Someone out there might maybe be able to advise on this:

My father-in-law has decided he'd like to get on the Internet. (He's 96, which should make most of us oldies around the Mudcat feel like youngsters, if he decides to drop in here once he's up and running.)

Anyway he gets Sky TV, and they have an offer here in the UK that provides a free basic broadband connection via ADSL on the phoneline. But when they entered his phone number and postcode in their system it came up as indicating that he couldn't get the basic connection, but would have to go for the next one up, £17 a month.

However when I checked with a handy site called Broadband Checker it came up with a message induicating that the local exchange is ADSL enabled but that "An incompatible product may be installed on the line" - and I think that the problem that stops Sky from being able to offer the free basic service might be that his line has an emergency alarm system attached.

It's a great system, and it saved his life recently when he had a fall and was able to get help within minutes by pushing the button he wears round his neck, so obviously he's not going to give that up. So my query is, does it seem likely that this would be the problem (rather than his maybe being a bit too far from the local exchange), and if so, is there some way round it?