Internet without BT line?

m3tallica

Hi 1st time poster, long time reader...

I'm moving to a new house next week and from what BT tell me there is a BT line at the house however it is disconnected and will charge me £120 to reconnect it, which I'm trying my very best to avoid.

Now the way I understand it is that most providers require an active BT line, so that would eliminate most providers? What about cable broadband? Does that function on the same basis? I remember looking on Virgin Broadband's site and they can either do it down the phone or through the cable....are there any other providers that do this and what are the merits of it?

Ideally I'd rather not have to pay to have the line reconnected, pay a monthly rental fee for BT and then also pay the BB monthly fee on top of that too.

Can anyone help with some gems of ideas?

Much appreciated...

mcmanlyn

virgin does broadband seperate from phone line & it's only £10 per month for 2GB at the mo'. This is the only one i know of.

Andy_L

You've either got to pay for BT to connect their line or for Virgin Media (ex NTL) to connect their cable (assuming they cover your area). Cable's currently £25 to connect (so cheaper) but your are then stuck with having to use virgin media for your ISP

m3tallica

Thanks for that...

Another follow up question then: I'm probably going to go with the cable solution, but just so I know, if I did pay to get the BT line reconnected, will they give me a phone number and try to set me up to pay for the line monthly, or, looking at the £14.99 unlimited broadband & talk offer from Virgin, will that include the line rental? I'm guessing not..

Hope that makes sense.

Crease2000

£120 to activate a BT line, that can't be right? I'd understand if they had to come out and install it from scratch. Unless you've given BT a bad time in the past by not paying your bill, etc?

As an ex-BT employee, I can tell you that it all depends on who you speak to when you phone them up. If you feel like it, phone BT again to speak to someone else and see if they say the same thing and quote the same price.

foreign_correspondent

if you go with the virgin broadband, quidco are giving £55 back at the moment! siged up yesterday:beer:

m3tallica

Yeah tell me about it, £124, what a rip. Apparently it's the cost to re-activate a line and it was mentioned on their website somewhere too, I remember reading it.

billsavings

Their is a sticky on the BT Line Connection charge here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=211879

inamabilis

I'm kind of in the same boat - I'll be moving in to a student house in September. After spending many hours on the phone to BT (don’t get me started on the hold times, not to mention different advice from different employees and even repeatedly getting cut off!) I have found out that you can have a free (and no commitment to sign up) engineer come out to inspect the line. They will be able to give you a definitive cost (if any) to activate the line.
Also in answer to the virgin offer question, no that wont include the line rental (which, as far as I know, is cheapest with toucan at £8.99pm, and after staying with them for a few months we were able to get that discounted by a few pounds just by asking nicely!)



Hope this helps

Ypaymore

m3tallica wrote: »

Thanks for that...

Another follow up question then: I'm probably going to go with the cable solution, but just so I know, if I did pay to get the BT line reconnected, will they give me a phone number and try to set me up to pay for the line monthly, or, looking at the £14.99 unlimited broadband & talk offer from Virgin, will that include the line rental? I'm guessing not..

Hope that makes sense.

You need a BT Line to use Virgin Medias £14.99p a month non-cable offer.

Their are other people that will supply/reconnect lines. Eg The Phone Co-op and
Madasafish .

espresso

Ypaymore wrote: »

You need a BT Line to use Virgin Medias £14.99p a month non-cable offer.

Their are other people that will supply/reconnect lines. Eg The Phone Co-op and
Madasafish .

If you are in a cabled area they won't supply ADSL (non cable).

Althouth these other companies will connect you for approx £10 less, it is not a good idea to do this, as it will prevent you from using other much cheaper telecoms providers! With BT you keep all of your options open for both voice and BB.