MSE News: An end to line rental? No-landline broadband service launches

VisionMan

waqasahmed wrote: »

Hmm I guess so. Meh, we have a VoIP phone any way, so effectively we do have a "landline" as it were

Also I imagine you're correct. DID Logic provides some services for our landline, and I noticed for 03XX numbers they charge $0.000963/min which is £0.000573/min OR in real terms, you'd have to spend 174 minutes on the phone before you're charged £0.01

Ofcom did say they can't charge more than standard landline charges for 03XX numbers

They charge you $0.0571/min or £0.034/min to call a UK landline, so yeah it's pretty low



If it costs more, I'd rather just have the landline included Interesting why Virgin works differently.

Besides, how does that even make sense?

The landline goes through telecommunication poles, and fibre is something completely different. ONLY broadband will go through those fibre cables.

Virgin works differently because they don't use fibre FTTC, they use cable. Which means subtle but important differences, and they also connect directly to ones home, so one has no need for a landline. But they are billions of pounds in debt and so have no room for expansion...

anon_ymous

I should know that as well Didn't know they were in a lot of debt. Explains a lot I guess

Ypaymore

By having Virgin Only Broadband you dont save the full line rental as such because they wack the price up.

Marvel1

Porcupine wrote: »

So, play the game. Don't think about it as a landline cost, you just pay whatever it is for your line, and if you happen to use the landline it's a bonus. Don't fall for the 'free broadband*' scam, just look at the total costs.

This what I was doing a few months ago, Broadband £14.99 a month, sounds good, but clicking on further info the total cost £27.99 as includes line rental :mad:

Ypaymore wrote: »

By having Virgin Only Broadband you dont save the full line rental as such because they wack the price up.

I just been on there and Broadband upto 50Mb is £26.50 a month.
Add Phone M and it's £31.50 a month.

anon_ymous

Ypaymore wrote: »

By having Virgin Only Broadband you dont save the full line rental as such because they wack the price up.

They still work out cheaper than the rest though, as with VM, you're not effectively forced in to buying a telephone package

cjdavies wrote: »

This what I was doing a few months ago, Broadband £14.99 a month, sounds good, but clicking on further info the total cost £27.99 as includes line rental :mad:



I just been on there and Broadband upto 50Mb is £26.50 a month.
Add Phone M and it's £31.50 a month.

£25.75

Not long ago it was £23.75...

(Well it works out as that kinda price any way)

Porcupine

VisionMan wrote: »

Virgin works differently because they don't use fibre FTTC, they use cable. Which means subtle but important differences, and they also connect directly to ones home, so one has no need for a landline. But they are billions of pounds in debt and so have no room for expansion...

You still get a landline - the Virgin cable from the cabinet is one coax cable (TV and broadband) and two phone pairs. (It's fibre to the cabinet, which can be several hundred metres away, and then copper from there). It isn't compulsory for the landline to be switched on, but that costs almost nothing. Not that Virgin's charging scheme reflects this - this is one case where not having phone service has a small benefit ('packages' like evening and weekend calls are money for old rope as far as the telco is concerned, since those calls are essentially free wholesale)

Likewise in BT lines, you have one line shared - low frequencies for calls, high frequencies for ADSL. You can't suddenly get just ADSL without having the wire - it's like saying you're going to remove your TV aerial so you don't get BBC1 on Freeview but still want to watch ITV. BT 'fibre' isn't fibre to the home, it's fibre to the cabinet just like Virgin. From there you still get one copper line shared between calls and DSL. Once you have that activating the landline bit is basically free. Again there's whatever marketing fiction the telco wants to apply on top.

The bottom line is, there's a bit of wet string between you and the telco, and that has to be paid for somehow whatever you put down it. In the 4G case it's slightly different - there's no fixed plant (apart from the base station) so costs are more based on usage than number of subscribers. The trouble is the usage costs are way higher than DSL, so you don't necessarily win that way unless you're a light user. 'Unlimited' 3G/4G charging is an unsustainable pricing model - every so often someone comes along and offers it, it gets withdrawn some time later. There just isn't enough bandwidth to go round, at both the radio and backhaul level.

So, to cut a long story short, nothing to see here. Telco cherrypicks urban area that they can cheaply install infrastructure and offers unsustainable pricing model. It's a PR stunt. At the moment they don't have enough subscribers, so everything is rosy. It'll backfire when they do get subscribers and all of a sudden they experience congestion.

minislim

i hope this is the sign of things to come!

line rental in this day in age should be cheaper not constantly going up and up.

i try to pay a little line rental as possible. which in every case means totally avoiding BT for starters!

duchy

It never ceases to amaze me how many people have a landline but don't even have a cheap handset to plug in.

They use their mobiles and pay mobile rates for 08 and freephone numbers etc.

I speak to people literally every day in the course of my work who do this and often point out they could save money with a cheap handset.

On the other side I spoke to a friend yesterday whose home phone bill had lots of mobile charges on it-yet she never uses all her mobile minutes on her mobile phone so again she's paying for something she could have for free. Just by remembering to use her mobile for mobile calls and her landline (she pays for a 24/7 free landline calls already) for other calls.

It's crazy.

beenzberry

for me personally, I apparently live too far from my exchange to ever get decent broadband speed. Mine is something like 250 - 500 kbs.

We are also not likely to get a cabinet upgrade for fibre for another 2 years. So, I would assume this type of package from Relish would work in my favour?

We are limited to BT or Sky as options and that costs approx. £15 a month with either and line rental on top, so again, I could see why Relish would work for me just a shame living 20 miles south east of London means relegation to 'the sticks'!

The ONLY reason we have a landline is for broadband. We use VOIP, and have for years. I've looked at mobile broadband from O2, and getting a dedicated line from BT (they wanted to charge £300 a month for it!), so I would love to see more mobile options that don't require a landline!

mattyprice4004

There have been alternatives out there for ages, such as 6G Internet - http://www.6ginternet.com/
Just because it's only just made it to MSE doesn't make it new!