Broadband question...

[SavageHoutkop]

Currently Mr SHK & I both use mobile broadband. We don't have a landline and wouldn't need one for phonecalls.
We are moving and are considering having land-based broadband. However, the street we are moving to is not wired for cable, and BT's website thinks we will get max 7Mbps.

From Sam Knows:
According to BT Wholesale, houses at your postcode should be able to support
up to 2Mbps via ADSL
5.5Mbps or greater ADSL connection via ADSL Max
7Mbps or greater via ADSL2+
You are approximately 959 metres from the exchange. Note that this is the straight line distance - the actual cable length will be longer!

Now, mobile broadband (3) is fast enough for us at the moment (more is of course always better), so if we move to landline based services we'd want faster speed. Do I have any chance of getting the same or better speed on the landline as I am on the mobile broadband? 3 is claiming "up to 5.6 megabits per second" on their website.

 

[BSRU]

Currently Mr SHK & I both use mobile broadband. We don't have a landline and wouldn't need one for phonecalls.
We are moving and are considering having land-based broadband. However, the street we are moving to is not wired for cable, and BT's website thinks we will get max 7Mbps.

From Sam Knows:
According to BT Wholesale, houses at your postcode should be able to support
up to 2Mbps via ADSL
5.5Mbps or greater ADSL connection via ADSL Max
7Mbps or greater via ADSL2+
You are approximately 959 metres from the exchange. Note that this is the straight line distance - the actual cable length will be longer!

Now, mobile broadband (3) is fast enough for us at the moment (more is of course always better), so if we move to landline based services we'd want faster speed. Do I have any chance of getting the same or better speed on the landline as I am on the mobile broadband? 3 is claiming "up to 5.6 megabits per second" on their website.

Have you checked to see if BT Infinity or Virgin Cable is available?

 

[Scruffmonster]

I may just be paranoid but I could never invite a constant mobile phone signal into my house. I wouldnt be making a decision based on speed.

Other than the health reasons, fixed line broadband is faster more of the time. Not affected by weather for starters, and it's often a good deal cheaper. In this country at least, Mobile Broadband is very much the poor relation of the proper stuff.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

Have you checked to see if BT Infinity or Virgin Cable is available?

None - street not wired for cable

 

[SavageHoutkop]

Other than the health reasons, fixed line broadband is faster more of the time. Not affected by weather for starters, and it's often a good deal cheaper. In this country at least, Mobile Broadband is very much the poor relation of the proper stuff.

I've not noticed weather impacting my mobile speed, TBH - and at the time, it was cheaper than broadband for us given that we don't want the landline so having to pay c. £10 a month and then the extra cost meant it was a no-brainer. TalkTalk's new deal is appealing though, I could get line rental + broadband for under £10 a month; but anything else is more than we are paying for the mobile dongle.

 

[BSRU]

I've not noticed weather impacting my mobile speed, TBH - and at the time, it was cheaper than broadband for us given that we don't want the landline so having to pay c. £10 a month and then the extra cost meant it was a no-brainer. TalkTalk's new deal is appealing though, I could get line rental + broadband for under £10 a month; but anything else is more than we are paying for the mobile dongle.

BT Infinity uses the normal telephone line, so if you have a land line you may have BT Infinity.

 

[MrJamie]

You cant really accurately predict what youll get, theyre pretty close most of the time but youll always read about angry people not getting anything like what they ordered, because the checker doesnt take into account the length of the phone line or the quality of the line. I dont know what your mobile BB is like, but ive never been convinced of them getting a particularly stable/fast connection that way, compared to a landline. You might find that if your connection is better you start doing more things, watching tv online etc.

BT are expensive and although ive been with them for years, the bills always seem about £10 more a month than advertised. You could consider another ISP, some of Sky's phone and broadband deals are pretty cheap even if you dont want their TV.

 

[Scruffmonster]

I've not noticed weather impacting my mobile speed, TBH - and at the time, it was cheaper than broadband for us given that we don't want the landline so having to pay c. £10 a month and then the extra cost meant it was a no-brainer. TalkTalk's new deal is appealing though, I could get line rental + broadband for under £10 a month; but anything else is more than we are paying for the mobile dongle.

I suspect you're a very light user then to have not noticed. For browsing, you'll be fine. Anything more and Mobile just falls over. Also, to meet my needs, Mobile Broadband would cost me £15-20 a month in usage.

 

[musa]

Becareful of getting line rental its only a tenner once you start paying for the line too. so check the small print

 

[SavageHoutkop]

I suspect you're a very light user then to have not noticed. For browsing, you'll be fine. Anything more and Mobile just falls over. Also, to meet my needs, Mobile Broadband would cost me £15-20 a month in usage.

I used it for remote desktop when working from home one day a week for quite some time...
I'm currently paying £15 pm but as I said, with no line rental needed that's cheaper than wired broadband would be for me.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

BT Infinity uses the normal telephone line, so if you have a land line you may have BT Infinity.

Ah, OK, done another postcode checker and it seems I might be eligible for BT Infinity. However, at £18pm + at least £10pm line rental, that's not something I'm looking at paying...

 

[Scruffmonster]

I used it for remote desktop when working from home one day a week for quite some time...
I'm currently paying £15 pm but as I said, with no line rental needed that's cheaper than wired broadband would be for me.

I'm not looking to argue, but remote desktop is not classed as heavy usage, it's pretty efficient.

It does however seem to me that you've got it better than 99% of all mobile broadband users (close to identical speeds and cheaper) so dont tie yourself to a phone line unless it's for health reasons.

 

[BSRU]

Ah, OK, done another postcode checker and it seems I might be eligible for BT Infinity. However, at £18pm + at least £10pm line rental, that's not something I'm looking at paying...

As far as I know, if you are going to get fixed line broadband then you have to pay line rental whoever you are with, except for cable broadband.
For me it is worth it as I get 70Meg download and 10Meg upload speeds, very good when you use IPTV and TV on demand services.

 

[marinyork]

I'm not looking to argue, but remote desktop is not classed as heavy usage, it's pretty efficient.

It does however seem to me that you've got it better than 99% of all mobile broadband users (close to identical speeds and cheaper) so dont tie yourself to a phone line unless it's for health reasons.

I would agree heavily with this comment. Either a light user or just lucky where you live. By probability you may find out savagehoutkop, that you're new home has a poorer 3 mobile signal. If you're very unlucky you'll go from very good to pretty bad. There is no good way of predicting this at all. There are various signal predictors out there, not based on the works of fiction most of the mobile operators put up. A decent crude guide might be to find out where the local 3 3G mast is - this is readily available on ofcom's site. You can do this for where you live now - maybe you just have excellent line of sight to the macrocell and a distance with a strong signal.

Presumably the best course of action is to keep the 3 mobile connection for the move and see how you get on. The benefit of this being that presumably you aren't tied into a lengthy contract which you would be for most (but not all broadband providers). Presumably (less sure about this) when the landline goes in your name you aren't tied into a 12 month contract? If you disconnect the phone line and reconnect it though you'll be in for a very heavy bill so be careful. As money seems to be the most important thing to you it would probably stay with 3 or some very cheap LLU provider.

 

[marinyork]

If you want a feel for how much broadband speeds vary, go on uswitch's site, do their speedtest and click on the streetstats. It'll list dozens of connections around where you live and you'll see graphicalyl how much speed varies. As 3 mobile isn't that common, you're unlikely to find someone nearby on that with their speed, but some of the 3 logged speeds on there are absolutely horrific. The only half sane speed I could find was someone with 3 in Sale, Manchester who logged 2.3Mbs and someone in Wythenshawe with 1.1Mbs.