Dial up broadband

So what are the advantages of dial up? There aren't many, but here goes...

It may be the only way to connect to the internet at your address as no broadband dial up services at all are available - in which case it could be a life saver! But this is rare as broadband coverage is very good in the UK.

The services are often contract free - unlike broadband services which often come with 12 or 18 month contracts

You pay for what you use - a number of providers offer a pay-as-you-go service, and costs vary, but BT Broadband charges start from 1p a minute (with a 6p call set-up fee).

Dial up internet connection - why we advise not to get one!

The nightmare of dialing up every time you go online - you cannot imagine how much easier it is when you do not have to make a connection every time you go online. Broadband is always on and there waiting for you - once you have experienced the ease of broadband connection - you would never go back to dial up voluntarily!

Very slow speeds - broadband connections are tens if not hundreds of times faster than dial up connections. The average dial up connection is 56k/sec, whereas the average broadband speed is 3.5 Mb/sec, which is over 60 times faster! What's more there are super-fast or even ultra fast broadband services available with speeds greatly in excess of 3.5 Mb/sec (e.g up to 50 Mb/sec from Virgin Media) from many broadband suppliers such as O2 Broadband , TalkTalk, Orange, Sky and Virgin Media.

The incredibly slow speeds of a dial up connection make many activities that broadband users take for granted almost impossible. Indeed dial up is only really suitable for very limited surfing and sending emails - as downloading of music or video content can be a nightmare or indeed impossible.

With broadband you can use your phone while you are online. Unlike dial up, which uses your home phone line to run your internet connection, broadband allows you to make and receive phone calls at the same time as another member of the household is using the internet.

Dial-up connections are often VERY poor value, with service providers taking advantage of people who do not change to the cheaper and better broadband technology! The price differentials can be very large.