Bt Line Connection for new build (merged)

bbb_uk

According to BT's website here they charge £74.99 for a brand new line installation.

Remember that although the very few other companies like Cable/NTL, etc may have free installation (via an offer and not all the time) they swallow the installation costs because they have you on a 12 month contract (same as BT) but can stop you (if they wanted) from using other call providers to make cheap calls (like Call18866/1899) and charge over the odds for calls to mobiles and non geo numbers compared to BT.

The new installation cost charged by BT I think are around the same as other companies doing line rental (with the exception of those with installation offers). Bulldog was mentioned in an earlier posting but their standard installation for a new build would normally be £120 but due to a special offer its £1. I can imagine that you wouldn't be allowed to use other call providers to make cheap calls as they'll most likely block their use.

From BTs point of view, they must know that most people on BT are using other call providers and most people who want a new line installed are most likely to use other call providers and BT are powerless to stop this. So what they may be thinking is why should BT subsidise the installation cost (engineers time, laying the cable from the nearest telegraph to your house) just for that person to switch call providers (via CPS or using indirect access codes) for which they can't stop people from doing so and then lose this extra call revenue that the other providers would gain.

Browntoa

ajvj1812 wrote:

).

Browntoa - as for BT paying for the cost of cabling the area, you may not be aware that most of BT's copper phone network would have been written off their books years ago, but they still charge everyone full line rental! BT charge £10.50 line rental per month (using Direct Debit) and the cost of maintaining that line would be a small fraction of that cost. So I think BT could easily cover the £50K cost and reduce the installation price (seeing as new builds usually have a master socket already installed).

she was saying a new build so I was assuming BT would need to cable the whole estate...I agree that with exisitng copper that this does not apply

LyndaG_2

It is a new estate all the lines have been hardcabled in so BT will come out do the activation (takes 4 minutes) and charge me £90 for the pleasure (that must with with VAT?) Tried cable & wireless but the lines are owned by BT and no other company can use them for 2 years?

What I think is frustrating is that for 4 minutes work I have to pay £90! Which works out at £22.50 per minute, which is £1350.00 per hour!

The wiring is already done, the 4 minutes includes the time for the eng to come in, take the casing of do the business and me sign the paperwork!

Why when we pay so much for a new house do we then have this additional cost? it is only applied to brand new builds or where there has never been a phone line before!

And its not just the £90 even on the lowest tariff it £10.50 per month thats £126.00 so to get BT to activate the account as I will be tied for a year I will pay BT £216.00 thats my beef with the process, I was curious is someone else found a way around it?

bbb_uk

LyndaG wrote:

It is a new estate all the lines have been hardcabled in so BT will come out do the activation (takes 4 minutes) and charge me £90 for the pleasure (that must with with VAT?) Tried cable & wireless but the lines are owned by BT and no other company can use them for 2 years?

Their website doesn't say that it is exclusive of VAT so I'd have said it was inclusive otherwise that price is misleading on their website!

Does it already have the cable coming from the telegraph pole to the house and is it then wired internally in the house and has it been connected to the local exchange?

You say 4 minutes work to do their bit inside. I thought the same with ours when we reconnected (already had a BT line but not been used in over 10 years). He came out at about 1pm and didn't leave until near 4pm as internally (within our house) the cable was ok but the line wasn't connected to the exchange and it had been cut somewhere along it. According to the engineer, as it was disconnected from the local exchange he had to replace the cable from the telegraph pole to the nearest exchange that had spare capacity or something. He said it was probably disconnected by BT because it hadn't been used in years and they reused portions of our telegraph cable for another customer.

BT didn't charge extra for all the work this engineer had to do which surprised me as I thought, like you, it would be a few minutes job.

hypernetics

Hi all, im new to this site, and loving every minute of it! THANX!
I could really do with some help/advice if possible.

I have moved into a brand new house and require a broaband service (not to bothered about home phone calls) but every ADSL offer i see requires a BT line. The house has a white BT box on the wall, so i asked if i could re-connect using the £1 offer - BT said 'NO' as its a 'NEW CONNCETION'....
(even if the white box is on the wall they need to recoup there costs for the install)

For a new connection they are charging £74.99. Is there any way for me to connect or use another service ???

Things i have tried:
-Contacted NTL and Telewest (for alternative conncetions) neither in my area for over a year, they say.
-Contacted Bulldog ADSL - again require a 'live' BT line before they can transfer over the line.
-Researhed for ideas and suggestions to no avail...

Is there anything i could do, or am I stuck with paying £75 quid and £10.50 a month.... a yearly sum of £201, for a line i dont want but need for ADSL Broadband.

Any Help Appreciated,
Thanx, Hypernetics

Edinburghlass_2

Welcome to the MSE Telephone boards.

Nothing really that you can do about your problem, BT are recooping the costs of wiring up and installing the lines to your new house. Have a read at another recent thread regarding this.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=57336

bbb_uk

hypernetics wrote:

...or am I stuck with paying £75 quid and £10.50 a month.... a yearly sum of £201, for a line i dont want but need for ADSL Broadband...

As far as I'm aware at the moment yes. OfCOM are looking into the fact you need to pay the £10.50 for the phoneline as well as the additional costs for broadband if all you want is broadband.

Wouldn't hold your breath though as OfCOM always takes ages to look into things and then they would have to look at changing BT's rules/regulations/terms&conditions, etc.

I suspect though that even if it was possible to having ADSL broadband without paying the phone line rental, you would still have to at least pay the £75 installation charge to cover the costs involved in connecting you to the exchange, etc... (more in the thread posted by edinburghlass).

hypernetics

Thanx, Edinburghlass & bbb_uk for your VERY quick responses, im getting more & more impressed with this site and community :j

Thanks for the advice I will be reading the other post and will keep looking for some solution. (I'll post any results here.)

Thanx again, If anybody else has any ideas keep posting, cheers :beer:

Heinz

Think yourself lucky, I moved into a new house less than 2 years ago and, because broadband was not yet available from my local exchange (150 yards away), I had to have two new landlines installed - and pay two installation fees (despite having, continuously, been a BT customer in various locations throughout the country for nearly 40 years).

Had broadband been available (it 'arrived' 15 months after I moved in), I could have just had one line and only paid one installation.

Worse still, a got stung by a rogue dialler shortly afterwards- another £55!

Edinburghlass_2

I can understand your frustration in the costs but to a certain extent as someone says in another thread the cost for a new build telephone line is quite reasonable.

Where I live we don't have town gas and the charge per household to get gas in will be £6,000 per house :eek: and that is before you even think about the cost of central heating etc.