Broadband query - help please

[LMH]

Hi

Long story but I've shot myself in the foot.

Cancelled my account with Virgin Media because they keep overcharging us. All the services are being disconnected in a few weeks.

I used to be with BT for the landline but that has expired now. Question - are there any broadband providers you can go with who don't need you to have an active BT line?

Lisa

 

[Colin_374311761]

You could try Tesco. We have our phone line and calls through them, but not our broadband. Tesco do broadband so I would think you could get a package. You would also get points.

Colin

 

[GillC1]

LMH

we have done ours through Talktalk. I pay

 

[LMH]

Thanks for the replies Colin and Gill.

Do you have a BT line though? as most of the service providers I've looked at (including Sky who we have the tv with) need a working BT line.

Lisa

 

[GrahamPonty]

Hi LMH,

If you cancel with your broadband provider you will need to ask them for a MAC number this mac number is then given to your next broadband provider. I don't quite know how it works but I do know without that number you will not get any other provider to supply you with broadband.

Like Gill C above, I to am with Talk Talk and pay only

 

[LMH]

Hi

Thanks for the responses.

Both Tesco and Talk Talk need a BT line.

I have quite a few emails I need to keep so to be on the safe side, I am forwarding them somewhere so I can retrieve them later.

Looks like I'll either have to re-apply to Virgin when my account closes or pay to have a BT line again.

Regards

Lisa

 

[GrahamPonty]

Hi Lisa,

Give talk talk a call as I said before as long as you have the MAC Number any broadband provider should be able to provide you with broadband, you already have a bt line all the providers just connect through the bt line.

Graham

 

[Guest]

Your UK Broadband is provided via phone lines, either a copper BT wire or the optical Cable Systems such as Telewest / NTL who are now Virgin Media I think.

So Lisa yes you will need BT line if you have given up the Virgin Cable TV system. Your selected broadband provider will have machinery in the BT exchange to provide the service.

 

[Rita1]

I have given up on the Big Broadband providers and got myself a good one its called "http://www.adsl24.co.uk/" they are brill and you speak to someone in this country if you have a problem they have been very helpful

Go check it out look at the forums

Rita

 

[Colin_374311761]

Hi Lisa

No we do not have a BT Line. Line rental is paid to Tesco.

Colin

 

[Colin_374311761]

Hi again Lisa

When you say BT landline do you mean paid rental for the landline to BT, or actual wires going into your property. We have wires into our house. We used to pay line rental and calls to BT, now we pay line rental and calls to Tesco. The wires are the same, they still go to the same BT exchange but we rent from Tesco.

Colin

 

[LMH]

Hi Colin

Years ago we were with BT for the phone (before the internet took off).

We then switched to Diamond Cable who later became ntl and now is Virgin.

When I phoned BT on Friday, they looked to see if my BT line was still active but said it had ceased. I would need to pay BT

 

[GrahamPonty]

Hi Lisa,

Your telephone line is the same as your gas or electric company if you change providers it does not mean the new gas provider is going to come to your house and lay new gas pipes into your property and the same with your electric provider no new cables.

As I said before the "MAC number" is very important without it you can't change providers. You must get this number from Virgin Media, and give it to the next provider of your choice regardless of who owns the line, once they have this number they should be able to connect you up with there equipment in your local BT exchange.

Hope this helps

Graham

 

[Rita1]

Graham It looks like lisa has no phone line hence the

 

[GrahamPonty]

Hi Rita,

Lisa has got a line going into her home she just has to change providers. I agree if she goes back to BT they will charge her a reconnection fee but as I said before like gas and electric providers they don't change pipes or cables.

She just needs to get the MAC number to change providers.

All telephone cables that come into your house belong to BT except NTL, all you are doing is changing the provider. The cables coming into my home belong to BT, Talk Talk my broadband provider has there own equipment installed in my local exchange, I pay line rental to Talk Talk and a fee for the connection in total

 

[cokey1970]

Lisa,

It would be worth your while having a look at www.thinkbroadband.com - an independent guide to broadband. Amongst other things, there are ratings on the various suppliers from actual users. You can also find out from the forum what users really think about their provider.

One thing worth remembering is that the biggest and cheapest don't always have the best customer support when things go wrong.

 

[Colin_374311761]

Hi Lisa

You presumably have your whole package through Virgin Cable. Yes I see your problem. Was your BT when you had it, via underground cable or Overhead wires? If O/H are the wires still there? If it was U/G then the cable will still be in your house, and probably connected back to a distribution point. The point I am trying to make is that if you still have the BT wires to your house in one form or another you should get a reduced connection fee. If you have the wires there it might pay you to try BT again and go for a phone & broadband package and point out that you have BT wires to your house. You could then change your ISP after a year.

Colin

 

[LMH]

Hi folks thanks for the replies.

Well, I phoned BT, my line has expired and if I wanted to go with them, they would definately have to put a new line in at a cost of

 

[JeremyClarksson]

As stated by someone else broadband is supplied in a number of ways

Copper wire landline (except in Hull where it is Kingston Telecom) these are all supplied over the BT infrastructure, you are paying BT but through your provider i.e. Talk talk, Tesco etc will pay BT for the use of the local loop (copper wire) from the exchange to your house. Most have their own networks to the exchange, ie the Talktalk free broadband deal was waiting for them to provide their own links to the exchange before they could provide it for free.

NTL/virgin have their own infrastructure for TV which is mostly fibre with some copper that is used to provide phone/broadband/digital TV and this does not use BT landlines.

Satellite

You can also get broadband via satellite but need deep pockets to pay for it.

As an ex BT WAN (wide area network) project engineer I feel qualified to put to bed the "we do not have a BT line" argument, unless you have cable TV you almost certainly have broadband provided over a BT line even if you have no direct dealings with BT itself.

If like LMH you are a cable customer and you wish to swap to Tesco/Talktalk etc you will need a BT line although some of the providers do this as part of their service and you may not even be aware it has been done.

 

[GrahamPonty]

Well said Gary!

 

[Robert_374242026]

We are with Bulldog/Pipex 5m and

 

[JeremyClarksson]

Robert

I quote from the Pipex website http://www.pipex.co.uk/broadband/whatwillineed/

"Pipex Broadband requires an active Pipex/BT telephone line or similar (excluding Kingston Communications and cable)."

What this really means is that you require a connection that goes back to a BT exchange and is rented by you or your present provider from BT.