Spending £40 mnthly on broadband/line rental!!

Sunny2

Please could you advise me on how to reduce my broadband/line rental.

I am with BT and have two phone lines both with unlimited calls and friends/family, one has call minder. I also have broadband and everything is packaged in one bill.

I am the furthest away from the exchange and only get speeds of around 500 kbps. BT are supposed to be bringing their new infinity fibre optic thingy to the area in around April which (by paying yet more money) should increase my speed.

I have been paying:
Line 1: £18.78
Line 2: £12.79
Broadband option 1: £9.41

Until my son came home and started downloading huge amounts which has taken me over the maximum download allowed, I have been happy with Option 1. However, now in addition to being charged for the downloads, they have reduced my speed significantly (so the Sky ads are right!), which were already slow anyway.

My total phone bills are around £300 per quarter and can be higher :eek: Mainly because we have to call lots of mobiles. Also, because the mobile signal in the area I live is so bad, I cannot take advantage of the mobile phone packages available either. (Don’t know if it’s relevant but TV is via a satellite but we don’t subscribe to sky etc.,)

I have tried to re-negotiate with BT and they have offered:-
Telephone rental & services for both lines at £27.20 per month and broadband option 3 @ £13 per month , so a better broadband option and a saving of less than £2 per month.

Do you think I can get a better deal and a reliable service elsewhere and who do you recommend ? Many thanks.

Browntoa

well infinity will boost your speeds quite significantly , not sure if any other ISP's are planning to offer own brand infinity at this stage

what does this

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

say is available at your exchange ?

this will tell you whats speeds are possible

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_mapping

HappyMJ

Why are you paying for 2 lines? I have 2 lines - a standard BT line and also a BT Broadband talk line they both have different phone numbers and 2 different phones. The BT Broadband talk line is free they even supplied the phone for free which would have cost about £68.50. I could get more lines and phones or could also use SIP phones as well which cost much less than £18.78 per month.

Sunny2

Thanks Browntoa, I'll have a good look at what the other services can offer me.

Happy, that sounds interesting, how does the broadband talk line work? does internet speed effect it in any way (bearing how slow mine can be?). Do you need to have your computer on continuously to use it?

Browntoa

the BT home hub can be linked to a "hub phone" , source a cheap on on ebay , i have one and only need the hub to be on , not the PC

if you have the earlier white (version 1) then you want

http://www.shop.bt.com/products/bt-home-hub-handset-1020-4SKD.html

if you have the later Black Version 2 hub then

http://www.shop.bt.com/products/bt-hub-phone-2-1-567N.html

penrhyn

Why on earth do you need two domestic phone lines?

You could reduce you line rental costs by using line rental saver, works out at £120/ year.

Sunny2

I’ve checked with Sam knows as Browntoa suggested and the highest speed I can get is 1Mbps (but experience has shown I get around half that with BT).

I’ll investigate the broadband talk option with BT on Monday. If they can offer 24/7 anytime calls rather than just weekend/eves, it maybe a viable option, otherwise the savings I’d get from the monthly rental won’t outweigh the daytime/mobile calls. And most importantly, I don’t think I’d be able to keep my current numbers.

If I stick with BT, then I will definitely try and get the line saver option ~ that would save me nearly £79 a year, straight off!

Many thanks for all your help.