OneGuyFromBarlick

Kev, yes you are right but I have an HDMI lead as well. The SCART leads are for the non HD connections.

Not only light at the end of the tunnel, but I might be out of the tunnel. On the 8th of Jan this year, I spoke to Vodafone about cancelling my 20 plus years Mobile phone contract, and going pay as you go. Immediately after this I cancelled the Direct Debit. Nine days ago I received the pay as you go sim card. Trying to contact this company using their own sevices has proved a nightmare. This morning I phoned them on my land line, I spoke to a reasonable young man who gave me every confidence that the matter was closed, but I will have to wait till late afternoon for comfirmation. At the end of the call I thanked him and mentioned that I hoped the call charges wouldn't be to high. To this he replied that had I mentioned it was a land line they would have called me back, I refuse to believe that my number wasn't on his screen. My intention is to now invoice them for my wasted time, and the cost of the call, we shall see how I get on. One of the largest companies in the world, and totally impossible to deal with.

Late afternoon came and went, I still can't register my phone on line. Invoice has gone in the post this morning. The phone is working, and I have found a way to put credit on it, so I do have service, the operation would be easier if I had an account and could view it. The £10.00 credit should probably last a very long time due to my using it only for emergencies.

Yes Vodafone are bad. I had been with 3Three for years for mobile pre-paid broadband and they were taken-over by Vodaone who gave me one of their sticks. It wouldn't work on my laptop and after many hours on the phone with vodafone 'technicians' and taking my lap-top into one of their shops, they told me that it wasn't going to work and ofcourse it couldn't possibly be their wizbang new technology, even tho everything was fine until I had to change to them. I was off the internet for a couple of weeks then suddenly everything started working beautifully (just as it did before). My opinion is that they must be very very slow with their paperwork, data-entry etc., and somehow that held everything in limbo. Aarrgh!!

We bought an O2 wifi hotspot device whilst on holiday in UK last September/October ( only needed it for the duration of our holiday), paid cash ( think it cost about £30. ) and it was fabulous. It was only a 30 day thing but worked for about 34 days. We had data allowance to spare when it ran out. It worked everywhere we went...except Ireland ( but we knew that).
We were more than happy with it.
Cheapest holiday coverage we have ever had. Better than anything we could have taken with us.

Just as well Vodaphone didn't merge with Three here (its an Aus thing), Vodaphones 3G coverage is terrible in the UK, Three's is much better. I have a Three Mifi (local hotspot) if anyone wants to buy one. You'd need a Three Data Sim card to make it go. ( http://store.three.co.uk/view/searchTar ... turerName= ).Wonderful for connecting your laptop / tablet to the internet in the middle of a field. I use my Android Smartphone for the same trick now.

Don't think I mentioned I have a Vodafone dongle bought it about 5 years ago, it works when I have needed it, but is very slow I put £30.00 on it when I bought it and it still has £24.80 on it now. It is possible some of the problems are down to poor reception in my area. My PDA and all other companies subscribed to have all been poor at this address. None have admitted a problem, but I suspect living next to an airport may have something to do with it.

They charge by the megabyte, and with Vodafones 3G coverage getting a megabyte can take serious time......

Very cheap to run, but otherwise next door to useless. I suffered it for 2 years on a contract, good riddance. Almost anywhere I went there was little or no 3G signal. Compared with fixed broadband, Three is slow, but it's usable most of the time. Vodafone was OK for calls and texts. But hopeless for internet.

Came across this while browsing, shows what can be done with a will and community cooperation.

The remote British village that built one of the fastest internet networks in the UK

Splendid. So why can't Openreach do things like that?
Clapham has a history of innovation. It was reputedly the first place to get public electric lighting in the 1920s when the local estate installed a water turbine and generator and electric lights were installed. In the old days when the main road went through the village there was still a surviving rusty lamp on the corner of a barn.
(On another note, when I opened the page I had a heart-stopping moment when I saw 'Hartley' on the page but then relaxed when I saw the date. )

Stanley wrote: ↑15 Jul 2020, 02:36 Splendid. So why can't Openreach do things like that?

Because it's not economically viable for the return they would get from a small cluster of people. You can do it if you are providing the labour for nothing or doing your own bit yourself.

There is a private enterprise way of doing the same thing. Currently this gang County Broadband are canvassing to get the village to cable up. They said they need 270 (I think) people to sign up before they start.
They emphasise that it is privately funded, though I have doubts about that. (No change there then Ed. ) I get the feeling it's not going well - or they would have started by now. Perhaps the virus and increased use of the interweb thingy will change their prospects.

PanBiker wrote: ↑15 Jul 2020, 09:21

Stanley wrote: ↑15 Jul 2020, 02:36 Splendid. So why can't Openreach do things like that?

Because it's not economically viable for the return they would get from a small cluster of people. You can do it if you are providing the labour for nothing or doing your own bit yourself.

There is such a thing as a Community Fibre Partnership with Openreach. I believe the Noyna area of Foulridge have been doing that over the last couple of years.

It also depends on whether you can supply the majority reasonably easily over wireless technology. Or do you have to route fibre cables to lots of properties directly. The Clapham model was a combination of the two. Wireless to clusters of properties and direct fibre to the remotest ones.