I'm soon going to be moving in to a brand new house, and need to have a phone line installed. But I know nothing about phone lines, so looking for some advice please.

Do I have to get BT to install the new line? As they want to chage £125. Is there any one cheaper?

If I use BT(or anyone else) do I then have to use them for line rental for a fixed period? As I have Tiscali BB, and I'm interested/thinking of upgarding my package with them to cover the phone line rental as well. Can I do this, on a brand new line?

Or is there any other company I can use that will offer me line installation, BB and line rental for a minimal ammount of money?

I don't and won't actually use the home phone line for calls (incoming and outgoing), just need it for BB, so call rates or packages with free calls included don't interest me.

Virgin Media or Whitecable (Isle of White, Cumbria, Dumfriesshire) are the only options which avoid the requirement for a BT line.

Why not ask Tiscali? Like BT and any of the other firms now offering line rental, they could get Openreach (the only firm allowed to touch the BT fixed network) to install the line (if Tiscali say you have to have a BT ine, they're lying).

You'd be tied to BT for line rental for 12 months (not for calls, but that doesn't concern you). You could pay BT £124.99 to have the line installed and another £70 to breach the 12 month contract though.

if you value your time and sanity, do not go down the BT route, just getting someone on the phone to actually speak to is a work of art in itself, usually someone from abroad. I had major problems with BT recently and decided to stay with Virgin Media, slightly more expensive but the system works and the Broadband, if you have it, is a fixed speed not a "depends how good your line?" speed.

the other CP's will put the line in for you without the need for you to pay BT. however you will need to check if your new serving exchange is LLU enabled. www.samknows.com this will give you a list of the other LLU in your area. though the majority of them won't activate a line because we charge them quite a bit to do it. which is why alot of them will say go bt first as we will only need to swop the line onto their equipment, a significantly lower cost to them.