Broadband with no landline

J_B

You haven't actually said how you currently receive your internet and what you're paying ....

jamesd

castle96 said:

I have computer on most of the day, so would the data be enough? My landline is with SSE at £16 pm so I wouldnt make any saving. Never use my l/line

You might consider switching to BT to get their Fibre (to the cabinet) service. They offer that and pay as you go landline on top with no fixed monthly charge, so no charge to use the line just to receive calls. At up to 40 megabits per second down with a 30 guarantee for their cheapest option it'll be faster than a mobile connection and easily able to handle 4k video, something many phone connections will struggle with.

If you want more reliability you can pay extra for their Hybrid Connect service. That gets you a second box which will connect you to EE 4G mobile if your main line goes down for some reason. Not close to as fast, but it's still always there so you don't completely lose your connectivity. No charge beyond the monthly one to use this fallback.

Like you I rarely use a landline so went with BT, pay as you go landline and Hybrid Connect myself. Partly to keep my existing landline number at no cost.

Other places may offer something similar and there's always the option of tethering as fallback instead of Hybrid Connect.

[Deleted User]

If doing away with landline only then get a free calls plan on something mobile. My ISP charges weekdays meaning I never use it, just use giffgaff. But it is included in my plan whether I use it or not (seems to be a free add on).
Personally if I was going down the mobile data route I would use a Draytek or similar rather than branded smart hub. You can fit sims of choice, add aerials (to receive the 4g etc.) and repeaters to them but they come at a price. But they are well appointed but probably need a bit of knowledge to drive them. They are not really plug and play.

castle96

Sorry - SSE for L/line and b/b £25 for phone modem

cx6

Well to compare - Three unlimited sim-only advanced plan is £20 a month (they have an offer as well). but you need to be able to receive Three of course. Put the sim in your phone and turn on hotspot. You can ditch EE and SSE.

EE may have similar pricing you can check.

Anyway, you could try it now with what you have got. Turn on hotspot on your phone and connect your PC via wifi and see how it performs.

prowla

Do you mean you want to:

a. get cabled broadband but not have a phone, or

b. you want wireless broadband?

CoastingHatbox

cx6 said:

i would add that i have used my phone as a router for many years - galaxy s8 and now s21 and never had a battery problem.

I have a work issued S8. With normal use that battery lasts 2 - 2.5 days

I often tether to the phone - one of the data centres I visit has non-functioning public WiFi. Invariably I have to charge the work phone up on the way home.

My work phones last about 2 years before the battery needs replacement. My personal phone lasts a lot longer.

Personally, I think it is important to retain the landline for emergency use when the local cell tower is out of action, which has happened twice for several hours in recent memory. We use vDSL as a backup to broadband only Virgin Media and it £25/m including the line rental.

I've looked at 3G and 4G as a tertiary backup for Internet connectivity but I'd have to rig something up with an external antenna to mitigate the mediocre reception inside the house.

castle96

prowla said:

Do you mean you want to:

a. get cabled broadband but not have a phone, or

b. you want wireless broadband?

Good Q. Either I suppose - the cheapest/best (if there is such a thing). No use for a L/line. I use the computer in one room. I only have 2gb of data under current SSE contract (ends 9/22. Don't know what the penalty is to leave. To change phone/broadband and have a hub/wifi, is a great leap for me!)

jamesd

If you don't have recent experience comparing vDSL (fibre to the cabinet) broadband delivered over a phone line with tethering I suggest you go for a year or if necessary two year vDSL contract, or less if the price is sensible. If the phone number is available at no cost you might as well keep it if only because it improves credit scores slightly. If it costs money, not worth it when you don't expect to use it. Whether the provider lets you use the line for just vDSL with no voice phone number is up to them, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that BT didn't require voice to get data any more.

"Unlimited" data packages for mobiles aren't horribly expensive these days, perhaps £25-30 a month. But it's not going to be truly unlimited and if you're going to use hundreds of gigabytes a month with tethering it's not really what the expected use is.

JJ_Egan

Why not see what you normally use each month .

Probably via router stats .