Nine in ten homes pay too much for broadband-wasting £73 per annum

Almost nine out of ten households are paying too much for broadband, researchers warn.

 A poll of 2,000 online surfers found that very few people downloaded enough from the internet to justify spending more than £9.60 a month on broadband, or £20 when line rental is included.

 However the survey by Computeractive magazine found the average bill is £26.12 a month – wasting £73 a year.

 Browsing habits revealed that 85 per cent of homes do not use the internet to download films – one of the few activities that could require an expensive tariff.

 Pensioners were found to be the least savvy when it comes to bills, paying an average of £17 a month for broadband, despite the fact they download the fewest films.

 Surfers in the 25-34 age group obtained the best internet deals, paying £2 a month less.

 Paul Allen, editor of Computeractive, said: ‘While no one would argue the desirability of high speed broadband, it is not as useful on a day-to-day basis and definitely not worth more than £10 a month.

The top three reasons for going online were to shop (62 per cent), bank (58 per cent) or use social networking sites (57 per cent) – all of which use low amounts of bandwidth that a £5 a month tariff could easily cover.

 Fifty-seven per cent of Britons now switch on the computer before the TV, with the average internet user spending almost three and a half hours online a day – equivalent to a day a week.

 The Post Office’s phone and internet package was slated as the meanest, offering a maximum speed of 8MBs a second, with a usage cap, for £21.40 a month. Plusnet Value was named the cheapest package, costing £15.65 a month for 20Mbits a second.

 Three quarters of those surveyed said they were happy with their