The best - and cheapest - broadband deals

As super cheap broadband deals offer even better value which provider comes out on top?

A handful of providers have started to offer ‘value’ broadband deals. But do these bargain basement prices mean you’ll get stuck with a second rate service? Will your download speeds be sluggish and your monthly usage limit a fraction of what you really need? Or do they just offer a great deal at a keen price? Let’s find out.

At the moment, just three providers have taken control of the value end of the market: BE, O2 and Plusnet. The table below shows exactly what they have to offer:

Note all the deals and special offers shown are available through broadband comparison website Broadband Choices.

Value broadband only deals

All deals are available through Broadband Choices

The first thing you’ll probably notice is the vast difference in the monthly cost for each deal. Plusnet Value charges just £6.49, while BE Value is far higher at £13.79 even though both deals are described as ‘value’.

So what do you get for the extra cost at BE? On the plus side, this deal is the only one of the selection to offer an unlimited monthly usage, which means you can download to your heart’s content (within reason and subject to the fair usage policy). This makes BE Value suitable for medium broadband users, and more generous than O2 The Basics with a download limit of 20GB and Plusnet Value with just 10GB.

But, on the downside, BE Value has a slower download speed at 12Mb than both the deals from O2 and Plusnet. Taking into account the total costs in the first year for each choice, including BT line rental at £13.29 a month, BE Value comes to £324.96, which is over £93 more expensive than O2 and over £57 more than Plusnet.

The cheapest deal overall is O2 The Basics which costs a grand total of £231.48, but this option is available to O2 mobile customers only, which will exclude many users, and the offer won’t be available for much longer. If you want to take advantage of the O2 deal, and you meet the eligibility criteria, I suggest you get your skates on before it disappears.

But, overall, if you can cope with a smaller monthly usage limit, Plusnet Value offers the best value that’s available to everyone, and despite the lower download limit it's still suitable for medium users. What’s more, you’ll get unlimited overnight usage between midnight and 8am without eating into your 10GB allowance.

Beware of ‘value’

You should, however, be a little wary of the ‘value’ label. BE Value actually works out more expensive than some packages that don't have this label. For example, broadband-only deal 'Simply Broadband' (for Orange mobile customers) costs a total of £279.48 in year one. This includes a download speed of up to 20Mb with an unlimited download allowance, making it significantly cheaper and faster than BE Value.

With this in mind, it’s only fair to look beyond so-called value deals. The table below shows a selection of the cheapest broadband and phone bundle packages around, regardless of their name:

Low cost broadband + phone deals

All deals are available through Broadband Choices

It’s interesting that all of the packages in table two are better value than the first table. Plusnet is the only ‘value’ provider which also offers a low cost broadband + phone package. With the Plusnet Value + Talk deal, Plusnet line rental costs just £11.25 per month, making it much cheaper at £217.87 than Plusnet Value option with a BT line.

Like O2 in the first selection, Orange Broadband & Off Peak Calls is only available to Orange mobile customers. It’s actually the cheapest priced plan at just £205.50 over the next 12 months, and offers an unlimited download limit and a download speed of up to 20Mb. You’ll also get a £20 voucher from Amazon as a thank you when you sign up.

Meanwhile, for a deal available to everyone, Virgin Broadband & Phone costs just a fraction more than the Plusnet Value + Talk package at total of £221.38 in the first year, with an unlimited download limit and a download speed of up to 10Mb. This is a more competitive price than all the 'value' deals shown above. And because a Virgin phone line cost £11.99 a month, you'll make significant savings compared with BT, alongside a generous online discount of £50 until 31.10.10.

But, don’t forget, in year two when the basic monthly costs has returned to £12.50, and the discount no longer applies, this deal will likely become a lot more pricey than some of the others. If you’re prepared to switch to a new provider after 12 months this may be a good deal for you, although the 10Mb speed is the slowest of all the packages shown.

Finally, note that all the broadband + phone deals shown above include free evening and weekend calls, except Virgin which charges 8.5p per minute for evening calls. The quick table below shows national daytime call rates for all the packages:

National daytime call rates

More: Ditch BT and save £126 a year | Switch broadband more easily