Home Broadband

When choosing a home broadband package there are a number of factors to consider. These include:

How many people/devices will be using the connection?

• Broadband is often shared between many users, but the more people who are accessing the connection the slower the connection will be. This is especially important to bear in mind for larger families or those of you living in shared households.

If that sounds like you, you might want to choose a broadband provider that offers a faster-than-average speed. The fastest home broadband packages in the UK, such those from Virgin Media and BT's Infinity product, use fibre broadband technology and offer eye-watering speeds of up to 150Mb!

• As well as impacting on the speed you can expect to achieve, when multiple people are using a connection your usage allowance will be expended faster. In a home where three or more people are sharing a broadband line, an unlimited broadband package may be the best option.

Do you need a wireless router?

• If you are planning on using wireless laptops and gaming consoles and sharing a connection between multiple users and different rooms, wireless broadband is a must.

• If, however, your broadband connection will only be used by a stationary PC, a wireless router is not a priority. But these days, it's hard to find a broadband provider that doesn't include wireless broadband as standard.

Are there minors in your home?

If you are concerned about the content that your child may be viewing online you should consider a supplier that provides extensive parental controls. A supplier typically does this by filtering out URLs which they consider to be unsuitable.

Need mobile broadband instead? Compare mobile broadband deals and offers at our dedicated mobile broadband page