Line rental Value

smithysaver

Hi, Guys. I'm shopping around at the moment for a new landline & broadband provider, and I've started noticing, when looking at the different packages, a new trend. Where the landline part of the deal only includes weekend calls as opposed the "normal" evening & weekends. Its on the sky deal on martins article and the primus packages. So at the moment I'm swaying towards TalkTalk:eek:, (I did promise I would never go back to them), as they include evening & weekend calls on their line rental. So is this the way all the phone companies are going, slowly reducing the value of the line rental?

Buzby

No - it was always free at Weekends, the E&W was an add-on you paid extra for (or got an enhanced bundle). So no change!

smithysaver

Looks like TalkTalk have now gone the same way with their new "Simply Broadband" package, stripping out the free evenings and weekend calls and charging the same sort of price for line rental, taking the value out of the line rental. What next? 18 month contracts?

macman

But they're also giving unlimited broadband for £2.50pm-not a bad deal. Many people do not use their landline for calls any more -it's a response to that.
Bundled E or E&W calls have never been 'free', the cost has simply been absorbed into the line rental.

brewerdave

They are all (or certainly BT,Plusnet,Sky) trying to drive those who use the phone for calls, to an inclusive Anytime package -the final nail in the coffin for E/W packages might come with this announcement
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/nmr-13/statement/statement-summary
which removes the need for BT to allow indirect access.

teddysmum

Tesco line rental is £14.90, including evening and weekend calls, but they aren't available on all exchanges, though the situation can change, as I was refused a package, last week (exchange full), but can have one this week.