Before the pandemic, Alaia had a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) mobile and often used public Wi-Fi. Lockdown has made internet access from home essential for Alaia’s family, especially for home-schooling. At the start of the pandemic, Alaia incurred two separate charges of £100 on her mobile account. Vodafone told her that she went over her data allowance, but Alaia doesn’t understand how it happened. When she contacted her provider about these charges they arranged broadband and mobile contracts for the family, but these are a significant part of their monthly income. Their school has helped by providing laptops so that children can access education, but Alaia doesn’t know how to use the dongle they gave her so that isn’t being used.

"I have unlimited Wi-Fi from them on broadband and I have a mobile phone contract. I pay just under £50 a month-£20 for broadband and £24 for my mobile. My daughter and husband have mobile contracts too. I only started to have a mobile data contract after the lockdown. Before then, I used free Wi-Fi a lot...at the Hub [at Cardiff Central Library].

It is important at this time for my family to have the internet. I need to prioritise the Wi-Fi. We all need it; even the little ones. They're learning online, on the laptop, even when they are in the nursery.

We all use YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp and I use Facebook to find out what's going on in the world, in my country; I like to contact my family in Sudan. I do online banking and, during Covid, that's been a really important thing. Email is also a priority because we need to see messages from the school and my husband’s employers.

I got charged £200 during the lockdown, but I don’t know why; they said we used more data.

And my mobile contract ended in March. I didn't call them to upgrade, and I kept using my mobile data. I asked why it cost me [an extra] £200 in March and April. They said, 'You need to upgrade, you are on pay-as-you-go.' I don't know how they were working it out.

They checked my credit and were happy to do it. I've got a mobile, my daughter has a mobile, and my husband has a mobile, so it made the prices higher. We pay £100 a month for mobile and broadband.

We mostly use the Internet for learning, though. The kids use apps for education, and I use Teams and Zoom. My children all got computers from the school- they gave them laptops and even a dongle, but I don't know how to use it, so I keep it safe in a drawer."