Broadband is a broad bandwidth internet connection. It allows a large amount of information to travel to and from your computer at the same time. The term is commonly used to refer to a permanent high speed connection to the internet. Higher speeds mean that you are able to use the internet, download music and video or play online games much faster than with a normal dial-up internet connection.

SSE Unlimited Broadband   

Choose this package with unlimited downloads if you use the internet a lot for emails, internet shopping, browsing and services like catch-up TV and internet radio. It's a good option for younger families and busy couples as it's easy to set up and comes with truly unlimited downloads.

With superfast broadband, everything happens fast - meaning it's great if you have online gamers in the house, you download or stream music, TV and films, or you regularly make video calls. Regular internet browsing is super quick too.

Our truly ultrafast, truly unlimited broadband – the speediest fibre broadband we offer. It’s perfect if you have lots of people at home who are online a lot, or do a lot of streaming or downloading.

Mbps is an abbreviation for megabits per second.

Megabits per second measure the speed that data can be passed through your internet connection. In other words, it's the speed that web pages take to load when you're surfing the internet, or the speed that something takes to download.

There are eight bits in a byte so 1 Mbps is equal to 0.125 MB/s or megabytes per second. For example a download of a 4 MB music file on a 1 Mbps internet connection would take 32 seconds.

We provide you with a wireless router, which allows several devices in the house to be connected to the internet at the same time, without the use of any cable. We also provide an Ethernet cable inside your router box which you may chose to use if you require faster speed for a particular activity, for example downloading a movie on your laptop. The ability to have a wireless connection is very convenient, however the internet speed is often reduced with the wireless and in some houses (depending on the layout, building material and distance from the router) the wireless signal could be very poor. There are alternative ways to improve wireless signal, our broadband helpline can help you if this is the case.

A modem is the device which connects your computer with the broadband service, commonly by using a USB or Ethernet cable. A wireless modem connects to your computer through radio waves and is not restricted by trailing wires or cables.

A micro filter or splitter as they are commonly known, plugs into your telephone connection and splits this between your modem and telephone in order to prevent interference in the signal for each device. Without this, both your telephone and broadband service will be affected.

A firewall is a programme for your computer which monitors the information and internet content you connect to. It is designed to protect your computer from unauthorised outside access and can be configured to prevent websites obtaining information from your computer.

Anti-virus refers to software for your computer which is able to identify and remove harmful programmes which you may have unknowingly downloaded from the internet or received via email.

This software can be used if you have children in the household, whose access to the internet and other applications needs to be controlled or overseen for their own safety. To mention a few features of the product we supply:

• Access to websites that use certain key words can be blocked for the children's profile only.
• Access to the internet and network applications (Facebook, Twitter) can be limited between specific hours of the day and for a maximum duration, also by user profile.
• Instant messenger & other web chats can be recorded for later supervision by the parent or for evidence to use in the case of harmful conversations.
• Up to four internet devices can have the parental guard installed, including some tablets and some smart mobile phones.

Our broadband is compatible with most modern PC’s, laptops and Macs with a wireless, USB or Ethernet connection. If your computer is rather old, your internet speed on it will be affected.

To start enjoying our broadband as soon as possible, you’ll need a BT landline or other non-cable telephone line. If you don’t or you don’t have a telephone line, contact us and we’ll arrange one for you.

If you already have a BT landline, it usually takes around 23 days. It may take a little longer if an engineer appointment is needed (e.g. for new fibre broadband connections). We will confirm your transfer date via letter closer to the time.

Shortly before the date your service with us starts you should receive our wireless modem with two micro-filters, power cables and the installation instructions you'll need. If you don't, contact us and we'll look into this for you.

Our fixed initial term is for 18 months.

If you wish to transfer your broadband service to another provider, all you need to do is contact them to place your request. We'll write to you to confirm that we've received a request for transfer of the service and when that will take place. Please note that if you're still within your contract term, you'll be liable to pay an early termination charge. This charge will vary depending on the time left before your initial term is up. This is explained in the 'product and charges' document (available on our SSE website) that forms part of your contract and will be confirmed in writing by us.

You can contact us and we'll arrange to transfer your broadband service to us. You won't need to contact your current provider to let them know. They will acknowledge the receipt of our order to you in writing.

We provide broadband speeds supported by ADSL or Fibre to Cabinet connectivity, where available. You will receive a personalised line speed estimate when you sign up or you can use our line checker. However please note that this is an estimate since there are other factors that affect your speed such as the weather, the processing speed of your computer, quality of phone lines in your home, electric interferences, network congestion at peak time etc. In the first two weeks of your broadband connection, you will experience particularly slow speed till a stable connection is achieved.

Your download and upload rates may vary during the course of the day, depending on how many people are using the broadband in your area at the same time, the speed of the websites you are visiting or if your computer is running other programmes at the same time. Typically, peak times for use tend to be in the evenings after 6pm and you may see reduced speeds at that time.

We have four broadband packages available. If your package is unlimited, you can download as much data (webpages, music, video, pictures) as you want. However, the speed of download will vary during the day, hence affecting the amount of data downloadable on any one day. If you go over your download limit on our limited package we will let you know.