Help please. Broadband renewal anxiety

twopenny

I've been on phone line/router broadband.
Was Post Office, who sold to Octopus, who sold to Talk talk. 
Has been £18.

I only use it for play IE forums on a couple of sites. News, weather and some research. A couple of emails a month to services. Sometimes iPlayer and 3 catch-up TV sites.
Don't need high speeds. 

Looked at some comparison sites and it's all fibre.
So first 2 questions - am I going to have to get fibre installed?
What does this mean of anything installed within the house?

Second question - can I find basic broadband at low cost?
Are there still the small players?

Looking at the higher prices going even higher April and following it's frightening on a low income.

Don't think I can get back to respond until tomorrow but would appreciate some help.

Brie

You say "low income".  Does that mean you are getting at least some benefits paid?  If so you might want to query if there is any social tariff available with any provider you talk to.  

Fibre installation, as I understand it, is done by the provider not by the customer.  

Side note - other than iPlayer and possibly the news it doesn't sound like you are a TV watcher really.  Do you have a TV licence?  If you did without iPlayer then you wouldn't need to pay that £14 a month.  Just a thought to help you balance the costs.  

Vitor

 - am I going to have to get fibre installed - 

Openreach, which all the providers except Virgin Media resell, are moving everyone in Britain off copper telephone wires for broadband and onto fibre as part of 'Digital Voice'. So yes, fibre will be rolling out to everyone whether Openreach or Virgin during 2025-2027 but that shouldn't dictate the price.

- can I find basic broadband at low cost? -

These are broadband deals for people on certain benefits (e.g. Pension Credit, Universal Credit, ESA, etc). They typically offer basic but perfectly adequate broadband for £10–£20 per month, e.g.  BT Home Essentials. These do not appear on regular comparison sites. You must go directly to the provider’s website or call them.

Given your usage don't overlook the option of a 4G SIM deal with 5G to 10GB/month data (assuming you have a mobile that can provide a WiFi hotspot)

QrizB

There's a "broadband" sub-forum. You might like to ask for your thread to be moved?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/broadband-internet-access

twopenny said:

I've been on phone line/router broadband. Was Post Office, who sold to Octopus, who sold to Talk talk. 
Has been £18.

I was Shell, which became Octopus then TalkTalk. Same situation as you. I switched to Vodafone back in March.

twopenny said:

I only use it for play IE forums on a couple of sites. News, weather and some research. A couple of emails a month to services. Sometimes iPlayer and 3 catch-up TV sites.

How much iPlayer and catch-up TV?

If it's only a couple of hours a week, I agree with Vitor that a mobile broadband router might be your cheapest option. Something like this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/357388309158

Plus this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-25GB-Data-SIM-Preloaded-Pink/dp/B0DH4Z9DGD

That would be about £100 for almost two years of mobile broadband.

There's a lot of choice in this area, for both equipment and for SIMs, so do a bit of research before committing. In particular check mobile coverage for your location; for example don't buy a Three SIM if Three coverage is terrible!

Frozen_up_north

As QrigB mentioned, Scancom on Amazon have some very good data SIM prices, eg. 22 months on Three with 50 GB per month costs £70, paid in advance, no contract, throw the SIM when it stops working. That is roughly £3.19 per month. While you could pop the SIM into a spare phone and use it as a "hot spot", you really need a proper router that takes a SIM card and they can be very expensive... ideally a 5G one. Costs can be upwards of £200 for a suitable 5G router which takes the edge off using a SIM solution for broadband.

Data speeds vary significantly on mobile data, compared to fibre. But if you are near a mobile site on whatever network is strong at your home, the speed on 5G can be pretty impressive. Here I obtain up to 200 Mb/s download but equally it can drop a bit at peak times, and can become very sluggish if you have a lot of extra people in the area for events, etc. As I type this, 10pm on a Thursday, the download here on EE mobile is 93 Mb/s. Also, it is easy to use well in excess of 100 GB in a month so the cheapest of the SIM deals are not really suitable for catch up TV.

twopenny

Thanks for the information. I've completely lost touch with other methods and remember the days when I had the basic and had to keep under a limit.

No benefits. I'm one of those people who fall between the two stones, too much for benefits and income not rising with prices.
With the big companies taking over everything there's little choice for low users. 

No, my phone is calls and texts which is all I need. 
I do get times when I'm stuck laying down during the day and I have a new tablet for podcasts, my (was state of the art laptop) is 20yrs old but like the phone, does what I need.

Forgotten about the broadband site, how do I ask to move it? Or should I just repost?
Life stinks at the moment so I'm struggling to get my head straight and that's not helping 😵‍💫

QrizB

twopenny said:

Forgotten about the broadband site, how do I ask to move it? Or should I just repost?

Looks like your thread has already been moved

AndyPK

Social Tariffs

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/saving-money/social-tariffs

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/compare-broadband-deals/broadband-social-tariffs/


I would recommend vodafone, as its a good speed for the money. Quite a waiting que though

twopenny

Thanks but I'm not receiving any benefits.
I have that amount of pension and savings that takes me out of that bracket but not keeping up with inflation.

I've been through a dozen or so companies but it's all about fast, TV films and sports. That's where their money is.
Just simple for access to services doesn't seem to exist.

AndyPK

have you looked here ? 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/compare-broadband-deals/

twopenny

Yes thanks Andy. That's where I found some lesser known companies but some of their prices were eye watering.
Some offered interesting terms like no price rise for 2yrs if you pay £50 a month.

I did see that Vodafone offers £2 off if you book online/within a certain time etc.
But my tablet wouldn't take me through to see what that was about.
I'll have to ramp up the laptop at some point.