Can anyone beat Post Office for Line Rental?

cwaite

I am leaving Origin Broadband when my contract ends in October, I have a contract with Plusnet for my broadband which still has about 14 months to run, therefore I am looking for a Line Rental Only contract, at present the Post Office can offer this for £13 per month, does anyone know of any cheaper options (I am willing to pay upfront for 1 or 2 years line rental)?

iniltous

You say are leaving Origin broadband in October , but also have a contract with Plusnet, so presumably you have 2 lines both with broadband, so are you looking to replace the Origin broadband line with a phone only line ?
Is there a reason to have two physical landlines ?, if not wouldn’t it be better to port the Origin number to a VOIP provider and access it via your Plusnet broadband ? thus saving the rental on a second line ( although a charge may well apply to the VOIP service )
If you do need 2 lines, the fact you have broadband ( albeit with another provider on another line) excludes you from BT’s line only £11.99 offer,
( line without broadband discount is £8) and AFAIK the PO are the next cheapest

cwaite

iniltous wrote: »

You say are leaving Origin broadband in October , but also have a contract with Plusnet, so presumably you have 2 lines both with broadband, so are you looking to replace the Origin broadband line with a phone only line ?
Is there a reason to have two physical landlines ?, if not wouldn’t it be better to port the Origin number to a VOIP provider and access it via your Plusnet broadband ? thus saving the rental on a second line ( although a charge may well apply to the VOIP service )
If you do need 2 lines, the fact you have broadband ( albeit with another provider on another line) excludes you from BT’s line only £11.99 offer,
( line without broadband discount is £8) and AFAIK the PO are the next cheapest

I have 1 line, my Phone with Origin and Internet with Plusnet, Long Story but I have terrible trouble with my Broadband at times and Plusnet have always sorted it out with minimal fuss, so reluctant to move from them for the broadband part, unfortunately, bundling their landline is not very competitive compared to Post Office Landline only.

iniltous

It’s just you said you are leaving a Origin broadband, but presumably it’s a Origin broadband ( phone service only ).
You may want to check that the PO allow broadband with another provider if you go for their phone line only service, AFAIK, the PO are TT resellers, and TT are a LLU/MPF provider,
A phone service with one provider with broadband with another is SMPF ( shared metallic path facility ) and it’s unlikely that a MPF provider like TT/PO will want SMPF on their line ( and more importantly they are under no obligation to offer it ) so it’s likely that if you go PO for line you would only be able to chose them for broadband.

cwaite

iniltous wrote: »

It’s just you said you are leaving a Origin broadband, but presumably it’s a Origin broadband ( phone service only ).
You may want to check that the PO allow broadband with another provider if you go for their phone line only service, AFAIK, the PO are TT resellers, and TT are a LLU/MPF provider,
A phone service with one provider with broadband with another is SMPF ( shared metallic path facility ) and it’s unlikely that a MPF provider like TT/PO will want SMPF on their line ( and more importantly they are under no obligation to offer it ) so it’s likely that if you go PO for line you would only be able to chose them for broadband.

I have checked with PlusNet and I posted on here a while ago to ask if I could still have PlusNet Fibre and PO telephone line rental on the same line and as I understand it, as long as your line is an Openreach line then this is OK.


I have been googling and Freeola.com do a Silent Line Rental Package which do not allow chargeable outgoing calls, but still allow incoming calls for £10.99 pm (inc VAT) the service is designed for persons like my self that need the phone line to support a broadband service. I don't really use my home phone for outgoing calls much, I have unlimited calls on my mobile and my other half is in PAYG on Three where calls are only 3p per minute. Does anyone here already have this service, and if so do they have any good or bad opinions on Freeola?

iniltous

cwaite wrote: »

I have checked with PlusNet and I posted on here a while ago to ask if I could still have PlusNet Fibre and PO telephone line rental on the same line and as I understand it, as long as your line is an Openreach line then this is OK.


I have been googling and Freeola.com do a Silent Line Rental Package which do not allow chargeable outgoing calls, but still allow incoming calls for £10.99 pm (inc VAT) the service is designed for persons like my self that need the phone line to support a broadband service. I don't really use my home phone for outgoing calls much, I have unlimited calls on my mobile and my other half is in PAYG on Three where calls are only 3p per minute. Does anyone here already have this service, and if so do they have any good or bad opinions on Freeola?

I would check with the PO rather than PN, as it’s the PO ( if you use them due to the price of line rental ) that decide not Plusnet, and even then they quite often give incorrect advice, couldn’t really comment on Freeola, if they resell BTWholesale phone service then SMPF should be OK.
Something to be aware of, if you migrate or cease your origin service , it’s quite likely that ( because you cannot have SMPF broadband without a host phoneline ) then PN will effectively be notified automatically to cease your broadband because the line hosting it (Origin) has gone..you may want to be sure that what you intend to do is possible first, and get it in writing from PN, as I wouldn’t be surprised if you end up with PN ETC’s.
When Origin close your account, the wholesale system says unhosted broadband, causing PN to cease your broadband as a consequence, and because the PN contract is still within the minimum term they automatically issue a final bill with the ETC charges on, all this can be unpicked after the event but much better to arrange that it never happens
These days , not many large providers offer SMPF as they make more ££ from line and broadband together.

cwaite

iniltous wrote: »

I would check with the PO rather than PN, as it’s the PO ( if you use them due to the price of line rental ) that decide not Plusnet, and even then they quite often give incorrect advice, couldn’t really comment on Freeola, if they resell BTWholesale phone service then SMPF should be OK.
Something to be aware of, if you migrate or cease your origin service , it’s quite likely that ( because you cannot have SMPF broadband without a host phoneline ) then PN will effectively be notified automatically to cease your broadband because the line hosting it (Origin) has gone..you may want to be sure that what you intend to do is possible first, and get it in writing from PN, as I wouldn’t be surprised if you end up with PN ETC’s.
When Origin close your account, the wholesale system says unhosted broadband, causing PN to cease your broadband as a consequence, and because the PN contract is still within the minimum term they automatically issue a final bill with the ETC charges on, all this can be unpicked after the event but much better to arrange that it never happens
These days , not many large providers offer SMPF as they make more ££ from line and broadband together.

A few years back I changed from BT to Origin whilst having Plusnet for my broadband and had no issues with the broadband during the switch over of the landline, so I am hoping if I switch to Freeola then I should not have any problems