Can I Get Verizon Internet Without Phone Service?

Q. I want to motion my home phone to an Cyberspace service, but I take Verizon DSL and the visitor won't let me deactivate phone service without unplugging my broadband too. Do I have any recourse?

Many companies offer the option of adding DSL broadband service without adding a phone.

A. This unhappy bulletin came from a reader of my May column near porting landline telephone numbers to cheaper Cyberspace-calling services. Information technology'southward an issue I should take warned well-nigh in that column, because at that place'southward no fix for it every bit long equally you want to stay on Verizon'south digital-subscriber-line broadband.

That telecom conglomerate confirmed that information technology won't let DSL customers trim their service to only broadband and doesn't let new customers sign up for DSL without vocalization calling.

"Verizon hasn't offered standalone High Speed Internet (DSL) service for more than 3 years," spokesman Harry Mitchell wrote in an east-mail. "So, if a customer with HSI and voice service wants to disconnect his vocalism service, we will disconnect the phonation service and the HSI service."

Mitchell said that tying the two services together "enables us to proceed to provide competitively priced services to our customers."

Verizon does, however, let subscribers of its much faster Fios fiber-optic broadband service go rid of their phone lines or opt out of paying for one upfront.

And so practise other DSL providers. At AT&T, the second-largest Internet provider to offer that phone-based broadband, "landline phonation service is optional," spokesman Brett LeVecchio e-mailed; y'all don't take to sign upward for it upfront and tin driblet information technology later. The same policy governs AT&T's U-Poetry fiber-optic broadband.

And the visitor that picked up iii states' worth of Verizon phone lines earlier this year, Borderland Communications, offers standalone broadband admission and lets current broadband subscribers drop phone service, spokesman Steven Crosby said.

Posts from Borderland DSL and fiber customers at the DSLReports site confirm this is possible, although some warn of billing hiccups that required extra calls to customer back up to ready.

The Federal Communications Commission doesn't take particular rules on this subject. Information technology's imposed some conditions on mergers--for case, Comcast's acquisition of NBC Universal--that required companies to offer standalone broadband, simply none govern Verizon.

Ane selection for my reader would be to cut dorsum phone service to cheapest possible tier. In this reader'southward city of Alexandria, Virginia, that appears to exist a "Message Rate" service programme under which each outgoing telephone call beyond the first fifty in a month costs about a dime. But in one case you cistron in the required $xi/calendar month charge for punch-tone service and the usual taxes and fees, you lot're nevertheless looking at $20 or so a month.

(Verizon's site as well lists a "Sensible Infinitesimal" selection that seems to avert the dial-tone charge, but Mitchell said that'south a regional-toll-calling add-on, not something you can choose for basic phone service.)

So this fellow--similar an before reader in that area--might exist better off paying for Internet service alone from the local cable company, in this example Comcast.

Tip: Use T-Mobile? Update plans on Wed for costless Due north American roaming

T-Mobile's border-banishing motion to put Canada and Mexico within the dwelling house service area of its U.S. subscribers is expert news for frequent travelers to those countries and for everyone who ofttimes needs to call or text numbers there.

Just to get T-Mobile'south "Mobile Without Borders" free roaming (note that although T-Mo but touts gratis LTE data in Canada and United mexican states, the deal covers slower but more widely bachelor 2G and 3G access as well), you'll need to update your existing programme on Wednesday, the mean solar day this option goes into effect.

Log into your personal, business or prepaid business relationship on that twenty-four hours, call T-Mobile's customer support line, or visit one of its stores, and you should be able to switch to one of its new Simple Choice Due north America plans.

Company publicist Jai Ferguson emphasized that these new offerings otherwise match T-Mobile's existing lineup in terms of data allowances and such features as the "Music Freedom" exemption of nearly streaming services from those information limits and "Elementary Choice Global" costless low-speed data roaming in well-nigh other countries.

Rob Pegoraro is a tech writer based out of Washington, D.C. To submit a tech question, e-mail Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/robpegoraro.