AOL Wireless Plus (Free Laptop) 4 Broadband

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).

WHILE we agree that nothing in life comes free, we’ll concede that laptops and games consoles from AOL do occasionally come free!

If you are waiting for the catch or the bad review, you’ll be disappointed. The AOL Wireless Broadband free laptop offer is a surprisingly good one.

The Included Broadband Package

One would expect that if you are getting a free laptop or free PS3 with your broadband, one of the two will be sub-par. This is not the case for either.

The AOL Broadband Wireless package offers speeds of up to 8Mb and while not unlimited, offers a usage allowance of a staggering 40GB.

It is worth noting that this is more than what the fair use policies of some so-called ‘unlimited’ packages allow and you’d have to be an extraordinarily heavy user to come close to reaching this limit.

AOL provide a free wireless router too, which is handy as the free laptop features a wireless card, meaning you’ll be able to use it anywhere in the house.

AOL are also famously efficient on the customer service front and were recently voted best broadband provider for customer service and reliability.

The only downside are the credit checks that will be performed, and the 24 month AOL contract, but if you consider that almost all broadband providers require you to commit for 12 or 18 months, 24 months doesn’t seem too high a sacrifice for a free laptop.

The Included Phone Package

This version of AOL Broadband Wireless with free laptop is the only one that does not include a home phone package.

As a result it is significantly more expensive than its counterparts as AOL (who are owned by Carphone Warehouse/TalkTalk) will not be making any money from the chatterboxes in your household.

We’d say it makes more sense to opt for one of the other packages which include the compulsory phone packages and then just use an override number to get cheaper calls.

Not that AOL’s call charges are particularly expensive - they are marginally cheaper than BT’s.

A quick note about using override providers to get cheaper calls: AOL do not support subscription-based override providers (such as 18185.com), but you can freely use non-subscription based override numbers such as those offered by Telediscount.

The Free Laptop

AOL is giving away a free HP Compaq Notebook laptop with its broadband package (they were formerly also giving away a free PS3 as an alternative to the laptop, but this is unfortunately no longer available).

Sure, the free AOL laptop is no super-computer, but it is surprisingly good. It comes equipped with Windows Vista Home, 1GB of memory, a media card and a wireless card.

The value of the AOL free laptop is around £400, while the free PS3 is worth around £350.

There are options to upgrade the laptop, starting at £50 and going up to £150, but we’d say this is not necessary. The only change we’d make would make would be to install more RAM so that Windows Vista runs smoother. This however is not a necessity by any means.

The only small downside with AOL’s free laptop is the £14.99 delivery charge that they hide away in their small print. Still, when you consider that you are getting a free laptop with a superb broadband package, a small delivery fee is not a big price to pay.

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) 4 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	-

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:		0844 (5p per min) support, 8am to midnight

Actual User Ratings

At a Glance

Our Rating
Max Speed	8Mb
Usage Limit	40GB
Monthly Price	£29.99
Set Up Cost	Free
Min. Contract	24 months

	Bundle details:
	Phone: Not included
	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 an excellent broadband package)

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. "