AOL Wireless Plus (Free Laptop) 3 Broadband Bundle

Review of AOL's FREE laptop Broadband Wireless Plus

STOP PRESS! Get this package for £10 less per month for the first 3 months. The savings will be paid in the form of a £30 cheque at the end of your first 3 months. (Offer ends 27/07/08).

BACK in the day, we’d have killed for just a basic broadband connection at this price.

Now, AOL are giving you a free laptop, a superb broadband package and unlimited home phone calls!

Amazingly, this AOL Broadband Wireless with free laptop package is excellent all round with no real catches to drag it down.

The Included Broadband Package

Putting aside the free laptop, the AOL broadband package that accompanies it is an excellent one.

For starters, AOL was recently voted best ISP for customer support and reliability in a nationwide poll, so no fear of signing up to a dud provider here.

The broadband speed is up to 8Mb and while not unlimited, offers a massive 40GB usage allowance. For those confused by numbers and letters, this equates to around 1 million web pages or around 8,000 songs per month.

AOL also give you a free wireless router (which is handy because AOL’s free laptop includes a wireless card).

There is unfortunately a 24 month contract - and you will be credit-checked - but 24 months is not all that long in the greater scheme of things, especially considering AOL’s excellent reputation at this point.

The Included Phone Package

While there are cheaper versions of this package offering less thorough home phone plans (as well as a more expensive version where no home phone package is required), here you get AOL’s Talk Unlimited which promises free phonecalls to UK landlines at any time, as well as excellent rates to most other countries abroad.

The Free Laptop

Pleasingly AOL’s free laptop does not have a wind-up crank at the back, nor does it come from an obscure Chinese manufacturer.

It is a HP Compaq, no less and is reasonably high-spec.

The alternative choice of a free PlayStation 3 instead of a free laptop is no longer available unfortunately.

The free AOL laptop comes equipped with Windows Vista Home, 1GB of memory, 80GB hard drive, a DVD writer, a media card as well as a wireless card so you can really make the most of your free wireless router that comes free with the broadband package.

You will have to pay AOL £14.99 for delivery of the laptop, but when you consider it is basically free, this is hardly a huge sacrifice.

Our verdict? Get it while you can. A free laptop offer like this will not last long.

You can read more about the free laptop on offer in our 2 investigative broadband news reports:
- Free laptops for AOL subscribers
- AOL free laptop offer: 2 months on

	AOL Wireless Plus (Free Laptop) 3 is currently offering FREE HP Compaq Notebook laptop! Yes, free laptop! Also, FREE wireless router.

A little more detail

Broadband

			Special Note..	Any good?
Package Name:		Wireless Plus	-
Connection Type:		ADSL	-
Max Speed:		8Mb	-
Usage Limit:		40GB	-
Hardware:		Wireless router	Free when you sign up online
Anti-virus Protection:		Yes	This costs an additional £2.49 per month
Firewall:		Yes	-
E-mail Account:		Yes	Up to 7 email addresses
Webspace Provided:		Yes	150Mb of webspace
Domain Included:		No	-
Backup Dialup:		Yes	-
Consoles Supported:		All major consoles supported	-

Home Phone

Package Name:		Talk Unlimited
UK Weekend Tariff:		Free to UK landlines
UK Evening Tariff:		Free to UK landlines
UK Peak Tariff:		Free to UK landlines
International Tariff:		Discounted rates from 2p per min to USA and Australia

Payment, Installation and Contract

Payment Method(s):		Direct Debit / Credit Card
Activation Fee:		Free
Installation:		Free
Minimum Contract:		24 months
Line Rental:		BT line rental required
Support:		Free (if AOL Talk is activated), otherwise 5p/min, 8am to midnight

Actual User Ratings

At a Glance

Our Rating
Max Speed	8Mb
Usage Limit	40GB
Monthly Price	£24.99
Set Up Cost	Free
Min. Contract	24 months

	Bundle details:
	Phone: Unlimited anytime calls to UK landlines
	TV: Not included
	Mobile: Not included

	It is best suited for:
	Families, or anyone happy to commit to a 24 month contract in return for a FREE laptop (and a generous broadband and unlimited home phone talk bundle)

Customer Reviews

Add your own review of AOL broadband...

Remember, the customer reviews below are subjective (and are not the opinions of ChooseISP.co.uk).

Digby Davies from Powys writes... 22/04/2008

"I am a ten year customer of AoL, I already have broadband and AoL Talk and decided in March to switch to their wireless router - they confirmed by e-mail on 28 March and by letter on 31 March but it still hasn't arrived despite a series of delivery dates and promises of 'it will arrive in 3-5 working days' but no result. The really annoying thing is that every person in their Indian call centre takes at least half an hour to deal with a query and can never do any more than the old '3-5 days' stuff... I think it is time to say 'Goodbye' to AoL..."

Jon from Chesterfield writes... 13/03/2008

"I left BT Broad Band for AOL, due to BT's awful customer service. Unfortunately AOL are worse, rude, long hold times, poor English and lack any ability to sort out problems. Called Carphone Warehouse to set up the deal, they then pass my details on to AOL, call AOL with my MAC code and was told they didn’t want it yet and to wait for the welcome pack and router. 3 weeks later nothing has arrived, call AOL and they tell me Carphone Warehouse has cancelled my order as I haven’t provided my MAC Code, so the whole process starts again. 3 weeks after the restart, still nothing except that I now have no internet, no welcome pack, no router and no laptop. Have contacted Carphone Warehouse to complain about the late laptop but they will not refund the deliver charge. There are other ISP with offers of free hardware eg set top boxes, digital recorders, so it depends what you are after. In theory you could buy the laptop for £350 - £400 and spend £10 per month on Broad Band so we thought it was worth it as we could do with a laptop. "

John Williams from Portsmouth writes... 29/02/2008

"We signed up to AOL at our local Carphone Warehouse, who own AOL. The process took about ten minutes. We had our wireless router within 10 days, online four days later and have just got our new laptop. A very nice package."

Jenny from Tamworth writes... 04/02/2008

"I ordered this AOL free laptop deal on 17th December last year. Ok, yes, I understand there has been Christmas inbetween but my broadband wasnt connected until 30th Jan 08 despite first being told it would be connected on 7th Jan then being told the 15th! As promised I received the free AOL router 2 days later. I opened the box to find the "easy install" CD was missing. After contacting AOL and being told I'll have to go into a branch of Carphone Warehouse to sort it out, which somehow didnt sound right to me. I contacted carphone warehouse by phone and they said they would send me a CD out within 5 working days, so will have to wait and see if it turns up. Also I have never received any info of a username and password so also had to call AOL for that. I cannot say that the AOL staff are impolite - far from it. In fact they are very curteous, but I think they just haven't been trained very well. I'm hoping when I finally receive my free laptop and get my router up and running I will be writing a review saying how great the offer is, but I'm feeling a little unconvinced at the moment!"

Karen from Manchester writes... 03/12/2007

"OK if you can get it. I also was a loyal AOL broadband customer out of contract. I applied and was accepted for the AOL free laptop package but later realised I had inadvertantly given them the wrong telephone number, as I have 2 lines coming in. But this was "too difficult" for the monkeys at AOL customer services to amend so I migrated to Sky.com and am now paying £5 per month for 8Mb. And with the £20 per month I am saving can easily afford a laptop of my own."

Lin from Cumbria writes... 19/10/2007

"I've been an AOL customer for over 5 years and was offered the free laptop package which we agreed to. We received the router after about a week, and received a letter to say the free AOL laptop would follow. After waiting approx 5 weeks, we got in touch with AOL to ask where the laptop was and was told we weren't on the list for a free laptop and if we wanted one we would have to pay £32.48 a month and not the agreed amount of £22.48 per month. If this is how AOL treat their loyal customers they can stick their package!"

Colin from Fife writes... 15/10/2007

"I was an AOL customer out of contract . I contacted AOL about the free laptop offer and was told I could qualify for the offer. I took the basic free laptop model along with the AOL Talk Unlimited package at £24.99 per month. The whole process was painless and after approx 5 weeks, delivery of the new Dell laptop came. This product is excellent , the whole package is a genuine value deal with the added plus of a free wireless router inc. Talk unlimited package cost £24.99. "