Home internet only: pay for the line or wait for naked ADSL

Internet without a phone: the line fee still rules

Signing up for home internet only, with no phone and no TV, remains one of the most frustrating errands in Spanish consumer life. Anyone looking for a connection of at least 10 Mb for heavy use —downloads, home servers, several devices connected at once— runs into an offer designed to sell bundles, not standalone data. The result: either you swallow the landline you never use or you pay a premium to avoid it.

The starting point of the problem is the line fee. Copper-pair connections remain tied to the rental of the telephone access, and the operators that unbundle it do so by making the whole package more expensive. Anyone keeping the phone line active without a call plan pays around €16 with VAT for 6 megas, according to one of the cases described, with the precaution of noting the renewal date in the diary to threaten cancellation every year. The pure alternative, unbundled or naked ADSL, has existed on paper for years, but its real catalogue is short and expensive.

How much does ADSL without a landline cost?

The comparisons used in the discussion paint a bleak picture: almost no naked ADSL offer goes below €29 excluding VAT, which works out at about €35 a month with taxes. Ocean's 10 Mb plan appears at that price, and Pepephone's attempt to market a plan without a line fee was around €30 for 10 Mb, a figure that generated little enthusiasm. The conclusion that keeps coming up is uncomfortable: the saving from giving up the phone is barely two or three euros compared with plans that include it.

Some argue that the only realistic route is cable. Coaxial fibre networks do not depend on Telefónica's copper pair, and there prices like Ono's €19.90 excluding VAT for its basic 10 Mb plan appear. The problem is coverage: cable does not reach every building, and in many blocks copper is still the only option. For communities with sufficient density there is the community operator model, with fees of €10 plus VAT with no contract commitment or phone line, although it requires a minimum number of subscribers per building and is not available in every region.

Is 3G or 4G worth it as a fixed internet connection?

The short answer is no for heavy use. Mobile connections reach theoretical speeds of up to 21 megas downstream and in practice run at 12 megas with 800 kbps upstream in areas with good coverage, but they carry data caps that make them unworkable for constant downloads. A user with a home server, a connected satellite receiver and two people browsing at once burns through any data allowance in days. The USB modem with a duplicate SIM card option —which lets you use the data on phone and computer simultaneously, though not receive calls on both— is fine for browsing, not for running a household.

The technical detail almost nobody mentions: naked ADSL is not exactly internet without a phone. The copper pair connects directly to the exchange and voice travels over IP, which means part of the bandwidth is consumed by the phone service and there is no compatibility with telecare or emergency calls if the power goes out. Anyone signing up for naked ADSL thinking they are escaping the phone will be surprised to find they still depend on the network for voice.

The cancellation-threat strategy

The tactic most repeated by people who have been at this for years is annual negotiation. Signing up with Jazztel, for example, gives you the first six months with the ADSL fee waived, paying only the line maintenance; when the period ends, you call and threaten to switch operators, and they usually apply a discount for another six months. With no mandatory contract term, switching providers is viable if something better turns up. Textbook penny-pinching: there is no cheap plan, there are customers who negotiate every year.

The matter remains unresolved. Operators have no incentive to sell standalone data when the full bundle leaves them a bigger margin, and the regulation of naked ADSL has not forced competitive prices. Until cable reaches more buildings and fibre is unbundled from the landline, anyone who just wants internet will keep paying for a phone that never rings.