Internet without a BT Line?

[VectraMan]

Seems ridiculous to have to pay £10 a month for a BT land line just to get broadband in most of the UK. And land lines are largely pointless these days.

BT would say the £10pm line charge pays for the general maintenance and installations of the physical line, i.e. you're paying for the wire, not for the phone service. Would it be better to have £10pm more expensive broadband and no phone line charge? Not really.

The minimum contract does seem a little unfair though.

[swamp]

Wait for Naked DSL (which probably won't happen )

Go and live in a Virgin cable area...

Wait for WiMAX to happen (if it ever actually works).

As suggested, HSDPA is probably your best bet.

Seems ridiculous to have to pay £10 a month for a BT land line just to get broadband in most of the UK. And land lines are largely pointless these days.

[larry]

I think that might be your problem. I seem to recall reading somesuch about the latest version missing a driver. Google it, and see what you get...

The missing driver is just at the tip of an enormous installation pyramid!

The driver in question is a vodafone driver which controls modems from three.co.uk and vodafone that are manufactured by Huawei. The fun starts when the driver has dependency issues and some of the dependencies themselves won't work as they too have dependencies.

I long for the days when linux can package everything into an exe file.

[Moscow Mule]

I've just signed up with three.co.uk for their USB dongle but going through hell trying to get it going with the latest version of Ubuntu. The operating system seems good but it falls over in support. Even Microsoft works effortly with dongles!

Thanks for that. Thanks also to everyone else.

The sooner I can see the back of Microsoft/BT, the better...

I think that might be your problem. I seem to recall reading somesuch about the latest version missing a driver. Google it, and see what you get...

[larry]

See which 3G providers offer HSDPA where you live, and find the best deal, and buy one of these:

http://www.linksysbycisco.com/UK/en/.../WRT54G3GV2-VF

I have one as a backup router, because I had flaky broadband for a while. I just plug my vodafone data card in, for which I have a business data contract for use in my laptop at client co offices.

You can get 3G data with upto 3Gb download for ~£15 per month.

I've just signed up with three.co.uk for their USB dongle but going through hell trying to get it going with the latest version of Ubuntu. The operating system seems good but it falls over in support. Even Microsoft works effortly with dongles!

Thanks for that. Thanks also to everyone else.

The sooner I can see the back of Microsoft/BT, the better...

[TykeMerc]

And I have found BT's minimum contract period is now 18 months, which is even worse when you are in a 6 month rental.

That can be negotiated.

[Prickles]

our BT line was cut off ... I had to enter a new 12 month broadband contract

And I have found BT's minimum contract period is now 18 months, which is even worse when you are in a 6 month rental.

[pzz76077]

Just scan the airwaves and use one of your neighbors Wi-Fi connections for free.

Or you can ask for BT to provide you with a line that is incoming only- no calls are allowed, but you still need to pay for the line rental.

You can also go for a satellite internet option, but we are talking big bucks for this.

The only other alternative is to use 3G/HSDPA that gives pretty good performance for a few quid a month.

PZZ

[Grinder]

I think there are still some regional line-of-sight broadband offerings for rural businesses. Might be worth seeing if you have one in your area.

[CheeseSlice]

When I used to rent places and have ADSL installed with a BT line, I found that when I was between houses the ADSL kept working long after the BT line had dropped dead. Have always wondered if you can get away with doing this for the long term After all you only needed the active BT line to set up ADSL. So long as its physically there, should you still need a telephone contract for the ADSL to flow??

Found out the hard way when the missus forgot to pay the phone bill earlier this year and our BT line was cut off (grrr), BT informed Sky broadband who then terminated our ADSL contract. I had to enter a new 12 month broadband contract to sort the whole thing out, but at no point did the ADSL drop dead. Even during a supposed waiting period when they had to 'set everything up' again.

My advice would be to look at mobile broadband as FarmerPalmer said. If you have good coverage, the contract deals are getting pretty good these days. Failing that, and if cable broadband is still a bad deal (it was when I was looking), get the BT line and live with it.

[VectraMan]

Plus, I don't want to pay the set up fee for having a new line put in - even though BT can wave that charge.

waive.

There's leased lines. I assume it's still possible to get such a thing. And maybe if there's LLU in your area somebody would sell you an internet only ADSL connection.

But as for BT supplied ADSL, no they make you get a phone line. But then the phone line doesn't cost a great deal. I practically never use my landline for phone calls these days.

[FarmerPalmer]

See which 3G providers offer HSDPA where you live, and find the best deal, and buy one of these:

http://www.linksysbycisco.com/UK/en/.../WRT54G3GV2-VF

I have one as a backup router, because I had flaky broadband for a while. I just plug my vodafone data card in, for which I have a business data contract for use in my laptop at client co offices.

You can get 3G data with upto 3Gb download for ~£15 per month.

[Moscow Mule]

AFAIK all adsl broadband will require a BT line. Look at cable (Virgin) if you don't want to pay line rental for a phone you don't use.

[TheRefactornator]

Virgin media cable broadband, £20 pcm, £15 self installation - only if you're in a cabled area.

[larry]

Is there such a thing as having an internet-only line dropped into a premises? I don't need a telephone line as I have a mobile/don't talk on the phone much!

Plus, I don't want to pay the set up fee for having a new line put in - even though BT can wave that charge. The monthly charge for a line I'd only be using for internet access seems a waste of money.

The only dedicated network lines I know of are of the kind used by businesses, but now we're talking serious monthly payments....