Broadband GenieLabels: broadband, internet, researchReviewer: Andrew Date: 18/12/2005 Rating: 4/5 Website: www.broadbandgenie.co.uk Broadband is absolutely essential. I cannot imagine a house without it. I would be scuppered. I like to think I'm fairly Internet savvy, I know what to look out for when researching a broadband deal; watch for capped download rates, investigate contention rates (something the providers rarely talk about), watch the pros and cons of firewalls or even simple issues such as whether you're tied into a long term contract or not. The trouble is that everyone and their dog are now offering a broadband service. You even have known ISPs offering "super fast" broadband connections via a different brand. This could be because one company has bought another, for branding or perhaps even to shake of the poor reputation of the parent company. I tried Broadband Genie as the solution for this. This website allows you to compare broadband providers who are active in your area. Broadband Genie is postcode driven and this makes sense as it's the best way to accurately target a region. Here in Scotland a postcode can target you down to just a few houses. You just have to make sure that you have the right postcode for your flat and my experience is to double-check what the letting agency thinks the postcode is. The Broadband Genie site is actually in three parts and the ability to compare prices is actually the second part (or wish two). The first part of the site (wish one) will be very useful for people looking into broadband for the first time or even people who would like to bush up on the latest facts. In fact, given how often broadband technologies do up date the broadband information section of the site is useful to pretty much everyone. The third part of the site allows you to go through and arrange to purchase your broadband. Broadband Genie isn't a supplier in its own right; it simply links you through to the suppliers. I've found that Broadband Genie had a good range of suppliers, pretty much everyone from Telewest, NTL, Madasafish and Tiscali, etc. I'm not quite sure where the broadband blog fits into the site - in Wish One, most likely - but it's an absolute gem. I've not noticed many comments on it yet but I was reassured that it does serve as a forum where I could fish for opinions and advice. |