Alternative to BT???

silverspoon

Hi All!

I have a query that I hope someone can help with. I am currently a BT customer and never use the phone due to having a contract phone, however I have to pay arond £50 quarterly for the BT line due to needing an internet connection which I have with Sky. As anyone will know you need a phone line to have internet connection; which leads me to the next point, Virgin provide internet without a phoneline right? but NTL which is now Virgin didn't fit their into my part of the street when they did this area.

Is there any other way to get an internet provider without needing a phone line as I have worked out it is actually costing me around £30 - £35 per month by having the BT line in order to have internet access:(

macman

Other than Virgin Media cable service or a broadband dongle, no. All ADSL services require a BT line.
But how do you calculate spending £30-35 pm just for line rental? BT line rental on the Unlimited Weekend Plan is £11.25pm, or £33.75 per qtr.

Tallullah

I'm also looking for an alternative to BT for broadband. I used to have NTL but switched for a number of reasons. I'm just about to come out of contract and I'm thinking of switching back (or rather to Virgin). It's mainly because of the atrocious broadband speed after about half five in the day. Does anyone who currently has Virgin recommend it? Advice would be greatly appreciated, as I found NTL to be a bit like Ryanair -- a good service so long as everything was fine, but atrocious if it wasn't and I am a bit wary!

Cheers!

Inactive

Tallullah wrote: »

I'm also looking for an alternative to BT for broadband. I used to have NTL but switched for a number of reasons. I'm just about to come out of contract and I'm thinking of switching back (or rather to Virgin). It's mainly because of the atrocious broadband speed after about half five in the day. Does anyone who currently has Virgin recommend it? Advice would be greatly appreciated, as I found NTL to be a bit like Ryanair -- a good service so long as everything was fine, but atrocious if it wasn't and I am a bit wary!

Cheers!

You do not need to use BT to provide Broadband via a BT line, there are hundreds of ISP's, many/most are far better than BT.

silverspoon

macman wrote: »

Other than Virgin Media cable service or a broadband dongle, no. All ADSL services require a BT line.
But how do you calculate spending £30-35 pm just for line rental? BT line rental on the Unlimited Weekend Plan is £11.25pm, or £33.75 per qtr.

Rental Charges £40.17
Payment Charges £ 6.50
VAT £6.73

off my current bill!


Actually there's something really wrong here as I am on the basic calling plan but they are charging me £13.39 a month, when it should be £11.25 and then add on the vat to the extra per quarter, I'm obviously paying more than I should be. I'll have to contact them about this.

silverspoon

So is it possible with a broadband dongle?

laney85

silverspoon wrote: »

So is it possible with a broadband dongle?

yes you =do not need a phone line for mobile bband but i feel its pretty costly

macman

silverspoon wrote: »

Rental Charges £40.17
Payment Charges £ 6.50
VAT £6.73

off my current bill!

That's a quarterly bill I think? You said your monthly bill was £30-35. But if you switch to Option 1 Unltd Weekend the line rental is £11.25pm.
Also you are paying payment charges of £6.50, which you don't need to do as long as you pay by DD.
I can't work out where your line rental total comes from as it is more than any current tarrif. Does that include some equipment rental maybe?
For the basic line rental you do not need to pay more than £33.75 per qtr, which is about £20 less than you are paying now.

macman

laney85 wrote: »

yes you =do not need a phone line for mobile bband but i feel its pretty costly

Also, can you get a decent 3G signal at your home on your preferred network? If not, forget it, as you will be on dial up speeds.
Also remember that a dongle will only give access for one PC-you can't share the connection unless you get a mobile broadband router.

Tallullah

Inactive wrote: »

You do not need to use BT to provide Broadband via a BT line, there are hundreds of ISP's, many/most are far better than BT.

Anyone got any recommendations? I know Talk-Talk is supposed to be v cheap, but I have heard horror stories about their service...?

macman

Tallullah wrote: »

Anyone got any recommendations? I know Talk-Talk is supposed to be v cheap, but I have heard horror stories about their service...?

First check which ISP's are available LLU on your exchange using samknows.com.
They'll be the ones with the best deals.
The best deal for you is totally dependent on what is available on your own exchange.