Knowing which broadband provider is the best is difficult. But thankfully there are many places that you can get broadband reviews which give you a good idea of where to start.

If your broadband provider has an award in one of Simplifydigital's recommended award and review sites, you can bet they must be a good broadband provider and it would be worth considering having them on board as your broadband ISP.

Here are Simplifydigital's recommended reviews and awards to look at:

Which? Best Buy Recommendation

Which? is one of the UK's best known reviewers. It has reviews on many consumer products from books to broadband.

Which? 
- is recommended by more than 18,000 users
- rates over 130 broadband services from 30 Internet Service Providers
- is fully endorsed by the Consumer's Association

Which? also offers great broadband reviews and include the unique Which? Best Buy and Don't Buy reviews. The Which? Best Buy review focuses on over 23 different broadband packages recommended by Which? The Which? Don't Buy reviews are self explanatory really. These reviews include 29 broadband packages that Which? thinks you should avoid.

In 2009 O2 came out top of the customer satisfaction polls with a 97 per cent customer satisfaction rating whilst AOL and Orange were given the unwanted 'Don't Buy' award due to a low 31 per cent customer satisfaction rating.

Which? rates broadband ISPs on overall satisfaction, ease of setup, broadband speed & reliability, value for money, and customer service & support. So everything is covered!

uSwitch Award

The uSwitch Broadband Customer Satisfaction Report separates the very best from the very worst of broadband providers. There are eleven categories, including best value for money, best technical support and best overall customer satisfaction.

In the 2009 uSwitch Broadband Customer Satisfaction Report, uSwitch found that newer broadband providers faired better over their more established rivals. O2 was found to be the best, it won 9 out of the eleven awards and achieved the highest level of customer satisfaction.

The 2009 report also found that 54 per cent of broadband customers surveyed didn't think they were getting the best out of their broadband deals.

uSwitch Awards
- are the annual key benchmark for the broadband industry
- YouGov carries out an online survey of over 12,000 broadband respondents - covers adults of all ages, socio-economic groups and regions of Britain
- respondents answer questions including: what aspects of a broadband package were important to them, whether they would recommend their provider to a friend, and whether they thought their provider gave them good value for money.

BroadbandChoices Award

The Broadbandchoices Award surveys more than 1,000 people on opinions of their broadband provider. In 2009 the award found O2 Broadband the overall winner, taking six categories in customer satisfaction it was also voted as best overall provider.

The six categories that Broadbandchoices looks at are quality & reliability, clarity of pricing & billing, good value for money, download times of files and web pages, after sales support and speed of service activation.

Plusnet Broadband came second in the 2009 awards followed by Sky Broadband. Virgin Media came in at forth place with the award for most improved ISP.

Broadband bundle packages are also rated and in 2009 Sky Broadband won the top award with Virgin Media second and TalkTalk Broadband being voted as best value for money in the category.

Broadbandchoices
- has a valid measure of relative broadband performance which is run every six months
- its online survey covers over 4,200 households

MacUser Award

The MacUser Awards are one of the most important events in the Mac industry today.
The MacUser Awards review the best of the best products for Mac users. Eleven of the awards are voted for by readers of MacUser Magazine. The 2009 event took place at London Zoo and its award for broadband ISP of the year went to Virgin Media Broadband with BT Broadband being highly commended. BT and Virgin Media were in competition with O2 Broadband, Sky Broadband and Zen Internet in the same group.

The MacUser Awards
- offer a key broadband award focused specifically on Mac user's needs and experiences
- are voted for by thousands of MacUser magazine readers
- focuse specifically on measures such as: Mac compatibility, high level of Mac technical support and ease of set up using a Mac computer.

ISPA Award

The ISPAs are the UK's internet industry awards. ISPA have been handing out awards at their glittering ceremony since 1999.
ISPA stands for Internet Service Providers Association and you can bet any broadband provider worth considering will be featured in these prestigious awards.

Category titles in the ISP Division for the 2009 awards included Best Consumer Fixed Broadband ISP and Best Consumer Mobile Broadband ISP.

The 2009 winners for Best Consumer Fixed Broadband ISP were O2 Broadband and Best Consumer Mobile Broadband ISP went to Vodafone Mobile Broadband.

The ISPA
- is the official UK internet industry body
- ISPA awards are allocated by a panel of experts following specialist testing of the broadband services technical performance
- is very well regarded in the industry.