English for Living in the UK: Setting up Internet, Mobile, TV Services

In today's lesson, we are going to be looking

at useful phrases for setting up internet,

TV, and phone deals, predominantly in the UK, although there will be quite a lot of

crossover and things that you can use if you are in North America as well.

So, I had the experience, as some of you know,

of living in Spain a while ago, and suddenly

I was in a new language and a new system,

and I didn't know how to go about doing this.

I didn't know where to look on the internet.

My Spanish was quite limited, so it was a difficult task.

So, what I'm going to be doing in this video

is giving you some quite practical pointers

about how you set these services up if you're

considering staying in the UK for a longer

time.

I hope you will consider doing that.

But also, potentially how to save a little bit of money, because if you get the right

contract, then that can save you money in the long run.

Now, there are some excellent price comparison

websites where you can filter your results

and say exactly what you're looking for.

Are you looking for a six-month contract, a 12-month contract?

Do you want standard broadband, which means high-speed internet, or do you want, like,

super-fast fiber internet?

And that will depend on what you are using it for.

Are you using it for work?

How many people are there in the household?

Are you all going to use it at the same time?

Because remember, the speed they quote you, that will be divided by how many people are

using the internet connection.

So, you know, think about it.

If you're working online, then - and there are four other people sharing that - then

you need to factor that into the speed of internet that you require.

Okay, so they will probably ask you what kind of month...

What I'm thinking about here is questions that will come up on an online screen for

you choosing the right package.

So, monthly usage allowance.

How much do you want to be able to use the internet?

Now, I'm not very good on what megabytes and

gigabytes and all that mean, but try and have

a rough idea.

Maybe base it on a previous bill.

Allowances is what you are allowed each month.

Obviously, you want to ask for slightly more

than you need rather than slightly less, because

then if you run out before the end of the month,

then, you know, you're going to have problems.

They will ask you if you want a landline as well.

A landline.

Now, that is a telephone, not a mobile, but

one that comes through the wires, so to speak,

and actually has a handset.

Do you want one of those so that people can call you on a 01... number?

Perhaps if you're going to live there for a long time, then that's a good idea.

If you're just going to be there for a short

amount of time, then probably there's no point.

Now, with your landline, you're going to need

to be careful that you don't then end up with

a huge phone bill.

So, think about how you're going to use that phone.

Do you want to be able to receive voicemail?

Do you want to be able to use it to make calls

during the day, the evenings, the weekend?

I was looking at one price comparison website

earlier, and it said inclusive Eve and We

calls.

What?

What?

What?

Inclusive?

Inclusive, that means you're not going to pay extra for.

Eve, short for evening, yep, evening, as in maybe after 5pm, after 6pm, you'd have to

see how they classify it.

We, short for weekend, weekend calls, presumably all of Saturday and Sunday.

Now, on the particular deal that I was looking

at, you had to pay extra for call barring,

so that means shutting out.

If there's a number you don't want to be contacted

by, then you can configure, then you can tell

your telephone not to accept that call, and

that costs, I don't know, a pound or something,

a month.

You can also pay to withhold your number if you want to make telephone numbers and your

number to remain a secret so that they don't then ring you back.

I have known family members of mine using

this so that particular family members don't

then redial and redial and redial again and

again and again, but I don't think it's meant

to be used for that.

Okay, once you've found the deal that looks

just about right for you, they will probably

ask you to make an initial payment and then set up a direct debit.

So, initial means at the beginning, direct debit is a system of payment through your

bank, you have to fill out a form where a

certain amount of money will go out automatically

on the same day of each month to pay things like, well, to pay bills.

Then not straight away, but you'll probably

get sent an email, I would say about a week,

10 days later, saying when your activation date

is going to be, excitement, woohoo, activation

date, very exciting news.

So it doesn't really mean anything, and when

it happened to me recently, I knew when the

activation date was, they sent a router, should

we practice pronouncing that, router, a router

in the post, and I simply followed the instructions,

plugged it in, and that was pretty much it,

it was working.

I had to...

And then in the router package, there was a card with the password on, enter that into

the computer, telephone, mobile phones, and you're away, Bob's your uncle.

Okay, so I hope that's clear.

Any questions, shove them down in the comments

down below, and we're going to carry on with

TV.

Now, in the UK, it is a legal requirement to pay for a TV license if you are going to

be watching BBC, ICV, Channel 4, Channel 5, okay?

Works out at around £25 a month, something

like that, so if you are watching TV and you're

not paying a TV license, then they'll know who you are, where you are, and you'll get

a knock on the door, not straight away, but it's not worth doing.

So, go online, search for...

Apply for TV license, it's very easy to do.

Just like this, you'll set up a direct debit,

and then you'll be legally watching television,

and you'll be helping to support the BBC and the work they do, which is good.

Okay, so once you've paid that, ideally, there

will be an aerial up on the roof, and it will

come down, and there will be, like, an aerial

port, a little sort of hole in the wall, and

then you connect a white lead from there into the back of your TV.

Turn the telly on, telly, short for television,

yeah, we call it a telly, telly, the telly.

Turn the telly on, great, oh no, it's not working.

There's no signal from the aerial.

At that point, if you are renting, I would call

up the estate agent and say, "There doesn't

seem", polite way of saying there is none,

there doesn't seem to be any reception, "I'm

not receiving any television from my

magnificent aerial, what's going on here, guys?"

And they'll, as estate agents tend to do, say, "Not my problem, you sort it out", at

which point you face a headache, you're like,

"Hmm, I have to sort this problem out, what

shall I do?"

Or you call someone who knows what they're doing, ideally a friend so you don't have

to pay them loads of money, and they'll come round.

So, it may be because of how the previous

tenants received their television, maybe they

had cable, satellite, and they weren't using

an aerial, in which case you may have to buy

some kind of box, or you can also get things

just to plug into the television, which use

a Wi-Fi connection to stream things from the

internet, so you can get like Netflix, or

you can get the iPlayer, which is a fantastic

resource of all the programs that have been

on the BBC, as well as Channel 5, etc., loads of stuff.

So with Wi-Fi, if you get that plug-in thing

from Amazon, you'll get a whole load of content

as well.

But if you're like, "I want loads, and loads,

and loads, and loads of TV", then you may

be looking to pay for satellite services.

But all-inclusive, all of the channels is really, really expensive, so you probably

have to select, "Well, what do I want to watch?

Benjamin wants me to improve my English, so

I'm going to choose maybe News, Films", really

anything you're watching in English can help your English.

Documentaries are great for improving English,

anything you're interested in, really.

Okay, so there are different companies that offer satellite services.

You would need to do some research to find out which of those offers the best for your

interest.

For example, if you're into football, are they mainly shown on this satellite service

or the other satellite service?

And then, again, you could do probably quite a

good price comparison of the different satellite

deals out there, because they will range widely

in price, so it's worth selecting the best

one.

Okay, we're going to move on now to arranging a mobile phone contract.

Now, there's a couple of different options

with a mobile contract, and it depends whether

you're looking for a handset, as in the actual phone.

Let's write that useful word down, "handset", we call it, "handset".

That means the actual phone.

Do you need a new phone, or were you just

looking for the actual minutes, the contract?

Yeah, a SIM card, yep.

Are you looking for SIM only or handset as well?

SIM only, yeah, the little chip.

You'll probably find if you're looking for a

SIM only that it's cheaper to get it online,

but if you're looking to go in and have a conversation in an actual shop, then you'd

be looking to use some of these phrases here.

Obviously, some of the vocab is going to overlap with buying it online.

Okay, so, "Hi there, I'd like to get a new

mobile phone contract, please", and then they'll

probably say, "Are you looking for a handset or

SIM only, sir/madam?", and I'd say, "Whatever

the one I was choosing."

I mean...

And then they might ask me about trying to

find out which is the best deal for me, when

I'm going to use the phone, etc., so I would

say, "I'm mainly going to be using my phone

in the evenings and at weekends."

I think in North America they say "on", on weekends, so off-peak.

I think I'll need 600 minutes a month, 800

minutes a month, 400, 200, whatever you think

it is going to be.

So, "mainly" means mostly, yeah?

I'm mostly going to be using my phone.

I'm mostly going to be using my phone.

I'm mainly going to be using my phone.

Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do.

I'm mainly going to be using my phone in the evenings and at weekends, so off-peak.

On-peak is during the working day, between 9 and 5.

Off-peak is when most people are not at work.

Obviously, I am working right now in off-peak.

I think I'll need such-and-such, so-and-so minutes a month.

Okay, so, well, we have this, or this, or this.

Hmm, let me see.

They're going to ask another question, maybe.

"What are you looking to use it for?"

What they're really trying to find out here is do you want to use various apps, Google

Maps, WhatsApp, whatever apps you use a lot.

Yeah, I want to use WhatsApp, Instagram,

City Mapper, Google Maps, Waze, I don't know.

I won't be downloading much.

I won't be downloading much, or I'll need...

I like to watch films on my phone, so try and

give them a good idea of how much internet

you're going to need to use.

Now, if you're buying a sim only online, then

there are some websites that roughly work

this out for you, rather than speaking to the person.

They can give a rough estimate by asking these

kind of questions of what you're going to

be using it for.

Now, you need to know about the contract.

How long, how many months, years will I be tied into the contract?

If you're tied into the contract, you can't escape it.

You're stuck.

"Help, help, I'm stuck in a contract."

If you need to get out of a contract that

you're tied into, then you'd have to pay some

money to escape, and they'll say, "Well, this deal's for 12 months.

This one's for 24 months."

It's normally a year or two years, so that's something to think about.

How long are you going to be in the country for?

You don't want to be paying for something when you're not there.

And then talking about your handset, your phone, is it possible to upgrade my phone?

To upgrade, so I've got a basic phone, I mean,

do they recycle this one and give me a new

one?

But probably I will have to pay each month for that phone.

It often works out cheaper to buy the phone,

like, if you can, straight away, rather than

paying for it on a monthly basis.

Okay, quite a lot of information in today's lesson.

I'm by no means an expert on these matters, I'm just looking to try and share some of

the vocab with you.

Just to make sure that it's settled in there

somewhere, that you can retrieve this information

at will, it'd be a good idea to head over

to www.engvid.com and have a go at doing the

quiz.

And do make sure you are a subscriber of mine,

because then when my video comes online for

how to speak to customer services when you're

having problems with these things, you'll

get that video.

Thanks for watching, I'll see you in the next one.