Short-term line rental for broadband?

rmwebs

Hi all,

I'm moving into a property for 3 months, and need to sort out broadband. I've already checked and cant get Virgin Media in the area, so will have to use a phoneline provider. I've been looking at BT and Primus however they both require a 12 month contract.

What I'm after is a 3 month or month-to-month contract for both the line rental and broadband. I'm not bothered about using the phoneline to make calls on as I've got an existing mobile contract to use.

Would anyone know of any providers? For the internet I know we can only get a 1meg connection in the area as its a long way from the exchange, so I'm not too bothered on the speed of a broadband package, so long as it doesn't have a silly/low limit of like 10GB a month!

Thanks for your time

(p.s I was going to post this in the internet forum but thought it would be best here due to it being about the phone line rental - feel free to move if needed though!)

Furch

You could try getting in touch with BeThere broadband they do a 3 month broadband contract: https://www.bethere.co.uk/web/beportal/shorttermcontracts

They can also provide a landine (which they rent off BT), though I am not sure whether they will do this for the 3 month deal or just for the 12

Their number is: 0808 101 3424

macman

I think the PO is the only provider who will do a line rental contract for less than 12m. However you'll obviously pay the full line install rate.
Make do with a mobile broadband service for 3m?

Inactive

IDNet, do 30 day contracts for both phone and / or BB, they will of course charge for the line install.

R34GTT

Plusnet do a non contract landline and broadband service, they will charge for activation though.

rmwebs

Thanks for the replies so far

I did check with BEthere yesterday, but unfortunately it doesn't look like they can do just broadband. It seemed a little steep to pay £20/mo + £9/mo when we're only going to get 1MB of the 24MB

I did find a provider called DirectSaveTelecom that seem to do a fairly reasonable month-to-month plan:
- 'Broadband Basic'
- 20GB Usage
- Free Setup
- Up to 24MB
- 28 day contract
- Free weekend calls
- £21.90 /mo (£9.95 for the broadband then £11.95 for line rental)

They also have a 'Broadband Family' which was 60GB usage for £26.90 /mo

Never heard of them before however. They were listed on moneysupermarkets broadband comparison page.

EDIT: Just noticed this hidden in the small print:

If you leave the broadband service within the first 12 months there is a £50 disconnection charge.

Heinz

In any case, you'd still need a landline to carry the ADSL broadband.

rmwebs

The property does have the landline fitted, but I think its just deactivated at the moment.

The best deal I've found is from o2. (o2broadbandoffer.co.uk)

The 'All Rounder' package + line rental @£7.66 /mo would be pretty good I think. I'd just need to get an O2 PAYG sim and put £10 on it for the three month period, allowing me to get the cheaper price (granted I'll only be saving a fiver but still!). So total cost would be £19.91 for "unlimited" usage. £25 connection fee with a modem/wireless router included.

macman

That only applies if you are on an O2 LLU exchange.
I didn't think 02 offered reconnections, but they may do so now.

rmwebs

Looks like thats out the window!

Why are there no decent month-to-month broadband providers out there!

macman

There are plenty, but the issue is the reconnection charge-you've got to expect to pay the full rate if you're only on a 3 month contract.
Can you not use a PAYG dongle for 3m? If you're only going to get 1Mbps anyway with ADSL, it shouldn't be too bad, assuming you can get a 3G signal.