Tag: broadband

It’s doubtful that mindsets will change overnight, but getting broadband into your home or business no longer means sticking to a wired provider. With 5G on the horizon, the mobile networks are poised to take a substantial slice of the market – potentially delivering faster speeds in more …

If you, like me, live in an area where even fibre broadband (aka FTTC) isn’t that fast – there are alternatives. I ended up going with Virgin Media Business and, in the process, binned the rental of my landline. However, with 5G on the horizon and the traditional …

A few months ago I decided to leave Sky TV after many, many years and get myself a Netgem TV box. The transition, considering how many streaming services are out there to fill the void, has been really rather smooth. I’m not a bit football fan and didn’t …

Good morning lockdown crew. Hope you’re well. Yesterday, and for the first time in a while, I found myself in a couple of local shops. There’s a mixture of coronavirus changes, with the local Co-op implementing a “one way only” and “one in, one out” system and keeping …

Virgin Media, which is actually “Virgin” purely in name because they’re actually Liberty Global, could be merging with O2 soon. O2, as you may remember, was the target of a Three attempted purchase some years ago. Whilst the BT purchase of EE was given the green light, Hutchison …

Our very own BT has announced that customers will now face a £50 charge if they choose not to return the supplied broadband router once the contract ends. It comes as the company tried to reduce waste and mirrors a similar scheme by Virgin. BT have added a …

BT (British Telecom) has announced that it is partnering with Google to launch a range of broadband plans that come with the Stadia cloud gaming service bundled in the package. BT, which is the biggest Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the UK, is planning to offer the free …

If you don’t need a new LG Smart TV, you can instead bag yourself a £150 credit on your bill. That is, of course, if you take the appropriate TV, broadband and phone bundle with Virgin Media. Either option is available if you bag the Bigger bundle + …

I’m probably talking to a fairly small subset of people here, but if you have an ultra-fast broadband connection this is for you. With rapid 5G home broadband and better fibre connections becoming available we all want the best internet speeds possible. Speedy Virgin Media or Virgin Media Business …

OK, so you’re at home and you’ve got Virgin Media for your internet. You can browse safe in the knowledge that your devices are protected and your internet connection is safe and filtered. However, what happens when you go out? When your son or daughter uses their phone …

It’s a brave new world for UK network, Three. They’ve gone from having the smallest amount of spectrum to the most thanks to their plentiful 5G allowance. It means that they can deliver “true 5G” thanks to 100MHz of contiguous spectrum. This will, according to the network, support …

Imagine if you found a home broadband provider who could offer you super-fast internet speeds for £30. Sounds good? For that you get 100GB of data to use and there’s no line rental or TV and calls package. No engineer, no waiting. This, then, is what Vodafone have …

Research firm Ovum has today revealed that 5G has the potential to bridge the gaps left by more traditional fixed-line broadband across the UK. Currently, although those in cities and built-up areas are blessed with quick internet connections, those in more remote areas can struggle unless they pay …

Many broadband providers want more than just your internet. They want you to have TV and a mobile phone too. With Virgin Media Business you can already get crazy-fast internet (I know, I’m a customer) and you can also get VoIP layered over the top. However, they also …

It was a throwaway remark. A passing comment on Twitter. Last night I did a quick speed test and got 365Mbps down. Insane. However, I got a few questions about how it was achieved, so here goes. The speed was the result of me combining my Vodafone 4G …

EE have today announced a new range of home broadband plans which deliver super fast fibre connection with unlimited use. Not only as well as extra data on your smartphone as an added bonus. Fibre Max 1 offers speeds up to 150Mbps with upload speeds of 28Mbps, and …

So today Marc Allera from BT announced something pretty special. The major plus point, for us at least, was buried in the words “convergence” and “aggregation”. What this basically means is that you’ll be able to get up to 314Mbps ultrafast broadband by 2022. How? Well, BT will …

If you’ve got a standard ADSL connection then, even if you’re sitting next to the telephone exchange, you’re not going to get much more than 20 Mbps on ADSL2+. You’ll be connected via some copper wire hanging off telegraph poles or in trunking under footpaths. Here in the …

You’ve got an iPad, perhaps you’ve got a MiFi or you just don’t like talking to people and you only want to use WhatsApp or something else to communicate. If text messages and old-school phone calls aren’t your thing, you can get a great deal on this EE …

Getting broadband into your home can be done one of two ways. First, you can push it through the air. More and more networks are doing this and, as EE showed us fairly recently, it doesn’t matter too much on your location. The second option, of course, is via …

Long-time, handsome, intelligent readers will know that Vodafone have a solution for rural signal issues. It basically involves installing a ramped-up version of their Vodafone Sure Signal into rural communities to enhance the coverage. Now EE are on a similar mission, but with 4G home broadband antennas sitting …

The largest mobile network, EE, have announced some big improvements to their home broadband offering. Fibre Max will cost you £45 a month (£52 if you also want EE TV) and,on top of super fast fibre speeds up to 76mbps, you also receive free landline calls, calls to …

When I get home and do a scan of the surrounding WiFi hotspots, it’s pretty apparent that a huge amount of my neighbours have gone with BT Broadband. If that’s you, this post is perfect if you’re ready to switch to SIM only. BT, as you may or …

A short while ago I had Virgin Media broadband installed at home. Like many, I had a TV, phone and internet package. I wanted better broadband speeds, and I got it. However, the TiVo box wasn’t something I “connected” with. There’s definitely some odd and grating design decisions …

Virgin Media are having problems with their data / broadband network for some home internet customers today. No, it’s not the long-running on-demand and catch-up issues this time. Oh no. It appears that their DNS servers have gone a bit Pete Tong and sites like eBay, Netflix and …

You’re at home. You’re struggling with slow broadband. The reality of “Superfast internet” is either a flaky ADSL connection or, if you’re properly unlucky, old-school dial-up access. Some are lucky. Some can get fibre to the cabinet or cable broadband access, but for the rest it’s a super-slow …

A few days ago I was logging into my Virgin Media account. However, I got a bit distracted by an advert and ended up on the Virgin Business website instead. Why was I distracted? Well, I’ll show you… Yes. £30 a month for an internet connection which goes …

The internet, in our modern world, has become essential. It’s no longer a “nice to have” thing so that you can look things up. Now we’re watching live IPTV, downloading movies, conducting video calls and working from home. And, also, if you are a student you have a …

Whilst it will still be owned by BT and it remains to be seen how things will change, Openreach is finally to become a legally separate entity. Telecoms regulator Ofcom has announced they will no longer have to take legal action to split the two companies, and BT …

Sky TV beam down their channels via Astra satellites to little dishes mounted on houses up and down the land. However, there’s still quite a number of potential customers who can’t receive channels because of their location or the type of building they live in. Some 2 million …

Yesterday we mentioned the new high-speed internet which has arrived in Hebron, courtesy of Three UK. The network gave away free “Home-Fi” routers to residents so that they could at last get the fast broadband they’ve long needed. We didn’t know at the time what make the routers …

You may have noticed a bit of a “theme” developing on Coolsmartphone this week, and it’s all to do with movie watching. Yes, you can watch TV and sports events too, but there’s a definite battle going on for your eyeballs right now. If you pay for cable …

Three have had mobile broadband available for a long time now, and with each device upgrade comes more enhanced connectivity options with quicker speeds and more flexibility. On visiting the official Three site you’ll find USB Dongles, Tablets, MiFi and more recently RoadFi – a MiFi plugged into …

Here at Coolsmartphone we love a good bargain, and when this news popped up we just had to share it with you. It appears that someone at Vodafone UK has gone completely mad, as the company is blazing a trail within the industry by abolishing the line rental …

The boys from BT.. sorry, EE.. sent me one of their clever TV boxes recently. You can’t just go out and buy one of these things, you have to have an EE Broadband package too. There’s full details here. You basically plug this into your rooftop aerial and …

Hello Coolsmartphoners. At home I’ve got that “FTTC” gubbins that most people either know as “BT Infinity” or, when it’s sold through other providers, “Fibre broadband” ..which it isn’t quite, not all the way. Anyhoo. I’m pretty lucky. However, if you’re not, you can try this. The idea …

Following on from a reported 15% rise in annual profits to £3.03bn, BT has announced plans to invest £6bn in faster broadband and mobile services over the next three years. The company plans to offer their “ultrafast” broadband to 12 million premises by 2020. With speeds of 300 …

Getting your tweets and Facebook updates can be a little infuriating if your signal isn’t up to scratch, but think back 32 years and you’ll suddenly realise how lucky you are. For a moment, let’s pretend you’re back there. Back in 1984. Mobile phones were a pipe dream. …

Fancy getting yourself some free data? Who wouldn’t eh? Three are now offering up a whizzy new mobile broadband deal which will give you 200MB of free data every month. The Data Reward plan give you that “always on” vibe without the need to be tied into a …

Want broadband at home? Mine is from EE and the fibre broadband connectivity has been OK. Sadly I can’t say the same about the home phone service, which was completely broken for well over a month. Anyhoo, now Vodafone are getting in on the action with broadband and …