Author: Charlotte Johnson

It’s that magical time of year again! Which means we can all officially eat chocolate and watch lots of movies without feeling bad about it.

It’s also party time. So, if you’re thinking of hosting a holiday gathering at your place, don’t let the fear of bad internet affect your festivities.

This Christmas, Fibre Heroes are here to make sure your house is ready for epic holiday gatherings. Whether that’s the ultimate festive gaming session, the party with the best sounding tunes streamed seamlessly, or a Harry Potter binge in Ultra HD. Get your Megabits ready for the mega bits this season by following these simple steps:

Make your router the centre of attention.

As in, actually get it to a central location so you can give the signal the best chance of being evenly distributed through your home.

You could also elevate your router.

The higher the router, the better the signal will be.

Extend your WiFi with either a repeater or extender.

This will amplify the signal and extend its range so more people in your home can use it.

Make sure your routers firmware is up-to-date.

Manufacturers often release firmware updates that improve performance and security.

Give your router a bit of a re-start before your Festive gathering.

This will help to clear any temporary bugs or glitches that may be there, but that you may not know about.

For the more techy broadband users, you could get your hands on a WiFi analyser.

This will troubleshoot any problems you may have with your WiFi and router: it will show you signal strength, channel usage, and other information that will help you improve your Wi-Fi performance.

Of course, you can also just get ultrafast full fibre internet and then you’ll have enough megabits for everyone to stream on their devices seamlessly. ‘Tis the season to Eat, Stream & Be Merry!

Find your perfect broadband package on our deals page.

We’re here to help you find the right broadband package for your family, so you don’t have to suffer the dreaded ‘buffer’ this Christmas.

Firstly, the general rule of thumb is to add 30 Mbps for every person in the house who wants to stream, download files, or play games simultaneously. This means a family of four will need speeds of no less than 120 Mbps, so you can browse, conference call, stream, and do homework all at the same time!

That’s for the basics. If you’ve a gamer in your midst, or you regularly download large files, you’re going to need an even faster connection. For households with gamers, we’d recommend looking at internet packages with anything between 300 and 1000Mbps. This is now full fibre broadband and it’ll deliver downloads in minutes instead of hours, and ensure the rest of the family can go online without having to negotiate timings. Or argue about who needs the internet most!

You’re welcome.

Some important things to consider…

It’s not just the speeds that you sign up to that will give you a new experience, but it’s the quality of your internet connection too. For instance, if you’re not on full fibre, which is 100% fibre, then you could be paying for internet on a network that includes some copper. If this is the case then your download speeds will depend on how far away from the local cabinet you are (usually these are green boxes at the end of your road).

For those families in rural areas, you can be a lot further away from these green boxes, and that will have a big impact on the speeds you receive compared to the speeds you signed up for.

You can use our speed tester here to find out how many Mbps you’re currently getting. That will basically tell you how reliable your internet is – the more Mbps you have, the more reliable your internet and the faster your download and upload speeds are.

Getting better broadband

In summary, the amount of broadband speed you need for your home depends on a number of things, including the number of people in your household, the types of online activities you do, and the quality of your internet connection. If you’ve bought speeds of 150Mbps but you’re not receiving them, then perhaps it’s time to consider going full fibre?

 

When you sign up for a broadband contract, you’re usually agreeing to a minimum term of 12 or 18 months. This means that you’ll have to pay the full monthly fee for the duration of the contract, even if you want to leave early.

However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. In some cases, you may be able to leave your broadband contract early, without penalty, and here are the things to look out for:

Moving home.

If you’re move home, you may be able to leave your broadband contract early without penalty. However, you’ll need to check with your provider to see if they offer this option.

Service issues.

Serious service issues with your broadband may mean you can exit your contract early. But you’ll need to prove that the issues are serious and that your provider has been unable to resolve them.
Financial hardship. If you’re experiencing financial hardship, this can also mean you’ll be able to leave your contract earlier. Again, you’ll need to provide evidence of your financial hardship, such as a recent payslip or a letter from a benefits agency.

The 14-day cooling-off period.

When you sign up for a broadband contract online or over the phone, you’ll have a 14-day cooling-off period, so you can cancel your contract at any time during these 14 days and it will be FOC.

Some things to watch out for:

Outstanding charges.

Even if you’re able to leave your broadband contract early, you’ll still need to pay for any outstanding charges. This could be for the cost of equipment that you’ve been loaned, such as a router.

Early termination fees.

Watch out for early termination fees, which can be as much as the cost of the remaining months of your contract. Check this with your current provider before you make any decisions.

You may not be able to switch to another provider. There may be a cooling off period, which will mean you can’t switch to another provider for a certain period of time. This varies from provider to provider, so double check this.

We’re all feeling the pinch when it comes to the cost of living and, let’s face it, the bills we pay always go up and rarely go down.

Plus, there’s more to pay for too – most of us have mobile phones and internet, which we need day to day.

So, as experts in ultrafast broadband, we’ve got a few tips below on how to make sure you’re getting the right broadband services and not paying for the bits you don’t need. If you’re looking for cheap broadband deals, or how to make the most of your internet, read on!

Figure out how much broadband you actually need. If you only stream a few videos a week, you can get the cheaper deals because you won’t need lots of Mbps. But if you’ve got UHD devices or you’re a household of more than two people, you’ll need to consider packages of 100Mbps or more.

Choose the right contract length.

It’s usually the case that the longer contracts tie you in, the better the price per Mb, so consider committing to 24 months and you’ll likely get a better deal. But, if you’re not sure how long you’ll be staying in your current home, it’s best to choose a shorter contract. That way, you won’t be locked into a long-term deal if you need to move and you won’t have to pay additional fees.

Bundle your broadband with other services.

Service providers offer discounts if you bundle your broadband with other services, such as TV or home phone. This can be a great way to save money, especially if you already use those services.

Watch out for price rises.

Our service providers don’t do mid-contract price rises, but some networks will let their providers increase their prices annually. Make sure you’re aware of the terms of your contract so you can switch to a cheaper deal if your price goes up.

Switch providers.

If you’re not happy with your current broadband provider, you can switch to a new one when your current contract ends. Many providers offer sign-up bonuses, so you could even save money by switching!

For those of you mid-contract and unable to shop around for deals, here are some additional tips:

Use a router that supports traffic shaping.

You’ll be able to prioritise certain types of traffic over others, such as streaming video or file downloads.

Set up a usage monitoring tool.

You’ll be able to track how much data you’re using each month, so you can make sure you’re not overpaying.

If you’re interested in finding out about our broadband deals, check out our deals of the month here.