Any way to get rid of tele. phone company?

[Bawcom]

Hi kind experts (or not),

My husband and I were just wondering if there was a way to still connect to the internet without needing the phone company. I read up a bit on the Intellon plug in, but it seems that you can't use a surge control with that and here in Houston with the torrents of rain (albeit not this year so much), I'd really hate to give up my APC surge control. There seem to be other small problems too.

We were thinking that perhaps going wireless might also solve the problem. I went to the site 'How Stuff Works', (as suggested here after doing a search) but still couldn't quite figure out if I needed the phone outlet or not. It would seem that you do (i.e. the need to connect an ethernet cable to the wireless thingy? -note my incredible grasp of technology

-

Someday I would just love for THE telephone company to be history.

Any ideas?
Kindest regards,
Linda

 

[ChristopherP]

Yeah even for broadband you would need your telephone outlet...

Out in the states you can get Sattelite internet though, my friends in Kansas have that with a company called Starband i think... i doubt you need a phone line for that, it's high speed connection too...

 

[CITech]

Out in the states you can get Sattelite internet though, my friends in Kansas have that with a company called Starband i think... i doubt you need a phone line for that...

Chris, if I remember correctly, they use a phone line for the uplink side of your connection, but the heavy downlink side is delivered via satellite.

It may have changed, but there was a system that used this method, so not good news on the phone line issue, sorry.

 

[Ian]

Yup, thats right CITech you'd still need a phone line to relay the info

Bawcom, most of us are from the UK so we are probably giving UK specific answers here. There are a few US members which will hopefully know a bit more about what's available in Texas though. You be be able to get some sort of cable or wireless connection without a phone line, it is possible sometimes

 

[ChristopherP]

Does it? http://www.starband.com/installation.asp

 

[CITech]

Does it? http://www.starband.com/installation.asp

Apologies Chris, I was working on old technology. It does indeed clearly state on the website that there is no need for a telephone connection!

It's interesting to see how things have changed, but I always thought the attraction of satellite Internet was the unbelievably high speeds available. Looking at what these guys offer it doesn't look too brilliant to me.

 

[ChristopherP]

No it's not - but if your out in the sticks (like my friends in Galena Kansas) where you cant get cable or DSL internet, then thats where Satellite comes in

Beats dial up anyday.

So i guess theres your answer Bawcom

 

[CITech]

No it's not - but if your out in the sticks (like my friends in Galena Kansas) where you cant get cable or DSL internet, then thats where Satellite comes in

Beats dial up anyday.

So i guess theres your answer Bawcom

Can't (and won't) argue with that

 

[Bawcom]

Thank you all so much for the information. I called a dealer here in Houston re the Starband. The cost for the installation is about 400 pounds sterling and it costs about 45 pounds a month. Guess we're stuck with the phone company for a while! C'est la vie.
Ya'll take care now.
Linda

 

[Me__2001]

have you thought of BPL (broadband over power lines) ? it sounds odd but i believe you can get a connection at DSL speeds, im not sure of its availability or price but it may be an alternative

 

[ChristopherP]

ouch thats steep!