Compare the cheapest broadband packages and deals with no phone line, landline or BT line. Broadband without a phone line or landline rental is increasing in popularity because it releases broadband users from a contract with their phone provider. Check availability and coverage of broadband with no phone line by using our postcode checker below.
It wasn't that long ago that access to the Internet at home involved dialling up an
ISP ("
Internet Service Provider") using a standard, 56Kbps ("Kilobits per second") modem. The process was slow, sometimes excruciatingly so – leading the World Wide Web to be renamed the "World Wide Wait" – and required exclusive use of a telephone line for the duration of the connection.
The advent of
ADSL ("Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line")
broadband improved the situation, increasing download speeds to 8Mbps and allowing a telephone line to be used simultaneously for voice telephony and Internet access. The successors to basic ADSL, ADSL2 and ADSL2+, increased download speeds still further, to 12Mbps or even 24Mbps but, nowadays, there are several ways of connecting to the Internet without a telephone line at all.
Cable & Mobile Broadband
One of the characteristics of copper wire – which is the transmission medium for basic ADSL, ADSL2 and ADSL2+ – is that the speed of data transmission falls off quite sharply with distance. This means that the speed of any Internet connection is governed largely by the distance of a subscriber from a telephone exchange.
Cable or
fibre optic broadband on the other hand, works by transmitting light rather than electricity down this glass wire, known as fibre optic cable.
The cable itself is buried underground and its construction is such that light that would otherwise leave the cable is reflected back into the core. This means that not only is a telephone line not required, but that data can be transmitted at high speed over long distances with very little degradation.
Download speeds of up to 20Mbps or even 50Mbps are possible with
cable broadband, which can obviously make a huge difference to browsing, streaming, online gaming, etc. The catch however, is that cable broadband is currently available from just one supplier,
Virgin Media, and only in areas with access to the cable network. This currently covers roughly 50% of the U.K., in major centres of population, although British Telecom is also rolling out fibre optic broadband, starting in Scotland.
If you want to avoid a physical telephone or cable connection altogether, there is of course, mobile broadband. This relies on the availability of 3G ("3rd Generation") mobile
phone network coverage, but can be accessed via a USB ("Universal Serial Bus") broadband modem or "dongle", which plugs in a laptop or notebook computer.
This means that high speed Internet access – with download speeds of up to 7.2Mbps, comparable with many landline broadband services – can be achieved wirelessly anywhere within range.
Mobile broadband speeds do vary from provider to provider, and network to network – in outlying areas, on the periphery of network coverage, speeds may be much slower than quoted – and mobile broadband providers do tend to prefer longer contracts, often for 18 or 24 months.
If you are in any doubt about the availability of cable or mobile broadband options in you area, use our comparison service above to enter your postcode and check exactly what is on offer.
