BT Line Rental..UP AGAIN.!!

[uncleub]

www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2014/08/bt-raise-broadband-phone-prices-holiday-helps-bury-bad-news.html

So what’s new this time around? Firstly BT’s standard Phone Line Rental charge will rise by 6.25% from £15.99 per month to reach £16.99. The cost of calls will also rise by around 6.44% and broadband prices will go up by a similar amount, although prices for existing bundles should be honoured.

In addition, BT recently confirmed (here) that the cost of their BTSport TV service for non-BT broadband customers would rise from £12 to £13.50 per month from 1st October 2014

History of BT Phone Line Rental Rises
2011 = £13.90
2012 = £14.60
2013 = £15.45
2014 = £15.99
2015 (Dec 2014) = £16.99

[mr]

Always shop around for the best deal and remember that BT's Call Centre is based in India, so if you have trouble understanding the Indian accent it is best avoided. I'm not being racist btw, just practical.

[fletch]

What gets me is the £16.99 per month off everyone what a money grabbing company BT are

[uncleub]

Aug 23, 2014 10:20:56 GMT mr said:

Always shop around for the best deal and remember that BT's Call Centre is based in India, so if you have trouble understanding the Indian accent it is best avoided. I'm not being racist btw, just practical.

BT aren't alone in using sub continent support..Many companies including non telecom companies use them.I try and steer clear as much as possible.Being very hard of hearing is bad enough without trying to understand Stuart from Mumbai.

[Deleted]

I've had BT Broadband for quite a few years now and obviously had a BT landline since long, long before we ever had a choice. I am, and always have been quite happy with the service provided. When BT introduced the annual 'Line Rental Saver' I went onto that and just renewed it last month. I paid £159.84 for the next 12 months, which works out at £13.32 per month. So at least I can put off the higher line rental charges until next July.

[rogerman]

I used to be with BT and paid annually up front for line rental which saved a bit of money - rather in my pocket than theirs.

When Sky took over O2 broadband (with whom I was with) I decided to change everything over to Sky as we already had Sky tv. Obviously got a good deal with my broadband speed being doubled, albeit down the same phone line, and again paid the annual line rental up front.
Worth doing if you can afford it.

[Ratae]

This was always gonna happen, how else did anyone expect them to pay for the BT Sports battle with Sky Sports?

[banjo]

Now I'm the first to regale against these large corporations but it seems to me that with all the so-called "competion" and the proliferation of "calling plans", the BT business model relies heavily on discounting call rates in the form of calling plans to compete with all the others. This directly implies hiking the standing charge. My gripe is with the percentage point rises. They are way way above inflation. Like many I imagine, I make very few calls these days preferring to use a mobile, and with the calling plan, all I end up paying is the standing charge for the connection to BT's infrastructure. But it's not is it? It's all digital now and the massive banks of unreliable relays have all disappeared. It's no longer labour intensive and the whole machine exists solely to service shareholders, corporation profit and fatcats.
I also note that the total amount that I have to pay on direct debit has not really changed at all (in real pound note terms) over the last 15 or more years at least.
I figure that I need the local copper loop to service my broadband connection, so whatever the rights or wrongs of it all, I'm b0110x3d.
I suppose I ought to investigate cable, it's outside in the street (and has been for a good 15 years at least) but then I'd lose the ability to send mail through my current provider. It's a twisted world.

e&oe

[uncleub]

Aug 24, 2014 8:55:23 GMT banjo said:

I suppose I ought to investigate cable, it's outside in the street (and has been for a good 15 years at least) but then I'd lose the ability to send mail through my current provider. It's a twisted world.

e&oe

If we were in a cable enabled area I would have it in a heartbeat.Our previous house was enabled for cable way back around 1993/4,which we had.It was then run by a company called Yorkshire Cable,then Telewest,then NTL and now Virgin Media.We have lived here 15 years and still no sign of cable,Sheffield on a whole has only small pockets that have be enabled for cable.