Since it is already widely known that around £1 in every £7 spent in the UK goes into the tills at Tesco, it is no surprise that the retail giant is looking at winning a share of the home broadband market. Tesco has had success as the provider of mobile telephone services for several years now and recently expanded its portfolio of products with the addition of mobile broadband, but it is clear that there is more to come.

Having opened the doors to mobile broadband customers a year ago it has offered many competitive deals and began giving away free laptops with its longer contracts in mid 2009. Now Tesco will be adding its name and branding to home broadband in what could be an extremely lucrative step for the company if it is handled correctly.

As with its mobile phone and mobile broadband services, Tesco will be piggybacking on the networks and infrastructure of another firm in order to offer home broadband to customers. In this instance it is Cable and Wireless who will supply the service, putting Tesco in direct competition with the many BT broadband deals that are currently available.

Tesco is allegedly hoping to take advantage of the market sentiment highlighted in recent surveys in which significant customer grievances appear to be associated with many of the mainstream home broadband providers. With many customers looking to switch from their existing providers to greener pastures, there is a real chance for Tesco to tap into a disgruntled market that seems to be in need of a change as well as a good deal or two on home broadband.

The addition of Tesco home broadband to the marketplace can only be a good thing. The price of BT broadband deals should fall across the board if Tesco adopts its usual aggressive pricing strategies.

According to a broadband expert, it is unlikely that fixed line broadband connections will ever be replaced or superseded by the mobile broadband alternatives. The comments were made by Edd Dawson, the editor of a UK broadband specialist site, although Dawson is not alone in questioning the viability and sustainability of mobile broadband services.

The reasoning behind the argument is that consumers will continue to purchase mobile broadband only as a supplementary connection to their existing fixed line service. This is because mobile broadband costs are comparatively higher than fixed line equivalents, whilst real speeds have been revealed in a recent survey to be far lower than most manufacturers are willing to admit.

Dawson likens the continued relevance of home broadband to the fate of desktop PCs, which in the face of stiff competition from laptops and netbooks are still managing to sell well. Laptops, like mobile broadband, are considered to be ideal for casual and occasional use, but not as a replacement for a powerful desktop PC with a fast home broadband connection.

It is believed that the same theory can be applied across the whole spectrum of users, with home owners as well as businesses sticking with the reliability and availability of fixed line broadband whilst complimenting this connection with the roaming capabilities of mobile broadband.

The future of mobile broadband as a primary connection has been further brought into question due to the wider availability of cheap cable broadband in the UK. Cable has several advantages over both ADSL and mobile broadband and with its faster and more consistent connection speeds it is likely to continue to grow in popularity.

Cheap cable broadband may also become more widely available as BT develops its fibre networks, in competition with the current kings of cable, Virgin Media.

The future is, of course, hard to predict as anyone who remembers similar reservations directed at car phones in the 1980s will attest.

Increased competition from alternative broadband providers has triggered BT to jump on the bundle-deal bandwagon. The telecoms giant will be offering new customers the chance to sign up to several of its home broadband and landline phone packages with the incentive of 3 months free. This is in response to the widespread market acceptance of similar deals from providers such as Virgin Mobile. Virgin recently offered customers 2 months free service and it seems that BT is determined to go one better in its attempt to win back previous subscribers.

BT will be offering the deal in partnership with its Starter home broadband package, which integrates the home phone service with inclusive weekend calls to UK landline numbers and a subscription to the BT Vision digital TV service. Customers will be provided with free equipment including the BT home hub, as well as free internet security software.

It is expected that the extended BT broadband options which fall under the terms of this offer will not be available for too long. As such, consumers are being encouraged to sign up before Christmas if they wish to make the most of the limited time offer. In line with common industry practice, the multiple services included in this package require a minimum contractual term of 18 months and there is line rental to pay on top of the monthly package price.

Incentives such as reduced monthly costs, as well as the lure of bundle deals, have significantly changed the way in which broadband has been marketed and sold in recent months. BT broadband options which include broadband, home phone and digital TV in a single monthly package offer the consumer potentially significant savings whilst giving BT more control over multiple services. The added convenience of having to deal with a single provider when issues arise is another key selling point of home broadband bundles.