The web has no standards ...

... is that a good thing? :o)

BT or BE? Time to move on.

I've been thinking for a while now that I'm paying way over the odds for broadband.

I'm with BT, on their UBERSUPERMAX package, where I fork out £27 a month for a 6Mbps-ish connection (which I usually get about 2-3Mbps out of). I've been with them for several years now, and cant fault them on service ... but £27 is a lot of money! Also, you'd think that being a loyal customer (both for broadband and telephone) for so many years now I'd get some kind of discount ... but it turns out I'm actually paying more for my broadband than a new customer would on the same package.

So, I started to hunt around. I had a brief look at Orange, as I have a mobile phone with them. They were offering either free or cheap broadband, which all sounded promising until I disovered they were actually Wanadoo ... who were previously Freeserve. Yuck. NEXT!

Then I moved onto Sky. I have a Sky+ subscription, and no plans on cancelling, so their free broadband seemed promising. However, it turns out its not available in my area. They did, however, offer me a £17.99 alternative, which was not too bad ... but the important point they fail to mention is that you have to enter a 12 month contract not only for the broadband, but also for your Sky TV. Damn them!

So I carried on ... I looked at Tiscali (ha!), AOL (for a laugh), PlusNet (hmm) and some others ...

... and then I discovered BE*. Their services were enabled in my area only a week ago, and this is what they can offer me:

• £18/month
• Upto 24Mbps download speed
• 1.5Mbps upload speed
• No traffic shaping
• Unlimited bandwidth usage
• Static IP
• Free wireless router
• No contract
• Very good reviews
• Just been bought by O2 - also good reviews

Not bad. Most users are reporting about 15-16Mbps connections upto 2 km from the exchange. Since I'm only 0.5 km away, it should be pretty fast.

So I'm figuring - £18/month ... no contract ... its got to be worth a try.

I'll let you know ;o)

Betamax to HD-DVD Converter anyone?