Posted: 29th Jan, 2007 By: MarkJ
New research from uSwitch claims that roughly 10 million of us are paying too much for our broadband service, throwing a combined £621m away each year:
The company found that while there is more choice in the market than ever, many people are not switching supplier when their fixed contract period comes to an end.
We are dismayed at the amount that people are overpaying... NTL, for example, was charging nearly £35 for a 1Mbps service back in 2002, but is now offering up to 2Mbps broadband for £17.99. Despite this, three out of four people are over-paying for their service, collectively wasting up to £621m per year, said Steve Weller of uSwitch.
The company also found that the average Briton spends 33 days per year online. One of the most popular activities for surfers is shopping, with 88 per cent of the 14,969 respondents buying items over the internet on a regular basis.
Typically uSwitch, being a price comparison service, has somewhat of a vested interest in making everybody want to swap providers. Unfortunately
Web-User's item doesn't detail how the survey itself was done or what questions were asked.
Judging the market on price alone gives a somewhat one dimensional impression, overlooking other key factors such as data consumption (limits), additional services, support quality and performance.
The example above is also a poor choice given that ntl:
Telewest is the only major cable broadband provider in England. Cable and ADSL are different technologies and swapping between them can be tedious, depending on location. Paying less doesnt necessarily mean youre getting a better value for money.