Getting a landline (so I can have proper broadband!)

[Jen_P]

I have a gadget from EE that gives me 15GB of data for £20 a month but it's just not enough. (I watch a lot of videos online!)

 

Several boats where I am moored have telephone landlines and broadband with BT so I thought I'd get one myself. On USwitch, my cheapest option was with Sky but when I rang and asked them if they'd install it on a boat, they said no. It seems strange that BT will but Sky won't.

 

I could go with BT but I want unlimited broadband and that's more expensive with them. Anyone any other ideas about which companies might be willing to do it?

[GUMPY]

Talk talk did mine. It did take an email to the CEO to get the script readers to see sense......

ETA have now 4 years later ditched TT and gone 4g on EE much faster to the power of 10.

Edited September 18, 2015 by Loddon

[Paul C]

I'm not surprised they declined to install it on a boat! However, did you make it clear you'd like it installed onto a mooring (ie on a piece of land) adjacent to the boat? Are your neighbours permanently tethered by a piece of wire???? I'd have thought they could install it into some kind of weatherproof enclosure on/near the mooring, then you'd be able to purchase or make up a suitably weatherproof outdoor cable to connect it to the boat; or transmit wirelessly to the boat.

[Jen_P]

TalkTalk will take me. I am worried though about the speed being slow now though after what you have said.

[Wanted]

BT installed a length of cable from our bollard which goes through a hopper window to a box which I velcro to the wall. My SKY internet router is then pluged into this. I cable tied the phone line down the shore power line so i either remember to unplug both or forget and smash the lot up!

 

don't tell em your on a boat just tell em your address.

[Alan de Enfield]

All the moorings at Whixall marina (BWML) have phone sockets installed into the electricity/water bollards.

 

You pay a 'connection' if you want it and don't if you don't.

[GUMPY]

TalkTalk will take me. I am worried though about the speed being slow now though after what you have said.

Unless you can get fibre any internet over copper will be slower than 4g.

I was at the end of the line 5km from the exchange and used to get between 2 and 3Mb. On 4g I get 15-30mb depending on other users and I can take it with me. EE do do 100gig promotions occasionally I have been on these since last December unless I am lucky my last one runs out in 6 weeks.

[OldGoat]

[pedant ON]

The last link Unless in Sky or Virgin enabled exchanges - and then they lay their own cables) is always over copper (or aluminium - ugh). The deciding factor is the distance between the cab: and your 'house'. If less that 1Km, you may get around 70Mb downloads. Otherwise it's the square root of diddly squat.

(I'm 400 yds from a fibre distribution run, but no cabinet in sight - so the latter above applies.

Happy? - Not

[pedant OFF]

[MtB]

The GPO installed a telephone for me on my boat in 1977. We felt like we were the mutt's nuts having a phone in our boat!

 

They put a weatherproof plug and socket on a pole on the bank for us, so we just unplugged to move the boat.

 

I bet BT still do much the same. Try asking Sky nif they install in caravans, and what happens if the van needs to move. Then say THAT'S what you want for your boat...

[Richard10002]

Unless you can get fibre any internet over copper will be slower than 4g.

I was at the end of the line 5km from the exchange and used to get between 2 and 3Mb. On 4g I get 15-30mb depending on other users and I can take it with me. EE do do 100gig promotions occasionally I have been on these since last December unless I am lucky my last one runs out in 6 weeks.

Where I am, EE 4G is very fast, like yours... But 4G on O2 and Three is poor. It might be different in different locations, but I get a sense that EE 4g might have a better coverage and speed combination than the others - I'm reasonably sure they own much more bandwidth than the others, possibly on several,of the available frequencies.

[Murflynn]

The GPO installed a telephone for me on my boat in 1977. We felt like we were the mutt's nuts having a phone in our boat!

 

They put a weatherproof plug and socket on a pole on the bank for us, so we just unplugged to move the boat.

 

I bet BT still do much the same. Try asking Sky nif they install in caravans, and what happens if the van needs to move. Then say THAT'S what you want for your boat...

You are lucky you got anything installed by BT in the 70s.

I was a site manager on short term construction contracts and typically a job would come up in April, to be completed by October.

The first thing was to find a site base, install portacabins, and get a phone line. BT would usually quote 6 months lead time with no priority for a short term business.

That left me having several appointments at the local telephone kiosk to receive and make calls.

 

On one job, in Llansamlet near Swansea, we moved into a disused railway goods yard. I went to see another tenant who was running a scrap business from an old railway shed. He pulled an ancient phone off the wall and told me to put it on my desk, then to call BT and tell them it wasn't working. Of course they had to run a line to the nearest pole, but we had a working telephone within 4 hours! Trouble is we didn't seem to have an account and didn't know the number, but I could make all the calls I needed and never had to sit and wait for a reply because there were no incoming calls. Best of both worlds.

[cuthound]

One of my mates has a boat permanently moored in South Dock in London, which has a phone line attached.

 

Also Sky is what BT call a "white label" service. Sky bulk buys capacity from BT who provide the service. (Plusnet is also a wholly owned subsidiary of BT).

[Arthur Brown]

Historically BT pulled the copper in before the other companies were invented, SO BT now wholesale the use of their lines to all other retail telcos, It's the package that they agree with BT that lets each retail telephone operator offer various packages to the consumer.

 

I use a 4GEE mobile broadband unit and get great speeds in London but there are also areas of no service. Currently mobile data is expensive and bundles you buy expire. (My phone package is unlimited calls and texts but 2GB monthly -it's the 2GB that doesn't go far). The ultimate way of getting high data rate is satellite broadband using a dish -speed is fantastic but latency is horrid -you cannot game on it.

 

You really will have to look at all the suppliers and see who offers what in terms of broadband rate and quantity and price. Watching films in HD is extremely data intensive, you could be looking at 3+ GB a day

[saltysplash]

We were originally with BT then Talk Talk and are now with Sky.

 

Our phone lines are already installed so it wasnt a problem doing the switching. Are the phone lines already in place at your moorings? if so they just need reconnecting which is an outrageous fee for whats involved. Just dont tell Sky that its a boat.

 

Sky would also tell you they wont fit their Satelite system to boats, we didnt have that problem as I told them it was a mobile home (static caravan).

 

Engineer came on the arranged date and never batted an eyelid. I just made sure access holes for the cables were already drilled.