Mobile Broadband Brings Hope for Not Spots
(Written: 23/07/2019, Updated: 02/11/2019)
Several of our customers receive a landline broadband speed of only 0.3 Mb/s. Such a slow connection is often unreliable even for email. Often they don't realise that mobile broadband is available to them. Even in marginal signal areas, 2-4 Mb/s offers some hope for people in these so-called "not-spots".
In our local area EE and Three seem to have the best geographical coverage.
* A free-standing Mobile Broadband router costs around 50 GBP.
* Monthly usage costs currently vary from about 8 GBP per month (Three network, 10 GB / month, 12 month contract) to about 50 GBP per month (EE, 50 GB / month, 24 month contract).
Even our customers in remote areas can now often achieve around 2Mb/s which allows them to browse web pages smoothly and watch uninterrupted YouTube and BBC iplayer videos.
Bandwidth can be increased further by installing dipole antennas to the side or roof of the property. Equipment 200 GBP, Installation 200 GBP or so.
A UK government subsidy scheme (BDUK) exists to fund up to 400 GBP of the cost required to achieve at least 2 Mb/s.
More monthly cost can be offset by exporting your existing landline phone number to run over the internet. About 25 GBP to export and then roughly 4 GBP per month line rental, plus call charges.
(Written: 23/07/2019, Updated: 02/11/2019)
In our local area EE and Three seem to have the best geographical coverage.
* A free-standing Mobile Broadband router costs around 50 GBP.
* Monthly usage costs currently vary from about 8 GBP per month (Three network, 10 GB / month, 12 month contract) to about 50 GBP per month (EE, 50 GB / month, 24 month contract).
Even our customers in remote areas can now often achieve around 2Mb/s which allows them to browse web pages smoothly and watch uninterrupted YouTube and BBC iplayer videos.
Bandwidth can be increased further by installing dipole antennas to the side or roof of the property. Equipment 200 GBP, Installation 200 GBP or so.
A UK government subsidy scheme (BDUK) exists to fund up to 400 GBP of the cost required to achieve at least 2 Mb/s.
More monthly cost can be offset by exporting your existing landline phone number to run over the internet. About 25 GBP to export and then roughly 4 GBP per month line rental, plus call charges.