To ask if you’d find it difficult without home internet/Broadband?

[June16th]

I’ve not got home internet. Just Smartphone with VERY limited data. I’m just curious for people’s opinions on this

Of course we are 😂

Sorry if I missed it, do you have kids? I have teenagers and they would like, LITERALLY DIE with no broadband 😖😂

Is there a particular reason why you don't have home Internet? Is it through choice or is it cost? Most companies do a social tariffs for low income households but may be dependent on certain benefits.

No kids under 18 living at home, no

I need it as much as I need energy and water supplies. It’s essential to life - ie our livelihoods and ability to earn, learn and connect.

I do see internet access as a basic utility. Even more so in developing countries.

I also wish it was still 1985 and pre tech in many ways OP! I can see why the Mormons etc make their own societies based continuing to live the way their ancestors did a hundred years ago. I wonder if people will try and do similar to escape the digital age.

Yes. I got rid of it in 2018 for cost reasons - but I’ve spent just as much if not more over the years in getting data top ups for my mobile

I WFH full time so couldn't be without it

I agree with you - I mean job applications are basically ALL online now aren’t they ?

However, out of interest, why is it more important in developing countries ? Is it because they lack public libraries etc there ?

Blinking heck I didn't realise how much we used Wi-Fi for!!

My MIlL is 84 and uses the internet to order online, do her food shop, order white goods, turn her lights and lamps on, Netflix, prime, fire stick, turn her heating on and off, pay her bills, internet banking, use her hoover, FaceTime, Skype, Alexa, apple home pod, ring doorbell, security cameras.

We use it for the above plus teams calls for work daily as I wfh some days my dc everyday,, work, book holidays, kindle, homework,, Spotify, Alexa, google home, gaming, YouTube, podcasts.

Isn't that Amish? Afaik mormons use technology.

I would be interested if gov helps amish with things that have moved online actually. Like do they let them paper submit or do they do it for them online while they dictate answers for forms?

Well DH and I both wfh and couldn’t easily change that. So literally our ability to earn. Our family’s lives and prospects would be dramatically different without it.

In developing countries almost everything is on mobile now - money, business and communications especially but increasingly education too especially in poor and rural areas where schools have received overseas aid to run iPad programmes.

Landlines largely don’t exist. Non tech options such as in person banking, bureaucratic processes at an office, or analogue businesses are being phased out as mobile options are so so much cheaper for local authorities.

They also struggle with tech monopolies due to cost of internet. Eg we have a lot of choice which app to use for our communications or running our business. But many countries - most famously India - struck a deal with companies like Meta / Facebook to provide data free access to the populations in return for having a monopoly as service provider. So in effect, in many places Facebook IS the internet (and not for fun as people might use it more in wealthy countries, but for running their business, making phone calls, transferring money, buying basic goods). And people don’t have a choice not to use Facebook because other options cost too much. And of course the tech company profits from all that wonderful human data they hoover up. Data is the new oil, and all that! So we’re lucky in rich countries that we have such a choice of service providers - and indeed as your case proves OP, a choice not to need much internet access at all.

Yes @Sparklesandbeer i did mean the Amish people! Thanks for correcting!

I'm 56 and I wouldn't be without home broadband. I work hybrid so I need it on my home working days, I only watch streamed TV, 4G very patchy where I am. I do get a lot of mobile data with my provider for a tenner a month though.

wow thanks so much for this explanation - I didn’t realise this about developing countries !

1968 - best year for music (imo)!😆💪

Nooooo, that would be 1981.

Good for ska, - Madness, Beat, Specials etc - to be fair

We run a business from home, and have 3 kids...2 of whom have all online homework. So yeah, we would be stuffed without it.

Funny how we take it for granted now. I grew up with a computer in my room but no internet. I have no idea what I did on there... paint, minesweeper and a bit of Magna Carta encyclopaedia I think. There's a comedian who says we all grew up very mindful because of it. Bus trips just staring out the windows and the like. It would be a strong game of would you rather before I gave it up!

DP works from home and whilst my job is seeing clients on their site, I do have days working at home.
We have no tv licence so use only streaming services for entertainment.
I lose hours watching instagram reels.

DD plays Xbox games with her friends.

I couldn’t be without unlimited data, i use it for work, study and entertainment. I have a 4g home internet hub for speed essentially which is unlimited and normal home broadband which is too slow to work on but I like as a back up because the 4g one has lots of issues.

Thanks to everyone who’s contributed thus far - I think the consensus pretty much is that it’s pretty indispensable and I’ve only heard an account of ONE person coping completely without it

Tbh I didn’t even realise 4g hubs were a thing !

is the dongle still a thing ?

Despite living in a small city, 4G and 5G coverage can be non-existent (if too many people want to use it as we have lots of tourists and sports fixtures),

We would struggle without broadband as we mostly work from home and have family scattered around the world. We were without a telephone line for a fortnight (not sure how we managed to get broadband, but no phone) and that is definitely something that we'll ditch once my inlaws are no longer around.

We use the internet to research so much these days.

Is there any reason you're resisting it OP, given your point on the cost of data? It's can cost as little as £15 p/m for wifi

To be honest I’ve got a lot of things to be getting on with at the moment but I do want to get it eventually - I do agree that it’s much easier - we definitely need it nowadays and having home internet does make life more enjoyable I think

Yes, but mainly because we get our TV (freeview, like iplayer) through the Internet. I could probably get sky or virgin to put in a cable for it (there isn't currently one), but paying for a TV package costs more then our Internet bill.

The stuff I do on my phone (mumsnet, email, Internet banking) would probably be fine just on mobile data, but it's nice to be able to do more data heavy stuff without worrying about going over data limits. The kids also use it for homework and games (they're to young to have their own mobile with data).