Faster Boradband needed

[firstyme]

I want to switch to a faster broadband service.
Any suggestions out there?
Thanks

[nannynick]

Moving house is probably the only way. Broadband speed is limited by the distance from the exchange.
If you are in London or another city, then you may have a cable network in your street. If so, then I think all UK cable companies are now VirginMedia.

[nannynick]

If you are on BT, then BT Wholesale can give you an estimate of the fastest line speed you can get. How reliable it is I don't know. It says I may be able to get 2.5mbps, but I get around 650kbps.

www.speedtest.net will test your current broadband speed.

SamKnows can tell you what services are supported by your local exchange.

[UndertheBoredwalk]

Second the cable, if you're in a cabled area (I think most of the UK is now?) Virgin media have the fastest you can get atm.
I have 50mb service with them, and testing regularly seem to get an average of about 47mb

[nannynick]

Very few areas in my view are in cabled area's. I'm in West Surrey not more than 25 miles from Central London, yet don't have Cable.
Madly there is a cable line running down a major road not 100 yards from my home, but they never decided to connect my village to it.

[nannynick]

Consider the reasons for why you want faster broadband.

I used to use 3Mobile Broadband and found it far too slow - iPlayer would not work very well. Now have O2 and get 650kbps typically as max download speed (occasionally it peeks just above 700kbps). This is currently fast enough to watch BBC iPlayer.

Consider your traffic usage as well - unlimited download packages can cost quite a bit, whereas many ISPs cap the download to a max of x GB per month.

Compare ISP packages using a comparison website such as www.thinkbroadband.com www.broadbandgenie.co.uk

Also consider what is available from companies you currently use. For example O2 discount Broadband for their mobile customers. I found it cheaper getting a PAYG O2 mobile and topping it up every 3 months, than paying their non-mobile customer broadband rate.

I can't find any Mumsnet Discount Partners offering broadband deals (Note to MNHQ: Why are O2 not offering a deal, given the Joggler review they are doing?)

Also don't forget about Cashback websites like www.quidco.com - At time of writing this: VirginMedia are offering upto £120 cashback. O2 are offering £50 cashback for a broadband order fully done online (note: I did this recently and it was really easy).

[onagar]

BE Unlimited is very fast if you can get it and no caps on how much you use it unlike most (all?) of the others.

[onagar]

That's up to 24mb, but less in practise unless you live practically next door to the exchange.

[firstyme]

Thanks for the overwhelming responses....(never anticipated ...sorry)

I think Im in a cabled area and my present provider is virgin.Thank esp to nannynick for all the info.I am going to compare and speed test too .Found another website particularly for fast broadband (thats what it says) Compare Fast Broadband don't know which ones to use though , there are so many out there.

[nannynick]

There are many comparison sites around these days. ThinkBroadband used to be Adslguide which was one of the first to my knowledge and thus is the only one I will link to.