UK broadband providers

I had not intended to get a land line when I moved here, but it really opens up your internet options.  Many providers require that you have a BT line.  So now I do.  It isn't a big deal, I pay ~£11 a month for the line.  I never have to deal with BT because it is just the line.

I currently have my internet through Sky.  I choose to have the fastest connection, which is £10 a month (if you have Sky TV).  It is unlimited download and pretty fast. I do download TV shows and they go in minutes in some instances. 

I could get the one step down in connection speed, which is free if you have Sky TV.  I mention this only to point out that overall this is pretty inexpensive -- even though I am paying for a BT line that I use once a month (if that). 

Dial up does still exist, however for the last few years, it's really only been those who unfortunatley live too far from ADSL enabled exchanges who have to use them.

Very few exchanges are still without DSL, mostly in the Scottish Islands, but a few in the east and southeast of England which serve only a small number of subscribers. 

Click here for the current list.

The problem in many areas is shortage of cable pairs, especially at points more distant from the exchange.  Until remote concentrators with DSLAM facilities are installed, DSL requires an individual pair of wires from your house right back to the exchange, whereas regular telephone service can be run over DACS (a system which allows two lines to share one pair of wires) and line concentrators (which effectively allow several subscribers to share one pair of wires).   So merely having a voice phone line does not necessarily mean that DSL can be provided if there is insufficient plant.  The problem has grown worse over the last few years due to the demand for DSL.

Broadband (to keep the focus here) is quickly becoming a 2 tier element espeically with the governments rather unworkable promise to have 2MB internet to everyone in Britain by 2012 - i.e some will get that promised 2MB and others simply wont.

And now the government is proposing a 50p per month tax on all phone lines to help (supposedly) achieve that goal:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/16/fibre_levy/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8102756.stm

No doubt it will create the same mess and discontent that forced LLU under government terms has created.

Well, I was just trying to help...My husband and I have lived back and forth over the past few years and we are both in computers/IT so we try to stay up to date.  Of course we are planning to get 50Mb from virgin when we move back this summer, we currently have 15Mb which is the most you can get where we live in the US.   I do apologize if I misspoke about dial up being readily available if it is no longer the case.   

I was just trying to say that when I was young and just traveling in the UK/Europe on a dime in 2000-2001, there were so many options available to travelers because there are so many of them from AUS and NZ in London.  I was probably the only person I knew that traveled for fun with a laptop back then!  I was assuming that you would probably be moving around and looking for an inexpensive solution.

Right now I am personally trying to get my head around the dilemma of having to "jailbreak" my original iphone or go ahead and upgrade to the 3GS on the other side! 
 
My husband leaves for the UK Monday while I wait for my spousal visa and my dog awaits her "Pet Passport" so I will have tons of time over the next few weeks to read everyone's posts and get advice for myself and get the "word on the street" from my husband