I’ve been thinking about getting a cell phone and ditching my regular phone service. This would mean I’d have to go with some sort of broadband internet service to replace my dialup. Fine with me!
But would DSL work if I didn’t have phone service of some sort? Would I have to go with cable instead?
If you get DSL from the phone company, they’ll definately tell you that you need both.
A quick call to your local provider will provide the answer. I suspect that you’ll need local phone service. To find your local providers you can go to http://www.dslreports.com
Technically you don’t but the price (if even offered) would be more then standard home dsl + a basic phone line.
If you were serious about ditching your landline then cable is a nice way to go. If you don’t need high speed (lets say you need it for email and checking this board during peak hours) then you might get away with using your cellular phone as a modem (if they provide isp service, Verizon does btw). Connection will be slow (14.4) but it works and if you have lots of cell minutes to burn (perhaps unlimited nights and weekends and you could limit your internet to then) it might be your cheapest way to go.
Another thought you may want to see if you can go in with a neighbor who has a broadband connection and set up a wireless lan via wifi.
I’ve tried this. In nearly all cases I’ve seen, the phone company absolutely insists that you keep and have a phone number with them.
I think that DSL, in the way it is currently implemented, does require that a number be “tied up”. Now, it doesn’t really have to be done that way, but that’s the way that the companies typically choose to do it.
It also, from a business case, locks you into their service…
You may have better luck going with a non-telco provider (covad if their still around for example) I have seen dsl only lines, usually they are assigned a circuit number instread of a phone number (96ARDU###### - format for Manhattan)
Currently most providers will require you to have phone service to get DSL.
Speaking as a sales rep for a telco DSL provider I would probably recommend cable as k2dave mentioned for your needs. Covad is also an alternative though I would not recommend them because you will probably end up with a headache trying to get service started. Covad is also not financially sound these days and you may find yourself disconnected when they go out of business.