Broadband News & Mobile Broadband News

Virgin Media’s (www.virginmedia.com/bundles) New Collections are now half price for 6 months for new customers who join online and there’s a further £60 off if orders are placed online by the 24th May.

New customers switching to a Virgin Media Collection can also qualify for free engineer installation worth £49.95, plus free activation on Virgin’s 500GB TiVo set top box – also worth £49.95.

These incentives generate a substantial first year saving of £234.90 on Virgin Media’s Essential Collection of Broadband, Phone and Digital TV which usually costs £25 a month (now £12.50 a month).

The Essential Collection provides unlimited fibre optic broadband speeds up to 30Mbps (typical speed is 30.62Mbps), unlimited weekend phone calls to UK landlines and Virgin mobiles, the 500GB TiVo box, plus access to 75 digital TV channels and 6 HD channels.

TV on demand, providing instant access to a vast library of entertainment is also included, as is Catch Up TV which provides access to Sky Anytime, the ITV Net Player, BBC iPlayer, 4oD and Demand 5.

Virgin Media’s broadband and phone bundles (without TV) are also available with the first 6 months at half price, which means new customers can enjoy download speeds of up to 100Mbps (typical speed is 92.84Mbps) for just £12.75 a month for the first 6 months, followed by £25.50 per month thereafter.

New customers joining now will also benefit from Virgin Media’s recent double broadband speed upgrade which has seen its entry level broadband speeds rise to 30Mbps – with the price remaining the same at £7.25 a month for the first 6 months.

Interested readers can find out more and order a new Virgin Media Collection online at the www.virginmedia.com/bundles website.

Sky (www.sky.com/sale) has extended its 9 months half price Sky Broadband Unlimited offer to midnight on the 19th April.

Available to order online only, the 9 months half price incentive means existing Sky TV customers can enjoy Sky Broadband Unlimited for just £3.75 a month, while new customers need only pay £5 a month.

Sky telephone line rental is required and costs £12.25 a month, while telephone calls to UK landlines during the evenings and at weekend are included at no additional cost.

Sky Broadband Unlimited is Sky’s premium broadband package which offers no monthly download usage caps or limits.

The package also includes a free Sky wireless router, 24/7 technical support and a free 3 month trial of McAfee Internet Security Suite.

In a recent customer service satisfaction report commissioned by Ofcom, Sky was found to offer its broadband customers unbeatable customer satisfaction compared with BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk.

Readers interesed in Sky’s 9 month half price broadband sale can find out more and order online at the sky.com/sale website.

BT (www.bt.com) has launched an exclusive broadband and calls offer for £3.50 a month that includes a £50 Sainsbury’s voucher.

New customers taking up the offer can enjoy BT Total Broadband speeds up to 20Mbps together with unlimited evening and weekend phone calls to UK landlines for just £3.50 a month for the first 6 months, followed by £13 per month thereafter.

BT phone line rental is required and costs from just £10 a month using BT’s Landline Saver deal.

The £3.50 package includes a free BT Home Hub wireless router, a 10GB monthly download usage allowance, free around the clock technical support, plus unlimited Wifi access at over 3.5 million Wifi hotspots across the UK.

Customers can claim their £50 Sainsbury’s voucher once their BT Broadband has been installed. The voucher will then be posted out to the customer once their claim has been validated.

Readers interested in BT’s £3.50 broadband and calls deal must place their order online at BT’s specific www.bt.com/£3.50 offer page in order to qualify as the deal is not available or published anywhere else on the BT website. The £50 Sainsbury’s voucher offer ends on the 15th March 2012, while the £3.50 broadband and calls offer ends on the 29th March 2012.

BT (www.BT.com/freewifi) has revealed that the number of free BT Wifi hotspots in the UK and Ireland has passed the 3.5 million mark.

The WiFi hotspots, available to use free of charge by all 6 million BT Broadband home and business customers, include around 380,000 in London and 25,000 in Leeds and Birmingham.

There’s also around 20,000 BT Wifi hotspots in Manchester, Sheffield and Edinburgh, while Liverpool, Brighton, Bristol and Cardiff have more than 11,000 each.

BT’s Wifi hotspots can be found in numerous locations across the UK, including well known brands like Thistle hotels and Starbucks, together with airport lounges, network rail stations, independent businesses and homes.

Commenting on the announcement, BT’s John Petter, Consumer Managing Director, said: “Millions of BT broadband customers are enjoying free access to the one of the biggest Wi-Fi networks in the world. Our free apps for the Apple, Android and now Blackberry devices make getting online even easier and have already proved a huge hit with over 900,000 downloads.”

BT is currently the only UK broadband supplier to include free, unlimited Wi-Fi minutes, within all their broadband packages.

Readers can find out further information on BT’s free Wifi access and their nearest hotspots at the www.BT.com/freewifi website.

Virgin Media’s (www.virginmedia.com/100Mb) rollout of its ultra-fast 100Mb broadband service has now reached 10 million UK homes according to a latest update from the company.

The milestone follows news that its 100Mb fibre optic broadband service has been made available in the cabled areas of Bromley, Dundee, Norton Hawkfield (North East Somerset) and Staverton (Gloucestershire).

Originally scheduled for completion by mid-2012, the rollout of the 100Mb broadband service is now expected to be completed ahead of schedule in Spring 2012, at which point the ultrafast service will be available to half of all UK homes.

Virgin Media’s Executive Director of Broadband, Jon James said: “Soon half the country will be able to get superfast 100Mb broadband from us. Reaching today’s milestone puts us ahead of schedule as we help propel the UK up the global broadband rankings”.

James continued: “Broadband is coming of age as more people give up on slow DSL in favour of superfast fibre optic speeds. With Virgin Media yet again confirmed as the fastest by Ofcom just last week, this along with our fantastic TiVo TV service means we have an incredible combination that lets our customers enjoy the digitally connected world to the full”.

Virgin Media’s 100Mbps broadband package costs from £35 a month when taken with its telephone line rental costing £13.90 a month

Unlimited calls to UK landlines and Virgin Mobiles at the weekends are included in the price, while free installation worth £49.95 is being offered for all orders placed online.

Customers ordering 100Mb broadband now will also see their speeds boosted to 120Mb as part of Virgin Media’s network upgrade starting later this month.

Interested readers can find out if they can receive Virgin’s 100Mbps broadband service and order online at the www.virginmedia.com/100Mb website.