I have a friend who was after some inexpensive ADSL internet, but didn’t want to pay to connect a phone line.

She asked me, and I thought: I’ve heard of naked ADSL, so I looked into it.

The first disappointment, is that the cost is about the same, or slightly more expensive that than non-naked ADSL.

The second dissapointment, is that companies like TPG and MyNetFone (and probably many others), will not connect your naked ADSL if you are currently “naked”… ie you must currently have a valid telephone line with Telstra, before they connect you.

You are usually told that you can disconnect “after” your naked adsl service is connected.

I don’t know about you, but if I cannot trust Telstra to only disconnect my phone line, and not my ADSL service…

Plus: If you have just moved into a new house/flat/apartment, then you don’t want to pay $100 or $200 to connect the phone line, just to get “naked” ADSL, and then disconnect the phone line (another few hundred $ for an early disconnection fee).

It make you wonder: is it really worth spending hundreds of dollars, just to save on a $20 monthly fee?

So, in the end, my friend ended up with a choice of either netspace (ADSL2+), or iinet (ADSL1).

Given that the iinet was $60, vs. netspace $50 per month, it became a one-horse-race, and netspace got the deal.