My area, Chichester district, is having all the pavements broken into so that new Gigabit Internet can be installed. The navvy crew are now carving up my avenue to lay the plastic conduit and have just reached my boundary with the footpath.
Since changing my ISP to NOW TV for a far superior service than my previous ISP, I am reluctant to consider what might happen when the new fibre super highway internet has been livened up in the area. Has anyone any idea what will happen to the existing overhead copper cabling together with my internet and landline phone?
My all-in package from NOW TV provided fully unlimited phone calls (inc mobiles) 24/7 alongside the amply fast internet and both satisfy my needs.
So with all of the above in mind, will I have no choice but to go for Gigabit Internet and also an internet phone connection at a vastly inflated price compared with my present monthly charge of £21 for everything unlimited.
Nothing should happen unless you decided to go for the new service. If anything does change you should be notified first of your options by post
This has happened in our village over the last few months and I received an invitation, by post, to a meeting if I am interested in getting it installed. I declined because I am happy with what I have at the moment. So you should be given a choice.
Millions of owners are faced with the same decision over here. Intuitive resistance by those who’d have to foot the bill is not surprising. The old cables remain where they are. The main argument in favour of going for the new installation is that no one can stop technological progress and that prospective buyers of the property will - naturally - assume that high-speed internet is available enabling them to work from home even if the property is not in a densely populated area. It raises the resale value, or rather, it makes reselling the house possible in the first place. Worth a thought.
Understood, but this property is my last before I am put up the big chimney and it’s the same for my wife, my blondie. At least now I understand more, I can stay with my present internet/telephone arrangements, or rather I hope I can stay. Somehow I get the feeling extreme pressures will eventually be exerted to make me swap over to Gigabit internet and VOIP phone
I will follow your lead as I am completely happy with what I have now. If the new Gigabit service turns out to be competitive, then and only then will I consider changing over. Having seen the cost of walk-about VOIP telephones, I really doubt if Gigabit could compete with what I have now.
I’ve just searched the price of a 4 handset VOIP phone setup and base-station …
£409!!!
Gigaset Premium S700 VOIP Cordless Phone, Four Handsets (ligo.co.uk)
Your heirs will also appreciate it.
You’re right, even internet services that you can use today without problems will call for faster broadband internet connections in the future.
LD you shouldn’t change from your current provider unless you request it.
I had a miserable .1 mbps broadband service and a none existent mobile signal where I live and recently changed to a private fibre company. I bought second hand mobile phone with a ‘Wifi calling’ option and ditched my landline .
My mobile phone is with Smarty (they piggyback off 3) who enable ‘Wifi calling’ so I now get a good signal all over the house at £5 a month unlimited calls and texts and my fibre connection costs £20 with 80mbps so am happy now.
It is good to look around occasionally at what is available .