Virgin Media O2 spotted running ad-funded free broadband trials

[HEXUS]

Another recent trial was doubling its 100Mbps tier download speeds from 10 to 20Mbps.

Read more.

[excalibur1814]

"free broadband"

It's not 'free' if there's a cost to you, as a consumer, even if the cost is actually adverts.

"Sponsored broadband"

Now that's closer to a sensible description.


Adverts really have gotten to a point of absolute madness. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube etc are just riddled with them.

[Jonatron]

The obvious problem is that there's little point advertising to people who don't have any money

[kalniel]

The obvious problem is that there's little point advertising to people who don't have any money

Sadly, not having much money doesn't mean you're immune from the effects of advertising to make you part with what little you have. Some 'products' even appeal more to people who can't really afford it.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Well all the people with no money who buy expensive phones,etc seem to indicate as long as you have a pulse and find a way to get credit,marketing doesn't care.

[Saracen999]

"Free" but you get adverts? Thanks, but I'd much rather pay and not get them.

Personally, I don't want adverts in any form. If I want a product, I'll go looking for it. If I haven't because I don't know it exists ....oh well. I'll get over the loss.

If adverts are the price to pay,. no thanks. I'll either pay to avoid them, or just go without the product.

[Phrontis]

Nothing is free. Watching adverts is not free use of your time.
I'd be quite happy paying for something like Facebook if it didn't have adverts and slurp my data.
With regards to Virgin, I get around 615/620mbs at the moment, really looking forward to getting the 1gbs service. I have no use for it, other than willy waving.

[Kumagoro]

Following the link it seems there is a social level for 15 quid a month and is 15Mbit, never heard of that before. I wonder if I could get away with that hmmmmm I suppose it depends on what the upload is.

[3dcandy]

Following the link it seems there is a social level for 15 quid a month and is 15Mbit, never heard of that before. I wonder if I could get away with that hmmmmm I suppose it depends on what the upload is.

I'd say about 5 meg!

[3dcandy]

Nothing is free. Watching adverts is not free use of your time.
I'd be quite happy paying for something like Facebook if it didn't have adverts and slurp my data.
With regards to Virgin, I get around 615/620mbs at the moment, really looking forward to getting the 1gbs service. I have no use for it, other than willy waving.

1 gig here. We're totally oversubscibed in the area though so it averages around 800 down and 60 up

[Gentle Viking]

Today a add blocker is just about the single most important piece of software on any electronic devise.

[DJNW]

Today a add blocker is just about the single most important piece of software on any electronic devise.

A sad truth of the world nowadays with the amount of nasty stuff that can be packed into a served ad - found that out the hard way when the fan on my Surface went full-tilt once just doing normal web stuff and upon poking around discovered the page I was on had a build-in cryptominer. Impressed, but not impressed.

ed: In terms of the article generally, even if it's rather ad-y, I suppose it's a boon for folks in tight financial circumstances.

[spacein_vader]

A sad truth of the world nowadays with the amount of nasty stuff that can be packed into a served ad - found that out the hard way when the fan on my Surface went full-tilt once just doing normal web stuff and upon poking around discovered the page I was on had a build-in cryptominer. Impressed, but not impressed.

ed: In terms of the article generally, even if it's rather ad-y, I suppose it's a boon for folks in tight financial circumstances.

An investment of under £50 can resolve your ad issues across all devices.

1. Raspberry Pi with minimum Raspian install.

2. Install and configure pi hole, this will filter the ads out of all devices on your network.

3. Install and configure Wireguard, an open source VPN. This allows your mobile devices to run through the pi hole even when using public networks.

4. Configure Wireguard on your mobile devices.

5. Forget ads.

[DJNW]

An investment of under £50 can resolve your ad issues across all devices.

1. Raspberry Pi with minimum Raspian install.

2. Install and configure pi hole, this will filter the ads out of all devices on your network.

3. Install and configure Wireguard, an open source VPN. This allows your mobile devices to run through the pi hole even when using public networks.

4. Configure Wireguard on your mobile devices.

5. Forget ads.

Funnily enough, I did look into that - I bought a Pi Zero W a while back, but then it turns out my ISP router won't let you set custom DNS and I'd have do all sorts of things to work around that and it stopped being fun and started to look like work.

[spacein_vader]

That's pretty shady by the ISP.

[DJNW]

That's pretty shady by the ISP.

Yep. Unless you've got a 'business' version of one of their device, BT+Plusnet are locked down. One day, I'll get be inconvenienced enough to push me over the mental speedbump and get something to replace it. Don't really fancy the other option, which is shenanigans with running my own DHCP off a Pi.