Looking for broadband at home but at present no phone line!!

johnjo569

Hi

Im not sure what to do for the best, i have a mobile phone that gives me all the calls i need to make per month so i dont need a phone line at home (have never had one installed at my house since moving there 3 years ago), but i now need to have broadband at home. What is the best option, do i have to get a line connected with BT/Postoffice for around £170.00 (as people are saying on the phone forum page) Can i still use somebody else like 02 for my broadband (my mobile is with 02 and they have a great deal at the moment)or will i have to be tied in with BT for 12 months? As i said i have no use for calls by landline my mobile covers all my call use.

Thanks for your help in advance

John

johnjo569

Hi

Im not sure what to do for the best, i have a mobile phone that gives me all the calls i need to make per month so i dont need a phone line at home (have never had one installed at my house since moving there 3 years ago), but i now need to have broadband at home. What is the best option, do i have to get a line connected with BT/Postoffice for around £170.00 (as people are saying on the phone forum page) Can i still use somebody else like 02 for my broadband (my mobile is with 02 and they have a great deal at the moment)or will i have to be tied in with BT for 12 months? As i said i have no use for calls by landline my mobile covers all my call use.

Thanks for your help in advance

John

Heinz

If you're not in a cabled area, you'll have to have a 'BT-type' telephone line on which the ADSL broadband can be carried. That being the case, what's the problem with a contract?

In any case, even BT only charge £122.33 for installing a line so I don't know where you got the idea it'd be £170 from.

If there has been a BT line in the house before, you might (despite the 3 year gap) still be able to get free connection. See HERE.

nunnygirl

Have you considered a dongle? I have one and I don't have a phoneline

I pay £7.50 a month (Was reduced from £15 as I am an existing 3 customer) and don't need to pay line rental

brightonman123

check out the USB dongles!

blue_monkey_2

You could get a dongle and get broadband that way. I've just bought one as back-up after our ISP went down for 3 days. Plus you can take it with you when you go.

T-mobile offers the best value - £2 a day, £7.50 a week or £20 a month. At least this way you are not tied in. It depends what you want it for though. Here is the link:

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/broadband/mobile-broadband

Don;t forget to shop around on look on Quidco for any deals, I wanted mine that minute though so got the one from 3 with 3GB loaded onto it.

johnjo569

Heinz wrote: »

If you're not in a cabled area, you'll have to have a 'BT-type' telephone line on which the ADSL broadband can be carried. That being the case, what's the problem with a contract?

In any case, even BT only charge £122.33 for installing a line so I don't know where you got the idea it'd be £170 from.

If there has been a BT line in the house before, you might (despite the 3 year gap) still be able to get free connection. See HERE.

Thanks for your replies. I dont mind having a contract if it only for the £11/£12 line rental plus the broadband providers charge but wont i have to be tied into a phone contract on top of that?

blue_monkey_2

Only with your BB provider. If you have no cable then you have to go with BT for your line rental which is £11 or £12 a month. With this, as part of the line rental, you'll be on Option 1 that is free calls in the evenings and weekends which might be beneficial for you. You'll have to sign up for 12 months but after the 12 months, as long as you do not change the option you are on, you can cancel at any time (one months notice I believe).

You'll then have to pay for your BB and you'll get a contract with them. Ours with Virgin is for 18 months for example and we pay £20 a month for unlimited BB and phone calls (BT Line, not cable) and £11 for our BT Line rental, so £31 a month.

If you have to pay £170 to have the line in then you have to weigh up what option is actually going to be of benefit for you and the dongle might be cheapest if you do not want it for anything other than BB.

Check it is available in your area before you buy though.

Heinz

johnjo569 wrote: »

Thanks for your replies. I dont mind having a contract if it only for the £11/£12 line rental plus the broadband providers charge but wont i have to be tied into a phone contract on top of that?

Option 1 no longer exists - BT's bottom package is now the Unlimited Weekend Plan. As the name suggests, that gets you free weekend (not evening) calls (to UK 01/02/03/0845/0870 numbers) and line rental.

Of course, you don't have to use the phone (you could do like a lot of us do and just use it for those free weekend calls).

What do you mean by 'phone contract'?

blue_monkey_2

Oops, it has been a while since I was on BT, sorry.

I think the OP meant he would have to have a phone if he had the BT line.

macman

Is there a BT line and socket physically installed at your property already? If so they only have to reconnect it at the exchange and you won't necessarily get charged the full reconnection fee of around £130 if you take out a new 12m contract. If you do that, then you can get a good landline BB deal with O2, who will give you a basic up to 8MB BB service for about £7.40 (a fiver off) if you are an O2 mobile account holder-can be PAYG or contract. But to do this you have to be on an O2 LLU exchange-check on the O2 or on samknows site to find out if you are.
If you don't want a BT line, your only options are a Virgin Media cable service (if you are in a cabled area), or to use one of the mobile broadband services (a USB dongle) offered by all the big 5 mobile networks. In your case O2 might be the obvious one, but I can't see that at present you can bundle this with your mobile phone service.
Committing to BT for 12m line rental does not commit you to anything else-you can take your BB service and call package from whoever you wish.
Can't offer more detailed advice unless we know what exchange you are on.