BT Total Broadband- pros & cons

peawack

Is it worth taking up the offer of a FREE BT home hub to connect wirelessly ?
I already get virus and spyware protection, I don,t have a laptop to use in the ' thousands of hotspots around the UK. I don't even have a web cam for free video calls. There are free evening and weekend calls on BT Broadband Talk. Is that like Skype ?

But I might be interested in TV and video on demand(BT Vision) coming later this year.
They say I will get £2 reduction on my existing monthly charge.

Any advice- have I missed anything ?

Theo_Cupier

BT Vision will use regular Freeview (through an aerial) for regular TV. It will then let you download other 'pay per view' content, such as movies and sports.

For things like movies it will be quite expensive because it is also going to send you a DVD hardcopy of the film as well as the download.

At worst (best?) it is a cheap way of getting a Freeview box with hard drive recording (PVR) since I don't think you will pay for the box.

BT Broadband talk is like Skype in that it is VOIP (phones down the internet) and not regular telephony. We have BB Talk - not as part of Total BB - and it is not the most reliable service in the world, but it does give is free daytime, evening and weekend calls for £5/month. I think the tradeoff is just about worth it, Mrs Cupier does not agree so much. She expects to be able to pick up the phone and have it work.

Also BB Talk is a little confusing, you end up with some phones in the house being conventional phones, some being BB Talk phones and - if you are not careful - you end up picking up the wrong phone to make a call and discovering it wasn't on your free call plan.

If you're not going to use the wireless internet package then maybe try to get just BB Talk without the Total package (or wait for Vision if you think you'll use the PPV stuff)

peawack

Thanks Theo,
It's odds against my bothering at all now as I already have an integrated digital tuner on my television, and I use Skype to call a few friends when necessary. I suppose the idea of the free hub was attracting me ! Also the idea of wireless internet, (my OH would allow my monitor back into the living room that way).

Cheers