MSE News: Lack of home phone usage among under 65s fuels calls to end line rental cha

Legacy_user

The vast majority of MoneySavingExpert.com users aged under 65 would appear to be hanging up their home phones for good...

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'Lack of home phone usage among under 65s fuels calls to end line rental charge'

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cifpower

Then the broadband charge would just go up by the same value. Anyway, the prices displayed will soon change as line rental will no longer be able to shown as a separate item.

edinburgher

This would make a real difference to our finances. We pay somewhere in the region of £15/m for line rental and don't own a home phone!

VX5087

edinburgher wrote: »

This would make a real difference to our finances. We pay somewhere in the region of £15/m for line rental and don't own a home phone!

if you have broadband (not VM) then you won't see a difference

JJ_Egan

edinburgher wrote: »

This would make a real difference to our finances. We pay somewhere in the region of £15/m for line rental and don't own a home phone!

So why do you have a line ??
For broadband if so you have to pay the line note phone rental or use an alternative broadband source .

Retrogamer

VX5087 wrote: »

if you have broadband (not VM) then you won't see a difference

This. If line rental charges are abolished then the lost revenue would be added onto the broadband cost instead.

footyguy

I don't mind paying for the home phone line as I have it (and need it for broadband)

What I think has has caused the problem in recent years is the bundling of a mandatory call package which many don't seem to use any more.

Why can't we go back to the old style billing, at least as an option?

i.e. a standing charge for the maintenance and upkeep of the phone line, and then calls charged as used
(i.e. no inclusive calls)

Ian011

People seem to be getting their wires crossed with charges for having a line - physical wiring to deliver the signal - and charges for an inclusive call package.

There will still be a charge for the line, it will no longer be shown as a separate item. This is a backwards step.

Landline providers have botched their marketing. They promote line rental with inclusive weekend calls as their main offering. These expose callers to extortionate rates of 17p per call plus 11p per minute for weekday calls. Landline providers should be promoting all-inclusive Anytime call plans for a fixed monthly fee. These offer the best value for money if you use the phone for more than 20 minutes per week. All this comes at a time when inclusive call plans are beginning to include calls to mobile numbers making them even better value for money.

One-Eye

Line Rental = Charge for a line used for communication by voice, data, or both.

If you don't want a line, you can opt for mobile or satellite broadband.

Perhaps we will next hear calls for those with gas boilers but who use electricity for cooking to not pay the gas standing charge.

May I suggest that HM Minister of State for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries should be more concerned about those forced to pay for a TV licence but who never watch BBC.

notbritishgas

What will happen for people who have separate line rental and broadband suppliers.
My line rental package is with BT and my broadband is Plusnet, surely Plusnet will still have a broadband only price?
Edit: I do use the phone line and do not wish to transfer line rental to Plusnet or broadband to BT.

Retrogamer

I'd like to think if they do change the way services are provisioned to a new set up the option for separate line rental and broadband will still be available.

This new provisioning method may actually cause prices to rise.

At the moment if you have broadband issues caused by a noisy phone line, Openreach will normally send out a lower skilled LL1 enginer as the fault finding for landline issues is a bit easier than broadband,

If people don't have "line rental" they won't know if the landline is causing the broadband fault. Thus a more advanced SFI / LL5 engineer will need to go out. Generally they're much more experienced so are on a higher rate of pay and have undergone much more training.

Potentially more training & costs involved for Openreach who will eventually pass the costs onto broadband providers and thus the consumer. Either that, or Openreach fault fixing is going to get worse than it already is.