Leader: Broadband deals - read the fine print

You know you're in the midst of a price war when new offers come in by the hour - and that's the situation with broadband in the UK.

Just hours after news broke that ISP Wanadoo is offering a 1Mb internet service for £17.99 a month, competitor PlusNet countered with a new deal - starting on Thursday - for 1Mb at £14.99 and 2Mb "from £19.99".

But all is not as rosy as it seems.

Wanadoo's service, as silicon.com readers were quick to point out, has a 2GB download limit, a level that can be reached pretty quickly.

UK reader Paul Shrimpton wrote: "Whether it's file-sharing, personal website management, online gaming or working from home, I don't know anybody whose surfing habits have not soared once they have broadband. And once the additional costs per gigabyte kick in, Wanadoo's service is no cheaper than anyone else's."

PlusNet, too, will charge between £1.50 and £2 per GB of extra bandwidth - on top of the monthly fee. To get unlimited download capacity, you need to pay £29.99 per month for PlusNet's 'premier' 1Mb service.

The phrase to remember when shopping for broadband, even more so than usual in this competitive environment, is buyer beware.

ISPs are also getting something of a reputation for misleading the public. Earlier this month Wanadoo was slapped on the wrist by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for calling its 512Kbps service "full speed broadband" when much faster connections are available.

Similarly, in June, the ASA got on AOL's case for advertising a 1Mb broadband service that was unlikely to deliver that speed all the time.

Though broadband providers are making it easy and painless to switch providers, that doesn't mean you should - at least not based on a single glance at a tantalising headline or advert.