MSE News: BT hikes upfront line rental price for third time in a year

robertoegg

Classic rants.... you need to look no further than this weeks poll to start drawing conclusions, folks.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/?&_ga=1.842993.1536657714.1421762732#vote

hazbo

BT line rental is a rip off. I pay 15ppd for my gas standing charge.
I pay 15ppd for my elec standing charge.
I pay 35ppd for my water & sewerage standing
charge.
BUT BT'S line rental standing charge is a huge 55ppd. It's Outrages.

Nada666

hazbo wrote: »

BT line rental is a rip off. I pay 15ppd for my gas standing charge.
I pay 15ppd for my elec standing charge.
I pay 35ppd for my water & sewerage standing
charge.
BUT BT'S line rental standing charge is a huge 55ppd. It's Outrages.

But very few people use 0 kWh of electricity per day. And the vast majority of people do not use a very small amount of gas over winter. Gas and electricity suppliers can cross subsidise standing charges with usage. Large numbers of landlines have little calls usage - they only receive calls or provide ADSL broadband. As such the line rental price has to cover line rental.

terra_ferma

I just checked because I'm thinking of moving to Plusnet and the information is out of date. Is there a more updated article, this came up at the top of the page on Google?

kaydee

Why is it saying BT line rental saver is £184.48 when it isn't!!

Copied from BT site -
There are three ways to pay BT line rental:

• 1. Pay monthly for £17.99 a month.
• 2. Pay for a year in advance with Live Rental Saver. It's a one-off card payment of £194.28.
• 3. Get Line Rental Plus & pay £19.99 monthly. You'll get added features with this line rental option.

jes2016

As fewer folk make telephone calls outside of VOIP systems like Skype, Whats app etc, BT needs to change its business model. For now the only thing they are coming up with is to increase the line rental as that's what is still required by us who still have to run our broadband over a fixed line. This particulary hits those who made few calls anyway but use their broadband connectivity even if not for VOIP calls, effectively increasing the total cost of broadband connectivity, but hidding part of it as the line rental charge. What is needed is innovative pricing to disrupt the market while keeping the total cost of broadband connectivity low so that the benefits of the net as an increasingly must have home utility will remain accessible to all, including those with low income. Bulking it up as line rental doesn't hack it.

JJ_Egan

What about all the other ISPs that charge well in excess of the actual wholesale cost ??

Though i do agree that the product charges should be bundled to include line rental .

But i disagree that broadband users should be put in front of those that use a phone via the home line .