Chances are you’re reading this post online, either at your desk at work (on your lunchbreak, hopefully!) or in the comfort of your own home. Practically everybody has the internet these days, as its uses have expanded considerably over the last decade, allowing us to book holidays, transfer bank balances, and purchase practically anything from car insurance, to clothes. If you can stick it in an envelope or parcel and slap a barcode on it, chances are you’ll be able to buy it online.

As such, internet access in UK homes has ascended up the ranks of importance after essential utilities such as water and electricity. In recent years, we’ve seen fast broadband-speed net access become available to more and more punters across the country, with many of them offering customers great savings on combined products and services.

The choice of bundle deals that have come onto the market, at the same time as the price of broadband access has fallen (some providers are now offering access for less than £5 a month) means that choosing the deal that is best for you is something of a headache.

Broadband-centric comparison websites such as Broadband Finder can help you make an informed decision on which provider is best for you; we’ve also done a quick overview of some of the more prominent ISPs (Internet Service Providers) offering a multitude of communication and entertainment bundles in the UK.

BT currently leads the market with its BT Total Broadband service, which allows customers to save money with a number of fixed-line call and broadband deals; their cheapest broadband and phone package starts at £7.95 per month – evening and weekend calls are included in this bundle. BT is often the first choice for many UK residents, as it offers net access to practically everyone, and BT engineers routinely maintain and upgrade connections.

TalkTalk and Tiscali both have a range of money saving broadband and fixed line phone packages which, depending on the area you live in, can see you saving plenty of pennies each month.

Leading mobile phone service providers O2 and Orange offer savings on their surfing services for customers on their mobile contracts, and Virgin Mobile customers can also qualify for some exclusive Virgin Media deals – if you’ve got a contract with any of these networks, it may be worth checking out their deals and seeing how much you can save.

Digital TV market leaders Sky have also been making waves with their popular See Speak Surf bundles, which give you a choice of Sky TV packages, fixed line calls and broadband internet access. Customers with cable TV can also benefit from bundled broadband and call packages thanks to the Virgin Media rebrand.

As well as saving money, it would also be wise to read up on customer reviews, particularly with regard to customer service and other users experiences – a deal might look good on paper, but you might find yourself being let down by poor technical and administrative support. Do your homework, see who is operating in your area, and see how much you could save.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 1:34 pm and is filed under Budgeting, Savings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.