Just a technical point fellas, the phone line has of course got nothing to do with the software updates, as they are transmitted automatically over the air, usually early morning around 02:00 - 03:00. Other posters have quite correctly pointed out that the phone line being connected is part of the contract as without it, you cannot successfully use the interactive service, as in "vote now", request local cinema information, order goods, etc. I have had my $ky systems almost from day one without ever connecting them to a phone line apart from when buying a new unit that has to be "married" to the viewing card. Even then, it was done abroad with the use of a white box. IMHO, as long as you are paying the subscription, nothing bad happens. Indeed if $ky suddenly blocked all of the boxes around Europe from working because they weren't connected via the phone line, they would probably loose about 20% of their total subscriber base and are well aware of the fact. Reminds me of the time Tandberg released a sat tuner many years ago in the D2Mac era, which would not read "alternative" viewing cards. As soon as that fact hit the sat magazines over here, sales stopped overnight. The model was withdrawn, redesigned and relaunched with a more friendly card reader, due to complaints from customers regarding "incompatability with certain dirty or damaged cards". Hmmm!