Is free broadband a good deal?
The spirit of 1969 might seem like ancient history, but this summer a new kind of free love is sweeping Britain. Thousands of people are ready to canoodle with new internet providers after a glut of “free broadband” offers. Punters are now being wooed with no-cost broadband from TalkTalk, Orange and Sky. But are “free” deals good enough to tempt non-believers on to the web? Should those who already have a service provider dump them for a new one? These aren’t simple questions to answer, says Ian Fogg, a broadband analyst with Jupiter Media. “It’s becoming generally harder to compare different packages,” he says. “The market is changing very quickly – on a daily or weekly basis. What seems like a good deal today may not look so good in a few months.” Like so many utilities these days, the real heart of the action tends to be in the details – tedious minutiae such as download speeds, setup fees, long-term contracts and hardware support. Reputation and customer service count for a lot, to
