Broadband without a phone line?

rgrebby

rgrebby

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Richard
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A friend of mine has virgin Internet which comes through the cable. It costs an insane amount of around £18 per month. No phone or TV just broadband which is all she needs.

We were looking at tiscali broadband which is only about 14.99 which includes the line rental of 10.50. But how easy is it to get when she doesnt have a phone line already.
 
You would need a BT line and i think that about £150 to get installed not sure if you will need to pay mothly on top of that as well though.
 
With the credit crisis I believe BT are giving away free line installations. You just have to ask and say you cannot afford to pay for the line to be installed ;) ...I believe there is a waiting list, but it will save you £125!! I think I heard this on the ITV's "this morning" a few weeks ago.

I also heard that not all phone staff will know about this offer and you have to be persistant and maybe ask to speak to a supervisor or manager. Its sort of a secret offer or somthing.
 
Wait....Virgin = insanely expensive @ £18
Tiscali is £3........A MONTH cheaper.
insanely expensive seems a bit strong

I don't think its worth the aggro of actually being with tiscali, by the time you've paid your one off £30 payment (there's 10 months of Virgin at Tiscali prices right there) and buggered about with BT, you still have to make it work on your own.
I don't actually like Virgin that much but, its without question nauseatingly reliable and always faster than most copper.
 
Do you guys have naked DSL in this country?
Cant seem to find any info on it.
 
Some other providers will supply/install the new line. You don't have to go with BT. The Utility Warehouse - www.utilities-direct.co.uk - will install a new line for £99 if an engineer visit is required. £25 if not.

Personally, I wouldn't go with tiscali at any price.
 
2blue4u said:
Some other providers will supply/install the new line. You don't have to go with BT. The Utility Warehouse - www.utilities-direct.co.uk - will install a new line for £99 if an engineer visit is required. £25 if not.

Personally, I wouldn't go with tiscali at any price.
Click to expand...

(y)And neither would I!
 
pixeljunkie said:
Do you guys have naked DSL in this country?
Cant seem to find any info on it.
Click to expand...

Naked DSL service, excluding SDSL, is not available in the United Kingdom, but it is possible to get a POTS and DSL from different service providers.
The incumbent network, BT, has claimed there is not sufficient demand from ISPs to provide a Naked DSL service.

*Wiki...whut ??*
 
joxby said:
Naked DSL service, excluding SDSL, is not available in the United Kingdom, but it is possible to get a POTS and DSL from different service providers.
The incumbent network, BT, has claimed there is not sufficient demand from ISPs to provide a Naked DSL service.

*Wiki...whut ??*
Click to expand...

Thanks for that joxby. Bummer.
Not enough demand, guess not when they can charge 150 quid just to install a line.
 
Speaking of which, I'm damn sick of reading this tonight, cos I know damn well it ain't Virgin.

waiting for www.talkphotography.co.uk.................

The Document was interrupted.......

No Data........

try again ?

......and again.......shall I **** up when your in the middle of a reply ? which is more irritating Joxby, during browsing or at the end of a 5 paragraph reply ??


:cautious:
 
joxby said:
Wait....Virgin = insanely expensive @ £18
Tiscali is £3........A MONTH cheaper.
insanely expensive seems a bit strong

I don't think its worth the aggro of actually being with tiscali, by the time you've paid your one off £30 payment (there's 10 months of Virgin at Tiscali prices right there) and buggered about with BT, you still have to make it work on your own.
I don't actually like Virgin that much but, its without question nauseatingly reliable and always faster than most copper.
Click to expand...

yeah but with £14.99 she would have a free phone line which makes the extra money worth paying.
 
Tiscali is a nightmare.
 
Options =

1) Virgin Media Broadband: You only pay that one monthly cost, you get your broadband, which operates at the speed advertised. Nice and simple.

2) "wireless broadband": You sign up and receive a usb dongle from the ISP and get online wirelessly. Again, you only pay the monthly fee advertised - but the connection is much slower, and often limited to a certain amount of transfer/traffic per month.

3) ADSL (everything else): This is your Tiscalli, BT, Be, etc etc. You need a phone line. If the ADSL provider is advertising they pay the £10.50 this will not work for you as you would be a new BT connection, and must do 12 months with them before you move the line to Tiscalli or whoever.... BT would want over £100 to let you do this within the first 12 months.


....get Virgin Media!


edit: Any ADSL always runs the risk of being slow depending on your line quality (which depends on the distance of copper running from your house to the telephone exchange). So you may be paying for 8mb or higher, but your line is only physically capable of 3mb, you will be charged the same.
 
Three is doing 15gb mobile broadband for 15 a month..-and u get 3g USB Dongle free..

though the speed will be slow compared to DSL u can carry it anywhere..

Check on their website for coverage though..

Aj
 
I would take a lookey on sam knows to see what other providers are in
your friends area, for example if talk talk are then the service would be a lot cheaper. I would then call up virgin and tell them you were leaving as you can save £x a month and they will more than likely drop the monthly price rather than loose a customer.
 
cokebottles said:
edit: Any ADSL always runs the risk of being slow depending on your line quality (which depends on the distance of copper running from your house to the telephone exchange). So you may be paying for 8mb or higher, but your line is only physically capable of 3mb, you will be charged the same.
Click to expand...

There's something I've never quite understood about that, I've never had ADSL but a neighbour has, and this cropped up over a pint the other week.
She had an 8mb line, she was miles from the exchange and was only getting 4, so she decided to downgrade to a cheaper 4mb line, sounds reasonable ?.
Well it was, except the 4mb line only gave her 2mb.......punch-up ensued as you'd expect, as far as I know the bell just rang for the 11th, she quit on her stool and she has to pay 8mb prices for a 4mb line.
Somebody needs a right good kick up the arse..:shrug:
 
Richard.T said:
Virgins service is great.i have access to the 20mb connection.And whenever i've used it its never been down and always great speed can get 2.5 mb/s from microsoft
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Agreed.

We have a 10mb and have had only a couple of minor problems in.....God knows how many years (may be 8-10years).

Speed is always good.

We also have phone & digital TV with Virgin.

Highly recommended.
 
Also bear in mind that Tiscali only have one BT central bearer circuit which means that the whole of their network only runs over a 155mbit 'pipe' to the rest of the internet which can make speeds pretty *****ty at times and you wont get anywhere with customer services because on a 50:1 contention ratio service the minimum speed you are guaranteed is virtually dial-up.

Also Virgin is contantly improving their network and giving free upgrades, their basic package in most of the country is 10mbit, and you will actually get that in most places (un-like ADSL's up-to 8mbit b*llocks).

I dont work for Virgin I just have used them for some time and work for another ISP and so can vouch for how ****** BT's network is haha
 
Tiscali are completely awful, but I had nothing but trouble with Virgin either taking me over a year to cancel with them despite not living at the location or using the connection :(

I am now with aquiss and pay £25 a month, and I would say that was average.

£18 is not expensive and with the vast usage of skype why would you need a phone line?
 
joxby said:
There's something I've never quite understood about that, I've never had ADSL but a neighbour has, and this cropped up over a pint the other week.
She had an 8mb line, she was miles from the exchange and was only getting 4, so she decided to downgrade to a cheaper 4mb line, sounds reasonable ?.
Well it was, except the 4mb line only gave her 2mb.......punch-up ensued as you'd expect, as far as I know the bell just rang for the 11th, she quit on her stool and she has to pay 8mb prices for a 4mb line.
Somebody needs a right good kick up the arse..:shrug:
Click to expand...

Absolutely correct - with ADSL you pay for the Maximum you could possibly get from the exchange - and this is dictated by multiple variables, but the 2 main are your line distance from the exchange and the amount of noise on the line. (which although related to distance also varies in its own right)
However - you don't necessarily get the closest exchange from your location - it depends on capacity, and you don't know what exchange you'll get (for new lines) until you are allocated a number....

Therefore, if you are getting 4Mb on an 8Mb connection, it stands to reason that you would get 2Mb on a 4Mb connection as your distance and noise levels have not changed.
 
OutLore said:
Therefore, if you are getting 4Mb on an 8Mb connection, it stands to reason that you would get 2Mb on a 4Mb connection as your distance and noise levels have not changed.
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So is noise a % of the signal rather than a constant? :shrug:
 
This isnt correct, if you are able to get 4mbit with your noise levels etc this means that you should be able to get 4mbit on a 4mbit service, it doesnt literally mean that you can only ever achieve half of the allowed speed or else this would mean that you could only get 256kbps on a 512kbps service...
 
This is what I'm thinking, I mean do the read their own literature differently to their customers or what.
It seems absolutely straight forward, if she can get 4mb on an 8mb line, why can't she get 4mb on a 4mb line, its ridiculous, or scandalous misrepresentation.
Anyway, its Virgin or potentially a big bag of nonsense with virtually everybody else.
 
joxby said:
This is what I'm thinking, I mean do the read their own literature differently to their customers or what.
It seems absolutely straight forward, if she can get 4mb on an 8mb line, why can't she get 4mb on a 4mb line, its ridiculous, or scandalous misrepresentation.
Anyway, its Virgin or potentially a big bag of nonsense with virtually everybody else.
Click to expand...

Not really, because their documentation clearly states that it's a MAXIMUM of XXMb.. They have no way of finding out what kind of connection you'll get until they run some tests - when they do they'll tell you (and probably get it wrong)

Virgin, being fibre is very different, and I would recommend them every time where possible.

And, bear in mind they get it wrong the other way - I'm currently with Sky, who told me the most I would get was 512k, even though my nearest exchange is less than 400yds away (I can see it from my house). When connected, I got a consistent 8Mb, the maximum for my connection and the max cap at the exchange.
 
I'm on o2 broadband and get 20mb download and 1.3mb upload for £9.49 as I'm an o2 mobile user. Mega fast and mega cheap. My brother is with virgin and says they are terrible.

Matt
 
I'm on sky broadband...possibly the cheapest broadband in the world!! and you get what you pay for....

god I miss Virgin Media!!!
they always have offers on..just ask about their offers and threaten to change providers.
 
OutLore said:
Not really, because their documentation clearly states that it's a MAXIMUM of XXMb.. They have no way of finding out what kind of connection you'll get until they run some tests - when they do they'll tell you (and probably get it wrong)
Click to expand...
We already know what her maximum is, it was 4mb, on the 8mb line, why can't get she the full 4mb that she pays for, using the same bit of copper wire and exchange, on a 4mb line.
A 4mb line gives her 2, yet we know its capable of the 4 that she asks for.:shrug:
It's beyond me, but it doesn't surprise me..
 
joxby said:
Wait....Virgin = insanely expensive @ £18
Tiscali is £3........A MONTH cheaper.
insanely expensive seems a bit strong

I don't think its worth the aggro of actually being with tiscali, by the time you've paid your one off £30 payment (there's 10 months of Virgin at Tiscali prices right there) and buggered about with BT, you still have to make it work on your own.
I don't actually like Virgin that much but, its without question nauseatingly reliable and always faster than most copper.
Click to expand...

:plus1:

Virgin is the best you can get, £18 is worth paying
 
Would like to have the choice! I'm on 3 wireless dongle.. payg so I don't get stung for hefty out of bundle charges. £15 for 3gb. As we speak I am getting 3.6mpbs which is great for me.
I wish BT would hurry up and get rural areas sorted out.. people 300 yards down the road from us have broadband!
 
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