Telephone Service

Question about setting up telephone service for a flat outside of London.  Will be coming over in a couple of weeks, so don't know exactly how things work.

In the US, normally you are tied to the one local phone service provider (Ameritech, Verizon, etc), and then you get to select your long distance provider.

In the UK (specifically, Surrey), is everyone tied to getting a BT landline?  Or are there competitors?

After I get my landline, I will also want to get broadband access -- how easy is that?

Thanks for your help!!

There are competing phone line services.  Depends on where you live.  I know that Telewest operates here in the Medway area of Kent where I live.  The house we first rented had both Telewest AND BT lines installed!

As far as broadband, as long as it's available in your area, should be pretty easy to get set up.

And might I suggest OneTel for your international calls - 3p a minute to the US anytime!

Great!  Thanks!  

Anyone know of the names/URL of the competing companies that cover Surrey?

I googled for "telephone", "service", "surrey" and got this URL straight off. It lists some, but I doubt it's be-all.
http://www.matren.co.uk/telephone/surrey.htm

I'm sure if you followed the same google results you may come across better sites.

You're not going to have the same sort of choice over here that exisits in the US. I might suggest when you get here, get set up with BT, and then do some looking around once you're here.

Having BT is pretty much a no-choice for us. For our business and our home (which are the same building) we use the same as peedal commented on: BT, Telewest and One.Tel. All three do different things.

www.ntl.co.uk
www.telewest.co.uk
www.bt.com

just remember, you are tied to a minimum 12mth contract. Maybe you could explore the use of mobile phones as an alternative to a land line if you dont plan on staying in the same spot.

oh, and one tel are not a provider, they are a pre dialer, so you still need a bt or cable provider line