Broadband on a deactivated phoneline?

Mutant_Fruit

Just wondering if it's possible to get ADSL on a phoneline without having to pay line rental? I heard somewhere before that you only need to pay line rental if you are using the line for voice services, can anyone check if this is true? There is a phoneline at the house in question, so a new one won't have to be installed.

If a phoneline rental is an absolute must, what would be the cheapest package that supplies ADSL + rental? Smart at €35 a month would be too expensive, and i don't think BT's offers are much cheaper.

Thanks

kaizersoze

Not true I'm afraid (for residential lines at least). Line rental is unavoidable. Smart offer free line rental to the customer but it's not free to Smart. They have to pay Eircom.
€35 is as cheap as it's going get for a bundle atm, be it Smart (3meg) or BT (1meg), but Eircom have announced a BB price drop so it may come down a bit.

vibe666

I plan on using the BT Business packages when they are available on my exchange. i do have a business which consists of just plain old me (IT contractor) but the official business address is in cork where my accountants are.

haven't actually got signed up yet, but they haven't even mentioned proof that I'm a business customer.

the plan is basically this:

business dsl package + blueface = no more line rental

not 100% sure how it's going to work out, but my (future) BT business account manager just told me to sign up with the residential package for now till business BB is available (something to do with unbundling of local loop) and she'll port me over with no excess charges or anything. i can ditch the line rental and the cap (not that it's been working since i moved house anyway) and i'm all sorted.

it's gonna cost a little more off the bat, but speed and quality will be better and it all gets expensed back through my tax anyway residential or not so it doesn't matter too much.

just need to wait for availability on my (navan/johnstown) exchange now and I'm all set.

that reminds me, i best check in again see how things are progressing with this rollout thingy.

steve-o

Some salesperson is telling you porkies. Business or consumer, someone has to pay the line rental if the line is in use. There was talk of DSL unbundling, the voice services stay with Eircom and only the DSL is unbundled. I don't know if it was ever implemented. But DSL unbundling would only ever be allowed on an active line - you pay Eircom normal line rental, and BT (or any DSL LLU operator) pays a fairly small rental (less than a euro a month) for unbundled DSL rental.

Foxwood

vibe666 wrote:

not 100% sure how it's going to work out, but my (future) BT business account manager just told me to sign up with the residential package for now till business BB is available (something to do with unbundling of local loop) and she'll port me over with no excess charges or anything.

To the best of my knowledge, BT haven't "unbundled" any new exchanges in the last 3 or 4 years. Maybe they're planning to get back into the business if Smart Telecom manage to convince Comreg to make eircom provide a workable LLU service, but you'll still be paying "line rental" - the LLU companies still pay something like €15/month (plus VAT) to eircom for the unbundled line, and that is built into the price of any services they provide on that line.

vibe666

that doesn't quite fly with what I've been told, and far be it from me to take a telco representative at their word, but although residential sales and support have noses longer than pinnochio by now business sales tend to have their wits (at least slightly) more about them when it comes ot telling people what they can and can't have.

I've been in contact with my (future) account manager for over a year and a half now, and from what she told me she had been doing the job for quite a while before that so I'm guessing she has some idea what she's talking about.

as for the not unbundling exchanges for the last 3 or 4 years thing, well again that doesn't quite concur with the info i've been given.

as i said earlier though it doesn't really matter to me either way, whatever its called, line rental, cheese allowance whatever it doesn't really matter if bertie is paying the bill anyway within reason. all i'm really interested in is speed and contention.

sky = blue grass = green

feel free to pick away and contradict all you like Fox, it makes no odds to me, although i am starting to remember why I haven't posted here for so long.

Foxwood

Be sure to let us know when you get your first bill, and how much you've saved.

vibe666

i can tell you now, i'll have saved nothing, since my DSL is currently costing me nothing now and will continue to cost me nothing when i get whatever becomes available to me. the wonders of running a small business in ireland. i guess it's not all doom and gloom after all.

actually, i only get my DSL free, i still have to pay for half my telephone charges so I'll be saving 50% of whatever the line rental charges are and the difference between 50% of my BT call charges and 50% of my blueface (or whoever i end up with) call charges.

how much are you paying for yours?