In the not too distant future ISPreview will be adding a new BUDGET category to our ISP listings, which will specifically list the cheapest home broadband package offered by each ISP. To develop this we posed ourselves a simple case study question, just what kind of fixed line broadband service can you get for £10 per month or less (excluding short term discounts)?

The fact is that we don’t all require big usage allowances and many people still fall within the realm of being basic access only surfers (i.e. 2GB to 5GB of Internet data usage per month). Hence the bigger packages that some providers tout are often unnecessary. To test this we set a rough benchmark of £10 and took a sample of providers to see what kind of services were available (i.e. not the whole market). Here’s what we found.

Note that we’re assuming line rental of anything from £10.50 to £13.50 per month will need to be paid first and some providers (e.g. TalkTalk) may require you to take their own line rental service. We do not show short term (i.e. first 3 months) discounts below, only the main price, and have excluded discount prices for those with existing mobile phone contracts (i.e. Orange and O2).

Basic package details summary only (unordered list)

- TalkTalk -
Cost: £6.99
Contract: 18 Months
Usage Allowance: 40GB
Download Speed: up to 8Mbps
Included Router: Yes
Connection Fee: £29.99 (often comes free)

- Virgin Media -
Cost: £12.50
Contract: 12 Months
Usage Allowance: Unlimited (FUP)
Download Speed: up to 10Mbps
Included Router: Yes
Connection Fee: £35 (often comes free)

- Orange -
Cost: £10 (up to +£10 if you are not within their 65% UK coverage)
Contract: 18 Months
Usage Allowance: Unlimited (FUP)
Download Speed: up to 20Mbps
Included Router: Yes
Connection Fee: ?

- O2 -
Cost: £12.50
Contract: 12 Months
Usage Allowance: Unlimited (FUP)
Download Speed: up to 8Mbps
Included Router: Yes
Connection Fee: FREE

- Be Broadband -
Cost: £7.50
Contract: 12 Months
Usage Allowance: 40GB
Download Speed: up to 8Mbps
Included Router: Yes
Connection Fee: FREE

- Karoo -
Cost: £12.99
Contract: 18 Months
Usage Allowance: 2GB
Download Speed: up to 24Mbps
Included Router: No
Connection Fee: £29.99

- Eclipse Internet -
Cost: £12.21
Contract: 12 Months
Usage Allowance: 2GB
Download Speed: up to 24Mbps
Included Router: No
Connection Fee: FREE

- IDNet -
Cost: £13.74
Contract: 12 Months
Usage Allowance: 4GB Peak + 20GB Off-Peak
Download Speed: up to 24Mbps
Included Router: No
Connection Fee: £47 (only applicable to first-time broadband connections)

- ICUK -
Cost: £10
Contract: 1 Month
Usage Allowance: 2GB
Download Speed: up to 8Mbps
Included Router: No
Connection Fee: £46

- AOL UK -
Cost: £9.99 (+£5 if you don't take the calls option and +£5 again if you don't live in an unbundled area)
Contract: 18 Months
Usage Allowance: ? (no obvious details)
Download Speed: up to 8Mbps
Included Router: Yes
Connection Fee: FREE (£29.99 with 1 Month contract)

- PlusNet -
Cost: £5.99 per month (rises to £11.99 for those outside of "low cost" areas)
Contract: 12 Months
Usage Allowance: 10GB
Download Speed: up to 8Mbps
Included Router: Yes
Connection Fee: FREE

This is of course a dispassionate list that does not factor in all of the crucial elements, such as service performance and reliability. You should research any ISP before adopting it and never make a choice based purely on price, though we understand that money is always a major factor.

We would also recommend caution with budget packages that claim “unlimited” usage, with the possible exception of O2 and Be Broadband due to their stronger unbundled reputation. Many will be far less flexible than the “unlimited” marketing might lead you to believe.

It’s worth pointing out that Mobile Broadband also offer a less reliable service for similar prices and Sky Broadband has an excellent broadband package too, but sadly you have to take their TV service.