Fibre Broadband Update

Most areas of Tarvin now have access to superfast fibre broadband and the questions most asked of Tarvinonline are:

How do I get Superfast broadband? How much does it cost?

The Answers:

How Do I Get Fibre Broadband?

• If you currently have a broadband connection then you will have a broadband supplier such as BT, Virgin, Talk Talk, EE etc. These are usually called "broadband providers" and you pay them a monthly or annual subscription to access their broadband. If you now want to get higher speeds for downloading from the internet then you need superfast or "fibre" broadband.

• Your current broadband suppliers' website usually has a section dedicated to fibre broadband (BT call it Infinity!) and usually all you need to do is put in your telephone number and it will confirm if you are now able to get fibre broadband. It will also tell you if you cannot get it yet (Tarporley Rd and Hallfields Road for instance).

• Once you have done this you can open discussions with your current broadband provider to see if there are any additional costs, or, you may want to switch supplier to access some of the offers available to "new customers"

How Much Does it Cost?

• In most instances broadband providers charge an extra cost to your existing subscription, but how much extra depends on whether you want "unlimited broadband" or "limited broadband ". At this point it is worth checking with your provider what your current monthly downloads are (usually in megabytes or gigabytes) and then deciding if you need more or less and how much it would cost as a fibre broadband package.

• It appears standard practice among most broadband providers that they "penalise" existing broadband customers by charging less as "introductory offers" for new subscribers at the expense of existing subscribers. It is worth mentioning that you could take your business elsewhere and that may convince them that your loyalty needs rewarding. So always at this point call your provider don't rely on website negotiations.

Example: My own subscription is to BT with unlimited broadband, line rental, BT Vision TV, free calls at weekends and evenings and net protect plus. My current download speed is 6-8mbps. With BT Infinity I can get download speeds of 70-80 mbps at an extra cost of just £3.25 per month. So I'm not going to change supplier as I need BT Sports (on all my devices) and I think it is worth the extra cost!

However if I was a new subscriber to BT then I know I could get that package for half the price for 6 months, but as an existing customer I was able to persuade them to keep my payments low to retain my custom.

Hopefully we have given you the confidence to upgrade to Fibre Broadband do let us know if there are any other issues regarding the Superfast Broadband roll-out in Tarvin