Alternative phone lines

rushnowt

Hi

My FIL is totally hacked off with BT, he's generally the type that just has the same providers for ever and a day.

Anyway he's finally seen some sense and is ready to move, but my problem is i'm not sure if there are any other actual phone company's that provide line rental, he doesn't want to have to pay BT a penny, so keeping them as a provider and routing calls through another company isn't his idea.

He's not in a cable/NTL area and I don't think he can get telewest, please could you tell me if there is others now that allow you to rent the actual line from them

Many many thanks x

bbb_uk

He can change his line rental to other providers (from BT) that do line rental. The ones I know about are OneTel, the Post Office and shortly TalkTalk.

As far as i'm aware, OneTel are currently the cheapest but have been known to have problems with their customers services as they are outside the UK.

Be aware that using another provider other than BT, then they can stop the use of using other suppliers for your calls (like Call18866, etc). As he one of those that likes to use the same provider anyhow then this may not be a problem.

I would recommend waiting for a bit to see how much TalkTalk will charge when they release their version of line rental.

Also, although he may pay pay the PostOffice, OneTel, TalkTalk (when they launch their service) line rental they in turn rent it from BT still using WLR (Wholesale Line Rental). Therefore, any problems he would have to ring whomever he decides to pay the line rental to and they then contact BT to arrange an engineer and for them to look into it, etc.

Does this make sense?

Update: BullDog also do linerental but they loads of people have complained about them and lack of services, etc would not recommend them.

rushnowt

thanks very much

I have some experience of One Tel and wouldn't recommend them myself lol, but the PO might be a good option for him, i've just looked on the site and got some info for him, theres also a freefone number for him to contact so things are looking good so far.

He's rather stuck in his ways unfortunately and wont entertain the 18866 prefix calls etc and doesn't like to pay by DD or credit card either lol, he's of the opinion that its his money till the bill comes and wont pay any other way :rolleyes:

I'll pass this info on and hopefully he'll get sorted

pricefighter

The Post Office Phone Service is run by Cable and Wireless on behalf of the PO.If you pay by cash/card at your PO they charge £11.50 a month rental instead of £10.50 by D/D.
There evening/weekend call rates are very expensive compared to other carriers.Unless your call lasts less then 5 minutes.

louise1_3

Ive recently switched to 'Homecall'. Anyone have any info on them? I pay £14.99 per month, for that I get line rental and unlimited (up to 90 mins) evening and weekend calls.

April2

louise1 wrote:

Ive recently switched to 'Homecall'. Anyone have any info on them? I pay £14.99 per month, for that I get line rental and unlimited (up to 90 mins) evening and weekend calls.

Sorry, louise1 but that's a question you really ought to have asked before you 'jumped ship'.

Anyway, I think the Homecall package you're talking about is their £9.99 line rental + £4.50 for evening/weekend calls 'Hometime' package @ £14.49.

Provided you make more than 200 evening/weekend calls per month, every month, that's cheaper than paying BT £10.50 line rental and call18866.co.uk 2p per call.

Not necessarilly safer though.

pricefighter

louise1 wrote:

Ive recently switched to 'Homecall'. Anyone have any info on them? I pay £14.99 per month, for that I get line rental and unlimited (up to 90 mins) evening and weekend calls.

1.Bt have recently issued a writ against them in the High Court for allegedly illegally pinching customers from them(slamming).

2.See the following comments about the company Telephone and Broadband products particularly its Customer Service or the apparent complete lack of it.
Read https://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews82372.html

louise1_3

Thanks, I'll have a read, and April2, I did look into it before signing up, I was just asking for peoples opinion on them

Steve_xx

rushnowt wrote:

Hi

My FIL is totally hacked off with BT, he's generally the type that just has the same providers for ever and a day.

Anyway he's finally seen some sense and is ready to move, but my problem is i'm not sure if there are any other actual phone company's that provide line rental, he doesn't want to have to pay BT a penny, so keeping them as a provider and routing calls through another company isn't his idea.

He's not in a cable/NTL area and I don't think he can get telewest, please could you tell me if there is others now that allow you to rent the actual line from them

Many many thanks x

I would remind you that in the UK, BT and only BT, by the terms of their licence, must allow you to use other companies to route your calls through alternative operators via their exchange lines, should you wish to do so. Other companies do not have this imposition since they do not have significant market share in the UK. It's better to stay with BT and to be able to route your calls via an alternative source. It is unlikely that your FIL can devoid himself of BT entirely, since he may well wish to make a call from his non BT line to a BT customer. Therefore, part of the tariff he would pay for such a call would go to BT, since BT will want paying for the pleasure of delivering your FIL's call to one of its customers.

rushnowt

Steve_xx wrote:

I would remind you that in the UK, BT and only BT, by the terms of their licence, must allow you to use other companies to route your calls through alternative operators via their exchange lines, should you wish to do so. Other companies do not have this imposition since they do not have significant market share in the UK. It's better to stay with BT and to be able to route your calls via an alternative source. It is unlikely that your FIL can devoid himself of BT entirely, since he may well wish to make a call from his non BT line to a BT customer. Therefore, part of the tariff he would pay for such a call would go to BT, since BT will want paying for the pleasure of delivering your FIL's call to one of its customers.

Sorry you've confused me lol, not hard to do

I assumed that the PO and One tel providing their own lines now after reading some of the posts, why would he need to pay BT anything for making a call to a BT customer if he's not with BT, sorry if i sound a bit dense, I've looked at the site of the PO and don't see anything about that, they state their call charges etc. I was with NTL long ago and I never had to pay BT anything for making a call to a BT customer from my NTL line

sorry just had another thought, do you mean that part of the charge made by say the PO would include BT's charges so you wouldn't necessarily see that actual charge going to BT ? but you would pay it anyway ? does that make sense.

My FIL wouldn't and couldn't be bothered to route calls through another provider, as i stated earlier , he's very set in his ways and doesn't really like change tbh but he's just had enough of BT

April2

Try to talk him into staying with BT for his line rental and signing up for CPS with TalkTalk or OneTel or one of the others with 'free calls' offers - so he gets (at least) free weekend calls.

He won't have to dial any special numbers (although he will still be paying BT for the line rental).