BE Broadband review

This review was updated in August 2011 to reflect the findings of our latest survey.

In terms of broadband coverage, BE installs its own equipment in BT exchanges, which means that it’s not as widely available as BT’s ADSL services. However, since being bought out by O2, the ISP’s coverage has increased dramatically. Check the website to see if it’s available in your area, but the odds are getting better all the time.

BE has always done well in our customer satisfaction survey, and this year is no exception, with 90% of its customers expressing their appreciation of the ISP. The results for reliability, technical support and ease of setup are all above average, too.

None of BE’s three packages has a stated download allowance, but you’ll have to adhere to the fair-use policy, which makes a vague point about not “making excessive use of, or placing unusual burdens on the network”. The Value package provides a 12Mbit/s connection for £17 per month – a sizeable increase over last year’s price of £13.79.

Both Unlimited and Pro are 24Mbit/s packages. Unlimited costs £22 per month, while Pro costs £27. Pro’s only major advantage is a faster maximum upload speed of 2.5Mbit/s compared with Unlimited’s 1.3Mbit/s. All three packages come with a free wireless router, but only Unlimited and Pro come with static IP addresses. No other extras are included.

BE used to run 12-month contracts with an early cancellation option, but this has been slightly rejigged to give the Pro and Unlimited packages more expensive three-month contract options. You’ll have to pay a £25 installation fee and £3 extra every month, but it could be worth it if you value short-term flexibility.

BE’s unlimited allowance (subject to fair usage) and the company’s high satisfaction score in our survey make its packages very attractive if you live within the company’s service area. Parent company O2 offers some very similar packages at lower prices, though, with further discounts for O2 mobile phone customers.

Broadband survey performance results

These results were compiled from our online survey, where users were asked to rate their broadband supplier. In the case of customer satisfaction, this is an average of whether users would recommend their supplier and if they’re planning on staying with their current supplier.

Feature table (click to expand)