Broadband News & Mobile Broadband News

TalkTalk (TalkTalk.co.uk) has launched a half price £3.25 a month broadband and calls offer which lasts the duration of the 12 month contract period.

The 12 months half price incentive applies to TalkTalk’s ‘Essential’ package which provides broadband download speeds up to 24Mbps with a 40GB usage allowance, together with unlimited evening and weekend UK landline phone calls.

TalkTalk’s ‘Plus’ package, offering unlimited broadband speeds up to 24Mbps together with unlimited anytime phone calls to UK landlines is also available at half price. Prices start from £7.25 a month for 9 months, followed by £14.50 per month thereafter.

Both the TalkTalk ‘Essentials’ and ‘Plus’ packages include a free wireless router, free HomeSafe online security, plus inclusive phone calls to 0870 and 0845 numbers.

TalkTalk phone line rental from £9.50 a month is required for either package, while tickets to the X Factor final (which TalkTalk sponsors) can also be won.

Over 85% of the UK population live in a TalkTalk Broadband network area and can thus qualify for either of these half price incentives which save up to £146.85 on TalkTalk’s standard prices.

Interested readers can find out more at the TalkTalk.co.uk website where free connection, worth £30, is available for orders placed online.

Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com/bundles) is offering savings of up to £159.90 to new customers ordering a Virgin broadband, TV and phone bundle online.

The savings come in the form of free installation worth £49.95, free TiVo activation worth £49.95, plus an additional £60 off – which will be a £60 credit applied to the customer’s bill.

Virgin Media Broadband, TV and phone bundles start from £23 a month for up to 10Mbps unlimited broadband speeds, the new TiVo 500GB set top box, 75 digital TV channels and unlimited weekend phone calls to UK landlines.

New customers requiring faster broadband speeds up to 30Mbps can opt for the £28 a month bundle which includes the same TV and phone package elements as the £23 bundle, but with higher broadband speeds at 30Mbps.

Six months free access to Spotify Premium, the digital music service offering 15 million music tracks, is also included in Virgin’s 30Mbps, 50Mbps and 100Mbps broadband packages.

New customers can build their own broadband, TV and phone bundle online at the virginmedia.com website and choose additional features like HD, 3D, plus Sky Sports and Movie channels.

Interested readers have until the 24th November to order their Virgin Media bundle online at the www.virginmedia.com/bundles website and save themeselves £159.90.

Plusnet (www.plus.net) has reduced the price of its ‘Value’ broadband and calls package to £3.24 a month for 9 months following the launch of its half price offer.

The Plusnet Value Broadband & Calls package (usual cost £6.49 a month) provides up to 20Mbps broadband speeds together with unlimited evening and weekend UK landline phone calls.

Plusnet Broadband comes with a sizeable 10GB monthly download usage allowance which is ‘topped’ up by a free usage allowance between the hours of midnight and 8am.

A free wireless router is also included, together with free activation and free calls to Plusnet’s UK based customer services and support team.

New customers switching to Plusnet for this offer will need a Plusnet or other BT based landline to get Plusnet Broadband.

Plusnet charge a one-off £49.99 for a new phone line to be installed, while their monthly phone line rental costs £11.99 a month.

The 9 months half price broadband offer also applies to the Plusnet Value Broadband and Anytime Calls package which is available for £6.74 a month for the first 9 months, followed by £9.99 per month for the remainder of the 12 month contract.

Interested readers can find out more and order online at the www.plus.net website.

Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com/spotify) is offering new broadband customers 6 months free access to the Spotify Premium music streaming service – which represents a saving of nearly £60.

The offer also applies to existing customers re-contracting, with both new and existing customers needing to take Virgin Media’s 30Mbps broadband service as a minimum in order to qualify.

Virgin Media’s 30Mbps broadband package costs from £8.50 a month and includes unlimited weekend calls to UK landlines and Virgin Mobiles when taken with Virgin phone line rental (£13.90 p/m).

The package includes unlimited downloads, free Internet security, a free wireless router and free installation (worth £49.95) when ordered online at the virginmedia.com website.

According to Ofcom’s review of UK broadband speeds published in July 2011, existing Virgin Media 30Mbps broadband customers typically get broadband speeds of 30.62Mbps – which is four times faster than the UK average broadband speed.

Spotify is the award-winning digital music service, which gives users on-demand access to over 15 million music tracks – all of which can be streamed online, on mobile, or soon to be on TV with the Spotify app for Virgin Media’s TiVo service.

Spotify Premium is the top of the range Spotify experience without the adverts. Usually costing £9.99 a month, Spotify Premium gives users access to millions of tracks, online or offline, offering enhanced sound quality, plus access to exclusive content.

On expiry of the 6 months free access, Virgin Media customers can choose to continue to subscribe to the Spotify Premium service through Virgin Media at a cost of £9.99 a month.

Customers not wishing to continue will have their Spotify accounts reverted to the advert-supported Spotify free service.

Interested readers can find out more information and order/recontract online at the www.virginmedia.com/spotify website.

BT Infinity areas (BT.com/infinity) now cover 6 million UK homes & businesses with that figure expected to leap to 10 million by August 2012.

The news follows an announcement by BT that it is bringing forward around £300 million pounds worth of investment in order to give two thirds of UK premises access to its fibre optic broadband network (BT Infinity) by the end of 2014 – one year early.

BT Infinity provides super-fast broadband speeds up to 40Meg from just £7.50 per month and includes unlimited weekend phone calls to UK landlines and 0845/0870 numbers.

The headline 40Meg broadband speeds are expected to double to up to 80Meg speeds by the spring of next year.

Commenting on the announcement, the CEO of BT Group, Ian Livingston said: “Our roll-out of fibre broadband is one of the fastest in the world and so it is great to be ahead of what was an already challenging schedule”.

Livingstone added: “The acceleration reflects the success of the programme to date and is testament to the hard work and innovation of our people. Thousands of our engineers are busy installing fibre broadband across the UK at an astonishing pace”.

Readers can find out whether they live within a BT Infinity area or check when it will be available by visiting the BT.com/infinity website.