'Outdated' landline charges should be scrapped

System

For Virgin media it is OK because they supply everything (you have no option)

Since ADSL/VDSL, telephone and other services are separate items then peopl can, as I have done until recently have each service from a separate supplier.

What happens when you start including line rental into the product cost?

Nothing will change, you will still have permutations.

a) Broadband only from x with line rental from y (as tends to be the norm on ADSL ATM unless you have an LLU line)
b) Broadband and line rental from ISP x
c) Broadband from ISP x at one price because you are getting your telephone from Y and paying them line rental (Possible now)
d) Broadband and phone from ISP x which includes line rental.

It doesn't make things clearer.

At the moment ISP x can only give you a price for b) & d) and that will not change.


The only way to clarify it would be to mandate that your line rental must be with your broadband provider

Mr Vaizey fails to understand that the primary product in all of this is the phone line and its rental and not broadband. Everything else on the line is an added extra

Bigphil1474

Sounds a good head-line, but it's likely that the actual costs won't change for the consumer, so what's the point?
We use our landline telephone quite a lot - about 15-20 hrs. a week on an anytime call package. If the line rental charge is an accurate reflection of what the suppliers think they need to charge (or can get away with) , then we'd end up paying the same whether you use the landline for just phone or just broadband, or both. We might see packages with 'free landline phone number if you take out our BB package' but it's unlikely to be any cheaper than paying for BB and line rental. Only benefit could be if that they have to advertise the BB package at the cost you'd have to pay (which includes the required line rental) rather than the cost as though it's separate to having to have line rental.
I've often wondered if you can buy your landline rather than having to rent it ?

kwikbreaks

The way VM make sure you don't gain much if anything by ditching the landline service is by giving a discount on the broadband if you take phone too. Ditch the phone and you lose the discount. Frequently free install offers are only if you take phone too. They want you to take their phone in the hope you'll use it and cop for their pricey telephony charges. If you want the TV I think they insist you take the phone too but that could be incorrect.

Another catch you'll find with VM is the price of their caller id £2.50 iirc. When I took cable I had the phone too because that gave me a good cashback deal and a free install. I never used the phone though I used VOIP which I still do despite going back to an FTTC service after I finally got fed up with VM's constant small price increases which you had to phone in to avoid but got stuck on a fresh minimum contract term every time.

kwikbreaks

Bigphil1474 wrote: »

I've often wondered if you can buy your landline rather than having to rent it ?

No you can't.

Terry98

Bigphil1474 wrote: »

Sounds a good head-line, but it's likely that the actual costs won't change for the consumer, so what's the point?
.

I agree actual costs will not change but taking the line rental away gives the customer a better change of making the right choice of ISP.

If you look at the way broadband prices are compared line rental is mostly ignored but it is usually the most expensive part of broadband.

Free broadband for a year looks great but the line rental of £18 or so a month is shown with an asterisk at the bottom of the page.

System

Bigphil1474 wrote: »

I've often wondered if you can buy your landline rather than having to rent it ?

You could probably lay your own line back to the exchange but it has a few costs

Installing ducting from your house to the exchange - trench digging and approvals needed for that. BT are never keen on duct sharing
Connecting up to BT equipment in the exchange. No idea of the cost but probably very high with an ongoing cost
Then of course you have to get an agreement with your broadband and phone providers for them to provide routing from the incoming point on the BT gear to where you want to go.

My estimate, if it was possible, would be in the region of £250k for the initial connection with about £5k per year ongoing costs

spud17

andyca wrote: »

I have the Virgin "Broadband Only" option because I needed the landline to be BT for a previous requirement related to my employers working from home networking solution. (Long story and not important)

Anyway, I'm paying more for Broadband Only than I would pay for Virgin Broadband and phone line. Which is dumb and I would stop doing it but BT can't seem to get their acts together! :eek: *grumble grumble*

Paying more for less is a stupid situation and I hope these do get separated.

So why not have BB + phone from VM?
Keep your BT line and number running as they are, and get a new line/number from VM and don't use it.

andyca

spud17 wrote: »

So why not have BB + phone from VM?
Keep your BT line and number running as they are, and get a new line/number from VM and don't use it.

When I first got the broadband I managed to get a deal on broadband only, since then there have rarely been BB only deals but I have managed to negotiate a discount on renewal that has made me stay. The really good deals are still reserved for new customers so it's time to switch.
The requirement for the BT line has long since passed so I'm looking to get a BB/Phone/TV bundle form the lowest bidder from SKY, Virgin or BT in the next few weeks. (A phone line I will never use and TV I will watch 99% of the time channels available on freesat, and possibly the 10 remaining F1 races this year not on channel 4)

If only communications companies were forced to offer individual products at an easy to compare competitive cost, that would make everyone's lives easier! but I guess it's just a pipe dream. :rotfl:

Retrogamer

Terry98 wrote: »

Like '11 - 17 Mb' which I only found out after asking the question on here. That is nothing like 'Up to 38mb'

And how will the IPS determine that the range of 11 - 17mb is accurate?

System

Retrogamer wrote: »

And how will the IPS determine that the range of 11 - 17mb is accurate?

I think they base it on the capacitance of the line.
This is the way that decided whether you could have ADSL when it first came out.