Just like other service providers – gas, electricity, water or mobile telephones – the cost of broadband varies according to the supplier and what is included in the package that you buy.

Monthly charges range from about £16 to about £30. The package may come with an email service with ‘file’ space to store messages, with anti-virus software to protect your computer, with a filter to stop unwanted junk emails being sent to you and with parental controls to stop children viewing adult material. A lot of companies offer free equipment (a modem) and software if you use the Internet to -order their service.

Some packages also include a maximum limit on the amount of data you can send and receive each month. The limit will be shown in Gigabytes (GBs) per month.

Here’s a calculation to give you an idea of what you can get from broadband. For £17.99 per month, BT Broadband’s Option 1 package would give you up to 2GBs per month. This would let you surf the Internet for up to 10 hours a week, send and receive approximately 100 emails a week, watch up to 30 minutes of videos or trailers on-line every week and download 1 movie a month.

There are some useful websites to help you compare prices and choose the right broadband package for you. Try www.broadbandchecker.co.uk. Have a look at www.adslguide.org.uk which lists most broadband providers. BT’s broadband usage calculator http://www.bt.com/broadband/bb_info.jsp gives you the chance to see exactly what you will get for the various broadband Option packages on offer.