Internet/phone line

Scw83

This may not be techie and just common sense but any help gratefully recieved! 

My elderly aunt wants internet. 

She doesn’t have a phone line although she has had a BT line in property before (talking 10+ years ago). She needs a phone line to have wifi yes? 

So do I need to contact BT to reconnect the phone line - will she have to take out a phone rental package? She doesn’t want a house phone. 

I have done a quick quote and BT internet is quite expensive for her and I can see much better deals but if she has to pay for a phone line on top of the broadband it may be cheaper to do it via BT. 

Sorry I am confusing myself 

Neil_Jones

Scw83 said:

This may not be techie and just common sense but any help gratefully recieved! 

My elderly aunt wants internet. 

She doesn’t have a phone line although she has had a BT line in property before (talking 10+ years ago). She needs a phone line to have wifi yes? 

So do I need to contact BT to reconnect the phone line - will she have to take out a phone rental package? She doesn’t want a house phone. 

I have done a quick quote and BT internet is quite expensive for her and I can see much better deals but if she has to pay for a phone line on top of the broadband it may be cheaper to do it via BT. 

Sorry I am confusing myself 

If you can get FTTP you don't need a phone line.

Bash your details into a comparison website and see what you ca get.

wongataa

Yes you will need a physical landline connection but you do not have to ever use it for voice calls or pay for voice call packages.  You don't have to plug a phone into it.  The price displayed includes all necessary costs such as line rental.

You do not have to contact BT to connect a landline first.  Doing that would just complicate things. Just sign up with the ISP of choice and they do any necessary connecting.

BT is not the cheapest ISP.

RumRat

wongataa said:

Yes you will need a physical landline connection but you do not have to ever use it for voice calls or pay for voice call packages.  You don't have to plug a phone into it.  The price displayed includes all necessary costs such as line rental.

You do not have to contact BT to connect a landline first.  Doing that would just complicate things. Just sign up with the ISP of choice and they do any necessary connecting.

BT is not the cheapest ISP.

Why would you need a phone landline connection?  Most providers now offer internet without any phoneline. Phonelines are being phased out in favour of fibre and if you did need a house phone you can go Voip.

Heedtheadvice

And perhaps others will comment....

If she has a (modern/smart) mobile phone then the internet can be had with that. She may or may not be happy with using it or the size of the screen but mobile phone packages usually come with a data allocation that even at basic levels could well be sufficient depending on what she wants the net for.

You can even get tablets that support SIM communications.

So if she is in a location that gets a mobile signal no need for landline package at all and it can be used on the go. Plus she can connect to public WiFi where it is available.

You say elderly. That means different things to various people. It really is irrelevant as what matters is being comfortable with and being able to use the technology. I don't really consider myself elderly but really grandchildren will think I am!!!

Similarly think if devices such as Amazon Echo (or similar ) with a mobile providers 'dongle' would meet the use need?

Many ways to skin the cat and some are cheap an simple to use.......but you need to know what use is required.

GrumpyDil

Or depending upon the strength of the local mobile services, a 4g router which uses a SIM to connect to the Internet. 

wongataa

RumRat said:

wongataa said:

Yes you will need a physical landline connection but you do not have to ever use it for voice calls or pay for voice call packages.  You don't have to plug a phone into it.  The price displayed includes all necessary costs such as line rental.

You do not have to contact BT to connect a landline first.  Doing that would just complicate things. Just sign up with the ISP of choice and they do any necessary connecting.

BT is not the cheapest ISP.

Why would you need a phone landline connection?  Most providers now offer internet without any phoneline. Phonelines are being phased out in favour of fibre and if you did need a house phone you can go Voip.

The landline is used for both voice calls and internet.  There is no separate phone line.  It is just one line that you need for broadband delivered over a wired connection.  If you don't plan on using a telephone you just don't pay for a phone package or phone service but you still have to pay line rental as that is for the physical line to your property.

Gers

I use an EE 4G home router - plugs into the electrical socket, great speed, no need for phone line or anything else. It's really fast where I live.
https://ee.co.uk/broadband/hubs 

Newcad

Don't forget that a mobile phone can be easly switched to broadcast a wifi signal as a Wifi-Hotspot, so that other devices can connect to that wifi and use the phones data signal. (I ran my laptop like that for a couple of years in my previous flat).
https://cellulardata.ubigi.com/help-center/faq/esim-data-plan/turn-on-wi-fi-hotspot-for-android-devices/
However if going mobile broadband then it is usually cheaper to get a 4G/5G router, the data costs less than with a phone package.

How elderly is your Aunt, does she by any chance get Pension Credit?

If she does then she will qualify for a social broadband tariff such as "BT Home Essentials Broadband".

That costs £15/month for unlimited broadband at up to 40mbps, (I get 38 mbps here) with a free Digital Voice phone and 700 mins of calls included.
Or you can pay £20/month and get up to 70mbps and unlimited phone calls.
https://www.bt.com/broadband/home-essentials

RumRat

wongataa said:

RumRat said:

wongataa said:

Yes you will need a physical landline connection but you do not have to ever use it for voice calls or pay for voice call packages.  You don't have to plug a phone into it.  The price displayed includes all necessary costs such as line rental.

You do not have to contact BT to connect a landline first.  Doing that would just complicate things. Just sign up with the ISP of choice and they do any necessary connecting.

BT is not the cheapest ISP.

Why would you need a phone landline connection?  Most providers now offer internet without any phoneline. Phonelines are being phased out in favour of fibre and if you did need a house phone you can go Voip.

The landline is used for both voice calls and internet.  There is no separate phone line.  It is just one line that you need for broadband delivered over a wired connection.  If you don't plan on using a telephone you just don't pay for a phone package or phone service but you still have to pay line rental as that is for the physical line to your property.

Only in areas without fibre would still have the old copper lines in. Even over those BB providers don't charge you line rental for Broadband only....Go look on the comparison sites.

wongataa

RumRat said:

wongataa said:

RumRat said:

wongataa said:

Yes you will need a physical landline connection but you do not have to ever use it for voice calls or pay for voice call packages.  You don't have to plug a phone into it.  The price displayed includes all necessary costs such as line rental.

You do not have to contact BT to connect a landline first.  Doing that would just complicate things. Just sign up with the ISP of choice and they do any necessary connecting.

BT is not the cheapest ISP.

Why would you need a phone landline connection?  Most providers now offer internet without any phoneline. Phonelines are being phased out in favour of fibre and if you did need a house phone you can go Voip.

The landline is used for both voice calls and internet.  There is no separate phone line.  It is just one line that you need for broadband delivered over a wired connection.  If you don't plan on using a telephone you just don't pay for a phone package or phone service but you still have to pay line rental as that is for the physical line to your property.

Only in areas without fibre would still have the old copper lines in. Even over those BB providers don't charge you line rental for Broadband only....Go look on the comparison sites.

Yes they do.  There is a physical line therefore line rental is included.  Line rental is not a voice call only charge.  It doesn't matter what the line is used for.  Its existence dictates line rental.

The price you see from ISPs when you sign up and on comparison sites includes line rental.  It is not separated out and hasn't been for many years because that practice was forbidden to make pricing clear.

With a physical line you pay line rental even though it is all bundled up into the headline price you pay.  Phone charges are a separate charge if not included in an internet+phone bundle.

The line rental can be ignored though as it is not a separate payable charge.  The headline price is the price you pay whatever connection option you choose.