We've seen them all - broadband & calls for only £xx per month . Then in TINY PRINT at the bottom, is added line rental £yy per month .Why not tell us the TRUTH- you can't have ADSL without a line ,which you need to rent.

Had a look at one company last night. On the face of it BB+EVENING CALLS+line rental came to a bit less than I'm paying with my dongle.And the download limits were more to my needs. I've got an old BT line .So I thought that given I'd pay all up front ( more saving) , they'd re instate for free. Oh ,NO, NO NO .It needs an engineer's visit -cost £44.90 .So the advertised cheap BB would cost me twice as much.At that point ,I told the chat line assistant, that I'd just lost interest. I'd imagine any of the subbies used these days would struggle to work out the house wiring ,anyway, and I be acting as a mentor . .

Had a look at BT- bad as they are, they'd install a line free if I took BB+line on an 18 month contract . But they charge more .

Suspect the problem is OPENREACH. Once upon a day , if all that was needed was provision of a number+ exchange wiring, BT would provide for free. Still thinking of phoning them up and asking if I'd get a BT pensioners discount

you are sort of right, BT will charge the other provider a fee for reconnecting the line and will insist on an engineer visit. Openreach (ie BT plc) will charge that to other operators and there is a cross charge between Openreach and BT retail as they are just divisions within BT, and BT having just moved money around in its own books, can opt not to pass that charge on (easy as it is not really a charhe for them).

Oh and BT used to charge £150 for what you describe as provision of a number and exchange wiring, they didn't offer it for free - I paid it so I know

Price is not the only factor here though, the state of the contention on the backhaul from the exchange can make a big difference.

BT have to install a line anywhere in the UK for £130.

That flat fee means that if it's a half hour job for a guy to connect the wires, check your line and verify it's ok it seems expensive.

However, if you're in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in the wilds with no connectivity, then it's a bargain.

I doubt many of those offering it for £40 will do you a line to the middle of nowhere at that price.

Unlike BT, they don't have to provide a universal service to everyone in the UK

BT have to install a line anywhere in the UK for £130.

That flat fee means that if it's a half hour job for a guy to connect the wires, check your line and verify it's ok it seems expensive.

However, if you're in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in the wilds with no connectivity, then it's a bargain.

I doubt many of those offering it for £40 will do you a line to the middle of nowhere at that price.

Unlike BT, they don't have to provide a universal service to everyone in the UK

The job is to check line back to the exchange MDF and jumpre to a number. Hardly even a half hour job. Been ther ,done it and got thr T shirt.

BT,to their credit, won't charge the instalation fee ,if you take their service for a length of time.

The job is to get it working. Any problems on line e'g noise ,and it's passed to BT to fault find.

Mind you, I'm still thinking of asking BT for a pensioner discount . What's the beting the answer is second word ="off" .

Is the first word 50%

BT might offer you a discount after the first 18 months to stay with them. They did to us anyway and we're on the most basic package.