UK Online Broadband 8000

Since my UK Online service was installed I have experienced no problems such as downtime and haven’t had to call customer services.

Although billed as an 8Mbit/sec service, UK Online made it clear that I wouldn’t necessarily experience speeds as fast as this. Indeed, for the first few months I regularly had speeds of around 5.5Mbits/sec. However, this has steadily been getting faster and I now experience roughly 6.5Mbits/sec.

With such fast download speeds, and a 500GB monthly cap, Broadband 8000 is a great service for those wanting to make the most out of the Internet. This service also has one of the best contention ratios, at 33:1, rather than the more usual 50:1 that most other packages offer.

You do, however, have to pay for the privilege, as this is one of the most expensive monthly packages on test, so it's really only for those that a very fast service combined with a massive monthly usage cap. Otherwise, we'd suggest you plump for a cheaper package.

Also, coverage is still limited to certain exchanges - if you don’t reside near a UK Online LLU (local loop unbundling) exchange, you’ll have to settle for their standard 2Mbits/sec BT Wholesale service.

Note: This is part of PCW's long-term group test of broadband Internet packages. Links to all other packages reviewed can be found below