Need to help Mum get on the Internet, which ISP?

Hi Guys, wondered if someone can help?

My Mum's never had a computer before and I'd like to help her get set up with one and show her how to use the Internet.

I currently use Virgin Media, however she doesn't live in a cabled area.

She also doesn't have a fixed land line at the moment as she just uses her mobile.

She's looking for the cheapest possible option with someone who can provide a good quality of broadband service and less hassle.

She currently has freeview from Sky rather than a pay monthly subscription.

I understand that perhaps the only solution available to her is one that would involve having a landline phone installed but just don't know which one to use as there are many good and bad reviews of all ISP'S.

Can anyone provide any recommendations?

I can't remember the exact figures but a BT phone will cost roughly £100 to install and thereafter roughly £12 a month to rent. Broadband would cost say another £12 a month on top of that. You can get slightly cheaper broadband but it wouldn't fit your good quality criteria.

If those figures are reasonable could you see who has unbundled her exchange.

See http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php

What company is her mobile phone? PAYG or contract?

As john2007 asks, details of her exchange would help a lot.

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 19-Jul-09 16:02:42)

Get a BT line installed completely free (usual cost £122.50).

What's the deal?
BT have extended their free BT line installation offer until the end of September, allowing you to get your home set up with a BT line for absolutely nothing (usual cost is £122.50).

The offer is open to all new, existing, and returning customers, allows you to have a free new line, a reconnection, or a second line fitted.

How do I get my free line installation?
To get your free BT line installed, simply call 0800 800 150 and ask for the 'New line free connection offer'. The offer is not available online.

You'll get a bill following your line installation which will show as credit next to the usual cost of £122.50, meaning you won't have to pay anything.

What are the additional costs?
In order to qualify for free line installation, you'll have to sign up for an 18 month contract with BT. This is more than the usual minimum 12 months, but the cost of that extra 6 months may be well worth it when you factor in the £122.50 you'll be saving.

You'll also have to make at least 10 calls a month using your new line to qualify for the free installation, but these can be calls that are inclusive to your BT package.

When you sign up with BT in order to get this offer, you'll automatically be put on to BT's most basic plan, which is the Unlimited Weekend Plan. This involves a cost of £14 a month for line rental, and allows you to make unlimited weekend calls to UK landlines without incurring any extra fees. You may upgrade to a different plan if you wish.

It may be worth bearing in mind that if you elect to have paperless billing and pay by direct debit, you will only pay £11.25 for line rental, making a saving of £2.75 a month.

What are

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

What company is her mobile phone? PAYG or contract?

As john2007 asks, details of her exchange would help a lot.

She's on Orange PAYG and using the info from john2007, i've identified her exchange code as:LCTOD

In the column headed: LLU operator presence and the following providers have a tick next to them:

Orange - Enabled as of 30/05/2008
Talk Talk (CPW) - Enabled as of 17/07/2007
Tiscali - Enabled as of 01/05/2008
Tiscali TV - Enabled

I would say the best two options for her are:-

(1) Get a free line installation from BT as per copperking's suggestion, (though I'm surprised you don't get the Evenings & Weekends package free in that not just the Evenings), then look at Newnet Home Lite for the broadband.

That might get a bit iffy on the allowances especially if you use it or if she starts using BBC iPlayer or similar. That wouldn't be a problem for someone who knows what they are doing - upgrade, buy extra, monitor usage etc., but maybe not a good idea for her.

There's also the fact you would have to find her a router as they don't include one.

(2) TalkTalk. Line install £59.99, line rental £11.25 the same as BT paperless/direct debit, and £6.49 the broadband. The Essentials package.

She wouldn't be able to get Essentials on a new BT line because of the 18-month BT line contract and TT is Full LLU.

I recommend that over the Newnet. Nothing for her to worry about with LLU, as no imminent screw-ups when BT soon force Newnet onto 21CN chaos, (even though the exchange isn't WBC-enabled they will probably have to go to a thing called IPSC in the near future which is a 20/21CN hybrid), and 40GB allowance is more than she could ever reach. The only drawback I know of is that telephone help has a poor reputation here, but their own forums are apparently excellent with L2 support staff posting there. (That's what I read here). So you might have to get involved with that - but perhap all contact with support would be your job anyway?

And on this occasion the TalkTalk minimum contract & setup fees is only half as bad as usual since:

The phone line would be locked to BT for as long or longer.
There would be a broadband setup fee and/or minimum term from anyone since its a new connection.

The talk talk minimum contract would still be longer than that for the majority of broadband. Plusnet might be an alternative for low cost broadband if she'd on a market three (ie. cheapo) exchange, but they too have a long contract.

One does still need to allow for the fact that moving from TT to BT at a later fee would incur a BT connection fee - or the same deal as now running.

Alternative:
As your mum does not have a landline and presumably won't be using the internet all that much have you considered a mobile broadband dongle or even using her phone as the mobile broadband modem. Its more expensive per month for less bandwidth BUT there are few setup costs. Eg. Virgin do 3GB for £15/pm with a free dongle. ((Their via phone tariff is too expensive for anything but emails eg. 30p/day for 25MB but £2/MB after that!)). An O2 dongle is £59 or free on a 18 month contract. They also charge about £15pm for 3GB. Its expensive in the long run or for heavy use but might suit a bit of email and shopping.

Plusnet might be an alternative for low cost broadband if she'd on a market three (ie. cheapo) exchange, but they too have a long contract. ...

Agreed PN has a long contract, but as indicated, if it is a market 3 then the price for BB is about 6 quid at their 'Value' account (so, which exchange is it?) and as the line rent is locked to BT for a long time, it may not be so bad (at least with PN's contract the setup fee and hardware is included, though there may be a fee to cover postage of the wireless router) and remember to disable /encrypt wi-fi to stop the neightbours using any of the 10 GB allowance, which should be fine for inital use.

Yes, mobile dongle might be an idea, but it may be worth getting one of the free Three dongles and a top up (and then check carefully on the usage stats on the Three site to see how much is used in the course of the 30 days... Probably worth disabling Microsoft updates 'just in case' ! You/she would pay for postage but the dongle cost (19.99 now, I think) would be saved and you can experiment before committing to a landline and long contracts... (I'm using Three from home)