BT want £99.99 for new house line

If there's no cable in the area, none.

That is BT's standard 'new installation' charge - which probably doesn't cover their costs.

The_Biff wrote:

It is prewired for phones. There is a BT connection thing by the front door. Yet they want £99.99 to connect me PLUS have to wait a couple of weeks for this.

Although the house maybe pre-wired including having a BT connection box they may not actually have the wires needed from the nearest exchange to your house. I agree it is steep but as mentioned earlier the cost to BT for this is significantly higher than the £99.

Believe it or not but I personally think BT's telephone service is cheaper than other real competitors like Telewest/NTL. The saving you can obtain from having a BT line (like using CPS to get free evening & weekend calls), will over the year, be cheaper than getting a NTL/Telewest line and paying their cheaper installation costs but higher call charges in general.

keithscott1 wrote:

..It wasn't all that long that the installation charge was a lot more than this!..

Before it was £99, it was £75. Are you talking about before it was £75 because I don't remember noticing it any higher than it is now but then again we were on expensive telewest charges for years until I found this site! :money:

moonrakerz wrote:

If BT provide your line you can get your telephone service, your Broadband from ANYONE, if you go cable or get your phone line from anyone else you will end up paying more in the long run.

I wasn't specifically just referring to using CPS providers with BT although they are obviously cheaper, I was trying to state that BT's own costs as in BT Together 1 are actually cheaper, in most cases, than Telewest's.

A quick example below:-

BT
Daytime: 3ppm, Evening & Weekend: 5.5p for upto an hour (5.5p minimum call charge)

Telewest
Daytime: 3ppm, Evening: 2ppm, Weekends: free (6p connection fee on top of the call itself)

Examples:

1min call in daytime: 5.5p on BT, 9p on Telewest/NTL
3min call in daytime: 9p on BT, 15p on Telewest/NTL
5min call in daytime: 15p on BT, 21p on Telewest/NTL

1min call in evening: 5.5p on BT, 8p on Telewest/NTL
3min call in evening: 5.5p on BT, 12p on Telewest/NTL
5min call in evening: 5.5p on BT, 16p on Telewest/NTL

It is only during weekends where Telewest are cheapest because they dont charge for geographical calls but then again the money spent during daytime & evening obviously pays for these so-called 'free' minutes.

These are calls to geographical numbers (those beginning 01 or 02). Calls to non-geographical numbers (084x/087x) are cheaper on BT compared to Telewest/NTL anyhow but this isn't really Telewest's fault just how the system for 084/087x is setup.

I have just moved into a new house as well and when I phoned BT they were looking for the £100 installation charge.

I think I will stick with my mobile phone for a while. I dont think there is any way to avoid paying the installation charge and I am just hoping that they reduce this charge.

It was £75 in March and BT have now changed it to nearly £100.

You would think BT would have put the installation costs up by about 3% with the cost of inflation rather than by about 33%. My salary didnt go up 33% in the last year.

djmatthews wrote:

I have just forked out £99.99 for a new line into a new proprety. You also have to remember that you are tied into BT for a year.... very anti-competative.

The one year tie-in is standard. Both Telewest/NTL and even TalkTalk do it now if you want their broadband for free. What's worse is TalkTalk's tie-in is for 18months instead of 12months.

I think you may be able to leave within the year, but incur a penalty... does anybody know about this?

I'm not sure about a penalty claus but can imagine there is one.

You are able to use other providers for calls only - known as CPS (Carrier Pre-Selection). There are some good offers out now including free evening & weekend or an all-inclusive plan which works out at £3.49 for 12months - more info here (please ignore Martin's update stating offer has ended. It is on again for this month and Martin is looking into this now).

Also see Martin's Cheapest Call Provider article here.

I'm not sure about the ability to move linerental to another provider but I doubt this during the minimum term.