Ditch or stay with BT?

StevieD54

Ectophile said:

I don't know whether or not to recommend them yet, but I recently switched to Vodafone FTTP.  The VoIP phone came as standard at no extra cost.  That's the no inclusive calls option, but still allows my mum to phone me.  The caller display even works.

Not sure about VOIP, my Mum just uses a landline handset 🤷‍♂️. 

StevieD54

iniltous said:

I’ve just renewed with BT , the renewal price effectively winds back the previous 2 years annual increases so I’m paying roughly what I was 2 years ago and is identical to the Sky broadband price (although the new deal price will increase once a year as it did before ) , I also kept the phone service for a similar reason as the OP , I never make outgoing calls ,  but the occasional genuine incoming call is worth the relatively small price .

Taking Sky as an example, in my case Sky would be little cheaper , TBH broadband is the same price but I get telephone from BT for the equivalent of £2 so switching to Sky would be £2 cheaper because Sky broadband has a phone service included on a PAYG basis included wether it’s required or not , so that suits the OP’s requirements, and it should be possible to port the phone number from BT to Sky , although if it’s goes wrong that’s always a possibility and not necessarily easy to resolve .

TBH , only you can decide what’s the best in your situation, you have been offered two seemingly decent BT offers , a better speed for the same price or a £6 reduction staying on the same speed , Sky may be a little cheaper as they don’t charge for the PAYG phone , my comparison is based on their currently available Black Friday deals , I’d say the phone service almost certainly not an obstacle, more important in my view would be email , you may or may not use your @btinternet.com email , in my case I’d need a significant price difference to offset the hassle of not having that available from email clients, plus the general rule of ‘ if it ain’t broken don’t fix it ‘ .

Lastly , in my chat with BT they still encouraged  a switch to EE , BT said that EE would have been even cheaper and the phone service would be maintained as would the BT email address ,  and moving to EE would open up deals on mobiles , EETV etc , but I was satisfied with what BT offered , so the possibility of EE being a couple of ££ cheaper , possibly to the Sky level didn’t interest me , but may be of interest to the OP 

iniltous……Did you actually call BT and haggle? And did you have a ‘normal’ landline with Sky?

I’m seeing an offer on MySky (for 500mb) at £27 per month. This is of course without factoring in the annual rises, which Sky don’t publish, unlike BT. However, I roughly calculated what the 24 month Sky overall cost would be (using an annual 10% rise), and the difference to BT is around £280 less! Via this site, MSE, there’s actually an even better offer with Sky because it includes a gift card! I think I need to call BT, quote these numbers and see what they can do. Thanks.

QrizB

StevieD54 said:

Ectophile said:

I don't know whether or not to recommend them yet, but I recently switched to Vodafone FTTP.  The VoIP phone came as standard at no extra cost.  That's the no inclusive calls option, but still allows my mum to phone me.  The caller display even works.

Not sure about VOIP, my Mum just uses a landline handset 🤷‍♂️. 

Are you looking for a broadband provider for yourself, or for your mum?

I'm with Vodafone but FTTC not FTTP. Vodafone moved my landline phone number to their VoIP service. My phone handset plugs into the Vodafone router and works as it always did. My mum phones me on it as normal.

StevieD54

I’ve just done a deal with Sky on their chat line, 500mb at £26 p.m. This is around £11 p.m. less than BT’s offer. I’ve been assured my landline number can stay the same. Now getting bombarded with messages from BT/EE 😂

iniltous

BT 500Mb is £32.99 so your Sky deal although still a better price isn’t £11 cheaper , the official price for Sky 500 is £29 so you got a deal at £26 , the official saving is £4 a month  still a worthwhile saving but not £11 .

Ive never had Sky broadband or phone , and FTTP isn’t available so obviously I can’t negotiate FTTP speeds/prices .

As your Sky price is not the published price , perhaps you have City Fibre available, as Sky use both CF and Openreach , and generally CF is cheaper to get customers onto their network, is your Sky service on Openreach or CF ? 

I did haggle with BT , as stated getting the absolute cheapest price isn’t the most important thing , usually ‘cheap’ companies, in the end you find out they are cheap  for a reason , in my case keeping my email address etc is more valuable than £1 or £2 a month .

Ectophile

StevieD54 said:

Ectophile said:

I don't know whether or not to recommend them yet, but I recently switched to Vodafone FTTP.  The VoIP phone came as standard at no extra cost.  That's the no inclusive calls option, but still allows my mum to phone me.  The caller display even works.

Not sure about VOIP, my Mum just uses a landline handset 🤷‍♂️. 

Maybe I didn't word that well.

I use normal phones with my Vodafone router.  It's actually a pair of old Panasonic cordless phones.  The base station used to plug into a BT wall socket, but is now plugged into the Vodafone router instead.  You would never know that anything is different.

(If you do decide to go with Vodafone, you may find that the phone adaptor shown in the manual is missing.  You should find that there is a spare lead in the box which happens to fit the socket on the back of most phones.  Unplug the BT lead from the phone, plug the new lead in, and plug the other end of that line into the router.)

StevieD54

Ectophile said:

StevieD54 said:

Ectophile said:

I don't know whether or not to recommend them yet, but I recently switched to Vodafone FTTP.  The VoIP phone came as standard at no extra cost.  That's the no inclusive calls option, but still allows my mum to phone me.  The caller display even works.

Not sure about VOIP, my Mum just uses a landline handset 🤷‍♂️. 

Maybe I didn't word that well.

I use normal phones with my Vodafone router.  It's actually a pair of old Panasonic cordless phones.  The base station used to plug into a BT wall socket, but is now plugged into the Vodafone router instead.  You would never know that anything is different.

(If you do decide to go with Vodafone, you may find that the phone adaptor shown in the manual is missing.  You should find that there is a spare lead in the box which happens to fit the socket on the back of most phones.  Unplug the BT lead from the phone, plug the new lead in, and plug the other end of that line into the router.)

My mum doesn’t have an active router in her flat. It’s sheltered housing, so a communal router which reaches her Smart TV OK. But her phone line is a regular landline. My landline currently plugs into my BT Hub, soon to change to a Sky Hub. 

I’ve taken a 500mb deal with Sky for £26 p.m. which includes the line rental. I’ve already had two calls from the retention team at BT offering 500mb at £25 p.m. (plus landline rental at £3.50 p.m.) My original BT renewal offer was £35 p.m. for 500mb. If they’re so desperate to keep a customer, why don’t they give you with a proper renewal offer? £10 p.m. more over 24 months is a big difference. If they’d said say, £30 p.m. incl. line rental I would have taken it, just to avoid any potential changeover hassle. If everything goes pear shaped with Sky, I’ve got a 30 day cooling off period, but would have to go back to BT with my tail between my legs 😂

QrizB

StevieD54 said:

My mum doesn’t have an active router in her flat. It’s sheltered housing, so a communal router which reaches her Smart TV OK. But her phone line is a regular landline. 

OK, so your mum's phone is a complete red herring - although BT will eventually want her to switch to VoIP too.

bristolleedsfan

StevieD54 said:

Ectophile said:

StevieD54 said:

Ectophile said:

I don't know whether or not to recommend them yet, but I recently switched to Vodafone FTTP.  The VoIP phone came as standard at no extra cost.  That's the no inclusive calls option, but still allows my mum to phone me.  The caller display even works.

Not sure about VOIP, my Mum just uses a landline handset 🤷‍♂️. 

Maybe I didn't word that well.

I use normal phones with my Vodafone router.  It's actually a pair of old Panasonic cordless phones.  The base station used to plug into a BT wall socket, but is now plugged into the Vodafone router instead.  You would never know that anything is different.

(If you do decide to go with Vodafone, you may find that the phone adaptor shown in the manual is missing.  You should find that there is a spare lead in the box which happens to fit the socket on the back of most phones.  Unplug the BT lead from the phone, plug the new lead in, and plug the other end of that line into the router.)

I’ve got a 30 day cooling off period, but would have to go back to BT with my tail between my legs 😂

Worth also noting should Sky announce price increase customer(s) are free to switch elsewhere penalty free, could then go back to BT as a new customer using a cashback site offer as an example.

StevieD54

OK, the big day is here. My Sky hub was delivered last week, and while the instructions to connect everything up are clear, when to do this isn’t. It says: ‘Your hub won't start working until the date you see on the box - it can be any time up to midnight.’ That date is today, so do I connect it or wait until tomorrow? The BT hub is still working btw. Think I’ll leave it until this evening or until BT turn the signal off!