From NTL to Sky, is BT line-rental the only one I can have?

girish_2

I am double checking as I think it is. In which case I am interested in the Talk Talk plan which is £9.99 per month as a calling plan and Talk Talk Line Rental (paid to BT) = £11 per month. This would come to £19.99 per month and would include the free upto 8MB broadband they are offering.

Currently I'm on £17.99 per month 1MB broadband and want to move to Sky from NTL, so basically what I need to know is if I have to have a BT line (we have but would have to re-connect it,) in which case talktalk is the best option to save as much money as poss if we switch to Sky. This is because broadband would be free.

Currently the calling costs are £6 per month on the NTL bill but not sure when the talktalk prices are on minutes etc.

P.S I know the £10.50 line-rental is 'hidden' in my tv package, so am I to assume the line-rental is in my tv package? Or is it part of the phone bill (only it doesn't come up on the bill as a stand-alone package as it's hidden.)

(This is the last bit of info I need as I am grateful for users to help me out in my previous posts of where I could save money if I wanted to swicth to Sky.)

Heinz

girish wrote:

I am interested in the Talk Talk plan which is £9.99 per month as a calling plan and Talk Talk Line Rental (paid to BT) = £11 per month. This would come to £19.99 per month and would include the free upto 8MB broadband they are offering.

Er, no. The Talk Talk 'offer' requires you to migrate from BT line rental to Talk Talk line rental (NOT paid to BT) to get the £20.99 'free' broadband package (and it's £20.99, not £19.99).

The Sky landline connection (for the first 12 months) requires a 'fixed and operational telephone line'. It doesn't have to be BT.

mobilegossip

But bear in mind that it is expected that Sky will offer FREE Broadband themselves in the near future.

BexTech

Sky Digital will work with any landline, we had Sky Digital installed 1st Oct 1998 and that was with a Birmingham Cable (now Telewest) line. Dumped Telewest for phone service years back when they became dearer than even BT.

You can pay £25 to Sky and not have the phone line connected (unless you have a multi-room subscription), though with single subscription boxes Sky virtually never check that they are still connected, in fact after installation we disconnected the box from the phone line.

However your choice for broadband is not a good one, TalkTalk should be avoided at all costs.

When I called Sky subscription services to cancel the subscription, they did say shortly they will be offering free broadband, though did say it's only for existing customers, but I doubt that.

humfer

Sky just require you to have a fixed landline thats all - so it could be with anyone really. Not sure why this is - probably some way to make extra money

Keep you eyes peeled for the free broadband from Sky. As a customer for the past 4 years on the top package, I'm hanging my hopes on this one following my disappointment with the recent Wanadoo/Orange relaunch

girish_2

thanks for the advicd peeps.

So what does it mean that Sky require you to have a fixed landline. When I posted by previous forum posts, I was looking at ways to cut costs so I could move from NTL to Sky. I just presumed you needed a BT line as when I spoke to my friend he said that'a what it said on their website, so I looked on the site and couldn't find any mention of it. He said they must have changed their policy, but this convo was only a week ago. Strange.

That's the only reason I was looking at TalkTalk, as it would work out cheapest, on the basis that you had to have a BT line. Only thing is my friend then said with TalkTalk, you're not paying the line rental to BT so check out if its fits with their terms and conditions.

So let me get this correct for my own knowledge:

We're with NTL and want to move to Sky HD. Currently we have around £6 on phone calls using an NTL package and our broadband is also with NTL. Mind you I could cut that down- 1MB at £17.99 per month seems a rip-off when we've been witn NTL for a few years.

Are you saying that I could keep the NTL package and join Sky no problem. As that way, it would still work out cheaper for me. I'm just thinking if I could cancel all the channels on NTL so I would be paying the £10.50 per month line rental and keep the call plan thing, pay for what you call. I know it's evening and weekends free but I'll have to check that one.

Sotty if I'm not making any sense. In a rush as I type. My other message board post on reducing costs would give a better idea.

Be great if anyone with NTL knows about whether I could cancel the channels and keep the broadband and phone package, as it's a 'hidden' line rental and I don't know whether that's paid on channels or the phone.

Actually as an aside, if I'm only paying £6 per month on average on phone calls and £17.99 per month 1MB broadband is enough for me it's at 512 speed, anyone know a decent package off the top of their head that would be cheaper than that or does it look good.

BexTech

It was never their policy that it had to be a BT landline, I had Sky Digital installed from the very first day they started, and it was even then just a requirement that it had to be a landline, Sky weren't that stupid to turn away thousands or millions of customers.

Some may have got a little confused as BT was partner in the interactive side.

However there never has been as still isn't any requirement that it has to be a BT line, only that it is a fixed and working landline.

So you can have Sky HD and keep your NTL line, that is not a problem at all.

If you went the TalkTalk route, you would need a BT landline first, you would be tied to BT for 3 months (re-connection, if either you or previous owner/tenant has had BT before) or 12 months for a new connection, before you could then convert that line to TalkTalk (the take over the billing of the line rental, you are no longer with BT) or you could pay your way out of the 3/12 month requirement.

I would never recommend TalkTalk anyway.

Edinburghlass_2

I have got a bit lost with this post but have you tried phoning NTL to cancel and see what package they will offer you to stay?

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=188239

I think it depends on what your priority here is, to reduce overall costs or to get Sky

girish_2

i think if i read my lost myself, i'd get lost too!

Basically the only reason I mentioned talktalk was on the basis that you needed a BT line. Talktalk made you pay a call plan charge to BT but the line rental went to talktalk. So my friend told me to check with Sky if this would fit with their terms and conditions, again because you would be paying the line rental to talktalk and not bt, but would be paying call charges to bt. but this is null and void anyway seeing as you don't have to have a bt line.

My friend said he was required to have a bt line when he got sky digital in 1998. strange.

the only thing i need to find out now is would i be allowed to cancel all of my channels on ntl, thus keeping the broadband and call plan thing, which is pay for what you use and £10.50 line rental.

i say this as on another post someone told me they cancelled all of their channels and it still stated on the bill £10.50 per month line rental. I am presuming this is for the phone calling plan.

It's going to work out more expensive to switch to bt anyway and if i don't need to there's no point, especially as we're only spending 6 quid a month on call charges.

i think the realistic option if it's possible is to have the basic tv package with ntl (on the basis that you can't just have the call plan and broadband, you need to have a basic channel pack too,) keeping the existing call plan and broadband too with ntl (though i could get the broadband cheaper if i said i've found it cheaper to ntl.)

That way I could get the other channel packages on Sky.

thanks for the advice. this will continue rolling over the next few months anyway so i'll let you know how i get on.

Heinz

girish wrote:

i say this as on another post someone told me they cancelled all of their channels and it still stated on the bill £10.50 per month line rental. I am presuming this is for the phone calling plan.

I'm confused too but I think I can clarify this one point for you.

If you have TV from NTL, your telephone 'line rental' (currently £10.50 per month) is included and so doesn't show on your bill.

If you don't have TV from NTL, the line rental (currently £10.50) appears on your bill.

So, if you cancel TV, your bill will show £10.50 plus whatever BB costs.

silvercar

I had phone, broadband and TV with ntl. Ditched the TV and took sky+.

I still pay the £10.50 line rental to ntl plus the broadband charge plus call plans.

I pay sky for the TV obviously.

The only slight problem you may have is if your broadband is delivered through your set top box. If it is, you will have to get ntl to connect you up with an independant cable modem - easy to swap, but may require an engineer to visit. I was already linked via the modem so was OK.