Brothers Internet Access.

[Caran]

Talking to him today, he is still in hospital. He has no internet at home, he has been piggybacking off his next door neighbour for years.
BT say he cannot have a proper land line. There is no room in the junction box at the end of his drive. They just gave him a metal wire for phone calls.
He has tried to reason with them but to no avail.
Surely this can't be right.

[Buenchico]

To the best of my knowledge, a 'metal wire for phone calls' is a 'proper land line' but only a copper one, rather than a fibre cable. So your brother can't access an FTTC (= 'fibre to the cabinet') broadband service but he should still be able to use an ADSL 2+ service, which is perfectly adequate for someone who lives on their own anyway.

That's not just a 'theoretical' answer or one I've found on Google. I'm still using ADSL 2+ myself, which is fully adequate for me to stream internet TV through at the same time as browsing the web. I get it through conventional copper cables, which seems to be exactly what BT/Openreach is saying that your brother can have.

[jno]

do the neighbours know about him?

[Chinajan]

Cable might be an option? My friend had to do this as BT quoted a massive price for installation due to her location.

Put your brother's postcode in here to see what internet provision might be available to him:

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/broadband/check-my-area/

[Caran]

Neighbour has been happy for him to do so for years, but it has suddenly failed just before he was hospitalised.

[Mamyalynne]

Like Chris, I am also on a wired ADSL connection and it's fine for me.

[Caran]

Thank you all, I will pass suggestions on to him when he comes out of hospital. He is coming down to gloucester from Bolton when he comes out to stay with my daughter for two weeks so we may be able to sort him out.