Recommended DSL provider for Premiership football

Ok here is that topic again, I've just moved into a new apartment and I'm going to be getting dsl. The main thing I want it for is to watch some english premiership football. Here are a list of my questions:-

1) I need to contact Deutsche Telekom firstly to get the telephone line connected, and then I must pay them about €13's a month, correct?

2) Once I have a line, then I contact the service provider (1und1, tiscali...) so they can install dsl for me.

3) As I want to watch the football that is streamed from china I was thinking that I need the fastest internet connection possible, maybe I should go for the 16,000 kbits from 1und1, or is this overkill? I'm sure the rate the data is sent is much slower, or maybe it will get quicker, so I should try to be future proof?

4) Should I go for 1und1?

5) I heard when you have a mobile phone contract and you leave the country, you can cancel it more or less straight away? Can you cancel dsl in the same way?

Most of the providers now do not do this seperately, you have to get the DSL connection and the account all in one. Although the advertisements do not show this, you have to look at the small print.

As for which one, I know people with Freenet, Arcor and I have T-Online, all are very similar in price, etc. So would recommend you just pick the cheapest at this point in time, and go for it. 1und1 is really pushing the ADSL2 at the moment, and if my company did not pay for my DSL connection I would consider moving to ADSL2, but as mine is payed for, I think I'm staying with T-Online 1Mb.

Apart from the full-service providers like Alice or Arcor, the cheaper ISPs such as Tiscali and 1und1 will only add (or replace) DSL to an existing phone line, usually from Telekom. Telekom will arrange a line quickly (as they own the cables anyway) - typically 3-5 working days. The others can take 4-6 weeks (because they need to negotiate ownership of the line with Telekom). 16Mbit is currently a bit of a myth in many areas. Although 1und1 are marketing it, they are not able to provide it in many locations yet. They'll lock you into their fastest offering (typically 6Mbit) until they can provide anything better, if ever. Telekom will begin their roll-out of ADSL2+ (ie. 16Mbit or faster) in the next couple of months. If you are not in a rush it may be wise to wait for this, as prices will begin to fall. Note any contract you begin now may lock you in for 12-24 months as prices around you fall and speeds increase.

Expect to pay from €15.95 a month for the phone line (analogue), €16.99 upwards for DSL-1000, and €5-10 a month for flatrate access. Arcor/Alice/etc might have cheaper total packages, but there are downsides - you have to wait longer for the line, may need additional equipment (Arcor only have ISDN), m ight have to lock yourself in for 12-24 months and may find yourself locked out of cheaper phone call ("call-by-call" services, e.g. abroad). Note also you may also have to pay a one-time connection charge of up to €150 for all services.

YL6

Might be interesting what you call full-service providers. Friend of mine recently got Freenet, and had to take everything, just the DSL was not an option. So which do which ?

"Full-Service" = Phone+DSL+Internet access.
Freenet is not full service. They only provide Internet access provision, but buy the DSL element from Telekom on a bulk-purchase deal and re-sell it to their customers as a condition of service purchase. They actually make around €5 a month on this element, hence their ability to appear to sell the access provision so cheaply. The downside is that if you have a problem you need to report it to Freenet first, who then have to report on to Telekom to get it fixed (if, indeed it's a DSL problem in the first place), so downtime can be (much) longer than having a direct Telekom DSL service...

YL6

...buy sky tv... streaming coverage of a UK footie match via china regardless of the connection is going to be crap. alternative to sky is go to any irish/ozzy bar and watch it there

Another question I have, can I go for slower cheaper broadband now, sign the contract, then later upgrade and sign a new contract with the provider?
Thanks everyone for joining in this discussion, Yorkshire Lad your advice was great. Scrog- that's good, but the chinese have Saturday 3pm premiership football, something that the pubs can't get.

Remember the three key elements to the service: Phone+DSL+Internet access
Most Internet access (service) providers don't pay any regard to speed, their monthly costs are the same, whatever your DSL line speed, so your actual speed is determined by the DSL line you choose. If you begin with DSL-1000, then you can simply have Telekom upgrade your line to DSL-6000 and should need to do little more to take advantage of the new speed. No contractual change with your ISP is required. In actual fact, some of the earlier service provisions were actually throttled back to your chosen line speed, but usually a phone call suffices to remove the brakes. Remember, however, that Telekom at least charge €49.95 for any linespeed change, and that the higher speeds are not available in all areas...

YL6