming increasingly frustrated with a lack of broadband speed, especially as their online usage moves more towards downloading content from services such as BBC iPlayer.
How to find the best super-fast broadband deal
So, if you really do want super-fast broadband, what are your options? Unfortunately, deals are still few and far between in the UK. There are currently two basic alternatives:
The aforementioned super-fast fibre optic broadband from Virgin Media (and a few very small localised providers) which offer speeds of up to 50 Mb/sec or more and super-fast broadband from the DSL providers using the BT copper wire network which will offer speeds of up to 20 to 24Mb/sec (the very lowest end of what is termed "super-fast" broadband).
Unfortunately both sets of services have limited availability. The Virgin Media service is only available for the 50% of UK homes in the Virgin Media catchment area. The DSL-based services are limited to those who live very close to a local telephone exchange that has been upgraded to handle a super-fast broadband connection. This is because DSL broadband speed reduces rapidly the further away you live from the exchange.

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Simplifydigital.co.uk offers a unique service in the UK to http://www.simplifydigital.co.uk/. Providing a free and impartial consultation for http://www.simplifydigital.co.uk/ to help anyone looking to save money on Broadband packages.
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