Would You Buy a House with No Internet Connection?

Imagine this: you find the house of your dreams. It's got bedrooms galore, a full fireplace that you can stand up in, land stretching as far as your eyes can see. And better yet, it's more than within your budget. In fact, you can buy it and still have enough money left over to completely furnish and redecorate it. The only problem is that there's no internet connection. No phone line, no cable TV, nothing. Would you still buy it? The majority of us today are completely dependent on the internet to go about our daily lives. Do you really think that you could live in a house with no net connection? It might be a little harder than you think...

What Will You Do?!

Of course, no internet means no email. It also means no Skype, so you're back to using the old method of finding yourself a phone box and hoping that you have enough change to make your call. If you can find a phone box that works, that is. There's no streaming TV or downloading movies. Good luck finding a film rental store that's still open and within travelling distance of your house. There's no streaming radio either. Oh, and no catch up TV. Maybe you should go ahead and get yourself one of those DVD recorders. What are you going to do with your time? You'd better buy some board games and a few books. You can't use your Kindle to grab books from Amazon, by the way, so make sure that you get a lot of books. Oh, and buy yourself a newspaper subscription while you're at it, since you won't be catching up on the latest happenings online. Maybe you should get some encyclopaedias for when the kid's need to do their school projects. And some DIY hand books are really going to help with all those renovations that you're planning on doing, since you won't be able to watch any YouTube videos to get help. And so on, and so on.

What Could You Do?

Clearly, living without the internet isn't really an option for most of us these days. It's not only that we've become dependent on the net, but it's also that as the internet and its convenience have become popular, other things have gone into decline. Your local video rental place has probably gone out of business. The last time you saw a Yellow Pages it was propping up a table leg in the garage. Phone boxes are increasingly hard to find. Living without the internet is rapidly becoming impossible, even if you did want to do it. Your social life would probably wane pretty quickly without the ability to Facebook or email. And your working life would quite possibly just cease to exist, since most professions require an internet connection at this point. Does that house still sound like your dream home? Maybe not. Having a place with no internet connection at all might be a lot more trouble than it's really worth.

What to Do if There are No Connections...

So what do you do in this situation? As popular as the internet is, there are still older houses that don't have connections. The vast majority of places these days can be connected to the phone network. This will give you the option of a DSL broadband connection. However, in a rural location you probably aren't going to get great speeds, since your house will probably be pretty far from a phone switching station. Cable TV is probably not going to be an option for far flung locations, meaning that cable broadband is going to be out of the question. Even if phone and/or cable connections could be put in, that means an expensive, lengthy and messy installation process. You'll get you garden dug up at the very least, not to mention a few holes drilled in the walls. But can people in isolated locations get internet access?

Maybe a Vodafone Mobile Broadband Dongle?

One way of getting internet access to isolated places is by using mobile broadband. About ninety nine per cent of the UK gets a mobile phone signal at this point, meaning that there are very few places where you won't be able to get mobile broadband. This works by going to an operator, say Vodafone, for example, and getting a plan and a SIM card. You'll get a Vodafone mobile broadband dongle that will allow you access to their 3G network. This dongle plugs into your computer, and as long as you have a mobile phone signal in your area, you'll have a Vodafone mobile broadband connection too. Speeds might not be great, but mobile broadband is rapidly becoming the most reliable way to get an internet connection wherever you are.

Satellite Hook Ups

But what about if your dream house doesn't even have a mobile phone signal? That is a possibility, even nowadays, due to not enough cell towers being around, or even because of geographical reasons, like being in a valley. Satellite broadband is the last ditch attempt for people trying to get internet access to a location that otherwise can't get any other form of connection. Satellite connections are used on ships at sea, for example, but can also be used in homes. You'll need all the right equipment, including a satellite dish. Speeds aren't great, again, but there is nowhere that can't get a satellite connection at least some of the time. Weather can be a factor, so it's not a particularly reliable connection to have. But you will be able to go online some of the time, though it might cost you a little more than you're willing to pay. So, you might be able to get that dream house after all. In today's world, living without the internet is unthinkable to most of us. And fortunately, most of us won't ever have to. You might have to shop around a little, but there will be an internet connection for your dream home...