Do you need a phone line?

Marvel1

In regards to broadband when I see good offers, I find the extra cost of paying for a telephone line rental makes the price go up and this is what I factor in.

Do you really need a phone line? What companies don't require it? I know Virgin Media is one of them.

EDIT:
It seems I do, I'm currently with Virgin Media and have Phone M (Free weekend calls) and Broadband L.

Just seen this from Orange:
http://www.orange-redirect.co.uk/BroadbandChoices-gwphp2050-4137/

The off-peak calls would suit me better as I work in the day, but will query what time evening is as there may be a catch.

What I want to know is if I did go with them (I will first haggle with VM to drop the price), how would this affect my landline with VM, I ain't in a contract.

macman

VM cable does not require a phone service to be take as well, but the way they then price it is disadvantageous.
For alll other providers, no line rental = no ADSL broadband. How do you think the broadband gets to your home if not via the phone line, which has to be rented and maintained?
If you are on cable, then you have no other options, as there are no other national cable providers. Switching to Orange (a bad idea) will first require you to have a BT line installed in order to get ADSL broadband.
Installling ADSL will have no effect on your cable line, they're completely separate networks.

coolesticeking

To be honest, it depends if you wish to take advantage of a speed downgrade (in most cases) by having broadband via a traditional telephone line supplied via BT, Orange etc.

Most people who don't live in a cable area with they did..

When with BT I was just short of 2 miles away from the exchange in the town centre and I could just get short of 1.2 MB.

Move on to Virgin Media (Dunno why I ever did get BT in the first place) and to start with the 10 MB I got 9.8 MB, moved up to 20 MB and got 19.7 MB and now on the 50 MB and get 49.7 MB.

I say they are cheaper yes, but I would rather pay that little extra to have Virgin Media Broadband and get a decent service.

Marvel1

coolesticeking wrote: »

To be honest, it depends if you wish to take advantage of a speed downgrade (in most cases) by having broadband via a traditional telephone line supplied via BT, Orange etc.

Most people who don't live in a cable area with they did..

When with BT I was just short of 2 miles away from the exchange in the town centre and I could just get short of 1.2 MB.

Move on to Virgin Media (Dunno why I ever did get BT in the first place) and to start with the 10 MB I got 9.8 MB, moved up to 20 MB and got 19.7 MB and now on the 50 MB and get 49.7 MB.

I say they are cheaper yes, but I would rather pay that little extra to have Virgin Media Broadband and get a decent service.

I just ran a speed test and the download speed was 9.5MB so not bad, at least getting what I'm paying for.

Marvel1

macman wrote: »

VM cable does not require a phone service to be take as well, but the way they then price it is disadvantageous.
For alll other providers, no line rental = no ADSL broadband. How do you think the broadband gets to your home if not via the phone line, which has to be rented and maintained?
If you are on cable, then you have no other options, as there are no other national cable providers. Switching to Orange (a bad idea) will first require you to have a BT line installed in order to get ADSL broadband.
Installling ADSL will have no effect on your cable line, they're completely separate networks.

Think I will stick with VM then.

spike7451

Just so you know,VM's phone line does not support DSL (Sky/BT/O2/TT Ect) broadband due to the way it works.A long time ago NTL did offer & support AOL Broadband on their cable line however the tech support side of it was limited.