FREE broadband for 3 months! A really great service with o2! (O2 Broadband)

Member Name: hannahgibbins3

Product:	O2 Broadband
Date:	08/11/09 (37 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Ease of use, the prettty box, free customer care calls, low price

Disadvantages: none so far!

After looking at the market of home broadband packages, I'd have to say that o2 was one of the best.

The price, wi-fi box and the ease of setting it up is one of the reasons why I like it so much.

I have been a customer of 02 for a couple of years now and have to say I am very pleased with the service.

Here is the method I went through in getting o2 Home Broadband for my student house:

1) Work out which one of you should pay (should be an 02 mobile customer)

Firstly, to get the cheaper prices for o2 customers (price list below) you should preferably be an o2 mobile customer, even if your pay and go, so it might be worth picking up a free sim card just to get the broadband!
For us, in a student house there are 5 of us, and we designated my friend Becky to be the person whose account it comes out. This was because a) I did it last year in our old house so it should be someone else's turn; and b)it is only me and Becky who are on o2 mobile out of the 5 of us.
Once you have sorted that out (or if you want to sort out a joint account) then you should go to an o2 store.

2) At the o2 store

Once you are there, the staff should help you pick the package which is right for you. Ask them to check your postcode to see how fast the wires in your area are. If they go to a max speed of, say 9 meg, it would not be worth getting the premium package - as the standard goes up to 8. A full list of the standard, premium and pro package will be listed after these steps.
You will have to give your number, and someone's bank account details. There you will buy the o2 wireless router. Usually it is £30 which you would pay upfront when you sign up for it, then the £30 acts as credit on your broadband account, so you do not pay for the bill until £30 worth has been paid for.
They will give you the router and the account numbers and such.
Luckily at the time it was half price so only £15 and still didn't have to pay the bill for £30 worth after that and then another 3 months free broadband. So it is worth seeing what broadband offers are on.

3) Setting up the internet

Once you are home with your broadband box you will need to call o2 for free on your mobile to get it set up. It should take them about 5 days before they text you and say you can install the router and internet. Before then do not open the box.
Now we had a bit of a problem with bt trying to set up the internet and had to keep calling them to get a previous 'tab' taken off, which is where the people renting our house before had internet, and we had to keep calling o2 and our landlord to get it sorted. Took a week and a £10 phone call calling bt, which was unnecessary as they got it wrong and the tab didnt need to be taken off anyway! Nightmare! But nevertheless, we had no problems with o2.

Within 5 days after you call them to set it up, they will text you and then you can set up the internet at last!
It is very simple and the instructions are clearly stated.
The wireless box is a very pretty little thing- white sleek and shiny with lights on, so luckily not an eyesore for your house!
You just connect it to the phone line and type in the passphrase onto your laptop/computer when it picks up the wireless connection (which is written underneath the actual router box) and you are away.
If your laptop doesn't pick up wireless connections, it comes with a cable to connect it from the box to your laptop.

4) Paying
Until your money you paid for the box has paid for the first bit of your bills, and whatever offers you have for e.g. 3 months free broadband after that, you will have to start paying once a month as a direct debit (seperate to your phone bill) will come out of your account.
It is pretty much painfree and you do not have to do anything.
There are no more further charges unless you cancel it before the 12 months contract is up then you might incurr a £40(ish) charge if you just abruptly disconnect it.


The great things about o2 broadband is that it is free to call customer services.
You get free McAfee internet security on the broadband.
Unlimited downloads
No connection charges.

There are 3 packages to choose from, but it mainly depends on how fast the internet in your area can go to. For example, the wires down your street may only reach a top speed of 6mg so it would only be worth buying the standard package as the ones above wouldn't make any difference.

Here are the packages:

STANDARD
£7.34 per month (on o2 customers)
£12.23 per month (if not on o2)
Up to 8meg download speed
McAfee security center for 1 comp.
100 free web texts a month (a service on the o2 website where you can send text messages from)

PREMIUM
£9.79 per month (o2)
£14.68 per month (non o2)
up to 20 meg
McAfee security center for 3 pcs
200 free web texts a month

PRO
£17.13 per month (o2)
£22.02 per month (non o2)
Enhanced wireless router box
up to 20 meg
Dedicated Customer Service number
McAfee for up to 5 computers
500 web texts a month


Other bonuses you get with o2 broadband is
unlimited internet usage,
free customer service 24/7,
up to 1.3 meg upload speed (and 2.5 meg for PRO) depending on where you live,
up to 10 o2 email addresses,
o2 email to mobile service,
email storage,
online calendar,
static ip (optional £4.89 per month or free with PRO)
30 day happiness guarantee

At the moment until November 30th 2009 you get an additional 3months free broadband.

Here is what o2 says about getting the o2 customer prices on the broadband for monthly and pay and go customers:

"Pay Monthly Customers
To keep getting your discount, you have to stay on O2 Pay Monthly. If you end your Pay Monthly contract, we'll charge you the normal price for your O2 Home Broadband.

Pay & Go Customers
If you're on O2 Pay & Go, we'll give you the discount straight away on your first bill. To keep getting your broadband at this price, you need to:

make sure your mobile works and that it can make and receive calls
top up at least £10 in the three months before your broadband bill date. Your broadband bill date is three days before you get your bill. So if your bill comes on the 4th, your bill date's the 1st. We'll send you a reminder a few days before if you haven't topped up enough.
If you don't top up in time, you won't get your discount for that month. But you can still get a discount for the next month."

I feel that this is a great service, we have never had any disconnections or any problems and have continued having o2 broadband in my new house this year. In comparison to the Virgin Media broadband in my parents house at home, o2 really shines out. It is so much cheaper, faster, and we don't get disconnected all the time.

Definitely would recommend!

Summary: a great service would very much recommend