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Broadband without telephone line

couchpotato2011couchpotato2011 Posts: 1,090
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in Broadband Internet #1
I have Sky broadband and sky talk. Now we are hardly using the landline apart from the odd call here and there. Sky have told me I can't get rid of it because then I will lose broadband. I have looked up virgin media and can't get it in my area yet. So what are the alternatives? I want broadband without having to fork out £15 minimum a month on a landline that is barely used.

Thanks

Comments

  • BKMBKM Posts: 6,912
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    #2
    couchpotato2011 wrote: »
    I have Sky broadband and sky talk. Now we are hardly using the landline apart from the odd call here and there. Sky have told me I can't get rid of it because then I will lose broadband. I have looked up virgin media and can't get it in my area yet. So what are the alternatives? I want broadband without having to fork out £15 minimum a month on a landline that is barely used.
    Not unless you can manage on 3/4G mobile broadband. This is viable for very limited Internet use ONLY - and not really for any form of video streaming.

    The UK model is that someone has to pay the line rental - and it is conventionally added to the phone rental. Any "broadband only" lines would just have the line rental added to the broadband fee instead!
  • chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    #3
    Some places do have town wide WiFi networks or other forms of wireless broadband service. But by no means as universal as landline broadband.

    You can also get satellite broadband. But that can get expensive, especially if you use the broadband to do a load of video streaming from Netflix and the like. For example to use more than 25GB a month on the Tooway service could cost nearly 80 quid!

    Keeping the landline might be the lesser of several evils compared to the alternatives. :)
  • couchpotato2011couchpotato2011 Posts: 1,090
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    #4
    I've just checked my call charges for this month: 64p. That's how little I use it. Annoying.
  • Nigel GoodwinNigel Goodwin Posts: 58,514
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    #5
    couchpotato2011 wrote: »
    I have Sky broadband and sky talk. Now we are hardly using the landline apart from the odd call here and there. Sky have told me I can't get rid of it because then I will lose broadband. I have looked up virgin media and can't get it in my area yet. So what are the alternatives? I want broadband without having to fork out £15 minimum a month on a landline that is barely used.

    The £15 pays for the infrastructure that allows you to get ADSL - so it's not wasted - and certainly not 'barely used' as you use it all the time for your broadband.

    Even if you could get VM, they don't do a cheap 'broadband only' package, for the same reasons - broadband prices are based on you already having a suitable connection to carry the broadband.
  • couchpotato2011couchpotato2011 Posts: 1,090
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    #6
    Nigel Goodwin wrote: »
    The £15 pays for the infrastructure that allows you to get ADSL - so it's not wasted - and certainly not 'barely used' as you use it all the time for your broadband.

    Even if you could get VM, they don't do a cheap 'broadband only' package, for the same reasons - broadband prices are based on you already having a suitable connection to carry the broadband.

    Yeah, I guess so. It's just annoying that I use 64p of calls in a month yet paying £20 a month on line rental plus whatever the broadband costs (I think it's about a tenner).
  • chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    #7
    couchpotato2011 wrote: »
    Yeah, I guess so. It's just annoying that I use 64p of calls in a month yet paying £20 a month on line rental plus whatever the broadband costs (I think it's about a tenner).
    If it was possible to get landline broadband without a corresponding phone service I seriously doubt it would be very much cheaper than the combined line rental/broadband cost you pay now. Maybe save a few quid for not having a phone service but the line rental side of the cost certainly won't be zero quid a month.
  • omnidirectionalomnidirectional Posts: 18,821
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    #8
    chrisjr wrote: »
    If it was possible to get landline broadband without a corresponding phone service I seriously doubt it would be very much cheaper than the combined line rental/broadband cost you pay now. Maybe save a few quid for not having a phone service but the line rental side of the cost certainly won't be zero quid a month.

    Even on Virgin, you only save about £4 by taking broadband without line rental.
  • arteseaartesea Posts: 346
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    #9
    These days the line rental is used to hide the bulk of the cost. "Free broadband for 6 months" or my favourite "half price, now only £1.75 a month* (*line rental required at £15.99 a month, rising to £16.99 in September).
    Just work out who offers the best price all in, and consider unplugging the landline phone to avoid someone making any outbound calls.
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