OneTel Increase Line Rental Prices.

So Ofcom's naive instruction to BT to increase their line rental prices to their customers so as to increase competition (by making other companies' re-selling of line rental more attractive) has, if you dig slightly below the surface, had the opposite effect!

Brilliant.

Ok, have blonde highlights in today.

Have just gone back to BT on option 1 (leaving onetel, previously on their anytime tarriff but was under the impression that I was actually paying for more calls than I was making if you know what I mean). So intend to use 1899 for calls but have looked at primus saver and cannot work out where the free eve and weekend calls come in. Incidentally have used Planet Talk for a few years for my calls to Australia, Every so often I just stick £10 on my account, lasts for ages)

Re mobile, only use mobile to mobile because we currently have a lot of free minutes. But intend to go on pay as you go as our contracts expire.

Ooh my highlights are burning.

Are you saying that the Primus Saver 2 is completely free or is there a monthly subscription for this service.

Can't believe those costs for Oz, will email it to my friend so that she can pass it to her family.

The onetel line rental will actually be going up to £9.99 for customers with online billing - They've only just dropped it to £9.75 from the £9.99 it was last year...


I used Primus for calls a few years ago and found them very good - I only moved because a more competitive offer from Powergen came along.

As I currently pay onetel for line rental, and my 12 months of free evening calls ends this month, I'm also looking for the current best deal. As much as it pains me to say so, it looks like the best option will be back to BT and use Primus in addition to 1899. I really do not like BT, though.

The whole ofcom exercise and TT's takeovers don't seem to have done much for competition or consumer choice... :mad:

Steve_xx wrote:

What's wrong with BT?

It's the only operator in the UK that has to let you use its lines to route calls via other operators should you wish to do so.

Don't get me started...

The actual tangible service that BT provide is excellent. My problem with BT is the appalling attitude of Customer Services when you do have cause to complain, and the devious methods by which they conduct business, hiding price increases and stifling competition. I don't blame them for this, they are a business same as any other - but OFCOM gives them far too much rope.

I wanted to move from BT as soon as they 'imposed' option 1 on BT Standard customers. When I was on BT standard, I paid £9.50 per month, and that included £2.15 worth of free calls - making the LR effectively £7.35. The forced move to 'option 1', removal of the free call allowance and subsequent price increases mean that the line rental would now be £11.00, a 50% increase. On top of that, the majority of my calls in the evenings and weekends would now cost 5.5p instead of the 5p minimum charge that used to apply.

This means that BT are still charging onetel around £2 more for the WLR than I was paying BT Retail when I was on BT Standard.

Onetel have never stopped me using other operators... the only difference is that BT are prevented from doing so in the interests of competition. How does this measure, which had to be imposed by the regulator to prevent anti-competitive practices, make them the best operator?

However, as I stated above, I do agree that as the dwindling number of third party operators become less competitive, line rental with BT is probably the most sensible option.

Sorry, rant over.