Reasonable amount to pay for landline & broadband?

boatman wrote: »

I agree, I was going to say about £20(17mb adsl) and £25(40mb fibre).

NowTV are doing £15 adsl, £20 fibre at the moment, this includes line rental.

The NowTV offer is good, if they cover your area. Unfortunately for me, they don't.

"Looks like we can!!!8217;t supply NOW TV Broadband at your address."

there are quite a few adsl providers who dont force you to use their own line rental so if the adsl lock-in ends before the line rental lock-in then you can switch adsl

Colin_Maybe wrote: »

Last months NowTV offer through the MSE site told me it wasn't available. this months is.

They seem to limit it by numbers and/or postal code and if the https://broadband.moneysavingexpert.com/ comparision site says it's available but clicking on it leads to NowTV saying it's not, then the next one may well be.

I'm on Sky so I don't think it's related.

Maybe, but Sky won't give me ADSL broadband either.

That 90 days in advance is for them to let you "lock in" for a further 12 months or more.

As others have indicated, quite a range of companies to consider, and if it is just a line and broadband, then I suggest you carefully consider what you are wanting...

1) "included" phone calls (or do you have a generous call allowance on a mobile?)

I only make UK calls, and Smarty gives me unlimited calls and texts for £ 5 a month (and refunds data that isn't used, on next month's bill, so by not using the allowance mobile, I just pay the basic text + voice calls fee).

2) speed for your connection ? If you want higher speed there may be a number of good "fibre" deals (fibre connection to the phone cabinet somewhere near you, and then using the same copper wiring to your home)

(The options available depend on whether you are urban or rural, and whether there are plenty of competing companies or not... so if there are services from firms like TalkTalk, Sky, and EE, the prices will be more competitive than in some rural area where there's none of those to compete with BT. Some areas don't yet have any fibre option, or if the limited number of fibre connections have all been used, there may be a waiting list to get a higher speed.)

I've used Plusnet since 2003 and while they're not perfect, they do have UK staff in call centres in Leeds and Sheffield and although owned by BT, are run separately. I have no hesitation in recommending them to family and friends. You should probably try out the MSE broadband comparison checker tool and see what options you have right now. Then nearer the time of renewal, check again, and see what BT offers (as you will probably have plenty of alternatives - including those mentioned by others, above).


Watch out for having phone line rental (if you pay 12 months in advance) out of step with your broadband, because in the past the line rental savings were based on 12 month cycle, and for broadband, there have often been 12 or 18 months minimum terms, so the two may be out of step. BT says it won't refund the fee even if you have months unused (and most of the best ISP deals depend on both line rental and broadband together).

Good luck.

Although I was an existing customer, I did get Plusnet to offer me a similar price to new customers back in January, so I am paying £ 23.99 a month (due to go up a pound for inflation) for 18 months, giving me "up to 38 Mbps" broadband (it's about 25 Mbps but that's outside their control, down to Openreach wiring and distance from the cabinet.

It's about £ 5 more than I was paying when the line rental was with one firm and broadband (11 Mbps) was with Plusnet. It was only because the line rental doubled when Primus sold me to Post Office for line rental that spurred my decision to switch line rental to Plusnet, and then knowing the fibre option was just a little more, I was tempted, mainly because the price is low for 18 months.


Obviously, what options you have depend on your location but it is fastest to use a comparison site like Think broadband or MSE even if you cannot switch right now. It is worth looking at a few sites just to see if they agree on the options available, too.