Moving House - What Internet Do I Get?

Robin_TBW

Hello all,

I'm purchasing my first property next week and have started thinking about what internet to get installed, thinking that worst-comes-to-worst I'll just get Virgin Media 100 or 200 Mb Broadband and it'll be fine... well, it turns out I can't as either they don't provide it in my area or the fibre is fully subscribed in the area (probably the latter - it's a popular area).

So... What do I do? I'm currently working from home daily, then after work I spend a lot of time online, whether streaming or gaming, one or both are rolling at the same time so I really don't want to settle on some basic crap and to struggle at a later date.

I've seen people buying routers and putting SIM cards in and running some super high speeds but I've no idea where to start with that so I'm a bit lost at really what to do.

Thanks for any help.

DCFC79

Have you had a look as to what your neighbours have ?
On Virgins site you can see if they cover your area.

Here you go
https://www.virginmedia.com/postcode-checker#postcode-field

Yes you can get a mobile 4G/5G router and put a data sim in it but choose a sim from a network withthe best coverage.

MovingForwards

Virgin isn't in my area and I opted for Plusnet. I also work from home with almost daily meetings, my OH is a gamer, streams while I'm working and we watch Netflix evenings / weekends. Both of our phones are run off WiFi, as is my tablet and the work set up.

Only had a problem once and the engineer fixed it the following morning. 

Maybe see what is in your new area before writing everything off as substandard.

littleboo

As above, have you checked what's available from the Openreach providers? Gaming and streaming doesn't automatically that you need >100Mbps speeds.

giraffe69

We are in a village and have (of course) no Virgin coverage and a limited number of other ISPs. There is almost no phone signal so reliant on wifi calling. Both of us work from home so Zoom meetings and the like. Plenty of TV streaming, no gaming though and the BT fibre option with a speed of 74Mb is quite adequate and reliable.

matelodave

In the end all you can get is what is available in  your specific location.

If Virgin don't cover your area then you cant have it, If Openreach don't have a decent service then it really doesn't matter who you go with because they all use some or all of the OR infrastructure in some shape or form. The speed you can get is dependant on the distance you are either from the exchange or the cabinet.

4g is a possibilty if you've got decent service but may be more variable as wireless systems are subject to more external influences than wired services - even the weather or how many leaves are on the trees, so you could end up with a decent service in the winter which deteriorates in the summer. Even you Wifi indoors is also subject to external interference and coverage so in the end you have to "suck it and see"

We also live in a rural location and up to two years ago the best we could get was just under 2mbit/s. The bloke up the road paid a lot for a satellite system but we've been lucky and had FTTP in 2018 and can now get right up to 900Mbit/s if we want, although I'm more that satisfied with 76

Mister_G

OP - Have a look at the BT website to see what Openreach can provide at your location.  Ideally the phone number is best, but if you don't have that then use the address checker.

BT Broadband (btwholesale.com)

J_B

Mister_G said:

OP - Have a look at the BT website to see what Openreach can provide at your location.  Ideally the phone number is best, but if you don't have that then use the address checker.

BT Broadband (btwholesale.com)

Sorry, I'm not the OP, but just tried this and came up with these results which are a little confusing as at the top for FTTP on demand it says "available", but at the bottom of the page it says FTTP is not available.

That's not really clear to me 🤔

matelodave

There's a difference between FTTP on demand and straightforward FTTP

AFAIK FTTP "on demand" is where you can get it but have to pay for the installation cost because it hasn't been already set-up in the area for general offering.

Where I live fibre is installed along the whole road between the poles and there are connectorised optical termination units at the top into which they can just plug the drop cables which makes it readily available to anyone who wants it.

Robin_TBW

I'm just a bit disappointed is all. I don't know a LOT about broadband details but I generally know enough to get by and basically it seems I can get any of the 60-75Mb services from BT, TalkTalk etc. but all of their 100MB+ stuff isn't available in my area. I'm not even out of town or anything, the place is just off of a small high street and less than an hour walk into the city centre. Just want to see a way forward into those 100Mb+ speeds in future I guess. I don't want to settle for something crap and not be able to do the things I enjoy comfortably.

littleboo

Are you the only occupant? Most households get along fine with the speeds available to you.