Broadband internet has changed beyond recognition in the past year. Mergers between leading companies and the arrival of ever-faster services have thrown up complex packages inclusive of phone calls and television that are almost impossible to compare. Choosing an internet service provider (ISP) has never been more difficult.

The consumer is confronted by false promises, confusing limits and wildly disparate levels of performance by the leading providers. But InGear is able to cut through the guff thanks to exclusive consumer surveys by PC Pro magazine that reveal which providers are delivering the goods. Amid the confusion, cutthroat competition places consumers in a rare position of power, and there has never been a better time to switch provider. There is even a case for reverting to pay-as-you-go (PAYG) offered by Bulldog, PlusNet, Pipex, Madasafish and Nildram.

The worst aspect of the survey results is that ISP satisfaction remains low, service and reliability mar several big brands, and average connection speeds are nowhere near the “superfast” 8Mbps trumpeted in adverts.

Zen, the no-frills ISP, takes the plaudits, beating big brands hands down. Nowhere is this more evident than in Zen’s ability to deliver higher speeds since the introduction of BT Wholesale’s “up to” 8Mbps service, called Max, which maximises data speed on your line.

Services will always be slower than the target 8Mbps because speeds decrease the further you are from an exchange, which is why rates vary from one street to the next. Additionally, some ISPs advertising the 8Mbps target deliver the higher speeds only to new subscribers and leave existing customers without the benefits of Max. This is not quite mis-selling, but it flies mighty close.

“The services delivered are still catching up with the marketing promises,” says Andrew Ferguson, an expert on networks at www.thinkbroadband.com, an influential internet monitor. “Services are sold as up to 8Mbps, but some ISPs, such as TalkTalk, are actually putting people onto slower packages until they are ready to move them onto Max services.” Many also throttle back promised speeds during peak hours.

A 2Mbps connection is fine for surfing and sending e-mails, but for internet television the faster your connection the better, especially if your household shares one subscription.

TalkTalk’s inclusive package (see review) seems to offer remarkable value, but if you take digital media seriously its low speeds are a good reason to look elsewhere. The same goes for Tiscali, Pipex, AOL and Orange. Zen has a much higher proportion of its customers on faster Max services and so fares better in speed tests.

Discover the potential speed of your connection by visiting www.speedtester.bt.com, then see what speed you really receive at, for example, www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html, and consider switching providers if there is a discrepancy. Loyalty does not pay. This is doubly true if you have been with the same supplier for two or three years, perhaps on an expensive 1Mbps contract, and have not had your speed upgraded. Next month new regulations from Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, oblige ISPs to provide a Mac (migration authorisation code) on demand. This is required by your next ISP so that you can switch.

Choosing a new package is as personal as buying a new car. If you spend heavily on mobile phone services then Orange’s “free” offerings may have merit, while television fans will like a service from NTL:Telewest or Sky (which offers a broadband service too young to evaluate).

Buyer beware, however, as inclusive packages have not proved popular with early adopters. Tony Kallend, a retired mathematician, had to go to Otelo, the telecoms ombudsman, to resolve a dispute with TalkTalk after it failed to provide broadband and threatened to sue over contested bills. “In short, they are crap,” says Kallend. “Would I go to another ‘free’ provider? No. I learnt my lesson: you get what you pay for.”

A big name is no guarantee of satisfaction. Companies such as Orange and Tesco are outstripped on service by small ISPs such as Madasafish and Nildram, which both scored twice as well in PC Pro’s fuller survey.

In recent months Pipex has bought Bulldog, the Carphone Warehouse — owner of TalkTalk — has bought AOL, and the merged cable companies NTL and Telewest are set to be rebranded as Virgin Media after a further merger. So customers face uncertainties and could be bitten if they sign up to a long contract.

“NTL customer service was one of the worst. Telewest was good and Virgin average,” says Jason Lloyd, broadband channel manager at www.moneysupermarket.com. “How the new alliance will perform is anybody’s guess.”

Zen
Rated 18/20

www.zen.co.uk — from £18pm for 8Mbps broadband with 2GB cap, to £35pm with 50GB cap

Unsurpassed service and reliability

Zen keeps it simple by offering a no-frills service that is perfect for web aficionados and small businesses. It offers an internet connection only and can’t compete with big-brand phone and entertainment packages, but with a call centre staffed with technical experts and great network investment, Zen has been the choice of the cognoscenti for three years. The fact that it has short (one-month) contracts confirms confidence in its service, while a promised one-hour response time for faults is impressive.

NTL:Telewest
Rated 15/20

www.ntl.com — from £10pm for 2Mbps uncapped, to £50pm for 4Mbps with unlimited landline calls at evenings and weekends, and 170 TV channels

Great for speed and TV. Variable customer service

With 3m customers, the merged cable companies are a big force in the market, though one of its executives has admitted to “crap service” from NTL in the past. This may improve once the company is rebranded Virgin Media after yet another merger. The service offers extremely fast download speeds with a 10Mbps option, plus the “quad play” dream of broadband, digital TV, fixed and mobile phone. One fixed bill, and no need to pay BT line rental, make this attractive.

BT
Rated 13/20

www.bt.com— from £18pm for 8Mbps with 5GB cap, hotspot minutes and free calls, to £27pm uncapped with Home Hub and phone

Solid if unspectacular

The UK’s biggest ISP — with a reported 3.1m subscribers — inherited an unrivalled infrastructure so it’s no surprise that the company performs reasonably in speed and reliability tests. Its Home Hub wireless modem, which connects several computers to a network, can also be used as an access point for a telephone handset, with inclusive off-peak calls. BT Vision (£90 for installation and connection) brings access to film, sport and television packages.

Pipex
Rated 12/20

www.pipex.com — from £15pm for 8Mbps with 2GB cap, to £25pm for 8Mbps uncapped with free local and national calls

Reliable workhorse, world-weary stablehands

This highly acquisitive ISP has been on something of a shopping spree, buying up big names such as Freedom2Surf, Bulldog and Toucan. It now claims 600,000 customers, and offers a keenly priced package of internet and phone deals. The network supplier is also one of the front runners in the next-generation world of WiMax wireless internet services, which will offer faster connections over long distances. However, merging so many companies has led to quite a few billing problems.

PlusNet
Rated 12/200

www.plus.net — From £10pm for 8Mbps with 450MB cap then pay as you go at 0.224p per MB, to £22pm for 8Mbps uncapped with 240 minutes free Voip calls to UK landlines

Not for heavy downloaders

The surprisingly candid PlusNet has a mixed reputation as one of the first ISPs to front up about “traffic shaping” — reducing speeds to bandwidth-hogging downloaders during peak hours. The result is a fairer distribution of download speeds between all subscribers. Believing that ISPs have to diversify to survive, PlusNet also sells phone packages that include line rental.

AOL
Rated 10/20

info.aol.co.uk — From £15pm for 2Mbps uncapped, to £30pm for 8Mbps uncapped

Solid service, shaky customer care

Recently bought by The Carphone Warehouse — which owns TalkTalk — AOL has brought with it some 2m subscribers, who, incidentally have been assured that their service will remain independent, which they may or may not see as a good thing. It has a large unbundled network, which means it has installed its own faster equipment in BT exchanges, and it is Britain’s third-largest ISP. A wireless router is included in packages, but — unusually for a company that has built up so much experience — customer satisfaction remains worryingly low.

Orange
Rated 10/20

www.orange.co.uk — From £15pm for 2Mbps with 2GB cap, to £20pm for 8Mbps uncapped with free national and international calls Strong packages, weak service When France Telecom rebranded Wanadoo as Orange, it grabbed the “free” broadband headlines by offering a basic package (a meagre 2Mbps connection and rather lowly 2GB cap) for free with mobile phone contracts costing more than £30 per month. Top packages include an 8Mbps Livebox, a wireless router for connecting up to six computers, the ability to plug in a telephone console for online gaming and internet phone calls.

TalkTalk
Rated 9/20

www.talktalk.co.uk — From £20pm for 8Mbps with 40GB cap, which includes line rental and unlimited local and national calls Undeniably cheap, but with no thrills Broadband proved a painful initiation for the Carphone Warehouse, which racked up more than 600,000 customers in less than a year, but failed to anticipate that level of demand. Even the company’s chief executive admits it made a right digital mess of the launch, although anecdotal reports hint at slight improvements since in customer service. Despite the offer of “up to” 8Mbps, many customers remain on far slower services, while the company’s plans to put its own, faster equipment in BT exchanges take hold.