subject: Should You Buy Popular Broadband? [print this page] Let's be candid: some broadband providers are more popular than others.
For example, Virgin Media has surprised analyst by increasing the number of households that took out broadband connections to 38,000 this year.
This was the largest increase since the merger between NTL4 and Telewest 4 years ago. This was well above analysts expectations.
Last year the increase was by 7100 so we can see why Virgin Media may be delighted by this announcement.
However, should you let the popularity of the broadband provider affect your decision to sign up?
In the case of Virgin it might be that they're popularity is down to their USPs.
With a broadband speed of 100MB set to be offered to Virgin customers later on this year the company continues to offer high speed broadband services and some of the fastest broadband in the country.
Currently 46% of its customer base are paying for high speed broadband connections of between 20MB and 50 MB.
Virgin Media is also offering cheaper Sky Sports and high-definition services to further increase its customer base.
In this case, then, the question is: why is this broadband so much more popular than that of other providers?
With the unique selling points above it becomes clear why new customers are flocking to the brand.
On the other hand, there are a number of reasons for avoiding popular broadband providers.
For example, broadband is slowed down when a provider stuffs a lot of customers onto one line (known as 'contention ratio') and this is more likely with a really popular provider.
There are also a number of broadband providers that survive in spite of poor service simply because they're popular in the first place.
For example, TalkTalk is a huge company in the UK and it's used its large business muscle to buy up other providers such as Tiscali.
In this case, then, many people have become Talk Talk customers by default (as opposed to choosing to become one) so the provider's popularity is hardly indicative of quality of their service.
There's also the question of how one defines popularity.
Here, it has previously been used in the sense of just how many customers one broadband provider has.
However, many small providers which don't have large marketing budgets but keep a small but dedicated band of subscribers may qualify as more popular in the sense that more people actually like giving them money.
So, in conclusion, the decision to shell out for a popular broadband deals shouldn't be taken as lightly as is often thought.
The phrase 'popular for a reason' has little meaning when applied to the broadband world so make sure you compare deals carefully and read reviews before signing up.
