When I move house in a couple of months I will get the internet at home. Can anyone suggest an ISP which provides "free" internet access?

The best one i've seen in my limited search has been excite, whereby you pay a #50 membership fee and you can surf for free at anytime of the day. The #50 eill be reimbursed after a year in the form of discounts on shopping/offers.

Any better out there? When I move house in a couple of months I will get the internet at home.

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2000

Answers

They're all liars :-) ntl are offering 'free' internet access as long as you sign up to the phone service as well and spend at least #10 on calls per month.

They neglect to mention the 3.5p connection charge on all calls including internet. I got shafted on this with my current provider since when I have a bad connection I cancel it and try for a faster one. 88 of the buggers last month cost me an extra 8 quid. Doesn't sound like a lot, but enough to make you question the use of the word 'free'.

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2000

You pay a 50quid membership and can surf for free? you mean no phone bill?

Are you certain that you really wanna go for a free internet access ISP?

There's a whole host of new stuff and offers just around the corner...ASDL should start becoming widely available soon which will allow constant net access with very impressive speeds for a set monthly fee....Cable companies will be doing similar with cable modems which whilst not as fast are still pretty good....

I suppose you've got a couple of months to find all this out though :)

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2000

The blurb that excite offer includes: " This means no more un- necessary monthly Internet subscriptions, no more unexpected internet charges on your phone bill, no need to change you telephone service provider and no need to worry about what time you surf"

no mention of connection charges there, so cheers Softie I'll investigate further.

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2000

No problem, ntl reckon it's ok because "BT charge 5p for the same thing"...so that's alright then, isn't it?

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2000

BT internet free evening/weekend is good for surfing though crap for games over the net(if ur into that)- cost tenner a month.

Theres a new thing starting in July which basically involves u giving 6 quid to BT per month+participating ISPs will give u free evening/weekend calls. This will allow access to free calls of better/worse quality than BT internet depending on which participating ISP you chose.

ADSL will cost 40 quid per month- it will be continually on(u dont need to dial up) so u dont pay any more than the 40. Unfortunately it is only available to certain big cities from June with plans to spread round the country over next couple of years. It wil be fast enough to show live videos incl football of good quality +frame size over the net.

BTW if ur looking for great packages, visit claranet- i use their 1p/min daytime and their standard one at night if im playin games and its the best ISP ive ever used by far.

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2000

ADSL has to be within 3.6 miles of an exchange (I work for a tele company)

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2000

Mac,

Really? wow.....now there's something that they aren't telling everyone with the advertising blurb!! :))

Sounds like a HUGE limitation....or are there millions of exchanges?

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2000

I think thats why theres such a delay to spread it round the country, Gav.

They must have to update all the exchanges in different areas- its amazingly fast but the plans to update webpages with video etc+its eventual popularity could well slow it down at times.

Interestingly my mate who works in Ipswich BT hardware labs says theres already discussion over the rights to show live premiership matches over the internet. ADSL will allow the speed to show good quality live pictures over the net.

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2000

It all sounds like a major rip off to me. of course different system here. My 56k dial up account with Sprint Canada costs 21 Canadian dollars a month,(about eight quid) unlimited access and NO phone charges. ADSL here is a mere 39 dollars a month, unlimited, and the speedy cable hook up is only 40 bucks a month unlimited. Many free access sites including Excite, no money, nothing and no phone charges.

As a matter of fact I just got back from london, couldn't believe the prices for almost everything. The lad we stayed with called it "Rip off Britain". I honestly don't know how you guys survive over there. Not knocking it, but a good reminder of why I left.

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2000

To Pete - now ain`t that the truth! (:o) My friends over there nearly passed out when I told them the price of petrol! (:o)

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2000

I noticed that too Roz, I think petrol was 86p a litre, thats almost $2.00 Canadian, and we are bitching as it just went up to 63 cents here (around 25p). Anyway I,m not running the old country down. I honestly don't understand how everyone gets by there. The average salary cannot be that high, what with the price of housing and a 17% VAT etc etc etc, I was glad to come back to reality.

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2000

The bensfit of being on Kingston Communications. Unlimited access for 5.5p Having moved from Freeserve and just got my bill today I am glad I have moved I nearly fell over when I caught sight of the total. The highlight is I made 116 local calls and it only cost me #6.50.

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2000

Thanks for this thread. It coincided with my phone bill showing #180 worth of internet calls in the last 3 months. (I work from home so it's not (quite) all play. I've joined Excite this morning (Saw their MD or something on TVam this morning and was very impressed with the guy).

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2000

Pilgrim,

Interesting that you joined Excite. It seems like a good deal with the membership falling to #20 in the second year. You will have to pay for every time you connect to the Internet and it will cut you off after 60 minutes of active surfing or 30 mins of inactive surfing.

There are also restrictions on the kind of surfing you can do, for instance it looks like you will not be able to play games etc. For basic internet surfing, downloading and e-mails it looks like the one for me.

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2000

DB

Go to www.zdnet.co.uk and checkout their 'Free' ISP review. Either that or go to www.ispreview.co.uk which does similar.

Cheers

Dunx

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2000

We've just signed up with World Online (used to be screaming.net). You pay #14.99 a month line rental and get FREE internet access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week plus up to 10% off your other 'phone calls. Haven't had a bill yet so will have to see how it goes......

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2000