Broadband without a landline (or a cheap landline?)

I'm after broadband for my student house next year. As everyone has contract
mobiles and divvying up a phone bill is a pain in the arse, the landline
probably won't get used much but will be needed for ADSL. Are there any
cheap deals for this sort of use? I'd prefer to avoid cable as my
experiences with NTL have been terrible.

Doki wrote:
> I'm after broadband for my student house next year. As everyone has
> contract mobiles and divvying up a phone bill is a pain in the arse, the
> landline probably won't get used much but will be needed for ADSL. Are
> there any cheap deals for this sort of use? I'd prefer to avoid cable as
> my experiences with NTL have been terrible.

You still require a functional line. Openreach can provide a line, at the usual
excessive cost. LLU operators may be able to provide you with a better deal
(you didn't say what exchange you are likely to be connected to).

Some ISPs will arrange for a line with both ICB and OCB (inbound and outbound
call barring) and bill you for it through your monthly broadband bill. (This is
ideal for companies that need an extra line for broadband, because otherwise,
some beancounter in accounts may terminate an 'apparently unused' BT line
because nobody makes calls on it - Billing both on one invoice tends to jog
sufficient memories) AAISP are one such provider, although not cheap if you
want to use large amounts of bandwidth during weekdays. They can provide you
with a fully routed network[1], and the traffic usage stats pages will provide
you with a breakdown, by IP, of traffic used (so if you have a bandwidth hog in
your premises, you can deal with it yourself[2]).
See http://www.aaisp.net/aa/aaisp/pstn.html for more details.
Cost will be £10.99/mo line rental, plus £26.99/mo (3Gb peak ADSL Max) plus a
one-time setup of £116.33 (line provision) and £49.99 (ADSL provision)

Rather expensive, but probably depends on how many of you there are.

Cable would be cheaper, but I agree entirely with your unwillingness to deal
with NTL. If I don't deal with them again until the next century, it will still
be too early.

Jim


[1] Rather than hiding behind NAT, each machine has it's own globally unique IP
address. This means that A) Each machine can run it's own services, and B) Each
machine MUST be properly secured, as you have no NAT layer protecting you from
unsolicited incoming malware.

[2] Of course, the unscrupulous can just morph IP addresses within your assigned
network, but you can monitor this with occasional ARP checks.

Doki wrote:
> I'm after broadband for my student house next year. As everyone has
> contract mobiles and divvying up a phone bill is a pain in the arse, the
> landline probably won't get used much but will be needed for ADSL. Are
> there any cheap deals for this sort of use? I'd prefer to avoid cable as
> my experiences with NTL have been terrible.

Since 3G datacards are considered Broadband by some, why not consider
one for your PC?

"Doki" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Are there any cheap deals for this sort of use?

No. Depending on where you will be, there may be free/cheap wifi service.

NoNeedToKnow wrote:
> "Doki" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >Are there any cheap deals for this sort of use?
>
> No. Depending on where you will be, there may be free/cheap wifi service.

www.itplc.com - Telco line for £8.50 a month

"Xeonwales" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>www.itplc.com - Telco line for £8.50 a month

I'd recommend checking the T+C because it would probably be unsuitable
(fail to give notice and can then be locked in for a further *year*, and
also far from clear whether one can get ADSL service on this line as
it is no longer rented "from BT" {BT Retail, that is}). Isn't there a
restriction against getting ADSL on such a line?

The difference between this and other "whole line rental" setups is that
in most cases they also offer the internet access, which itplc probably
hasn't even thought about doing (BICBW).

NoNeedToKnow wrote:
> "Xeonwales" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >www.itplc.com - Telco line for £8.50 a month
>
> I'd recommend checking the T+C because it would probably be unsuitable
> (fail to give notice and can then be locked in for a further *year*, and
> also far from clear whether one can get ADSL service on this line as
> it is no longer rented "from BT" {BT Retail, that is}). Isn't there a
> restriction against getting ADSL on such a line?
>
> The difference between this and other "whole line rental" setups is that
> in most cases they also offer the internet access, which itplc probably
> hasn't even thought about doing (BICBW).

I used AOL & Plusnet b/band when i was with itplc

On 21 Sep 2006 "Xeonwales" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I used AOL & Plusnet b/band when i was with itplc

Thanks for the info. I was put off by their misleading prices (claimed to
be half the price of BT, but they compared a BT 'with VAT' and their own
'exc VAT' prices. I didn't like the blocking of other companies for calls,
and felt that what I might save on line rental would have been more
than eaten up in higher (overall) costs for the calls I made. Think
they also didn't offer anything for a Home Highway user - whenever
I rang it was 'we don't do that at present, please ring back in 3 months'