Do we need to pay the prices we do for phone and broadband

littletimeleft

I asked this question of myself because of a recent issue with my Phone/Broadband supplier and I thought it may be of interest to some people to hear what I found whilst considering the following

- How much do I use my landline compared to the broadband bundled with my present service
- What is the maximum number of landline calls I make each month (over the last 2 years)
- What is the maximum cumulative time used for those calls in any given month
- What do I use the Broadband for
- How much data do I use up (down+up) in a month
- What speed do I really need when I use the broadband.

Once I had figured all this out I concluded that the service I had was not really the best solution offering the following;

- Unlimited broadband at the maximum speed the line would take up to 18Mb/s (in my case it averaged 0.5Mb/s due to location)
- Unlimited UK calls to landline and mobile numbers (excluding the usual premium, 08 and 09 numbers)
- The ability to make calls using my Smartphone from anywhere in the country where there is 'real wifi' (not hotspot or customer connections) with these calls being charged to my landline account (ie were free except for premium etc).

The cost? £ 35 per month.

My analysis showed that I needed better than 0.5Mb/s speed, but never used more than 30 - 35 GB of data a month,
The time spend on all landline calls never exceeded 1000 minutes in any given month.
I only used the 'wifi' facility for calls a handful of times over the last 2 years.

So I have decided to change my strategy and am trialling a set-up that gives me:

- Broadband speeds up to 30Mb/s with a monthly usage limit of 40GB
- Up to 5000 minutes of calls, 5000 texts and a further 12MB of data at speeds up to 30Mb/s
- The ability to use both these facilities anywhere in the country.

The cost £30 per month (with a £49 initial outlay).

This solution utilises 2 different Mobile solutions which give me
- unrestricted wifi access from anywhere in the house (with no Tethering restrictions)
- the ability to answer phone calls anywhere in the house from a number of different Dect handsets.
- the ability to use the service anywhere in the country
- the ability to take the service and contact numbers with me when I move.

So having analysed my usage and considered my needs I have ended up with a much more flexible package which suits my needs better, is £5 per month cheaper and save me a further £15 per month as it has also eliminated my need of a separate mobile phone contract.

Result!!!

[Deleted User]

If your mobile signal is good enough indoors then it's a good solution for yourself at least. Can I ask what it is you're using?

littletimeleft

The mobile signal is useless indoors actually.

So what I did was got a 'trial' of a wifi 4G router that I put in the attic where the signal was reasonable - the wifi then distributes the signal.

For the 'house phone' I put a 'spare' mobile in the attic which uses a device to connect to the house phone to distribute the call around the house.

I will post fuller details later (just off out on hospital appointment), but in the meantime , for those with a weak signal in the house, check how good it is in the attic, mine went from nothing in the house to 3 bars on 4G in the attic

[Deleted User]

littletimeleft wrote: »

The mobile signal is useless indoors actually.

So what I did was got a 'trial' of a wifi 4G router that I put in the attic where the signal was reasonable - the wifi then distributes the signal.

For the 'house phone' I put a 'spare' mobile in the attic which uses a device to connect to the house phone to distribute the call around the house.

I will post fuller details later (just off out on hospital appointment), but in the meantime , for those with a weak signal in the house, check how good it is in the attic, mine went from nothing in the house to 3 bars on 4G in the attic

Ahh, that's cool.