Getting broadband without a landline

How to get broadband without a landline

Are you only hanging onto your telephone landline because that’s the way you get your broadband?

If your current internet connection is really slow, here's our guide explaining how you can get broadband without a landline and without the hassles and costs associated with it.

What is a landline?

A landline is another name for the copper wiring that comes into your home or business, allowing you to make voice phone calls over it. In most cases, the same wire (so in other words, your telephone line) is also used to provide a property with a broadband connection to the internet.

Can this cause broadband performance problems?

Not directly. If the quality of phone line run between your property and the local green streetside cabinet is good and if your property is located within say 750 metres of that cabinet, then your landline-delivered broadband service should be fine in terms of speed and reliability – provided of course that your local cabinet has been fibre-enabled.

However, problems start occurring if your copper phone line has started to degrade. This is very likely to happen, given that it’s either strung along outdoor telephone poles or buried in the ground to reach your property. This won’t make any noticeable difference to the quality of voice calls – we’re all used to the odd faint click or hiss when we make or receive a phone call and we can still understand the conversation perfectly well. But those small interferences are the kiss of death when it comes to a fast, digital data service like broadband. They’ll result in notably slow internet performance.

Similarly, even if the quality of your phoneline is excellent, if it’s simply too long, then again your broadband performance will be severely affected. If you’re located just a kilometre or more away from the cabinet serving your property. This is unavoidable and is down to something called attenuation. Basically, a high throughput data service like broadband gets weaker, the longer the wiring over which it is transmitted.

Who is this likely to affect?

The above problems occur far more frequently in rural areas, where the much lower density of properties means that the landlines connecting them to their local cabinet are much longer than you’d find in towns or cities.

And it’s primarily in rural locations that it may well be worth thinking about going wire-free with your broadband and abandoning your landline altogether. This would have the benefit of saving you the monthly line rental charge as well.

What is line rental?

Line rental is a charge for the maintenance of the copper landline that provides a home with its telephone and broadband connection. If you’re using the line for either service, your supplier will charge you on a monthly or quarterly basis for its upkeep.

Do you have to have a landline?

No, not if you don't see the benefit.

If you already make and receive pretty much all your voice calls over mobile and you’re frustrated by your landline broadband performance, then going wire-free would make a lot of sense.

What broadband without landline options exist?

There are 3 primary options available.

4G/5G

These are internet services that use the mobile network to deliver primary broadband to a property instead of the landline. 4G and 5G broadband connections are completely wireless, needing a special WiFi router and a SIM card with an appropriate data tariff attached. In areas with low signal, an external antenna can be installed to boost signal reception and broadband performance.

Satellite

Satellite broadband is an alternative way of getting internet into your home. Just like satellite TV, it’s beamed from satellites orbiting the earth to a dish that’s installed on the property. This then gets hooked up to a WiFi router to provide broadband connectivity inside the premises.

Wireless

Like 4G and 5G, wireless-delivered broadband also provides an internet connection via radio waves. Wireless broadband services are available in some UK locations from companies known as WISPs (Wireless Internet Service Providers) which own and maintains their own wireless networks. There aren't many of these around and they tend to only cover small areas with their broadband services.

How can National Broadband help?

We offer wire-free broadband connections over both 4G and 5G, giving you the option of broadband without needing a landline. So there’ll be no dependence at all on cables, wires or landlines – and no need to pay landline rental either.

With the right equipment, both 4G and 5G can be used to provide speedy and reliable broadband to a single fixed location like your home or business. Our current 5G-based services offer ultrafast (100 Mbps+) performance, but at the moment are only available in urban locations, On the other hand, our 4G broadband which performs at an average 25 Mbps is available pretty much anywhere within the entire UK.

Best of all, both 4G and 5G broadband can be supplied pretty much instantly, if coverage is available. And that even includes locations where smartphones may only show very weak or flaky signal levels.

Fast 4G Broadband

Ultrafast 5G Broadband

Would you like to know more? Give us a call on 03333 447700 or email us
at enquiries@national-broadband.co.uk