Phone line down - how can I get broadband??

alstemp

Hi all - last weekend the storm took down the phone line in our road.  Won't be fixed by BT until early next week.  Leaves us with no landline or broadband/WiFi.  Is there a gadget I can buy as an interim to get broadband?  Ideally to power x3 laptops for working from home (2 students and one mum) plus smart TV.    

Don't have a suitable smartphone to use as a hotspot.

Broadband provider is Sky.

Any ideas hugely welcome.  Kids about to implode with no wifi!  

MorningcoffeeIV

Buy or even borrow a cheap smartphone.and stick a suitable SIM in it. 

QrizB

alstemp said:

Hi all - last weekend the storm took down the phone line in our road.  Won't be fixed by BT until early next week.  Leaves us with no landline or broadband/WiFi.  Is there a gadget I can buy as an interim to get broadband?  Ideally to power x3 laptops for working from home (2 students and one mum) plus smart TV.   

How are the mobile networks in your area?

The one-month "unlimited" contract with Three will cost £26pm plus £39 for the device:
https://www.three.co.uk/store/broadband/mobile-broadband/huawei/4g-plus-mifi

That's quite a lot for a week's internet, but I guess it all depends how much trouble your kids will be in the meantime.

Alternatively, do you have a neighbour who will give you their wifi details?

matelodave

I'm guessing that id the phone line in the street has gone down then your neighbours dont have internet either (unless they are Virgin subscribers)
The only answer is to get something like a mobile phone or mifi unit to use as a wifi hotspot using the 4g mobile phone network depending on how good the networks are in your area. TBH by the time you've got it all sorted out your phone line might be back up and working again, especially if you have to try a couple of networks to get one that works in your location. 

Get a one month contract or even a paygo sim, however bear in mind that mobile data can get very expensive unless you can get an unlimited one month deal such as QrizB suggests.

HaroldWhistler

alstemp said:

Hi all - last weekend the storm took down the phone line in our road.  Won't be fixed by BT until early next week.  Leaves us with no landline or broadband/WiFi.  Is there a gadget I can buy as an interim to get broadband?  Ideally to power x3 laptops for working from home (2 students and one mum) plus smart TV.    

Don't have a suitable smartphone to use as a hotspot.

Broadband provider is Sky.

Any ideas hugely welcome.  Kids about to implode with no wifi!  

1. Check which mobile network (Vodafone, O2, Three, EE) has a high quality (at least "very strong" 4G indoors) signal at the property.
2. Consider a provider which uses the same underlying network (e.g. Lebara use Vodafone, Tesco Mobile use O2, Smarty use Three etc) and look for a SIM only fixed price, rolling monthly deal with Unlimited Data.
3. Either buy (one off cost) a Home Router with a SIM option which will work just like a regular BT/Sky broadband router and stick the SIM into that. Or alternatively, buy (one off cost) an unlocked little 4G Mifi device (they are around £30-40 usually at Currys/Amazon) and stick the SIM in. The Mifis are cheaper and provide a strong signal usually within a smaller area.  
4. You could also buy two or three Mifi devices (and SIMs) if that worked better. Mifis are mobile and can be taken anywhere nationwide to act as a hotspot providing Wifi. 
5. Perhaps keep a rolling 4G SIM as a backup with the Mifi device you bought. So long as they have charge (like a phone), you can just turn them on and connect immediately. 

Generally speaking, a 4G signal might actually provide better speeds than copper based FTTC broadband, albeit with slightly more latency. FTTP broadband though will usually be fastest, lowest latency and most reliable. 

You can also buy a phone instead of a Mifi device, but generally speaking, it's simpler/more user friendly to use and instantly connect to a Mifi hotspot (which tend to have decent battery life as well) than messing about with the inner workings of a smartphone's settings to change it to tether mode.