Second Phone Line + Internet?

On Holiday · 12 Sep 2012 at 22:01

Right, I live on outskirts of Coventry City, max download speed 2Mb/s (200kbytes/second)..

Can't play games when someone else is on internet e.g. YouTube.

So I'm thinking about getting a second phone line in with internet, but wondering how to go about it?

I want it to be a completely separate phone line to the existing one, with own internet, what's the cost of this going to be? Will I still need line rental etc? What's best company to go with?

Thanks

PistolPete · 12 Sep 2012 at 22:06

YarwoodUK said:
Right, I live on outskirts of Coventry City, max download speed 2Mb/s (200kbytes/second)..

Can't play games when someone else is on internet e.g. YouTube.

So I'm thinking about getting a second phone line in with internet, but wondering how to go about it?

I want it to be a completely separate phone line to the existing one, with own internet, what's the cost of this going to be? Will I still need line rental etc? What's best company to go with?

Thanks

You call BT (or your prefered telco) and ask for a second line to be installed. Cost is about £130-ish. Yes, you pay line rental as you have a line, cost of that depends on the telco and package. Once installed and it has a number you approach the ISP of your choice and order.

Having a second line is just double everything of what a single line is.

Nightglow · 12 Sep 2012 at 22:25

YarwoodUK: See link: http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=25497

I quote the following paragraph 'Some customers, just taking a BT line, may have to pay a connection fee of £40 (online special offer, normally £130)', not sure it applies to you, but worth checking out..

On Holiday · 12 Sep 2012 at 23:01

£130 line installation
£125 annual line rental
£17 p/month ISP

Damn :/

Audigex · 13 Sep 2012 at 09:38

You could get it for £130 line installation and then £24 a month (sky line rental + unlimited broadband)

It's a big up front cost, but after that it's fairly reasonable. Don't forget to factor in the cost of extra hardware if you want to load balance the two connections and use one as a failover in case the other goes down. If you just want to use one for streaming and the other for gaming, you could get away with using them separately, or add it later.

Load balancing would be more effective as you'd basically double your bandwidth to a 4mb line, whereas with two connections you could end up with one line running at capacity while the other idles.

PistolPete · 13 Sep 2012 at 10:34

Load balancing is a whole can of worms waiting to be opened and I would not recommend it for someone without the knowledge of how it works, why some stuff will get faster, why some stuff will get slower and why some stuff will stop working all together.

KIA · 13 Sep 2012 at 16:04

BT might do it for free if you take their broadband. You'll still have to pay line rental.