I'd like to buy 6 months of unlimited Internet in England.

March 9, 2013 10:25 AM

I'm moving house next weekend and new place does not have WiFi. It's a six month lease and I'll probably be moving out of the country after that. I use a lot of internet (streaming music, downloading podcasts, films, sending large files, using cloud services, etc.) and so I need something unlimited or pretty near it. Everything I'm seeing online so far is either too much £ for too little internet (£20 for 2GB per month, seriously??) or too much commitment (12-18 month contracts for phone, broadband and TV). I only need internet. What are my options, if any? Thanks!
posted by iamkimiam to computers & internet (11 answers total)

Plusnet do a 30 day rolling contract
posted by gregjones at 10:52 AM on March 9

You will probably need to pay a connection charge for the new place.

Zen Internet are well regarded. I use IDNet who I couldn't recommend strongly enough. Both let you cancel after 30 days and have a 20GB/month package for around £20
posted by epo at 10:57 AM on March 9

Be offer a 3 month contract. Their service is unlimited. I'm planning to move back to them from Plusnet, who I'm with now, at the end of my contract.

Plusnet is cheaper, but you get what you pay for.
posted by Solomon at 11:45 AM on March 9

Xilo

ADSL on a one month rolling contract (however you have to pay the connection and disconnection charges!)

However if you have any type of ADSL you'll also need a phone line and pretty much all of them have a 12 month contract.

I think one of the exceptions is the post office link

"Our Agreement with you will continue until you or we
terminate it in accordance with these Terms and Conditions.
If you subscribe to Post Office Broadband, you commit to a
minimum term of 12 months from the date we first provide
Post Office Broadband to you at a particular address
(“Minimum Broadband Term ”). See Part 3 (For Post Office Broadband Customers ) for further details."

(Though note that their internet does have a 12 month contract but you could get their phone and get internet from someone else - the website doesn't seem to list the term anymore I got this from the T+C's so double check with them if you sign up)
posted by Metaphysics at 11:56 AM on March 9

Can you reach a neighbour's wireless AP from the new place? You might be able to come to a friendly arrangement...

3G internet is expensive unfortunately.
posted by pharm at 12:23 PM on March 9

NB. You *can * get mobile internet much cheaper than that quote in your post: you could line up a stack of pre-paid 3 3G SIMs (~£10 for 3Gb, or £50 for 12Gb) and see how you get on.

Otherwise, you're going to have to swallow the activation charge for a phone line and pay for a rolling short-term ADSL contract.
posted by pharm at 12:29 PM on March 9

Be are great, but they've just been bought by Sky so that's likely to change. I'm investigating alternatives as a result.
posted by anagrama at 2:16 PM on March 9

Three.co.uk also do SIM only plans with "All-you-can-eat" data with prices starting at £12.90 monthly. 1 month contract, tethering is allowed (or was - you should definitely check that.), many people use several Gb regularly.
posted by dirm at 5:34 PM on March 9

When I lived in Germany, I found that some of the companies that offer long contracts (12 or 24 months) let you out of them early with no exit fee if you could prove that you were moving overseas. Maybe there are English companies that do the same thing? (With the German ones, it didn't always say so on their websites, but they replied to an email query, which is good because then you have it in writing.)
posted by lollusc at 5:43 PM on March 9

I think 3 has pretty much banned tethering on most of their phone plans unfortunately. They still sell data-only SIMs for MiFis and the like though.
posted by pharm at 4:58 AM on March 10

I'm with Zen Internet and they do ADSL on a month by month basis, very good service too. You will need a phone line however, unless you opt for the fibre optic, but that's unfortunately a 24 month contract.
posted by hardcode at 4:33 AM on March 12