suggestions re broadband etc

mhoc

We seem to be going round and around with this one so any suggestions would be helpful.

daughter and bf now have a flat and want broadband and sky, just basic level.

Daughter just does a bit of surfing, emails, facebook and a bit of minimal downloading but BF has x box so needs it for gaming.

They dont need a landline and really dont want to pay for a landline as they both have mobiles, both on orange. Free evening and weekend calls would be useless extra because they dont have an ordinary plug in the wall phone.

They are living in a city with good coverage from all the usual suppliers. Virgin have fibre optics in other parts but not close to them I think

Trying to figure out wether it would be just cheaper for them to get a freeview box and dongles. Or wether the dongles would be too expensive because if the gaming???

Also the contracts are very long, 18 months so can they take the contracts with them if they move in 6 months

bod1467

Dongles are likely no use if gaming is required. So if Virgin fibre is not available then they'll have NO CHOICE other than to get the landline activated - there's no other realistic way to get broadband.

billsavings

If they can get Virgin Cable Broadband Only

Your looking at £49.95 connection and £16 line rental for 3 months then £21 a month.

One year contract.

http://shop.virginmedia.com/broadband/up-to-10mb.html

Quite a few landline/broadband combined products can beat that rental price.

See: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-broadband

cundall

yep... agree with the above... dongle is no good for gaming and if you cannot get virgin then you need a telephone line.

mhoc

Yes there are various phone points so I am assuming that there is a phone line installed. I am not sure if it has been used recently though, I suppose there must be a way to test it.

But I am thinking that if the current flat owners dont use a land line they might not even know what the assigned number is?

It would be just their luck to get their broadband sorted and then Virgin decide to extend the fibre optic into their part of the city!

I had a look at sky as this is who we are with and I found that you can pay the line rental annual for £9.99 a month. And then they could just go for £21.50 sky TV package and basic low level broadband.

There is a phone line in the bedroom. Do you have to have sky installed into the main phone line - living room or can you choose to have it installed into the bedroom. They dont really want to be paying for multi-room

macman

If there is already a physical line connection, then only a reconnection is required. Sky require the box to be connected to a active landline for the first 12m, but this term can be bought out for an additional £25 payment at sign up.

mhoc

Yes there is a phone socket in the lving room and in at least one bedroom so sky could be connected to either.

Our sky has never been connected to the phone line. I cant think why - I think it interferred too much with something ???? There is a phone line connection in the kitchen and a white socket thingy but it has never been plugged in. We had sky from the get go when it was something silly like £9.99 a month and it was a fortune

macman

It's a condition of service to connect it for the first 12m, but the installer's rarely enforce this term.