Broadband Without Landline Fibre Packages

Compare broadband without a landline in your area

“Is it possible to get broadband without a phone line?” Is one of the most common questions people ask when searching for broadband deals. With most people making and receiving calls on their smartphones these days, it’s fair to assume that we are all using our landline less and less. So why pay for something you’re not using?

Is it possible to order fibre broadband without a landline?

The short answer is yes, you can almost always get broadband without a landline. But the options available to you along with the type and speed of service you get will depend on where you live. Some homes will be able to receive speeds similar or even faster than with a landline line, while others will have to put up with much slower speeds.

This is because most broadband services in the UK are delivered on the BT-owned Openreach network, which carries broadband to your home using traditional copper wires. This is a remnant of the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) with both voice and data travelling down the old telephone lines into your home.

To get broadband without a phone, you will need to use a provider which bypasses the PTSN Openreach network. The most popular of these is Virgin Media whose fibre broadband network covers half of the UK. However, if full-fibre is not available in your area, you will have to rely on the Mobile 4G/5G networks for your broadband.

Why doesn’t fibre broadband need a phone line?

The copper wire which runs into your home is part of a legacy system called the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). This is used to transmit calls across the UK via a network of exchanges. For this system to work, every home connected to it needs to have a unique telephone number.

The PSTN was never designed to carry data. The system we use today is a patchwork of different technologies which handle voice and data separately. Because of this, most of the copper network has been replaced with fibre-to-cabinet. The only bit of copper which remains is the bit which runs from the nearest cabinet to your home.

Because fibre broadband bypasses the old PSTN network, there is no need for a copper wire to be fed into your home. This will be replaced by a fibre connection which provides much faster and more reliable data delivery. Once this fibre connection is installed, the old copper wire can be removed.

With the wire removed, your home will no longer be connected to the PSTN network. This means you no longer need a landline or even a phone number to receive broadband. You can keep your original phone number if you wish, but it is not necessary like it was with the old PSTN network.

Which providers offer fibre broadband without a phone line?

Several suppliers provide broadband without a phone line in the UK including BT. But they each use different technologies to deliver the service. To obtain broadband without a phone line, your home will have to have a full-fibre to premises (cable broadband) installed or use the mobile 4G/5G network.

There are pros and cons to each of these technologies. With fibre-to-premises, a fibre optic cable is fed directly into your home removing the need for a separate copper cable. This provides the fastest and most reliable service with speeds up to 1GBps available. However, the service is not available UK wide.

The largest supplier of fibre-to-premises is Virgin Media whose network covers 50% of the UK population. BT also offer direct fibre-to-premises but they are still in the process of rolling this out UK-wide. As of early 2021, BT’s full-fibre network only covers 15% of UK homes. You can check if the service is available in your area here.

If fibre-to-premises is not available in your area, your only option is to use the mobile 4G/5G network. Of these, 4G is the most accessible technology with 97.1% of the UK population covered. This offers download speeds of 100Mbps, much slower than fibre broadband. The 5G network is still being rolled out but promises speeds similar to cable.

Do BT offer fibre broadband without a landline?

Yes, but the service you get may not provide the same speed as with a landline. BT offers several different packages depending on what services are available in your area. The simplest option is to use BT fibre-to-premises if it is available in your area. This will provide the same or faster network speeds as with a landline.

However, the BT fibre-to-premises network only covers 15% of the UK population as of early 2021. It is important to note that the network is being expanded all the time, with the traditional PSTN network scheduled to be phased out by 2024. So it’s worth checking to see if your home is covered.

Homes which are not covered by BT fibre-to-premises you can still obtain a broadband-only service from BT, but this will be delivered over the EE 4G/5G network. This means you will have to put up with inconsistent download speeds and patchy connections in some places, especially remote locations.

Is fibre broadband without a landline cheaper?

Before 2016, broadband prices were quoted as a standard rate plus line rental, which cost around £18 per month. However, this practice was outlawed by the Advertising Standards Agency in 2016. Since then, broadband prices have been quoted as a single price including line rental.

In theory, then obtaining broadband without paying line rental should save you £18 a month. In practice, however, this is not the case. A quick look at the available deals shows that landline free broadband costs the same as standard broadband. Telecoms providers justify this by saying the extra cost is to cover the cost or rolling out fibre-to-premises across the UK.

So cost shouldn’t be the overriding factor when choosing a landline free broadband package. In fact, in some cases, it may be cheaper to use landline broadband even with the cost of line rental included. So you should think carefully about the broadband services you need and the options available in your area before making a final decision.