That is not 100% true, you do not need a phone line to get broadband, but depending on where you live, it may not be ideal to do so.

A few companies now are doing wireless broadband. 4G is available in some places and 3G is in most places.
but I do not think 4G or 3G is ideal for home broadband


Line rental is not cheap.

All is not lost as I emailed them and apparently my payment window starts tomorrow, I assume I will get he email then.

When i first got broadband I was paying £27.99/month for a 0.5Mb connection, plus whatever the line rental was at the time

The price of broadband has plummeted. For example you can get an unlimited 40Mb connection on Plusnet for £14.99/month now. That's eighty times the speed for a little over half the price.

Line rental has gone through the roof lately though. I guess they are looking at getting back to the prices of yesteryear via line rental?

Well done, Hope you get the email.

We was paying £39 a month for the same connection, I say we because I had a lodger here at the time. that was in 2000, It did eventully go down to £30, whihc was a bit better.



Some people can get a 40Mb connection, still a lot that can't. But yes prices have dropped, but some providers drop them too much and then we lose the smaller suppliers.


Because they know it is required for most people.

Last year I paid £120 for Line Rental Saver from Virgin Media - this year it has gone up by 20% to £144.

The only good thing about this increase in BT's case if you have a fault on your line you talk to someone unlike Talk Talk & Sky who inform BT via email about the fault on your behalf, The other is we wouldn't have a land line at all if we didn't have the internet from BT we would use our mobile's instead so in all BT's making pots of money out of line rental, I you think about it people who have no interest in the internet they would be better off getting a mobile phone on contract it's cheaper.

Line faults are referred to Openreach. BT isn't allowed to receive preferential treatment over any other isp.

Yikes, I thought £27.99 was bad. Think that was back in 2002?

Yes, some people can't get 40 Mb, but if they can't they can get standard adsl for very cheap. Under 3 quid a month for an unlimited connection in some cases.

I think the smaller suppliers can only really compete at the premium end of the market. There's no way to compete on price against the big boys really.

Yep, came today and bill duly paid. Only a small amount but better in my pocket.

I wouldn't bet on it.

If you still have it today (19th) you must get back down to your GP, serious now Noise747.

So we are told.

2000 was when it was £40, if I did not have a lodger here at the time I would not have bothered, but since she said she would pay half, it made sense.


but some people can't get 40Mb even with FTTC, my next door neighbour gets around 20-25, which is one of the reason I am no great rush to go to FTTC. anouter 10-15Mb and being tied to large provider do not make it worthwhile for me.

ADSl for under £3, but at what costs?


The problem with the big boys is that give you all the crap they think you want to try and boost up their service and also some that they have no choice over like filters.

Look at BT, sport, some antivirus thing, some spyware filtering system, Wi-fi, outdoors, I bet the majority of people don't use. Their vault system and their email service.
OK I know providers have been doing email for years, but at least they used to use their own servers, BT,. Sky and Talk uses third party providers.
Also when I was with BT, they would not send their emails to any other address, so you had to use their email service.
I think Talk Talk will at least send bills and notifications to any email address you want.

Talk Talk seems to want to give you the world for free, but not as bad as BT.

then you got their routers, even if you don't want to use them, you still got to pay for them, and sky made it difficult for people to use a different one.

i prefer my small provider as they do try to offer me things I don't want or have any interest in. they give a service to connect me to the internet, no filters, no pushing my browsing to another country and they don't hassle me about other services

If we lose the smaller suppliers , you watch the big boys put their prices up as it will be like a cartel, just like the energy company.

I went back to work today, walked in, went to locker room to sort out boots, came out of locker felt dizzy, went back into locker room, ended up on floor with 2 first aiders and 3 other people around me. They arranged a lift back home for me, yes I am going to make a appointment tomorrow for the Doctors,

I thought it would have gone by now. I suppose i should have made a appointment when I came home from work, but I felt so ill, I just wanted to lie down.

Get to A&E NOW and stop pissing about, if you keeled over you need looking at for crying out loud

The reason I moved to BT was for some of the extras. I was with Sky Fibre, but BT Sport and the extensive WiFi network persuaded me to move to BT Infinity.

I don't think the smaller providers will go under. I think the likes of Zen do pretty well offering top notch customer service, tweaking connections at the user's request etc. Think they also do well offering business connections.

I am not sure who I would be with now if I was not with the provider I am with. I was happy with ADSL24, but ADSL is not great here and when I found out I could have this service, get a bit more speed and save money as I could get rid of my landline I jumped at the chance. ADSL24 is no more, and from what I have read about the company that have taken them over, I do not think i would be going with them.


None of the addons that is chucked around don't impress me and to be honest never have.
Even with dial up I just wanted a connection, their email and web services i had little interest in. Ok when I first started on the net it did as i knew no different and a website your own little space on the net was a great thing in those days,.

All I see now is how much stuff the providers can chuck at you, nothing about how good their service is, just that you can get this and that for free. Myself I prefer them to spend the money on customer service.

I can understand why you want the free Wi-fi, not that I ever got it to work, I got free BT wi-fi with my mobile phone contract. I find here at least very few places have BT wi-fi.


I am not a sport person, also I do not watch TV so that would be useless to me, I did used to to watch motor racing, but these days sport seems to be all about bloody football.


More and more are finding it difficult to keep going and they are slowly being gobbled up by the larger providers.

i know it is not just in the telecoms world this is happening, supermarkets done it years ago to smaller shops, I still try to buy my meat from Butchers, my milk comes from the milkman, bread I try to buy from a local bakery, but it is difficult for bread.

If i left my provider or my provider had problems, I have no idea what I would do, because to be honest none of larger providers do it for me.

Pissing about?
I am fine, doctor put me off for another week, got to have blood test, but he still thinks it is a infection and that I may have keeled over because I have not been eating much for the last week.

4 slices of toast a day for a week do not a meal make.

True, but your work mates should have triple nined you, shocked they didn't to be honest.

I think the reason you've not had much luck with BT WiFi via your mobile contract is that you only get access to BT WiFi hotspots in business premises. Where as BT BB customers get access to every other BT broadband customers connection via their router (unless they opt out).

Looking at my town (population circa 50,000), there are just over 5,000 BT hotspots. Only five of those are on business premises though. So only five would be open to people with BT WiFi via their mobile contract.

I looked at what you typed and sat here for about five minutes, thinking what the hell is he on about triple 9 and then it just clicked. I should have realised right away, I am slow today.

I went dizzy, I was not out, I still knew where I was, what I was doing. just light headed. they would have if they thought it was needed I expect since one was a first aider. i am glad they did not, the ambulance service and the A&E is under enough pressure as it is.

I did not get any better when I was with BT, I know it was early days, but the only people with Wi-fi was in housing estates Fon it was called then. In the town centre where it may have been useful only one router had it and the signal was so low it would not work.

Maybe things are a bit different now, certainly with BT opting their customers into fon/BT Wi-fi. I wonder how many of their customers know that?

thankfully in town we got wi-fi now, and for me there is no time limit as they provide my broadband.

I thought BT Wi-fi was Bt wi-fi? My computer can see BT home hub 3 and fromt hat same home hub it can see BT Wifi and BTwi-fi with fon.

Mine broadcasts as BTWiFi with fon, but yes some broadcast as BT WiFi. Never heard of one hub broadcasting two WiFi hotspots though. Are you sure it's the same hub?

Works great almost everywhere I go. Even in town/City centres there's usually residential flats above shops and the like with BT BB. I really can't think of anywhere that's populated I've been where a BT hotshot isn't available.

Sorry-didn't spot this thread. I have been ripped off by TalkTalk Beware TalkTalk folks! Last year I paid £114 up front for Value Line Rental. The price was then increased TWICE in August. First to £141, then to £172!

As far as I am concerned this is sharp practice and a vastly higher increase than the rate of inflation. Previously there have been vast increases in e.g. the price of Directory Enquiries.

After a huge struggle on the phone I managed to get a goodwill refund of £20, but am seriously considering leaving them next year.

Everyone should contact their provider and complain if their line rental has increased as wholesale prices are decreasing!