Press Reviews

We work to save you money on your broadband, TV and phone by making sure you're on the best package. We search our database of around 10,000 products to do just that, so it's great when word gets out...


"Get switched on to phone, internet and TV packages"
The Independent 9th February 2008

Setting up the bare necessities in your home was a lot simpler 20 years ago. With no competition in the telephone, gas or electricity markets, a simple call or letter to British Gas, British Telecom and your local electricity board was enough to set your home up with all you needed. No broadband, no digital TV, no mobile phone to think about - and no shopping around for your other utilities.

In the 21st century, things are somewhat different and while the savvy consumer should be able to find themselves a much more competitive deal these days, by shopping around for their home utilities, the overwhelming choice makes it difficult to ever be completely sure you are really getting the best value.

Most home phone providers, for example, now offer broadband packages too, while some may also provide digital, cable or satellite TV products. Similarly, mobile phone providers are moving into the broadband, home phone and TV markets making it ever harder to know where to go for the best bundles.

According to Simplifydigital, a new organization whose aim is to try and help confused consumers to find the best home communications deal, there are now well over half a million different combinations of TV, home phone and broadband packages - and many more when you start to throw mobiles into the mix as well.

"The idea for our business came from my experience working at Sky- where we were originally only selling TV, but then broadband in and phone deals, and it became increasingly clear just how confusing it was for the consumer," says Charles Ponsonby, Simplifydigital's chief executive. "It struck us that there was a real need for someone sitting in the middle of all this to demystify the market for consumers. There are a lot of people out there who need help."

Simplifydigital offers a free telephone-based service (0800 1388388) to help consumers find the right combination of home communication packages for their specific needs. The firm takes a commission from the companies they eventually advise you to sign up with, but at no extra cost to the customer.

Ponsonby says his business is targeting two types of consumers. "Firstly, there's the digitally disenfranchised;' he says, "who may not have digital TV,or even broadband, but who are getting sucked into the market due to the digital switchover, or because they're looking for a new deal on their phone."

The "digital switchover" is the national project which will close down regular analogue TV. It starts in parts of Scotland this autumn, before being rolled out around the rest of the country over the next four years. Once it hits your area, you'll no longer be able to receive any television signal without a set-top box, or a newer TV that has a digital receiver built into it (for more information, visit www.digitaluk.co.uk).

"The second group of people who use our service are the digitally enfranchised;' continues Ponsonby, "people who still have a level of confusion about the technology, and who have got better things to do than find out which deals are best for them."

For the moment, Simplifydigital does not incorporate mobile phone packages into its platform, and does not have every single company in the home phone and broadband markets in and included in its systems. However, the service is constantly improving, and already covers the majority of the market, so it is well worth a try if you are looking to switch all your home communication packages.


"Making digital sense"
Manchester Evening News 4th March 2008

The digital revolution has brought many benefits, and not a little confusion and cost, as people struggle to understand what products are best for them.

The financial sector has seen the arrival of several comparison sites, such as Moneysupermarket.com, which allow consumers to compare mortgages and loan rates. Now a new company, Simplifydigital, aims to provide an impartial comparison of digital services.

Charlie Ponsonby stepped down as marketing director of BSkyB last October to set up Simplifydigital with the goal of providing consumers with impartial advice on which digital package would best suit their lifestyle. Mr Ponsonby said: "The market place is awash with offers, packages and bundles, and we want to demystify digital for consumers."

The idea itself is simple. With a myriad of service providers in the market offering numerous deals, the prospect of being able to make one phone call to find the best deal for your broadband, digital television and mobile phone services, is indeed compelling. "There are big savings to be had by bundling, but the real trick is choosing the right bundle to match your needs," Mr Ponsonby adds. And the savings could be significant, with Simplifydigital estimating the average user could save up to £160 per year by bundling services together.

"Until now, there has been no place to go for impartial advice as to which one to take, which is exactly what our digital experts specialise in," says Ponsonby. Of course, impartiality is the key, and with Simplifydigital offering 530,000 different package options, users of the service will want to be sure that the advice is truly independent.

To provide that assurance, the company has applied to Ofcom for accreditation under the watchdog's Price Assurance Standard. A process which involves auditors inspecting the firm's software and business practices to insure independence.

The company intends to match a user with services which meet their needs, as opposed to a service provider simply pushing their latest offer. In this way, a user can bundle a number of different services from different providers at the most cost effective price.

With this service being free to the user, Simplifydigital's relationships with service providers will be key to its success, and Charlie Ponsonby's experience as marketing director at BSkyB would seem to be a major plus.

Of course, no business model will work without customer satisfaction and things appear to be going well. John Whitley, from Radcliffe, is very happy with the money he has saved after using the service.

"It's been very useful as far as I'm concerned," says John. "I was being overcharged for broadband services, and I spoke to an adviser who found a much better package and they sorted out the installation and everything."


"Simplifydigital comes to your rescue"
Telegraph 4th July 2008

There aren't many ways to save money on your bills, but bundling your home phone line, broadband, and TV subscriptions into one package is a pretty sure-fire bet. The rub, however, comes in choosing who to sign up with - Sky, Virgin Media, BT, Tiscali (now part of TalkTalk) and many others all offer packages that sound tempting, but the one their respective salesmen pushes is quite unlikely to be the one that mght make most sense for you. Make the right decision and research suggests you could save an average of £160 per year.

That, rather surprisingly, is where telecoms regulator Ofcom steps in. They seem to think that deciding who supplies your broadband is so important that BT, Sky and all the rest shouldn't be allowed to stand or fall by their own customer service. This week, the regulator announced the launch of a scheme that's more Watchdog (returning to BBC1 in the autumn) than watchdog: on Thursday, the organisation accredited a company called Simplifydigital as "the first and only impartial TV, broadband and home phone price comparison service".

This means that there's now a service equivalent to independent financial advisers for this one area of technology, and other (less sophisticated) price comparison websites must be livid. The company lets you mix and match services from various providers and even takes some responsibility for the installation process. That means you can shout at them when Sky's engineer doesn't turn up, and they will - hopefully - then pull some strings with more senior people than you'd get to speak to.

However, this does rather beg the question about where regulation should stop. If Ofcom thinks it's appropriate to deem one business less biased than another, how long is it before Offruit starts challenging your local greengrocer for selling you "best apples". Heaven forbid he should start to do so in pounds and ounces. If only there were a regulator for people selling trellis: it could be called Offence.

Nonetheless, the regulator's zeal does mean that Simplifydigital has had to jump through some pretty big hoops to get its accreditation: the firm's proprietary software compares all the various combinations of packages offered by Freeview, Tiscali (now part of TalkTalk), Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, BT, Setanta, TopupTV, AOL, and Orange broadband, and then matches the right combination to your specific requirements. You can sign up online, or phone the firm's experts for more information.

All this sounds great and, indeed, a consumer who needed such a service would have to be crackers not to give Simplifydigital a chance. But the fact that the website exists at all is a symptom of one of technology's great ills. Loads of companies offer loads of services, and some have genuinely excellent ideas when it comes to TV, phone packages and the like - but they're largely pretty rubbish at telling the public about them. Ironically, the people who make mobile phones are not great communicators.

That's why your DVD player's menu system might as well be in Portuguese, the TV loses the plot whenever Freeview adds a channel, and my over-designed pepper mill won't let me change the batteries without spraying the kitchen with peppercorns.

Why, then, don't Sony, Panasonic and the rest get someone who doesn't speak geek to properly road-test their TVs before they're marketed to the public? Is the problem to do with arrogance, or is it to do with economics? Much as I'd like to say the former, the latter's more likely to be the case, and it probably explains why everything made by Apple is priced at levels that are often "aspirational".

So here's a challenge to all the technology companies which struggle to explain what their products actually do: if you think people should buy your TV because it's "full HD" then you should tell them what that means in real life, and also that the naked eye can scarcely discern the difference between the two types of high-definition currently knocking about. If your broadband is cheaper with a phone bundle but you have to add in line rental from BT, then be honest about it.

Until such levels of service appear, any growth in sales will be limited to people drawn in by facile advertising and consequently rather likely to leave you.

Every consumer will be hoping for more services such as Simplifydigital to work out what's best for them - but the fact that they're so necessary is a damning indictment of technology companies' contempt for their customers.


"Don't be a digital dunce"
The Telegraph 27th February 2008

With broadband costs falling and the television "digital switchover" already under way, shopping around for the best TV and communications deal can save you hundreds of pounds each year.

If you throw your home phone into the mix too there are more than 530,000 possible product combinations to choose from - baffling for even the most tech-savvy consumer.

But help is at hand from a new service that claims to demystify the process of picking the best digital TV, broadband and phone products. Simplifydigital (simplifydigital.co.uk) offers expert consultations over the phone and goes one step further than online switching services.

Most price comparison websites simply list the headline bundled deals from a number of suppliers but Simplifydigital is different in that it will combine services from different suppliers to get you the most appropriate package, whether or not the elements are all from the same provider.

For example, your consultant might recommend that a Freeview box will meet your TV needs but that you sign up with TalkTalk for broadband and home phone.

Alternatively, if you want a wider choice of TV channels, the consultant might suggest that a TV, broadband and phone bundle from Sky would be a better option.

Charlie Ponsonby, the head of Simplifydigital, says there are savings to be made by bundling but the real trick is finding the right bundle to match your needs.

"Until now there has been no place to go for impartial advice as to which one to take, which is exactly what our digital experts specialise in. With our help finding the best bundle, we could certainly put money back in people's pockets," he says.

"The falling cost of broadband coupled with ever-increasing competition in the digital TV market means it's vital that families do their research in order to get the perfect package."  As with online comparison services, Simplifydigital earns commission from the companies whose products it sells - although it claims that this does not influence what is recommended. Its consultants can also book installations and sell Freeview boxes and televisions.

However, doubts have been raised about exactly how impartial the service is. Although it has the majority of providers on its database there are still a few key broadband suppliers - such as O2, Be and Tiscali (now part of TalkTalk) - missing, although Ponsonby says they will be included in "two or three weeks'time".

He adds that there are still meetings to be held before BT Vision can be added to the list of TV services.

"Until you list every single tariff from every single internet service provider, TV and home phone provider in Britain I don't see how it's possible to say you are completely impartial," says Michael Phillips of rival service BroadbandChoices.co.uk.
"Also, bundled deals offered by the "big two" - TalkTalk and Sky - will always work out to be cheapest for customers.

These bundles are already listed on comparison sites such as BroadbandChoices, uSwitch.com and moneysupermarket.com and consumers have the added benefit of seeing on the screen how they compare with other products. Because TalkTalk and Sky both add broadband at no extra cost it's impossible to save money by debundling."

Phillips also questions how commercially successful Simplifydigital will be, given that SimplySwitch, a rival telephone-based advice service, closed down last month because it wasn't making enough money.

Ponsonby hits back by pointing out that some people may not be able to get Sky or the cheapest TalkTalk products because of where they live. TalkTalk's cheapest products rely on the company having installed its own equipment at the local BT exchange while Sky dishes are not allowed on some properties.

"Also, it's not just about getting the cheapest deal but finding the products that best meet an individual's or family's requirements for TV, broadband and phone," says Ponsonby."By searching our database of 530,000 different product combinations we can find the products that deliver the best benefits and value."

By 2012 everyone who watches TV will need some kind of digital service. Between now and then, Britain's analogue TV signal is being switched off region by region and replaced with a digital signal - the "digital switchover".
Any TV set not converted to digital when the switchover takes place will no longer receive TV programmes.

"Just one in five people fully understands all the ways to stay switched on when their signal goes digital," says Steve Weller of uSwitch.com, the price comparison website.

"In fact, homes can stay tuned in via a digital box, satellite dish, cable or landline."

The cheapest way to get digital TV is via a Freeview box, which can be picked up for as little as £20, but expect to pay upwards of £100 if you want one that can record, pause and rewind live TV. You get around 40 channels, including all the terrestrial ones, news and children's channels. But if you want Sky Sports or Sky Movies, other entertainment channels or pay-on-demand services you will need to sign up to a cable, satellite or broadband TV package.

Before you decide which one to go for it is a good idea to check which services are available in your area. A government-backed website, www.digitaluk.co.uk, has a postcode checker that allows householders to check which services they can receive. Virgin Media is now Britain's only cable provider; it covers just over half the country.

It recently announced that it will be increasing its top broadband speed to 50Mb and raising the speeds on some of its bundles at no extra charge. Virgin offers packages made up of digital TV, home phone and broadband. There is also an option to bundle in a mobile - something not yet included on Simplifydigital's database.

One way the service does prove useful, however, is in its knowledge of which providers offer which channels and the channels that show specific programmes or sporting events. If, for example, you want to watch the French Open tennis championship and Lost, the cult TV show, the database will return only results that include Eurosport and Sky One.

For comedy fans the search will come up with packages that include Paramount Comedy. Sky offers the most extensive choice of channels and its TV service can be bundled with broadband and phone deals. However, it works via a satellite dish attached to your property - something that those who live in flats and certain other buildings might not be allowed. If you can't get or don't want Sky or Virgin, most people should be able to get a broadband TV service from either BT or Tiscali (now part of TalkTalk). Broadband is provided via the phone line in the normal way and connects to your TV through either a wired or wireless connection.

While these services don't have the choice of channels offered by Virgin or Sky, they are generally cheaper and also have some pay-on-demand content. If you want to organise your broadband independently of your TV service you will need a BT phone line; you pay the line rental either to BT or to a provider that offers a "one bill" solution for phone and broadband.

There is plenty of choice. If you are an O2 mobile customer on a contract you can get 8Mb broadband for just £7.50 a month. Other good deals include those from TalkTalk, which offers free broadband with its call packages, and Orange, which bundles broadband and free evening and weekend phone calls for £12 a month.

Before you switch it is a good idea to give your existing provider a call. If they know you are thinking of leaving they will often offer a better price - often one that isn't advertised - to persuade you to stay.

Case study: 'an amazing service'

Kathleen O'Neill, 57, a care worker from Doncaster, called Simplifydigital when she wanted to order broadband for the first time.

She says: "I had a BT phone line and a Freeview box but I got a computer in October so I needed broadband. I was confused by all the offers and had heard horror stories about some companies - different people were telling me different things."

Kathleen's brother had spoken to Simplifydigital so on his advice she gave the service a call. "I spoke to a very nice young man and he went through everything with me. Then he sent a consultation in the post and called me again to see what I thought."

She signed up for a phone and broadband package with Orange costing £12 a month and decided to continue using her Freeview box for TV.

"I was absolutely delighted with the service from Simplifydigital," says Kathleen. "As well as having broadband, my phone bill is cheaper now and I also have an answer service and caller ID.

"After it was installed Luis from Simplifydigital called me to check it had all gone okay - they gave me an amazing service."


The Observer Q&A 15th June 2008

Q. Now that everyone from my TV company to my broadband provider is gunning for my business, I don't know how to choose the best digital deal for me. All I want is Premiership football, basic internet and free UK evening calls, but how do I know I'm not being ripped off?

A. Have a look at Simplifydigital. This aptly named company does exactly what it says on the tin, leaving you with the piece of mind that you aren't paying over the odds. Just log on, enter your requirements and your postcode, and that's it - all the options relevant to you will be displayed on screen with the cheapest at the top. If you're a picky customer, you can tailor-make your own package. And if you really want to get everything you can from this website, then once you've decided they'll even book it for you.


"Go a bundle on TV, phone and web"
Daily Mirror 23rd February 2008

Failing to go a "bundle" on digital TV, broadband and phone services may be costing you £160 a year. With existing "analogue" soon to be switched off we're all being forced to make decisions about how we'll get digital TV in future. Instead of giving us straight choices, most firms offer a bewildering packages that bundle digital TV with phone and/or broadband internet deals. At the latest count there are over 530,000 possible packages on offer from providers that include BT, Sky, Freeview, TalkTalk and Virgin. Two ex-Sky TV executives have just set up Simplifydigital, a company that offers advice on which package best suits your needs. They claim you can save £160 a year by choosing a service that Bundles together at least two out of digital TV, telephone and broadband.