Broadband and line rental?

lovetohate92

Basiacally, Do I have to pay line rental when I only want broadband and not a phone?

Me and my flat mates are trying to sort broadband in our uni flat. Some websites quote a price for just broadband on there own. However when I tried to sign up for one of these I was told I needed to pay line rental which would come with free evening calls etc, even though I specified I did not want a phone. Is this correct? I know nothing of this sort of thing, thank you for any help

iniltous

This is a topic thats been discussed many times, to get broadband over the phoneline you have to have a line rental contract with someone, unless you use Virgin Media stand alone broadband, but its no cheaper that line rental and broadband from most providers, or you could use mobile internet from a mobile phone company, but they tend to be expensive if you download/upload more than a small amount, The way to look at is, the physical line is provided by BT and as it being used, regardless of if its for data or telephony, then are entitled to be paid for the rental of it,

ukdutypaid

Check the following. (Links are self explanatory, once you roll your mouse over each one. They're specifically of interest to students
Very bottom of the page (Ignore the table at first)
http://www.uswitch.com/broadband/compare/student_broadband/
Then here
http://www.uswitch.com/broadband/compare/short_contract_broadband/
Here
http://www.uswitch.com/broadband/news/2011/08/virgin_media_offering_9_month_student_broadband_deals/
and here
http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/news/nine-month-student-broadband-from-virgin-media-0709102.html

PLUS MARTIN MUST HAVE SOMETHING ON THIS SOMEWHERE.
I simply can't be bothered looking, anymore. Other than right at the top of this page!
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-broadband

prowla

ADSL runs over phone lines and therefore requires a phone line, but most BB operators don't require you to have their line rental to run their BB over it.

As noted, Virgin will allow you to have fibre broadband without a phone line, but it is more expensive and if you go for one of the cashback sites you get less back.

It may be that BT's new fibre-optic network won't require a phone line, but I don't know.

macman

No line rental = no ADSL broadband.