[Ben]

So you've found a great house and you want it, but there are a couple of issues...

1) Mobile coverage is dire, on all networks. Most rooms have no signal at all.

2) The phone line is long and so ADSL speeds are likely to be limited to 512-1024kbps.

Do you run for the hills?

[miffed]

Interesting quaetion for me - As I am on the brink of moving .....

For me it is onee of those "oh crap" situations that I don't consider till after the event !
My previous house had - 6.5 MB Broadband
o2 - Originally 3 bars of 2G , but this progressed to 5 bars of 3G just before I left !!
Three - 3 bars of 3G , not that they worked very well

T-mobile , 5 bars of glorious 3G , bulletproof !


Then we moved here - Again 6.5 MB Broadband
02 - 5 bars of 3G
Three - All over the shop ! - seriously the signal can vary from hour to hour , and again , even with full signal was pretty useless
T-mobile - Awful ! Something strange here bacuse I used to get 3 bars of 3G , (which worked well) - then all of a sudden it dropped to barely one bar of 2G , T-mobiles coverage checker says 3 bars of 3G and 4 of 2G !! - they insist that this is down to my walls at home (despite the fact that the signal is no better outside !!
Vodafone - A sniff of 3G (one bar , if that) - Pants

....We are about to move (AGAIN !!) and as far as I can see

o2 2G , 3 bars :(
Vodafone 3 bars of 3G ( At least the Magic will like it ! ) :)

..Apparently Three offer 3G there , but I know it probably isn't worth bothering with !

This leaves me wondering what to do , as undoubtedly I will have to use mobile broadband while Sky (can't wait to get away from Tiscali ) mess around
I have a Dongle on Three ,and one on o2 , also the o2 one is unlocked I think ,so I should be able to use whoever gives me the best signal - may have to try Vodafone's offering !

Back to your original question , If I had started basing my house selection on connectivity , I think the wife would divorce me !!

[chagle]

O2 for me where I live is rubbish - I get one of 2 bars but certainly no 3G. Thank god for WiFi.

I must.. and I mean must have ADSL - But I liked the house... I can live with no mobile.. but I need at least 1MB ADSL!

Having said that, it would be in the make of my mind - I so long to have decent mobile coverage at home! I would certainly use the Mobile more at home.. rather than people telling me I sound like a 'robot' LOL

[Ben]

It's an odd situation to be in to be sure.

I'll probably contemplate getting fibre for internet if the ADSL is very poor. I don't think I can bear the thought of seriously rubbish Internet.

That then means I could consider a Vodafone femtocell. Which would be great, but what I really need is an O2 one, lol, and they seem to have ruled it out. So I suppose I'll have to resort to my current strategy of getting dongles and hammering them (as much as is possible, at least) in an attempt to get the mobile networks to realise there's demand in the area!

So I suppose my current mentality is move, then make a fuss until something gets sorted. Internet could prove expensive, though... Argh, what a ridiculous country we live in!

[Hands0n]

I voted "No".

Things have gone too far for me to put up with poor quality or no connectivity. Given that PC, Mac and Linux updates can be large and frequent, also that much data is measured in hundreds of megabytes, a slow link is unacceptable.

If I had my way I'd live next door to an exchange :)

BTW, some ISPs are now considering bonding of ADSL circuits to deliver speeds near 50Mbps. But of course these will be quite expensive

[Ben]

I tried bonded ADSL with Nildram. Made me sad :(

I suppose with some decent Cisco kit attached it could be ok. I don't know. I suppose with BT as they are it'll take ingenuity and downright craftiness to squeeze every megabit possible out of our creaking copper infrastructure.

I mean, damn, my offices can't even get reliable electricity! It was down for about 12 hours on Saturday. Where's the investment in infrastructure?

[gorilla]

Today it would be a factor in putting in a lower bid for a property. What would worry me is that most people live in a house for several years. There is no way I could live in a house without decent broadband and certainly no way I could live in one without mobile coverage. (My current experince on the iPhone is just bearable!)

If you consider that broadband speeds are only going to get faster, with 4G only a few years away, would you then knowingly buy a house where you are in reality not going to be 'connected'?

Having said that, I wouldn't buy a house if there wasn't a decent pub within walking distance.:D