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If you're an occasional user of the internet, then a pay-as-you-go service is probably your best option. You only pay for the time you're online. You pay no monthly fee to the ISP, you simply pay for the phone calls to it. To dial an ISP, you usually use a local-rate number (one beginning 0845). From a BT line, this will cost 4p a minute at peak times, 1.5p a minute in the evenings and 1p a minute at weekends. If you spend less than ten hours a month surfing and you use the internet mainly in the evenings and weekends, this is probably the cheapest option.
If you spend 11 hours a month surfing in the evenings and at weekends, it will cost you over £8 in phone bills with a pay-as-you-go service. A subscription service is more cost effective. For a monthly fee you have 'unlimited' access to the internet via a freephone number. Some offer a choice of off-peak surfing (for around £10 a month) or access at any time of the day - typically about £15 a month. However, some ISPs have conditions - for example, you may be disconnected after two hours' surfing.
If you split your surfing between daytime, evenings and weekends, 12 hours online with a pay-as-you-go ISP will cost around £15, the same as most of the subscription packages, so you might want to consider signing up to one of those. And if you can only get online at peak times with a pay-as-you-go ISP, after six and a half hours a month you'll probably be better off with a subscription package.
For high-speed access, broadband/ADSL is a big improvement over dial-up, but you should check the availability in your area.
Broadband/ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line)
This is a digital addition to your existing BT phone line that offers broadband (high-speed) access. It's available only to households within 3.5 km cable distance of an ADSL telephone exchange - which accounts for just 40 percent of homes.
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