Broadband

iniltous

JOHNMARSH161247 wrote: »

Ok! another rip off by Phone providers to prise more cash out of Joe public in this day and age the providers could split net from phone but that would mean finding out how much they are ripping people off.��

Thing is they sort have , Vodaphone were first, perhaps you saw the TV adverts, people being 'freed' from having to pay line rental, you paid for 'broadband' only, the thing is, the price for this broadband without line rental was pretty much the same price as everyone else's line rental and broadband...the fact is broadband was never sold at its true 'cost' by many providers, it should never have been 'free' , or £5 a month when you take line rental/calls, because they used the mark up on line rental (£8 a month is what BT/Openreach get, the wholesale price, the retail company charge £18-£20) so the £10 'profit' was used to disguise the cost of their broadband, so £5 instead of £15 or £0 instead of 10.
Please don't take this personally, but only a fool would think, if line rental is £20 and broadband is £5, then if I don't have line rental it's only gong to cost £5 a month.
If anyone doesn't want to use the 'phoneline' for phone calls , just don't plug a phone in, should 'genuine' naked broadband come along, ( so you wouldn't have a dialtone ) it will still be about the same price as line & broadband, maybe a tiny reduction £1 to £2 per month, if the regulator insists, but the chances are they would put up all prices, then give £2 off

onomatopoeia99

iniltous wrote: »

If anyone doesn't want to use the 'phoneline' for phone calls , just don't plug a phone in, should 'genuine' naked broadband come along, ( so you wouldn't have a dialtone ) it will still be about the same price as line & broadband, maybe a tiny reduction £1 to £2 per month, if the regulator insists, but the chances are they would put up all prices, then give £2 off

A&A will do you line rental with no dial tone for £10/month (including VAT) which is not that much over the wholesale cost (WLR is about £8.60 / mo). They call it a copper pair. You still pay their normal price for broadband whether you have the line rental with them or another provider, no bundle deals on offer.

iniltous

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

A&A will do you line rental with no dial tone for £10/month (including VAT) which is not that much over the wholesale cost (WLR is about £8.60 / mo). They call it a copper pair. You still pay their normal price for broadband whether you have the line rental with them or another provider, no bundle deals on offer.

I believe it's £12/month, the website is a big vague , it states there is 'some audio' if you plug a phone into a 'naked' copper pair , and you can use 17070 for a quiet line test, that suggests it's a phone line that gives dialtone , how else could you 'dial' 17070, it also suggests it's a standard line that's set as OCB (outgoing calls barred) and it also states that they wouldn't normally sell a naked copper pair without a broadband connection.
they should get some credit though for not jacking up the 'line rental' to disguise the cost of broadband, but as already stated, company's that sell broadband that also require you to take thier line rental have to state the combined cost ( £20 to £30 a month) so it shouldn't matter what percentage of that is BB and what is LR, it's just a monthly bill, the problem is that there are still people like the OP who think broadband is a couple of quid a month , and that if they don't use a phone , then they shouldn't have to pay for a phoneline and think they are being ripped off by having to

onomatopoeia99

It's £10, I'm a customer and I checked as I intend to move over to them for line rental in the coming months once I've got some other things sorted out - my voice service (and therefore line rental) is currently with BT.

I know they do SMPF with them providing the broadband and someone else providing the "voice" service to which the wholesale line rental charge gets attatched, I don't know if they will do the reverse and provide the line rental side without broadband.

The problem in the market is that the wholesale line rental remains tied to the provider of the voice service (well, it's one of the problems in the market). OFCOM did say a year or two back they were looking at breaking this tie so one could have broadband without taking a voice service and the WLR cost would go on that, but I haven't noticed any further announcement from them on the subject.

iniltous

The website shows £10/month if you take 'naked' pair with their broadband, but also from their site,
'Broadband needs a copper pair to work. Normally people just use a BT telephone line that is used for something else like normal telephone service or fax or credit card machine. We can provide a copper pair specially for broadband for £12 pcm. Installing a new copper pair is £60†. This is sometimes referred to as "Naked DSL" in that there is no telephone service as such, and no need to separately purchase a phone line to have the broadband service.'

The point about LR tied to the 'voice' service is pretty much moot, the largest LLU suppliers (TT and Sky) both only allow their own voice services if you want to take their 'broadband' , you have no choice, and if you just wanted voice and no broadband then it's obvious the LR element is tied to the voice service
Personally, I would have Ofcom insist CP's itemised bills to show an 'OR access' charge (the actual price the CP pays OR) as this is the same regardless of provider, if they are using the same OR product, (LLU/WLR) the consumer could see if the mark up the provider added was VFM, so bill would be something like
Company A
OR access charge £8
Phone access 'free'
Calls package E&WE 'free'
Broadband £ 18
Total £26

Company B
OR access charge £8
Phone access £3
Calls package 'anytime' £5
Broadband £10
Total £26
It would then be easy to compare providers like for like because the OR access charge would be the same on a Sky bill, or a TT bill etc.