If you are out to save as much money as you can on your broadband internet connection you might consider a naked broadband plan. It can save you some money because it reduces the line rental costs and all the associated costs of making phone calls on your home phone. That said, a naked ADSL connection still uses the same telephone line infrastructure, so you will find that the monthly costs are may only be a few dollars cheaper all up (if you don't make calls on your home phone). If you've been finding you have been using your mobile phone more and are justifying the payment of line rental to your phone provider simply to remain connected in order to access the internet, then naked broadband is what you should be considering.
How Naked Broadband Works
Naked DSL is a form of ADSL2+ broadband connection that you dedicate your telephone line to. This means you no longer share the line with your telephone provider. The copper wire running from your home, or office, to your local telephone exchange will be disconnected from your telephone provider and transferred directly to your internet service provider, or ISP. This is why you no longer have to pay monthly line rental costs to your telephone provider. Please note that naked ADSL plans cost more than bundled ADSL plans, leading many users to stick with a great value bundle plan.
Telstra is obligated to physically transfer your old home phone copper wire that leads into their local exchange, to a ULL line. The new ULL line is then connected directly to your ISP's network known as a DSLAM inside the exchange. Once the connection is made you are able to receive naked DSL – ADSL2+ broadband directly from your own ISP negating any further use of the telephone companies infrastructure.
The traditional way of carrying the data from the internet to your computer was by sharing the telephone line with your broadband ISP. This works quite well but you have to pay for two services, one to use the telephone line and the other for your ISP to deliver data along the same wire. By using naked broadband technology you rid yourself of the phone service completely and concentrate on receiving internet data alone. If you wish you can still include a phone service with your internet service by bundling VoIP ( Voice Over Internet Protocol). This is the cheapest way to make phone calls, especially national and international calls.
Naked Broadband Availability
In theory you should be able to obtain naked broadband anywhere you can access ADSL or ADSL2+ broadband. However in reality it will depend on whether your local telephone exchange has been upgraded to enable the transfer to occur. You will have to ask your naked broadband ISP to check to see if it is available in your specific locality. There are four requirements that must be met before a naked broadband connection can be made, these are:
- No sub-exchange or incompatible cabling structure involved.
- No complexities along the line such as ISDN, PABX, or faxduet etc.
- The local exchange you are connected to has the capacity to carry out the required process.
- The copper cable to your home is owned by Telstra.
Benefits of Naked Broadband:
- You eliminate your monthly landline phone bill and line rental fees. You have stripped your connection to the absolute bare essentials with no frills which should make budgeting easier. Costs will be down because of these changes and if you choose your plan carefully and don't purchase too much data downloading capacity you should come out ahead economically.
- Reliability and speed of downloading should be improved slightly. But if you are using an ADSL technology the further you are from the telephone exchange less reliability and slower speed can be expected. This is not so much of an issue with the latest ADSL2+ technology.
Naked Broadband is not Suited to Everybody
Naked broadband is not suitable for everybody however, for instance, you will lose your dial tone because of your connection within the exchange being changed. The loss of a dial tone means you can't connect a land line telephone to it anymore. Fax machines are out, as are Back to Base alarm systems. You can throw away your old 56K dial up modem if you haven't done so before. Dial security cameras won't work either and neither will PABX or EFTPOS. You will still be able to access digital pay TV (Foxtel) but you won't be able to purchase online movies. If the loss of these types of perks means nothing to you then in looks like you could be on a winner.
Like many other choices you have to make in life, a lot will depend on your individual circumstances whether naked broadband is for you or not, but if you find you are using your home phone less and less and relying more on your mobiles you should give naked broadband serious consideration.
