Jackie and Kevin next door, and other neighbours, were also affected. I felt sure the promised landline repair wouldn’t come for some time yet.
I was resorting to Mobile Internet. The 4G signal at home wasn’t the very strongest - it's semi-rural Sussex - but it was normally sufficient for such things as streaming catch-up radio and TV, uploading photos, blogging, and viewing all my favourite websites - really all I wanted it for. Watching catch-up TV was perhaps my most demanding use of Mobile Internet, and it came through smoothly and without pauses.
The only problem was the way TV viewing and photo uploading - not forgetting the Windows updates Microsoft regularly installed - would eat into my existing 12GB monthly Mobile Data allowance. And now, to compound this, I'd gone into self-isolation. My Mobile Data usage had already markedly increased: there were plenty of people to keep in touch with, news to follow, and hours to fill. And if I fell ill, I might need to speak to medical staff by video link. What a time to have no Broadband! I needed a better Mobile Data allowance, if possible at no extra cost.
So I rang BT and got put through to Dafydd at their Swansea call centre. He was very helpful indeed. I dare say he picked up the slight Welshness in my voice. I laid it on thick that I was almost 68, lived alone, and was third-generation Welsh. No doubt this helped.
He explained that I couldn’t have a much larger data allowance at no extra charge. But he could offer a massive allowance increase from 12GB a month to 100GB a month. For just £5 a month more than now. So I’d pay £20 instead of £15. That's slashing my data costs from £1.25 per gigabyte to only £0.20 per gigabyte.
And more: he would give me a £10 credit against my next bill, due soon, which effectively gave me this Mobile Data upgrade free of charge for the first two months.
This was an extraordinary deal. I accepted it at once. Dafydd explained that I had 14 days to change my mind, and read out other terms and conditions. But the upgrade would take effect within 24 hours, and possibly within two hours (which is what in fact happened).
We wished each other well.
I was very pleased with this. I could now tether my laptop Verity to my phone Tigerlily (by USB if the phone needed charging up, otherwise by Wi-Fi) and use BT Mobile Internet via 4G without any concerns that I might run out of data, and incur horrendous penalty charges. What a relief!
Dafydd really had given me a cracking new deal. BT's ordinary SIM-only price for 100GB per month of Mobile Data - where the user wasn't also a BT Broadband customer - was £35:
If you were a BT Broadband customer, as I was, the ordinary price would be £5 less, and would cost me only £30.
But Dafydd had shaved £10 off that, so that I would be paying only £20. It brightened my day. No more 'quarantine yellow'! I put on a dress and my now-shortened pearl necklace. I was upbeat. So I felt like wearing nice things!
And even if I do eventually abandon BT Broadband, and lose that £5 discount given to BT Broadband users, BT's price for my 100GB of Mobile Data will still be only £25, at least for now.
Am I going to give up my landline-based Broadband?
Well, I'm thinking about it more and more. Going completely wireless will mean severing a physical connection to the telephone system - and losing my landline number. But I haven't used my landline for calls since 2012, eight years ago - I wouldn't miss it. Nor need I preserve the landline connection for a successor here - I've no plans to sell my house. And I would save a significant amount every month.
If (as seems likely) I can't get a new BT Broadband deal at the end of 2020 nearly as good as my present one, I’ll be paying at least £53 a month, with £15 for BT Mobile on top - a combined total of £68. So letting the landline go, abandoning home Broadband, and relying only on BT Mobile Internet, would save me £43 each month (£68 less £25), based on my new deal. Not to be sniffed at.
I can use the present hiccup in my home Broadband service to assess just how viable a 4G-only life might be at home. How strong is the 4G signal when it rains? Or the sun shines? Or when everyone is streaming the latest Bond film? What could I do if my phone went wrong, and could no longer act as modem? Would a dongle for my laptop work as well?
I already knew that when I'm away caravanning, 4G works fine, most of the time. It ought to work even better in the house. And 5G, if it ever comes here, will be better still.
On the whole, I can see myself giving up the landline and associated expense. There you are: Lucy Melford ahead of the curve! Going cashless and adopting payment by phone in 2018; and now possibly dispensing with wired home Internet in 2020!
The fly in the ointment
There is one, of course. This rather super new 100GB deal is temporary, and comes to an end on 9th July, when the old 12GB deal would have expired. I will then have to choose a fresh BT Mobile deal, and if I want to continue with 100GB it will - as mentioned above - currently cost me £35 a month, the ordinary price. Still, I can still see big monthly savings by paying that, and abandoning the landline and Broadband.
Broadband deals get ever more expensive. BT (and the other big players) entice you with faster and faster speeds, and a host of features (such as parental control and online security) and extras (like Sport and other special entertainment) that I don't need from them, or simply don't want. Wouldn't it be better, certainly cheaper, to nuke the Broadband Dark Star? And float off on a 4G moonbeam?
Further thinking
Do I have to stay with BT? What about Smarty's latest 100GB Mobile Data deal - for only £15 a month, with tethering allowed? Unfortunately Smarty use 3's network, which isn't as good as EE's (the network BT Mobile uses; BT owns EE). Still, Smarty's rock-bottom prices will help me bargain-down the full BT Mobile price...
