Cheapest adsl deal to use as backup and rarely actually use.

[Storyline]

Having just moved to a 4G/LTE solution for our household Internet because of a hatred of BT that developed over many years, I am now pleased I haven't got round to cancelling their dreadful slow but expensive service. This is because Three, our new very fast but cheap provider has not been able to provide service here in Liverpool for nearly 12 hours now.

So lesson learnt, maybe relying on mobile Internet is not a good idea quite yet. We've got to leave bt as it is costing a fortune for 12 megs (no fibre here) but I would like to have a connection available for cheap money that we don't use but is available as backup.

Anyone know of an ISP/deal that may be suitable?

TIA Paul

 

[Mark.J]

In fairness all networks can and do suffer protracted outages, although they're usually quite rare and experiences tend to vary from location to location. If connectivity is important for business purposes then it's always wise to have some redundancy via a backup link over a different network.

 

[Verita]

Almost any old smartphone or a cheap MiFi can provide internet tethering, assuming there's a signal, so there's another option with a prepaid data SIM (on a different network) for a standby internet source.

EG:

EE PAYG Triple SIM Card Preloaded with 6 GB of 4GEE: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

Free delivery and returns on eligible orders. Buy EE PAYG Triple SIM Card Preloaded with 6 GB of 4GEE Data at Amazon UK.

www.amazon.co.uk

I have actually found my 4G connection to be more reliable than my old ADSL connections, which tended to disappear during rainstorms, months with an 'R' in them, and so on but I'm in a good signal area with little contention.

 

[kommando828]

My backup is Vodafone 4g, dual wan router shares 2 4g links to 2 masts.

 

[brookheather]

Plusnet ADSL is under £13pm for 12 months if you included the £75 cashback.

 

[johnf]

This seems like an overreaction to me. I would assume you have a different sim in a mobile to actually use as a mobile, rather than for your home broadband?

My home broadband is a Voda sim, and my mobile is Three. And I am a huge user of the internet, it is my primary source of entertainment, news, music, TV etc etc. Yet even I would not think it justified to have an emergency backup adsl line to cover me for a breakdown of a few hours.

 

[Captain_Cretin]

I agree with John, dont go paying through the nose for an ADSL line, just keep one phone on a different network and use it via its hotspot when your main goes down.
obviously, there may be the rare occaision where both go down, but usually that meas a power cut, so the rest of your equipment (other than mobile phones), isnt going to work anyway.

This is what we do at our shop, O2 and Three Sims