Alternative to BT???

AdrianHi

3G mobile broadband is pretty shoddy compared to a fixed line service (cable or BT phone line).
There are ways to do it though.
Her is an idea that works, I have this mobile phone.
About £22.50 a month on O2 contract £7.50 of which is for "unlimited" (i.e. fair usage policy applies) gets you a Nokia 5800. Install a piece of software called Joki on it and you turn it into a wireless hub which you can use to give any wireless computer 3G internet access.
I'm sure there are other phones, especialy Nokia's where the same thing could be done.

No one mention satelite broadband. Costs are a bit dodgey, best package I know of is £800 for equipment and installation with 1.2GB a month downloads for £30 a month.

Once you have any kind of broadband connection there are always IP phones and SIP services like SIPGate which can reduce your call costs. 1p per minute flat rate anywhere in the UK anytime is what I pay for my SIPGate service.

Streeet

Transfer across to Tiscali. Option 1.
You pay £14.99 per month which includes your line rental, 8Mb download, free weekend calls.

or.. Look at Sky HD package. £26.25 / month gets you
TV, Phone and broadband and includes the first years line rental.

Swindon_Baggie

Hi

Just been through this same-ish thing. Moved into a new home, bit of a nightmare, as no Talk Talk connections available at the exchange and BT wanted nearly £50pcm all in.

For Non Cable / Satalite / Mobile Broadband you need a phone line. (DSL or ADSL)

You can have the line through BT, or through a LLU (Local Loop Unbundle).

Through BT it is £11.25 Line rental a month and X per month for broadband.

If your exchange is 'unbundled' (search google for samknows) then you can use another service provider (Talk Talk, Orange, O2). This is where the really good deals come from.

If your exchange is not unbundled, or the unbundled supplier has exceeded there available connections at your exchange, then you will need what is effectively a BT line, where you pay line rental to a third party.

Talk Talk, Orange, O2 and Sky do these, the standard 'if you are not within our connection area' rubbish. However the Post office at £24 a month seems to be a good price (£5 to £10 pcm cheaper than all the others I checked), and who I am with currently.

If you look on eBay, there are mobile broadband sim cards where a £5 or £10 top up gets you a 'fair usage' data allowance. You plug this into a mobile data modem, that is internal to your pc/laptop or connected through the pcmcia or usb ports on your computer, and if there is mobile signal you get connection.

BTW, fair usage on a mobile contract would be about 2 - 5Gb a month. Not much, both Vodafone and 3 do a good 'how much data do I need' checker. I got my new modem through Martins recent 3 dongle 4 free post.:money:

There are also Cable (Virgin) and satellite options, or if you live next door to a MacDonald's, Starbucks or JD weatherspoons, free wifi!

So at the moment, I pay £24 odd to post office for home line and broadband, £5 to 3 for when I am on site or in client meetings, and then £35 pcm on my mobile (with its data package). I must be mad:o. I must really need internet!

As always, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary):rolleyes:

Swindon_Baggie

FYI

Do not use your mobile as a wifi base point that AdrianHi mentions.

The data allowance for a mobile phone 'unlimited data' package is actually only about 500mb or .5Gb per month, and each mb after that could cost you up to £10. (Yes its cheaper to send a floppy disk special delivery)

This is 'fair usage' and fair usage for a mobile and a pc are 2 completely different things in the eyes of the mobile networks.

If you do want to bend over, then most mobiles with 3G and Wifi, e.g. N96 can be used in this way.

Half an hour of iplayer is 600mb.