Keeping in Touch in the United Kingdom

With highly developed communications infrastructure, you'll have no problem taking advantage of the latest technology to keep in touch in the United Kingdom – with those back home as well as to cultivate new relationships.

The greatest difficulty comes in researching the most effective and economical package for your communication needs and then making time to have the technology installed amid what is often an erratic expat schedule.

Internet in the United Kingdom

Setting up broadband can be a slow and frustrating business, and dealing with several departments of the relevant broadband provider is typically necessary to organise setup. If you need immediate access to the internet during the setup process, you can reduce the inconvenience by:

• Purchasing a mobile broadband dongle on a pay-as-you-go programme, which can be bought from most mobile phone shops
• Setting up all communication accounts at once – telephone, broadband and television

Additionally, public WiFi hotspots are widely available in the UK, offering a convenient option for temporary internet access, although they often come with slower speeds and some security concerns.

ADSL broadband

ADSL is a popular choice for UK broadband. This type of broadband uses an existing telephone line, so if your home does not have an active telephone line set up, you'll need to have this sorted before arranging for broadband installation.

Cable broadband

First, find out whether cable services are available in your local area. This can be done by consulting providers like Virgin Media. If the area is covered, you can sign up for fibre, which offers faster internet speeds. 

While Virgin Media covers the majority of cable services, there are a few small companies competing for customers. New providers like Hyperoptic and Gigaclear have entered the market, offering high-speed fibre broadband services.

The expansion of fibre broadband coverage has significantly improved internet access in the UK in the last few years, with many providers now offering faster speeds.

Satellite television packages in the United Kingdom

Virgin Media

The advantage of having a Virgin Media package is that the Virgin engineer will install the telephone line, broadband, and television package all in one day. They can do this as Virgin has its own phone lines, so they do not have to use those managed by BT. Virgin offers a wide range of packages to suit different requirements.

BT

Before broadband can be set up, a telephone line must be installed or reactivated. BT offers several different subscriptions at various price points.

Sky

Sky supplies some of the most popular television packages in the UK. It also provides broadband and telephone line packages. Sky cannot install a telephone line, broadband, and television package in one day, as Sky uses BT telephone lines. You'll first need to have a BT telephone line installed or reactivated before the television package and broadband can be set up. Therefore, you need to set up an installation date for the BT engineer to install a phone line, followed by another installation date for the Sky engineer to install the Sky TV package.

Sky offers a wide range of packages to suit different requirements. Sky has introduced new satellite television packages like Sky Q and Sky Glass, catering to expats with a range of channels and features.