Luring the defectors

Funky broadband provider, Madasafish are currently offering four month’s worth of broadband for free to customers migrating to them from another broadband ISP.

The deal, which comes in the bow wave of their £17.99 a month 2Mb service, equates to £11.99 per month over the year for a customer defecting to Madasafish. Also included in the migration are a free modem and free connection.

Jumping ship, or should that be pool, normally hinges on the cancelled ISP coughing up something called a Migration Authorisation Code. Without the MAC, switching services can be tricky and protracted affairs but most Internet Service Providers have signed up to Ofcom’s code of practice which makes the process of switching broadband service provider efficient and swift.

If you’re in the market for a broadband connection because your local exchange is now enabled, or you fancy changing provider to bag a better deal, the advice, as ever, is to shop around. A bit of research will help ensure you end up with the broadband service that best suits your needs.

Having a good idea of your useage or potential useage is important as broadband deals are now starting to resemble mobile phone tariffs. Cheapest isn’t necessarily best. Watch out for bandwidth limits at the cheaper end of the market as it can work out more expensive than the headline monthly rate if you exceed your monthly bandwidth allocation.

Heavy users who intend spending a lot of time downloading music, video and software or transferring large files around will generally be better off going for a broadband deal with a larger bandwidth allocation than the entry level offering.

If you’re new to broadband, an access deal with a limited quota of bandwidth – how much online traffic you generate – is a good way to gauge your needs. Most broadband service provider supply a pathway to upgrade to a broadband package with a more generous bandwidth allocation. Here, though, ensure you get a proper understanding of what is involved. Some ISPs have a business process that means an existing access deal is automatically upgraded when you trade up. Others may require that the existing access deal is cancelled and separate agreement put in place for the upgraded package. Whichever way it is, just be sure you don’t end up paying for your access twice.

Check out the latest broadband deals at ADSLGuide and ISPReview