2009 - The Return Of The Year Of The Bundle
While 2006 was the year of so called 'free' broadband with offers from
the likes of TalkTalk and Orange, 2007 was the year of the bundle with
3 for £30 deals from Virgin Media, £26 Surf, Speak and See packages
from Sky and £19.99 phone line rental, broadband and TV offers from
Tiscali.
2008 was dominated by the explosion in mobile broadband sales while
this year, 2009, looks set to be the year of the bundle once again as
consumers look to cut their broadband, phone and TV costs as the
recession hits.
Bundles Now A Major Influence On Our Choice Of Provider
The increased promotion of bundled TV, broadband and phone packages
(like Sky's smaller bills bundle) is certainly influencing our
purchase behaviour with a recent research report from Ofcom stating
that bundling is now the second most important factor influencing our
choice of provider.
However, a raft of questions remain unanswered - questions like 'Are
these bundle offers really as cheap as they say they are?', 'what are
the pros and cons of taking all these services from just one
supplier?' and 'do they really represent good value for money?'
In this article we explore the current broadband, phone, TV and mobile
bundles, providing answers to these questions and more.
What Is A Bundle?
Put simply, a bundle is an offer of two or more services for one
attractive monthly price that is cheaper than buying them separately.
There are many different bundle combinations to choose from. These
range from the popular broadband and phone packages provided by the
likes of TalkTalk and Orange, to the newer bundles from Virgin Media
(credit crunch package), Sky (smaller bills package), BT and Tiscali
that include digital TV and sometimes mobile phone plans - Virgin's
quad play offering has this.
There's also new home broadband and mobile broadband bundles from the
likes of O2 and Orange, together with free laptops bundled in with
mobile broadband packages from Vodafone, T-Mobile and 3.
Why Is There So Much Competition Between Bundle Suppliers?
The convergence of internet, TV and telecoms technologies has
certainly heated up the battle between the bundle providers. Companies
like Tiscali and BT (the latter with their BT Vision 'telly' service)
now offer digital TV services over broadband in an effort to
counteract the threat posed by Sky's entrance into the broadband
market.
But, it's not just technologies and competition driving the bundle
craze - the theory held by the ISP's is that once a customer signs up
to a bundle, there's far less chance of them switching to another
provider as it would be too much hassle and potentially cost a lot of
money. For example, if you sign up to a Virgin Media bundle and later
want to switch back to BT, there's a cost of circa £115 to have your
BT line re-installed, not to mention any contract cancellation fees
that you may incur.
So, not only do ISP's benefit from the increased monthly income they
receive from you for taking a bundle, they'll also likely to benefit
from keeping you as a customer for much longer.
Are Bundles Really As Cheap As They Say They Are?
Bundles aren't necessarily as cheap as their headline marketing
message. For example, take the new Sky Smaller Bills bundle. Available
to 70% of UK households, this bundle includes 3 months free 16Mb
broadband, evening/weekend local and national UK landline phone calls,
plus Sky Talk phone line rental when you take any Sky TV entertainment
pack for £16.50 a month.
However, in the small print, you'll find you have to pay Sky at least
a £30 set up fee, plus £99 if you want a Sky+ box (a standard Sky box
is free). The package rises to £36.50 after 3 months and the Sky Talk
package excludes any daytime calls you make during the week. Calls to
mobiles & international numbers, plus non geographic & premium rate
numbers (those starting 08, 09 and 118) are also excluded so you'll be
paying on top of the £36.50 per month for these as well.
The Sky bundles do have their good points though. You can build a
broadband, phone and TV package to suit your requirements from just
£16.50 a month, while the £10 Sky Talk telephone line rental is
cheaper than BT and Virgin Media. You can also add Sky premium
programmes like the Sky Sports Pack to your bundle and pay from just
£35.50 a month for the whole lot (excluding phone line rental). You'll
also receive a free wireless router so you can enjoy wireless
broadband around your house.
Available to 55% of the UK households on their fibre optic cable
network, the new Virgin Media credit crunch bundle of 3 months free
broadband, phone & TV paints a similar picture. There's a £30
installation fee to pay while the 3 months free do not cover the first
3 months of your contract period. Instead, the free months are in
months one, thirteen and fourteen and is achieved via a £35 credit
applied to your bill. So from month two you'll be paying £35 a month
and you'll have to wait till months thirteen and fourteen to get your
remaining £35 credits - which is fine if you're happy signing up to a
slightly longer 18 month contract.
Like Sky, the Virgin Media bundles do have their positives. The credit
crunch package includes broadband speeds up to 10Mb, Virgin telephone
line rental, free weekend UK landline calls (though like Sky, this
excludes daytime & evening calls during the week), plus access to over
200 digital TV channels. There's also thousands of hours of TV on
demand and access to the BBC iPlayer and ITV Player with Virgin Media
being the only TV service offering these.
It certainly pays to read the small print of the various bundle deals
on offer as its likely you'll end up paying more per month than the
cheap headline price advertised. With additional phone call charges
being the main culprit for this, you may want to consider using a free
internet phone service like Skype, or use your free call minutes on
your mobile to keep your bundle costs low.
Don't forget you can compare all the various bundles offered by Sky,
Virgin Media, BT and all the other major providers by entering your
postcode on our broadband comparison page. Please note, the costs we
show include any installation or activation costs, but exclude your
typical monthly telephone line rental cost of £11 unless where stated.
The Pros & Cons Of Bundling TV, Broadband And Phone Packages With One Provider
There's many pros and cons of bundling your broadband, phone, TV and
even mobile phone with one supplier. We've listed a few of them below
for you to consider:
Bundle pros:
- One bill for all your homes telecommunication needs
- One direct debit
- One point of contact for customer and technical support
- Good value provided you choose the right bundle to suit your needs
and you use the phone call package wisely
Bundle cons:
- Your minimum term contract period with them may be longer than a year
- Should one of your bundle services like broadband have a fault, you
may find it affects the TV and phone services as well
- Potentially bad value for money if you choose a bundle that you
don't use enough (e.g. you never watch the 200 TV channels), or you
don't use the phone calls package wisely
- Over dependence on one supplier which is not great if it has poor
customer service
Do Bundles Really Represent Good Value For Money?
In a nutshell, yes - provided you sign up to the right bundle to suit
your needs, you use all the services it includes like the numerous TV
channels and most importantly, you use the calls package wisely. The
headline savings you can make by buying a bundle compared to the cost
of buying broadband, TV and phone separately are clear, it's just how
you use the bundle that dictates whether you get real value for money.
You need to ask yourself whether you really need over 200 digital TV
channels or whether you could make do with a cheap Freeview box with
circa 40 channels that comes with no monthly fee. You need to remind
yourself not to make unnecessary phone calls during the day if your
phone package only covers evening or weekend UK landline phone calls.
If you have a mobile on a contract basis, make use of your monthly
call minutes to make phone calls, or if your considering a bundle that
includes a mobile tariff, make sure you check how many free minutes
and texts you get.
A Future Filled With Bundles?
As technology changes, we're likely to see more bundles coming on to
the market that include the likes of mobile TV and mobile broadband.
Most of these will be good value for money if we use them wisely - the
problem is in many cases we won't and that's what the providers rely
on to make their profits.
What Do I Do Next?
Now you've read our guide on broadband, phone, TV and mobile bundles,
the next step is to visit our broadband comparison page where you can
enter your postcode and search for various bundle combinations offered
by the UK's broadband providers. You'll be able to compare speeds,
download limits, contract lengths, costs per month and first year
costs for all the bundles available where you live.
See you next month for more advice on bundled TV, broadband and phone packages.
Important Note - Please Read
Please note we are able to provide this impartial advice on bundles
and our comparison service to you for free because we receive a small
commission from the internet service provider you sign up with - which
means we are funded by your actions. This only happens when you click
on the orange coloured 'go to site' buttons on this website, so if
you're going to order a broadband deal or bundle, please return to
this site to do so. This will help us to continue to provide this free
independent service for you. You do not pay any extra for your chosen
suppliers package or bundle by signing up through this site.
If you're unsure as to some of the terms used on this page, please
read our beginner's guide to broadband or our guide to switching
supplier.
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