Renting a flat short term. Need broadband. Wat do?

kissenger

kissenger

kissenger

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I'm moving into a new flat this week but I might be moving again in a few months for work (landlord is fine with this). Problem is, I really need a broadband connection and finding a good deal on a short term contract is hard.

Any of you guys know of any good deals I could use for a short term broadband connection? Or if you've just got any general advice on what you would do in my situation?

I know Tesco and Plusnet do rolling monthly contracts, but they charge quite big connection fees, which kind of defeats the object. I was thinking of going with Virgin Broadband, as I would ideally like fibre, but I'm taking a bit of a risk that the next place I move to will be within a Virgin area. But there's the Tesco deal which works out at something like £10 a month after Quidco and if you pay up front.
 
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Is it possible for you to convince the landlord to have it in their name on a short term contract and include the price(possibly with a few quid on top since they are helping you) with your monthly/weekly rent.

Worst comes to worst the landlord has to cancel the internet/line
 
I'm currently waiting on BT to run some cables down my street and in the meantime I'm using a PAYG EE 4G wifi access point. It only picks up a 3G signal but on speedtest.net it gets 16Mbps down. Latency can vary but it's more than acceptable for any sort of use other than gaming. 10Gb costs £30, so if you want to stream it could get very expensive.
 
Talk to your neighbours and see if you can scab their wi-fi for a few beers a month. Otherwise your only option is a mobile hotspot.
 
Three's £15 bundle on PAYG allows tethering (I've asked, though their website isn't that clear). It's unlimited internet and before VM finished laying cable and installing a CAB in our new build, we used the Three SIM in a phone and got 25Mbps down easily on a DC-HSPA connection (H+). I pulled over 100GB a month every month for a year and they didn't bat an eyelid. When I mentioned it to someone on their network team they just said 'We encourage it, it's what we build our brand on. Fill your boots'. :)
 
Rainmaker said:
Three's £15 bundle on PAYG allows tethering (I've asked, though their website isn't that clear). It's unlimited internet and before VM finished laying cable and installing a CAB in our new build, we used the Three SIM in a phone and got 25Mbps down easily on a DC-HSPA connection (H+). I pulled over 100GB a month every month for a year and they didn't bat an eyelid. When I mentioned it to someone on their network team they just said 'We encourage it, it's what we build our brand on. Fill your boots'. :)
Click to expand...

This looks really interesting. How do I go about setting this all up? All I've got is a MBP and a PAYG iPhone 4S.

So I get a SIM from 3 with the £15 bundle, put it in my iPhone and then set up a personal hotspot?

I honestly don't have a clue, but I though the 4S was 3G, which is super slow.

EDIT: I'm just reading up on this now and I think I've got a better idea. So you basically buy a dongle up-front and get some kind of data plan? I had a look at the 3 ones but they all seem capped. I'm guessing you were using 3 PAYG before they introduced data caps or something?
 
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kissenger said:
This looks really interesting. How do I go about setting this all up? All I've got is a MBP and a PAYG iPhone 4S.

So I get a SIM from 3 with the £15 bundle, put it in my iPhone and then set up a personal hotspot?

I honestly don't have a clue, but I though the 4S was 3G, which is super slow.

EDIT: I'm just reading up on this now and I think I've got a better idea. So you basically buy a dongle up-front and get some kind of data plan? I had a look at the 3 ones but they all seem capped. I'm guessing you were using 3 PAYG before they introduced data caps or something?
Click to expand...

Dongles cost a lot more and ARE limited. PAYG phone SIMs are not. If you get a PAYG SIM from any local shop (99p or thereabouts) you can grab a £15 top up then call Three's top up line to buy a bundle. This is the one. The 4S supports HSDPA to a theoretical 14.4Mbps so while you won't get the full DC-HSPA speeds you'll still get something decent for browsing and streaming for the sake of a couple of months.
 
Rainmaker said:
Dongles cost a lot more and ARE limited. PAYG phone SIMs are not. If you get a PAYG SIM from any local shop (99p or thereabouts) you can grab a £15 top up then call Three's top up line to buy a bundle. This is the one. The 4S supports HSDPA to a theoretical 14.4Mbps so while you won't get the full DC-HSPA speeds you'll still get something decent for browsing and streaming for the sake of a couple of months.
Click to expand...

That is excellent. So here's what I do:

1. Get a 3 micro-SIM from somewhere local.
2. Install new SIM.
3. Buy the PAYG package you linked to over the phone.

What do I have to do after that to enable HSDPA, because I currently use 3G on giffgaff and the speeds are pretty bad. And then how do I tether to my Macbook - I take it that's just through a personal hotspot?
 
kissenger said:
That is excellent. So here's what I do:

1. Get a 3 micro-SIM from somewhere local.
2. Install new SIM.
3. Buy the PAYG package you linked to over the phone.

What do I have to do after that to enable HSPA, because I currently use 3G on giffgaff and the speeds are pretty bad. And then how do I tether to my Macbook - I take it that's just through a personal hotspot?
Click to expand...

GG re-sell O2 and I always found their network dire. That said, I would check the coverage of Three (see website) before laying out £15. But yes, just grab a top up voucher, then ring the number (I think it's 333?) to get the auto menu. Choose the buy a bundle option, then choose the number for the £15 bundle and you're done - your data will last all month and you'll get the stated minutes and texts too.

The hotspot function on the iPhone is under Settings and then Personal Hotspot I think. I'm an android guy but I did set it up on my mrs' iPhone 5 once. Google is your friend. :)
 
Rainmaker said:
GG re-sell O2 and I always found their network dire. That said, I would check the coverage of Three (see website) before laying out £15. But yes, just grab a top up voucher, then ring the number (I think it's 333?) to get the auto menu. Choose the buy a bundle option, then choose the number for the £15 bundle and you're done - your data will last all month and you'll get the stated minutes and texts too.

The hotspot function on the iPhone is under Settings and then Personal Hotspot I think. I'm an android guy but I did set it up on my mrs' iPhone 5 once. Google is your friend. :)
Click to expand...

Okay, thanks mate. I will defo look into all that tomorrow.
 
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