Please Recommend a Landline Provider

[RBZ5416]

Just had an e-mail from BT announcing price increases of call plans & line rental from tomorrow! They're also removing their discount for paperless billing. Thanks for the notice.

Any recommendations for alternatives? My broadband is with Zen but their phone service is really aimed at business & isn't competitive. My parents are with the Post Office & had enormous problems getting a fault fixed so not interested in them either.

Edit
I'm only looking for phone/rental. I really don't want to change ISP.

 

[imightbewrong]

We're with Virgin - can't complain. £14 if you also have their broadband I think. Used to be with Zen for broadband - found them to be expensive though. Switched to Virgin fibre and never looked back.

 

[qwerty321]

O2 do home phone for £8.50 a month for a basic line. A few add ons you can get if you want landline minutes or the like.

 

[houndlegs]

We're with Primus, £16 a month for line rental, evening and weekend calls and broadband.

 

[RBZ5416]

Should have said, we're out in the sticks so no cable. A quick look at Virgin's site seems to suggest you can only have phone with broadband but it's not obvious. I'll try & make more sense of it later & look at the other suggestions as well.

Edit
Looks like O2 is the same, can only have phone as an add-on to broadband.

 

[nheather]

I'm with Sky and I know that some people complain but I don't have any complaints - the service is very good and on the few occasions there have been problems they have been fixed quickly.

I had more problems and poorer service when I was with BT and Nildram.

Broadband lite + evening & weekend calls = £12.25

Broadband unlimited + evening & weekend calls = £19.75

Broadband unlimited + unlimited calls = £24.75

All these include the line rental (£12.25)


You can have SkyTalk without Broadband

Evening & Weekends = £12.25
Unlimited Calls = £17.25

Both include line rental.

Cheers,

Nigel

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[Miss Chief]

Unfortunately it's not possible to have Broadband with Sky without having Line rental and calls as well any more but you don't need to have Sky TV either. The prices above are correct. If you ever call internationally then the unlimited package is great value as it includes free calls to the top 20 destinations which means most of Europe, US and Canada (inc. mobiles!) Oz and NZ. My mum calls Ireland 3-4 times a week and reckons she saves £10-£15 a month compared to BT.

 

[RBZ5416]

Unlimited Calls = £17.25

Thanks but that's only a couple of quid cheaper than BT's increased prices. We don't make international calls.

Looks like the options for a phone only service are extremely limited indeed. I have no intention of switching broadband supplier.

 

[Miss Chief]

Don't forget BT Line rental is going up to £14.60 in a couple of days time. Sky Line Rental is still only £12.25.

 

[nheather]

Thanks but that's only a couple of quid cheaper than BT's increased prices.

Not surprising as BT control and dictate the line rental.

Actually BT have no excuse for not being cheaper than Sky. It says something when Sky can rent the service from BT and provide it to the customers cheaper than BT.

Sky get a little discount and pass that on but it is still £12.25 or 71% of the package price.

Where the other companies can compete is where they bundle in Broadband. When you look at the equivalent BT bundles they are expensive.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[Jean Valjean]

Unfortunately it's not possible to have Broadband with Sky without having Line rental and calls as well any more but you don't need to have Sky TV either. The prices above are correct. If you ever call internationally then the unlimited package is great value as it includes free calls to the top 20 destinations which means most of Europe, US and Canada (inc. mobiles!) Oz and NZ. My mum calls Ireland 3-4 times a week and reckons she saves £10-£15 a month compared to BT.

You can have BB as I have it. You can't have Sky Talk without the line rental !

 

[Miss Chief]

You can't have BB without the Line Rental and Calls package as a new customer.

 

[nheather]

And previously you couldn't have BB on it's own, you had to have a viewing package aswell.

Now they have linked it with telephone rather than viewing package.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[Loftusrd1980]

Recently changed from bt to sky and apart from a cock up with the change over sky is fine. Anything to get away from the disgrace that is bt though for me !!!

 

[bellers]

I pay Primus £6.79/month (although it's showing as £6.49 on MSE) for line rental. Don't know about calls because my phone is never plugged in. I use my mobile for calls and landline for internet only.

Home Phones: Line rental from £6.49/month...

 

[Grangey.]

plusnet

 

[RBZ5416]

I pay Primus £6.79/month (although it's showing as £6.49 on MSE) for line rental. Don't know about calls because my phone is never plugged in. I use my mobile for calls and landline for internet only.

Home Phones: Line rental from £6.49/month...

Had a quick look a Primus when Houndlegs suggested them. As most of my calls are made during weekdays I really need an Anytime package. Theirs is £12.79 but they charge for 0845 & 0870 that BT include. It soon mounts up, especially with their sneaky 11p minimum call charge & per minute billing.

I guess I need to do a full breakdown of my last couple of bills to do a proper comparison but it's looking increasingly like I'm just going to have to swallow BT's hike. It's really not worth changing supplier in order to save a couple of quid a month.

 

[RBZ5416]

plusnet

1. Who are your Home Phone packages available to?

Our packages are available to all new and existing Plusnet broadband customers.

.

 

[RBZ5416]

I guess I need to do a full breakdown of my last couple of bills.

And as if by magic, that section of BT's site goes offline.

 

[Berties]

O2, I saved a few quid a month.

 

[RBZ5416]

O2, I saved a few quid a month.

 

[Knyght_byte]

Not surprising as BT control and dictate the line rental.

Actually BT have no excuse for not being cheaper than Sky. It says something when Sky can rent the service from BT and provide it to the customers cheaper than BT.

Sky get a little discount and pass that on but it is still £12.25 or 71% of the package price.

Where the other companies can compete is where they bundle in Broadband. When you look at the equivalent BT bundles they are expensive.

Cheers,

Nigel

Most providers do the line rental cheaper than BT for a simple reason. They want you to move everything away from BT so take the profit hit. I know this as I work for a company that does this...lol. They take the hit (or in some cases even a loss) on the line rental and make up for it on the BB, or TV etc.

For the OP, if you are on a BT line with the broadband, you may find that some providers wont take you on and allow you to keep your existing BB. This is because a lot of the other companies will actually want to switch you to an LLU line that they rent not from BT but from TalkTalk or one of the other big companies who bulk-rent from Openreach and have their own cabinets. If you switch from BT to LLU line, Zen may not be able to keep providing you, or may need to transfer you to their LLU cabinet in the exchange if they have one. The good news is, if anything that should make things cheaper for you on the BB as well, but might tie you in to a new contract.

I'd recommend you speak to Zen first about how changing line provider will affect you if it has to be an LLU line as this is how you will save the most money normally.

Alternatively, ask BT if you can do their 'pay a year up front' system, cost me £120 for the next 12 months, ie £10 a month...cheaper than the majority of other companies.

 

[RBZ5416]

Our exchange has no LLU provision.

As you say, paying 12 months line rental up front gives a decent saving so it looks like a case of the devil you know...

 

[nheather]

First of all, you don't need to have an LLU exchange to have SkyTalk. In fact I am on an LLU exchange and Sky offered me the choice of moving to it or staying under BT management.

I do expect that if the exchange is LLU managed then you will be put on it.

But if your exchange isn't LLU they will still take you on.

But let's make on thing clear about LLU - this doesn't mean that they have taken the business away from BT. It is still BT copper, BT building, BT equipment rooms and in many cases BT equipment. Sky have the ability to update or increase equipment.

But the fact remains that they still have to pay BT for the provision.

So just because you are paying Sky for an LLU doesn't mean that BT aren't getting any money. I suspect that BT get the majority (if not all) of the Line Rental.

On the second point, Sky do not require you to pay up front to get the savings - it is BT that do that if you want a line rental reduction.

Sky charge monthly and you get the reduction anyway. The confusion might be that Sky do require that you take out a 12 month contract. After that you free to leave with a month's notice.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[shoestring25]

im off as well £14.60 BT no thanks going to go with sky for £12.25 basicly because i already have there unlimited broadband which i like. i could save myself some more money or i could spend more on virgin but i will settle for the middle ground