BT landline-only customers could save £5 a month due to Ofcom price cut

minislim

i've only been saying this for the last few years.

the only reason BT's line rental price has been steadily going up is because they see their customers as a cash cow that they can milk for all its worth.

they've got to find the money from somewhere to pay for all the ridiculously high prices they've paid for the television rights to the premier / champions league & Moto GP.

especially as confirmed here the overall cost of maintaining the infrastructure has been going down.

did anyone else notice the Brexit propaganda stuck on all the telephone exchanges in the high street?
BT shot themselves in the foot really as they basically confirmed that the EU had been massively funding the improvements in broadband and telephones.

so BT have been creaming off the money and we've effectively been paying twice for something. firstly to the EU (as it was our money anyway) and then to BT.

AndyPK

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

So is this for a line with no ADSL provision? Whereby you can choose whoever you want as an ISP.

Also why is it just BT being forced to charge less. Why not Sky, Virgin etc?

What's to stop someone having cheaper BT line rental and the Virgin only Broadband with no virgin voice line?

It's more to help older people who have no BB and those who have been with BT all their life.


A lot of other companies don't offer phone only.


You could have BT phone and virgin BB. It may work out more expensive though! depending on deal. or you could just use a mobile!

Pincher

I have been keen to put my mother on BT Basic for years, as her line is hardly ever used to call out. She just wants other people to call her.

She is not poor enough, no means tested benefits.

But then she gets winter fuel allowance, free TV license, free NHS prescription, free bus pass, etc. , so low line rental is just a little extra, nice to have.

This kind of charity by proxy, where all Ofcom does is to type an edict, and make somebody else jump through hoops, is just a joke. We might as well get Kim Jong Un to run Ofcom. Try setting up an actually competitive market place, where the price reflects the cost, not what Ofcom feels it should be.

onomatopoeia99

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

Although I can understand Ofcom's reasoning with this, I would take issue with them NOT taking up the issue of customers being required to have a landline to have broadband. These people are not being helped one iota by these proposals.

Unless you use mobile broadband, VM, or one of the providers with miniscule coverage like gigaclear, you need a landline for broadband. The technologies (ADSL and VDSL aka "fibre", FTTC etc) rely on the broadband signal travelling on the landline copper pair, so you need to rent that line. The wholesale line rental cost that all of the line rental providers have to pay goes to maintenance of the network infrastructure.

There is no requirement to have a voice service on the line you rent for broadband, A&A offer a "data only" line (no dial tone) for £10/month, but you can also stay with BT retail for your line rental if you want to (as I do).

molerat

I am not saying they are perfect but why is BT alone being picked on like this. Why does the regulator not force all the suppliers to offer the same, if they wish to be in the competitive market they need to offer all the services and not just cherry pick the ones that are most profitable. Everyone complains that BT have a stranglehold on the infrastructure, none of the others want to touch it and when the tender went out for the high speed roll out only BT tendered. OFCOM would be better pointing BT landline only customers towards the Home Phone Saver tariff, maybe compelling BT to give that as the only tariff, and compelling anyone else who provides a telecom service to do the same. Yet another OF making a newspaper headline and "seen to be doing something" but inevitably will mean price rises for everyone.

james_smitha

onomatopoe who are A&A that you refer to? £10 for data only is very tempting

gt94sss2

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

Unless you use mobile broadband, VM, or one of the providers with miniscule coverage like gigaclear, you need a landline for broadband. The technologies (ADSL and VDSL aka "fibre", FTTC etc) rely on the broadband signal travelling on the landline copper pair, so you need to rent that line. The wholesale line rental cost that all of the line rental providers have to pay goes to maintenance of the network infrastructure.

There is no requirement to have a voice service on the line you rent for broadband

Worth adding that Openreach are currently well advanced in trialling a new 'wires only' service (so no line rental) - you can google SoGEA - but don't expect it to much cheaper than now as the copper line still has to be paid for.

AndyPK

I like the way this will become the default, so ppl don't need to do anything to get a cheaper deal.

spenderdave

I certainly welcome these proposals and maybe it will bring to an end the packaged phone/broadband deals. I am on BT landline, anytime calls and LRS (I DO use the phone for calls) and broadband with Sky. With the recent price rises I looked into either moving the phone to Sky or the broadband back to BT and in each case it would be more expensive. Sky don't do LRS, BT ADSL is expensive outside their initial offer price. If BT then reduce their price by a fiver I am quids in.

Ian011

molerat wrote: »

I am not saying they are perfect but why is BT alone being picked on like this. Why does the regulator not force all the suppliers to offer the same, if they wish to be in the competitive market they need to offer all the services and not just cherry pick the ones that are most profitable.

BT is singled out because they have Significant Market Presence (SMP). If BT's retail prices fall, competition should ensure all the others fall into line. If that doesn't happen, Ofcom can find a way to intervene.

This has happened before. Over the last decade or more, Ofcom has capped, and steadily reduced, the Mobile Termination Rate (MTR). The cap applied only to the six (now four) main mobile providers. On 1 May 2015 the cap reduced again and was extended to cover calls terminating with all UK mobile providers.

molerat wrote: »

OFCOM would be better pointing BT landline only customers towards the Home Phone Saver tariff, maybe compelling BT to give that as the only tariff, and compelling anyone else who provides a telecom service to do the same.

That may well be what actually happens. The consultation considers a range of options.