BT Line Rental

Æthelred

The situation is thus: I'm in the UK and moving in to a new house in a couple of weeks. The phone there isn't connected yet and I want it to be. I also want to buy broadband afterwards; the company I want it from (Tiscali) will pay line rental as part of the package.

To get the phone connected, I have to ring BT. What I want to know is, can I get connected without agreeing to pay line rental with BT?

bombardier

I don't know if they call it the same in the UK, but in Canada what you'd be asking for is dry loop service. I assume you are getting DSL, and since it's the phone company's responsibility to activate the DSL on your phone line that might be why they are having you contact BT. In Canada it's $45/month from Bell to have dry loop, but only $35/month if you get an actual telephone, which is completely retarded, but whatever.

Basically, if you want DSL, you have to pay for the line yes (here, anyways).

saint2e

The way I understood it when I lived in the UK is that BT (and a few others) are the only people that do line installations. The other companies (that do phone/DSL) will need that to be in place, then they move the line over to their service.

So you'll have to get BT to do the installation and ask them for just a basic line. Then once you've got your number, go to Tiscali and get them to swap it over to their service.

Æthelred

Yeah, BT have the monopoly on the network. So I think I have to sign up with them for line rental - which is a 12 month contract. Then I can sign up with Tiscali and rent the line from them. Which means I have to cancel the BT contract and pay £70. It still works out cheaper, but I'd prefer my £70..