Is Broadband Without A Landline Really An Option?

In a word, Yes, but it does depend on what you expect to gain by ditching your home phone. But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves already so let’s start at the beginning.

For most of us the idea of getting rid of the Landline appeals because we see it as a way to save money, stand to reason right? You currently have Home phone and Home Broadband on your bill, so get rid of one and the bill will go down right? Maybe, but don’t spend your savings just yet….

I’ll assume for the purposes of this blog that you’re thinking of ditching the home phone but keeping broadband – if you’re thinking of ditching the whole lot, well that’s a whole other blog all on its own. You can see an independent list of deals for Broadband without landline here.

Broadband Without Landline

The main issue may well be the network that you currently use to receive your home broadband package. For the vast majority of us that means the old BT network that was built to deliver the phone service (NB – don’t get confused here, ‘The Old BT network’ is commonly used to refer to the physical phone network that used to be operated exclusively by BT. It doesn’t mean you currently have to have BT as your phone Provider. Confusingly, many different providers are now able to use ‘The Old BT Network’.).

The telephone network needs a working phone line to be able to deliver a Phone Service OR a Broadband service, which means you’ll still have to pay the monthly line rental charges even if you decide to get rid of the phone element of your package. Sadly you don’t get a reduced line rental by only using it for one service.

So if you use the phone network you’ll still have to pay the line rental charge and a package fee for your Broadband Services. Some Providers will allow you to source these separately – Orange and Plusnet for example.

Is there another network? 

Yes there are a couple.

There’s the cable network owned and operated by Virgin Media, however this network is expensive to lay so isn’t available everywhere. The cost means that Virgin also likes to focus on bundled deals and its prices become more competitive the more features you bundle in – Phone, Broadband, TV, Mobile.

The mobile operators also offer Broadband but it’s still fairly expensive and as yet not able to deliver the faster speeds that most households need for streaming tv, downloading or online gaming.

So whilst you may think your Home Phone is redundant don’t dismiss it out of hand – it may be one of those odd things that it’s cheaper to keep even though you really don’t want it, like….

Stop Marketing Phone Calls To Your Home

Most people have experienced unsolicited phone calls from companies trying to sell you something and if you're anything like me they're at best time-wasting and at worst downright annoying. They feel like such an intrusion, I mean how gave them the right to interrupt your evening trying to sell you stuff you don't want? Sadly the answer is probably, you, but there is a way you can stop them.

Getting Your Number
The companies that are calling you aren't usually the ones that are actually selling the product. often they're just independently run call centres who's business is generating leads and sales for other companies. The model works on the basis that if they phone enough people they can get even a small per-centage who are interested. That small per-centage they can then sell on to the company who's selling the product as 'hot lead'.

They themselves probably get your number by buying them in bulk from other companies. You know sometimes you fill in your details with a company that you're buying stuff from and somewhere underneath there'll be a box that says it's ok for them to pass your details to 'trusted partners' with offers you may be interested in? Well that basically gives them the right to bundle up thousands of numbers and sell them on to anyone who'll pay - usually just for a few pence per number, along with some basic details about you.

They then plug all the numbers into an automated machine called a Dialler that will make thousands of calls a day in the hope of landing a few prospects they can sell.

Stopping them
The good news is that it's relatively easy to stop. There's something called the Telephone Preference Service which is basically a long list of numbers they are not allowed to call. These call centres are required to run their numbers against the list and remove any numbers from their database that appear on the list.

Getting on the list is easy - just visit the Telephone Preference Service and add your details. The service is free so don't pay anybody who says they can get you added if you pay them. That's a whole other rip-off for another day.....

It will take about 28 days for it filter through all the call centres and for them to update their databases. If you get any calls after that, you can report them to your local trading standards but usually just the mention of it will be enough for them to delete you for good.

Choosing a Home Phone Deal

With so many alternatives on the market place – such as Internet calls and mobile phones – it has long been said that the home phone is on the decline. Whilst it may be true that the number of households without a traditional home phone connection may be increasing they are still the tiny minority, meaning that a working landline is still a must have for most UK consumers.

However, just because it is still a necessity for most of us doesn’t mean that it’s easy to find the best deals, with the primary advertising space always given over to the combined Landline and Broadband Deals.

Cheapest Line Rental

Unless you make a lot of calls by far the biggest expense of your home phone deal is the monthly line rental. This can be anything up to £14 or £15 a month, with BT’s standard monthly charge coming in at £13.80. However, a bit of shopping around can get this much cheaper, currently the cheapest landline rental is from Primus at just £6.79 a month.

Call Costs

These can vary massively with many different packages often available from each Provider, meaning the number of landline deals on the market is huge. Each package will target a different type of user so it’s important to know when you make your calls. Pull out your last bill and see if you make your calls in the evenings/at weekends or during the day.

Who are you calling? If you make a lot of international calls then look for the packages that offer discounts to the countries you’re calling. You pay a little more for the monthly package cost so make sure you work out whether you’ll get an overall saving.

Landline and Broadband

With providers keen to sign up customers for more than one product, there are a number of combined Landline and Broadband Deals on the market. They can offer great value, offering big discounts to take both services. But make sure you’re not taking a Hone Phone package that you don’t want just to get a Broadband feature that you don’t need. They may be offering a faster download speed than you currently have but may find it won’t be the cheapest line rental available.

Chargeable Extras

Make sure you check the small print of what is and what isn’t included in the quoted price. These days most providers will allow you to keep costs down by discarding services you don’t want (like a paper bill every month). However if you do need a special service then check these out in advance as these can really push up the cost of your home phone.

Help On Finding Broadband Only Deals

The numbers of mobile phone connections (let alone handsets) has grown to an astounding level – even a cursory glance of reputable sources puts the figure at around 85% of adults – and the growth in competition has meant they’re now a fairly cheap way of communicating. Even forgetting the stats, just ask yourself how many people in your household actually rely on the Home Phone? If you don't then maybe a Broadband Only Deal would be better for you.

So why do so many of us still have a Home Phone? For most of us it’s down to a combination of 2 reasons – 1) our love affair with Home Broadband and 2) the fact that most us need a working home phone line on which to receive our Home Broadband service.

Now, that logic leads to the trap that many people fall into, which goes along the lines of ‘Ok, so I have to have a phone line – which bundled phone and broadband package is the best for me?’. You then scroll through the popular packages, pick a Broadband package that you want and it will inevitably come with the Provider’s standard monthly line rental in the region of £12 or £13 a month.

However, if you really have decided you don’t need or want your Home Phone then there is a better way to pick your Broadband package.

Line Rental

If you’re on the phone network this is an unavoidable charge but one that makes up quite a large % of your monthly bill so we need to focus on getting it as cheaply as possible. Ignore the bundle deals for now and just search for the cheapest line rental fee you can find. I had a quick look this morning and found one from Primus for just £6.49 a month.

Broadband

Now you want to find a Broadband package, but you definitely don’t want one that requires you to take their line rental (you’ve already sorted that out above). The number of Providers who offer Broadband but DON’T insist on you paying them line rental is sadly small but there are some out there and they’re growing.

Again, a fairly painless search offered up a Package from Plusnet (up to 20mb/s speed and 10gb usage) for just £6.49 a month.

That’s a total of £13 a month for everything you need – and all for the price that most Providers will charge you for their monthly line rental.

Bundled Deals

These are heavily promoted by the Providers because they’re a great way to secure multiple revenue streams from customer – e.g. Line Rental, Phone service, Broadband and even digital TV. Yes, they can be convenient but often times a people will choose a bundle deal of 3 or 4 services when they really only want 1 or 2 of them.

Top Tip - always check the First Year Cost when looking at Deals, that way you make sure you've included any installation fees. 

My advice is before you start looking draw up a list of exactly what you want or need and try searching for each part individually – it may take a bit more effort but the savings you can make should make it worth your while!

Choosing The Best Broadband Service

For the vast majority of us a Home Broadband connection has become as common place in the house as a telephone line (or should that be mobile phone these days?). But with the growth in take up has come an astonishing growth in the number of Broadband Providers in the market place and Packages available to choose from.

Such a huge leap in competition and choice is of course a good thing as prices fall and quality increases but the wealth of choice can make picking a new package that much complicated as you try and weigh up a multitude of features and possibilities - do I want superfast speeds, unlimited downloads and wi-fi, or, do I want to keep my bill under £10 a month?

So to help you choose, I've pulled together a list of key features you want to keep in mind when looking for a new Home Broadband Package.

Download Speed
Probably the most often quoted feature of a Broadband Package and frequently one of the most mis-understood. The mis-understanding arises from the very simple difference between 'Up To' and 'Average or Actual'. 'Up To' is the one the Broadband Providers love to quote and is actually the maximum download speed that the Broadband Service can deliver. This may in fact bear no relation to the Actual Average speed you may experience - In fact, Ofcom's research found that for Broadband Providers using the telephone network to deliver the services the average actual speed was often around just 40% of the 'Up To' speed advertised.

Top Tip - before you choose a package contact the Provider and ask them for their estimated Actual Download Speed for your postcode.

Network
Whilst Download Speed is the headline grabbing feature, most people don't realise that the type of network their provider uses to deliver their services can have a huge impact on Download Speed. The traditional phone line network is used by many providers as it's relatively cheap and reaches a huge % of the population. But, it's not able to deliver the really fast download speeds and the further your house is from the nearest exchange then the slower your service is likely to be.

Cable networks are purpose built and use fibre-optic cabling which is able to deliver broadband services at much higher speeds. The Downside? They're not available everywhere so you may not be able to access them.

Top Tip - when beginning your search use an independent Postcode Checker to see what Providers and Networks are available in your area. I've found this one to be very comprehensive Best Broadband In My Area.

Bundle or Stand Alone?
For many UK consumers the norm is to bundle your Broadband, Home Phone and often your digital TV services all up together and get them form the same supplier. This has a couple of benefits i) let's face it it's a lot easier to deal with just one company than 3 separate ones and ii) as the providers are keen to get your business on all 3 services they often offer discounts making bundled services cheaper.

However, the price often leads people into the 'over bundling' trap - in other words taking services they didn't really want in the first place because it only costs an extra few pounds a month. Stand alone services aren't always more expensive and 'Broadband Only' deals are becoming more and more popular.

Top Tip - decide on the list of services you want before you start looking and stick to it.

Keep an eye out for future posts when I'll be looking at different types of Packages and some of the additional features of Landline and Broadband Packages.