Broadband but no phone line....

[summersmummy]

:-?Hi we have just moved home and there is a BT box in our lounge for a telephone line. As we both have contract phones we are not interested in having a home phone. Nethertheless we would like broadband, as we are in a 'rural area' we cannot benefit from a dongle or mobile broadband but BT tell me that to have broadband we would have to pay a line rental of £11 something then the broadband on top which equates to £21 at the cheapest ?! Can I not just have broadband without having to pay a line rental seems Im happy not to have a landline phone ?!!! :-?

[Markb03]

No because even though your not using a phone your still using a line. BT still have to maintain the line and this is what your paying for.

[andydd]

:-?Hi we have just moved home and there is a BT box in our lounge for a telephone line. As we both have contract phones we are not interested in having a home phone. Nethertheless we would like broadband, as we are in a 'rural area' we cannot benefit from a dongle or mobile broadband but BT tell me that to have broadband we would have to pay a line rental of £11 something then the broadband on top which equates to £21 at the cheapest ?! Can I not just have broadband without having to pay a line rental seems Im happy not to have a landline phone ?!!! :-?

 

Firstly ALL Uk broadband uses the telephone line so of course you will have to pay line rental for it too !. Wethere you actually use it to chat is upto you, yeah, it is a bit of a con IF you only want it for broadband, esp as many offers look really good..£7,£8,£10 etc UNTILL you realise you have to add on an extra £11.

 

The only alternatives are:-

 

Virgin Media

 

Are you in a Virgin Cable area ?. I have Broadband and cable Tv only for £21, which is quite a good deal, Its unclear from their website wether they still do this offer, i got it at the time when they dropped Sky1 and they were grovelling for people not to leave them. Virgin do offer an alternative if you are not in a cable area but I'm afraid it uses the phone line again !

 

 

Or Wifi Dongles (but you said they wont work)

 

I do believe there are/or maybe some kind of satellite based one ?. I had an interview for a company that provided this, but don't know much more about it.

[andie_303]

surely if your mobile phone works a mobile internet would??

 

I'm probably being thick but I thought they worked the same

[Markb03]

As far as I know the mobile network uses 3g.

 

I could be wrong though

[andydd]

surely if your mobile phone works a mobile internet would??

 

I'm probably being thick but I thought they worked the same

 

I think thats correct, when Im on the train to London the signal alternates between 3.5G, 3G and just normal signal (I assume) and it needs the 3G signal to access the web, might be worth checking up on though.

 

I suppose the original question is actually...'I need to have a phone line to get broadband but as i wont be using it for any calls, is there a cheaper alternative to paying £11 line rental ?'

 

Unlike mobile tariffs which vary widely depending on the phone you have/how many mins, text, net access, home line tariffs pretty much seem stuck at the £11 mark however you use it !

[locutus]

I'll post some alternatives to try to save money.

 

1st as you just want broadband , as andydd said Virgin Media. Check to see if you are in a virgin media area.

 

If you have Sky TV, they offer Free / Cheeper broadband (Depending on your needs). You still need a phone line but as you're already paying for Sky TV, The broadband is free for up to 2gig and £5 for unlimited. You should contact Sky and see what they can do for you.

 

O2... If your mobile is O2 (Even PAYG) you can get a great price and one of the highest rated broadbands from them

 

TalkTalk & Tiscali(I'm probably gonna get shot for even posting the names here as a lot of people don't rate TalkTalk or Tiscali) They both offer a combined broadband & Landline package at around the £15 per month mark. (Both will try to sell you a higher package tho LOL)

 

Mobile Dongles (I know you say they won't work, but hear me out please LOL)

Most use their own network so chances are 1 may be able to offer you Mobile Broadband. Now, if you order these online or over the phone, you have a 7 day cooling off period due to the Distance Selling Regulations, so you'll not end up lumbered with something that doesn't work. 3 and t-mobile both use the same network, so if you tried one and that doesn't work, then don't bother trying the other. If you have a 3g phone and you 3g symbol is lit, chances are your current supplier can connect you at atlease a reasonable speed.

 

3g in itself is OK for surfing, but you want a HSDPA connection (Commonly called 3.5g) so watch out for these things if you do decide to try them out. I'd say go in the order of t-mobile or 3, then vodaphone, then O2 then Orange (Just on my experience with coverage)

[andydd]

I'll post some alternatives to try to save money.

 

1st as you just want broadband , as andydd said Virgin Media. Check to see if you are in a virgin media area.

 

If you have Sky TV, they offer Free / Cheeper broadband (Depending on your needs). You still need a phone line but as you're already paying for Sky TV, The broadband is free for up to 2gig and £5 for unlimited. You should contact Sky and see what they can do for you.

 

O2... If your mobile is O2 (Even PAYG) you can get a great price and one of the highest rated broadbands from them

 

TalkTalk & Tiscali(I'm probably gonna get shot for even posting the names here as a lot of people don't rate TalkTalk or Tiscali) They both offer a combined broadband & Landline package at around the £15 per month mark. (Both will try to sell you a higher package tho LOL)

 

Mobile Dongles (I know you say they won't work, but hear me out please LOL)

Most use their own network so chances are 1 may be able to offer you Mobile Broadband. Now, if you order these online or over the phone, you have a 7 day cooling off period due to the Distance Selling Regulations, so you'll not end up lumbered with something that doesn't work. 3 and t-mobile both use the same network, so if you tried one and that doesn't work, then don't bother trying the other. If you have a 3g phone and you 3g symbol is lit, chances are your current supplier can connect you at atlease a reasonable speed.

 

3g in itself is OK for surfing, but you want a HSDPA connection (Commonly called 3.5g) so watch out for these things if you do decide to try them out. I'd say go in the order of t-mobile or 3, then vodaphone, then O2 then Orange (Just on my experience with coverage)

 

Surely near all the above phone options will add on the dreaded extra line rental charge somewhere ?. Initially you can get some great deals but they often mention the line rental in small print and all of a sudden its not such a great deal, Virgin Media too do this for most packages, i think im lucky to be on such a good tv/broadband only package as i haggled when they where in there 'no-sky' period and many customers threatened to leave.

 

At the end of the day Virgin is the only company that can offer a service that doesnt rely on a phone line (i seem to recal there was another company doing it in a real limited area too, like isle of wight or something).

[tom79]

Hello,

 

i work for a broadband provider, apart from the ones you have mentioned..

 

Bt or a company which re-sells on a BT line like talk talk (boo), and dongles/mobile broadband the only other option is via a special disc like from Fast.co.uk | The UK's highest rated ISP for Support & Customer Service | Home but... its expensive! I am not sure of how much exactly but it says on the site "grants can be applied for to help with the setup" which.. is quite scary!

 

But as your question was asking another way... there we go

 

Honestly get it thought a BT line though, it is a pain having to pay for BT line yes but don't think of it this way, think of the total cost together. compare it to VM Broadband on its own and i think you will find there isnt much difference for example

 

VM - £10 MB = £20 a mth

 

or

 

BT = £11 and on top of that you then need

VM National (upto 8 mb, with evenings and weekend calls) = £12 to £15 a mth (depending on exchange)

 

Yes slightly more.. but for the extra £3 to £6 you get e/w calls

 

BT also do an ok package together but watch out for there nasty install fee!

 

Sky will pay the install fee if you take the TV box

 

Virgin now will also pay the install fee (if you ask)

 

Hope this helps

[locutus]

Yes Sky, O2, Talktalk & Tiscali need a phone line, but all work out Sub-£20 per month.

 

If summersmummy lives in a none cable area with no 3g/HSDPA coverage from any mobile provider then the options are either Satalite broadband or ADSL down a BT phone line. (and if you think paying for a phone line is expensive look at the satalite options!!!)

 

All of the options I posted are under £20 per month even factoring in the phone line, and none of these introductory £10 for the 1st 3 months then £29.99 thereafter rubbish LOL

 

If going for the Tiscali/TalkTalk option, Make sure you're not in contract with BT as BT will charge for you breaking the contract (Line rental for the rest of the term!)

[locutus]

Bt or a company which re-sells on a BT line like talk talk

Sky, TalkTalk and Tiscali can take over your line, you don't pay BT for line rental, and in the exchange the line plugs into their own equipment so it's not a re-sold BT phone & broadband it's their own. O2 plug you into their broadband server but leave the calls going thrugh the BT server, so again the broadband is seperate from BT's, who are to be honest expensive.

[dx100uk]

would be nice if the originator posted some reply to all these answers then we could help....................

 

dx

[Markb03]

Yes Sky, O2, Talktalk & Tiscali need a phone line, but all work out Sub-£20 per month.

 

If summersmummy lives in a none cable area with no 3g/HSDPA coverage from any mobile provider then the options are either Satalite broadband or ADSL down a BT phone line. (and if you think paying for a phone line is expensive look at the satalite options!!!)

 

All of the options I posted are under £20 per month even factoring in the phone line, and none of these introductory £10 for the 1st 3 months then £29.99 thereafter rubbish LOL

 

If going for the Tiscali/TalkTalk option, Make sure you're not in contract with BT as BT will charge for you breaking the contract (Line rental for the rest of the term!)

 

 

If the OP had no 3G coverage from any of the normal providers I would be suggest they live rural and perhaps cant get LLU either.

[patdavies]

Be aware that without a phone line, any satellite option will be hideously expensive to set as as the satellite dish will need to be a transmitter as well as a receiver,

 

Most cheaper satellite options only use the satellite link for the downstream side of the signal. Up stream goes over the normal telephone line.

 

Certainly a satellite transceiver set-up will be more expensive to run that a BT phone line. I can't see any reasonable usage costing much less than £50/month for 5 Gbytes at 2 Mbps

[andydd]

would be nice if the originator posted some reply to all these answers then we could help....................

 

dx

 

I think our replies may have confused them further and they have gone to lie down in a darkened room !

[locutus]

If the OP had no 3G coverage from any of the normal providers I would be suggest they live rural and perhaps cant get LLU either.

Good Thinking

 

Nice easy checker here :-

Samknows Broadband - Broadband Availability Checker

[tom79]

Sky, TalkTalk and Tiscali can take over your line, you don't pay BT for line rental, and in the exchange the line plugs into their own equipment so it's not a re-sold BT phone & broadband it's their own. O2 plug you into their broadband server but leave the calls going thrugh the BT server, so again the broadband is seperate from BT's, who are to be honest expensive.

 

Yup it isnt resold BT products its there own, what i meant was they use a BT line.

 

I could steer clear from Talk Talk in my experience, you get what you pay for in the end of the day

[locutus]

Yup it isnt resold BT products its there own, what i meant was they use a BT line.

 

I could steer clear from Talk Talk in my experience, you get what you pay for in the end of the day

 

I get faster speeds than any BT based broadbands that I've tried (and thats a few) and their online help is the best I've experienced if anything does go wrong (In my case a faulty router and a replcement was sent straight out within 4 days) I pay less than £20 per month and get free calls to anywhere in Europe (Which helps with me having friends in France and family in Spain)

 

Everyone has individual experiences with all companies, mine with TalkTalk is a good one, Just the 1 minor fault that was not 100% down to TalkTalk (Although I wish they had sent out the more expensive router in the 1st place LOL)in 2 1/2 years.

[tom79]

summersmummy , did you get anything sorted?

[Mark_Blackpool]

We live in a rural area and have no landline. Our mobiles are on Vodafone and the 3G light on the phone doesn't activate round here, actually the signal barely holds at the best of times downstairs in the house.

 

We have a Three 3G modem in the loft space which connects at full strength HSPDA and runs at 1.6Mbps.