How to get the best phone deal

Find out if your phone and internet supplier is really offering you value for money, or would you be better off switching? By Lindsey Rogerson

Women, so the age-old cliché would have us believe, love nothing better than a good long natter on the telephone with their mates. And now, according to research from internet monitoring groups, women in the 30 to 40 age group are also one of the fastest growing groups of internet users.

Of course telephone technology is moving on at such a pace right now that it can be hard for a women to know whether the internet service offered by her TV company is better than the broadband service, which comes complete with a phone which can be used both at home and on the go, offered by her mobile company.

 

Price war
Woman need to wake up to how they pay for their phone, TV and internet. Not convinced? A recent report by Moneysupermarket.com found that those prepared to switch providers can clock up savings of £480 a year. Indeed while energy and food bills have been spiralling upwards - such is the strength of competition in the phone and broadband market right now that prices have actually been falling.

 

According to comparison site Uswitch.com, the price of many broadband services have fallen dramatically in recent years. Virgin's broadband service is now 64% cheaper than it was in 2004 while AOL is 46% cheaper. Indeed the average cost of a standalone broadband service is now £17, £10 less than in 2004.

 

However, despite these huge drops, Rob Barnes, head of broadband and mobiles at Moneysupermarket.com believes that women who have separate contracts for TV, internet and phone could be throwing away as much as £40 each month.

 

 

Key questions to ask
The thing to keep in mind at all times when deciding on a phone/ broadband/ mobile provider is usage.

• How and where do you use your phone?

• When and for how long do you use the internet?
  
  

Deals on offer
Providers are increasingly plonking - its called 'bundling' in the telecommunication company jargon - phone calls in with internet usage and TV. Watch out though as what is on offer varies greatly from company to company.

 

Even when something says it is free, read the small print as unlimited free calls often come with a cut off point. With BT, for instance, if your call runs for longer than an hour you will begin to be charged. Of course if the conversation is still going strong after 58 minutes, a girl can simply hang up and redial to stay within the rules of the ‘free minutes' deal.

 

Providers touting free international calls are not all offering the same thing either. Talk Talk has unlimited free national calls and allows free international calls to 28 countries. While BT will allow unlimited free international calls to 36 countries for a monthly subscription of £5 on its International Saver tariff.

 

Some other broadband providers, BT, Tesco and PlusNet among them, promise free international calls but use Voice over the Internet Protocol (VoIP) to deliver them. This means free calls can only be made between other PlusNet, Tesco or BT users, so anyone thinking of signing up should check their friends in other countries  wherever are willing to register with the same provider first. The most widely used VoIP remains Skpe, which is free to join.

 

Broadband
Likewise when it comes to broadband, it's important to appreciate that not all companies offer the same broadband speed. In simple terms, a 1mb broadband connection is 40 times faster than a dial-up connection, while an 8mb connection (offered by BT, Talk Talk, Plusnet and AOL) on its more expensive packages) is 160 times faster.

 

Connection speed, especially for those who like to catch up on their favourite TV show via BBC iPlayer or Channel 4 OnDemand, is critical. A recent survey by Ofcom found that very few homes actually get the speed they pay for. Both Sky and Virgin only offer 2mb on their basic package, while O2 and BT offer 20mb and 24mb respectively. So check the speed before you buy.

 

Equally people who regularly use a laptop to access the internet away from home will find that some broadband companies include Wifi minutes in their packages. BT's Openzone customers get 500 free Wifi minutes a month with its Total Broadband Option 3 package which costs £24.99 a month. Openzone operates in a range of spots including Cafe Nero, while T Mobile users can get online free at Starbucks.

 

Of course it is entirely possible to do without a home phone line these days. The advent of the ‘dongle' means that you can simply access the internet and watch TV over a laptop. T Mobile has a dongle deal (complete with free laptop) for £30 a month.

 

TV
Turning to TV, BT's Total Broadband Option 1 with BT Vision package offers 42 freeview channels, plus a host of other popular shows through its TV-on-demand option for £14 a month. Sky's See Speak Surf package costs £36 a month and has over 300 channels to choose from, and Virgin's 4 for £40 deal provides 90 channels alongside broadband, home and mobile phones. 

 

Two further charges not to overlook are connection, installation, and delivery charges and the cost of calling helplines. T Mobile charges £30 to deliver the above mentioned ‘free laptop'. BT Vision charges a £30 connection fee and Sky has a £99 installation fee.

 

Few companies offer free phone numbers, while some operate numbers pre-fixed 087 which are charged at anything from a few pence to £1 a minute. Factor in time spent 'on hold' and getting the answer to even the simplest of questions could leave a girl nursing a phone bill of £10 or more.

 

Contract length
Watch out for contract length as well. Many of the newer deals mentioned above run for either 18 or 24 months which could be a problem for those planning to move home in the next year. Finally it's important to keep in mind just how fast the technology is changing: In short something better could be just around the corner so think long and hard about locking yourself into a long term deal - even for a big financial saving - as it means it could be years before you are free to move on to the new best thing.

 
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