Internet without a phone line?

stator

neilcr wrote: »

Virgin BB should be compaired with other fibre services such as BT & Sky. If you just need a fast fibre connection and don't want or need a landline VM does work out cheaper. If it's reliable is another question as I've not used VM.

The whole "Fibre" thing is a con, it's still a copper cable coming into your home. The latency or reliability is no better than any other broadband. I have VM broadband I have to say it's crap, I'll be dumping it when I move house. You might be able to get a better 'up to' speed but it's purely theoretical.

custardy

stator wrote: »

The whole "Fibre" thing is a con, it's still a copper cable coming into your home. The latency or reliability is no better than any other broadband. I have VM broadband I have to say it's crap, I'll be dumping it when I move house. You might be able to get a better 'up to' speed but it's purely theoretical.

Not in my experience



This test was done with me streaming a pay per view UFC event.

Been with VM from when it was Telewest and 0.5 meg was a good speed.

RumRat

TheSaint wrote: »

I use VM and have no phone line. I use VoIP instead. VM is slightly cheaper if you dont need a phone, but not by much. The others insist on you having a phone, even if its fibre.


You could try a 3 or 4g modem if you get a good connection where you are, most don't though.

If you have a phone with VM they will charge you less than the stand alone BB, for both. We have the VM phone but never use it and I can't remember the last time it rang..:D It's only there to keep my BB price down.

stator wrote: »

The whole "Fibre" thing is a con, it's still a copper cable coming into your home. The latency or reliability is no better than any other broadband. I have VM broadband I have to say it's crap, I'll be dumping it when I move house. You might be able to get a better 'up to' speed but it's purely theoretical.

I've been with Cable since the local days. The connection is solid and I get full 100Mb speed constantly. So there is no 'con' and the reliability is excellent. I get less problems than a neighbour with Sky BB.

OP.
The answer to your question is NO as far as I know. You need the phone line for all the others, unless you pay for something like Satellite BB from Tooway or you could try Hyperoptic post code checker. Neither is cheap.
You say customer service is bad, but don't say if your BB was good or not? Be careful not to throw a paddy because you didn't get what you wanted from VM, if its product works.

Oblivion

I have a bit of a love / hate relationship with Virgin Media. I've been with them ever since the early days of dial up, then ADSL and I know how awful the customer service can be, especially those Indian call centres working from scripts.

As an ADSL customer I was one of those due to be mass migrated to TalkTalk any time now ... a fate worse than death if you read the forums with all the accounts of loss of connection or loss of speed that transferees are experiencing.

Fortunately I am in a Virgin cable area and I got cold-called by a VM Account Manager back in November to tell me about the imminent transfer to TT ... and then he offered me a good discounted deal to take VM Cable (50Mbit) with the latest Superhub 2ac, keep our old virgin.net email addresses, VM Landline and keep our old BT phone number, and he later threw in a £100 credit for inconvenience. :j

But then it took two installation cancellations and over 2 months and several aborted attempts before their sub-contractors were able to pull through a new cable for me ... admittedly a very long and difficult pull. But at least I did get a brand new state-of-the-art cable, unlike the ancient rotting stuff my neighbours are still on. :j

Then we had weeks of fiasco because despite 4 attempts my Account Manager couldn't get the computer system to turn off my old ADSL account so I was still being charged for that non-existent service. I even got a letter from Virgin / TalkTalk officially telling me I was about to be transferred to TT. The switch-off was finally achieved and I've been credited with the overpayments and I can finally access the Cable version of 'My Virginmedia' account online. :j

It's been a roller-coaster but I have to say, although it's early days, the end result has been worth all the extended aggro. I'm getting a constant 54Mbit and solid connectivity. The new Superhub 2ac is excellent and I'm loving the new 5GHz wi-fi band which is completely interference free here ... my laptops are flying! :j

I just hope it continues to keep working this well as the thought of having to go to VM customer services in India again sends cold shivers down my spine. Mind you, I do still have the contact numbers for 'my' VM account manager and I know where he lives which isn't far from here.