Line rental

Izzysgrandad

There are some great Broadband, phone, TV packages out there but to me the sting in the tail comes with line rental, usually cheap to start with but rising to around £14.99 a month, making most packages not so attractive. Is there any way to avoid paying for line rental or is it accepted that this is a payment that we all pay, regardless, paying around £180.00, plus VAT per year, £1,000's in our lifetime

J45

Unless your in a virgin area then I don't think theres a way to avoid it unless you go wifi / mobile broadband.

[Deleted User]

Agree with J45 - if you have a line to your house then you have to pay line rental and it's completely separate from any packages that you might buy.

The line rental is to pay for the network infrastructure that has to be maintained and kept up to date regardless of which services you buy from phone/broadband suppliers.

VisionMan

As stated above, apart form Virgin Media (which uses cable lines), all the other Broadband providers use a combination of fibre to the cab and then a phone line to the home. Or just the telephone line (ADSL). So no phone line, no BB.*

*A small proportion of users can get fibre direct to the home, but its very expensive and most certainly not money saving.

Izzysgrandad

Many thanks to all that have replied. I understand that networks/cables and so forth have to be kept updated but cannot understand how the actual cost to the consumer can be justified, considering the actual amount collected for line rental from all consumers must amount to millions of pounds on a yearly basis.

kwikbreaks

As Openreach are in a monopoly position their charges are regulated.

I know plenty of other jokes but few are as big as that one...

anotheruser

Line rental pays for bonuses..... for doing their job.
I don't see cleaners getting a bonus for scrubbing hard...

paulsad

Talktalk do a cheaper if you pay for 12 month in one go option - think mine was £114 last year but has gone up since

jbuchanangb

TalkTalk Value Line rental is now £126 per year.

Even with Virgin you pay line rental, but hidden deep in their small print is a process to pay for a year in advance for about £120. You have to phone them, can't do it on line.

kwikbreaks

jbuchanangb wrote: »

Even with Virgin you pay line rental

Only if you choose to take the phone too. Usually worth doing initially if getting a free install depends on it but dumping the phone after the minimum term will save maybe £3 or so a month + any calls package you took. I think if you have TV too they require you to take the phone.

VM telephony is expensive if you actually use it and so are the calls packages. Although you can negotiate savings on the phone deals in the main unless you want TV taking BB only and using a VOIP service such as Vonage if you need a landline number will normally work out cheaper.

Cycrow

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Only if you choose to take the phone too. Usually worth doing initially if getting a free install depends on it but dumping the phone after the minimum term will save maybe £3 or so a month + any calls package you took. I think if you have TV too they require you to take the phone.

They dont require it for TV either, however, if you already have TV and broadband, then the phone basically becomes free, and in some cases, its even cheaper to have the phone than to not