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	Hardware	Setup	Monthly price	Contract	Speed(Up to)	Downloads
1	660 reviews	£55	£15 £28 after 3 months	12 months	50Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site
	Virgin XXL 50Mb Broadband + Phone	Phone: Unlimited weekend calls to UK landlines and Virgin mobiles (+ £11.99/mth line rental) Extras: Super-fast broadband, enhanced performance Wireless "N" Router
2	660 reviews	£55	£33 £38 after 3 months	12 months	50Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site
	Virgin XXL 50Mb Broadband	Extras: Enhanced performance Wireless "N" Router
3	660 reviews	£20	FREE £33.50 after 2 months	12 months	50Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site
	Virgin XXL 50Mb Broadband + TV (M+ extra channels) + Phone	Promotion: ONLINE EXCLUSIVE - FREE setup plus 2 months free. Extra 20 TV channels TV: Digital TV package with 60 channels Phone: Unlimited weekend calls to UK landlines and Virgin mobiles (+ £11.99/mth line rental) Extras: Super-fast broadband, Enhanced performance Wireless "N" Router.
4	213 reviews	FREE	£6.99	18 months	24Mb	40 GBper month	Go to site 0800 0497866
	TalkTalk Essentials	Promotion: FREE connection Phone: Free weekday local calls, free calls to all UK landlines evening and weekends (+ £11.49/mth line rental) Extras: Add Anytime Calls Boost - unlimited calls £4/mth, Mega Download Boost - 80GB £4/mth, Mobile Saver Boost - half price UK mobile calls £2/mth, International Boost - unlimited international calls £2/mth
5	213 reviews	FREE	£14.99	18 months	24Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site 0800 0497866
	TalkTalk Plus	Promotion: FREE connection Phone: Unlimited anytime calls to UK landlines and discounted calls to mobiles (+ £11.49/mth line rental) Extras: Free wireless 'N' router, free technical & customer support. Add International Boost - unlimited international calls £2/mth extra
6	42 reviews	£24	£24.52	3 months	24Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site
	BE Pro	Extras: Wireless router plus static IP address and 2.5Mb upload speeds
7	42 reviews	FREE	FREE £17.88 after 2 months	12 months	24Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site
	BE Unlimited	Promotion (Ends TODAY): 2 months free with voucher code "FREEMONTHS" Extras: Wireless router plus static IP address
8	42 reviews	£24	£20.43	3 months	24Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site
	BE Unlimited	Extras: Wireless router plus static IP address
9	42 reviews	FREE	FREE £21.97 after 2 months	12 months	24Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site
	BE Pro	Promotion (Ends TODAY): 2 months free with voucher code "FREEMONTHS" Extras: Wireless router plus static IP address and 2.5Mb upload speeds
10	72 reviews	£25	£11.49	1 month	20Mb	60 GBper month	Go to site
	Plusnet Extra	Extras: Only 10 days notice required to end your contract. 24/7 support, free usage between midnight-8am. Additional charge for a router if you need one (£20 wired router or £40 wireless router).

Getting the fastest broadband speed

If you're looking for fast home broadband, UK internet service providers are starting to step up to the plate. With cable now covering around half of the population thanks to Virgin Media, all the companies running on the old BT ADSL telephone network are being forced to look at their backroom equipment and step up their games.

For a long time, 'up to' 8Mb lines were the standard, but the cable revolution saw the fastest broadband speed upped to 10Mb, then 20Mb, and now up to 50Mb. This is still way behind the kind of speeds you can now get in East Asia: Japanese ISP J:Com has been offering consumers 160Mb for some time now, while speeds over 100Mb are not uncommon in Europe, especially Scandinavia.

It's also worth noting that, as of January 2010, BT will start to roll out the first parts of its new fibre broadband network, which will bring super fast 'up to' 40Mb broadband to parts of the UK. By 2012 it hopes to have given access to 10 million homes and businesses.

50Mb broadband

The quickest UK broadband provider is Virgin Media - and by quite a distance. If you want to go fast, broadband via cable is currently the way to go. While we don't have fibre broadband in the UK yet, Virgin Media's cable offering is a fibre-coaxial hybrid cable, instead of just using copper wires. This means that you shouldn't have problems with being miles from the exchange, so your 'up to' speed should be much closer to the real thing than you might expect from ADSL. This means that even the 20Mb Virgin Media cable offer could be faster than the 24Mb ADSL offering now available in many areas. 

24Mb broadband

If you're not in a cabled area, or don't want to go for a cable broadband deal, you might now be able to get ADSL2+ in your area. As you might have guessed, this is simply an upgrade to BT's current ADSL network that covers most of the country via your telephone line. However, it gives a nice upgrade from 'up to' 8Mb to 'up to' 24Mb (or up to 20Mb from BT).

Unfortunately, ADSL2+ speeds get slower the further you are from your local telephone exchange, just the same as ADSL speeds. This is because BT is still using copper wires across its network and it doesn't look likely to change any time soon. However, in truth, for most people an 'up to' 24Mb broadband speed will be more than enough for their needs - in fact, many people are quite happy with their 8Mb speeds! Before spending a lot on a new deal, it is worth asking yourself if you really need fast broadband. 

Fast business broadband

Virgin Media doesn't go out of its way to cater for business customers, although a lot of businesses still use it simply due to the speed. However, if you're looking for that extra TLC you get from a dedicated business broadband provider, 20Mb-plus business broadband is available from both BT and Eclipse in many areas.

Broadband Genie can provide you with advice on how to buy the best broadband deal for you. Alongside enabling you to do comparison on prices, offers and deals to see which provider is the cheapest, you can compare speed, contract lengths and customer reviews to see overall which provider, from O2 to Virgin Media, gives the best broadband experience, rather than solely being cheap.

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