Line Rental Saver price increases at BT Consumer and TalkTalk
Alas price rise news time again, today the impact is on those looking to reduce the cost of the voice line rental by paying it as a single annual payment. In the past the savings have been significant at around £5 per month, but earlier in 2014 Sky dropped the offer completely.
- TalkTalk has increased the cost of its Line Rental Saver option from £141 to £172.20 (monthly equivalent was £11.75 rising to £14.35). Paying monthly is £15.95, but if you pay your bill the day it is issued you can save 15% (£2.39 on line rental).
- BT Consumer has increased its saver option from £141 to £159.84 (monthly equivalent was £11.75 and is now £13.32). Standard monthly line rental is £15.99 per month.
The price rise will not affect those who have already made use of the option to save some money, but they will notice it if at the end of the period they have paid they renew again.
The wholesale line rental pricing was set by Ofcom back in May 2014, and while the price for LLU services went up by £2.18 per year, for the basket of WLR and SMPF broadband the costs fell by £7.23 per year. This means that while full LLU remains cheaper, the difference with WLR+SMPF has been eroded and looks set to continue to do so.
Comments
Seems to be a similar prices to virgin phone line rental
Once again, BT are FAT CAT greed!
Line Rental Saver isn't worth it anymore! U only save £2.67 a month! Without phone on plusnet will charge u extra £2.50 a month. Big wow!
(I mean extra £2.50 on broadband without bring phone line over to plusnet)
@adslmax: please could you suggest a good phoneline provider who is £2.50 cheaper than Plusnet? And does that apply to fibre?
SSE £10 75http://www.hydro.co.uk/PhoneAndBroadband/ProductsTalk/
Or Zen £11.22 no contract tie-http://www.zen.co.uk/home-office/voice/phone-services.aspx
I've said enough on this already.
Strange as Zen still the only isp cheaper of £11.22 with no contract! Haven't seen that price increasing for long while!
@adslmax It just shows that BT could sell line rental way way cheaper without tie-in. Cheaper prices, top UK customer service and cheaper calls - No brainer.
Cont... As far as I know, wholesale line rental has been reduced. If that is the case, there is no excuse for increases, other than profiteering or subsidising loss leading Broadband.
can't believe there's still such a thing as line rental... as mentioned already £16 a month for old and battered pieces of copper/aluminium.
Inflation.
@generallee94: Guess you haven't thought that through. It's /because/ that copper/ally is old and battered (especially the connections) that we have to have line rental. Newly installed local loops wouldn't require much maintenance.
Standard business practice in the private sector innit to increase profits! Make add-on packages cheaper, but increase the base package that everyone has to pay. Have offers to attract people but gradually erode the value of those offers over time or withdraw them completely. I don't think these price rises are anything to do with costs of maintaining the copper loop or replacing with something else, this is not happening is it!...it's all to do with increasing ARPU.
@csimon:You'll note that I was only specifically addressing the question of why we have line rental ;)
As for why it increases: I suspect there's more than one reason. Inflation will be a part but there's also going to be a plethora of business reasons. Ultimately they will come down to one thing: BT has to meet its obligations toward its shareholders.
So..yeah. It's about making money.
(cont'd) but of course we /want/ BT to make money, don't we? After all - that's why they rolled out ADSL and it's why they are rolling out FTTC.
Making money tends to be a great motivator. Something that was lacking from its predecessor. It is irritating though the way so many businesses these days use convoluted and indirect ways to make money.
In this case Ofcom should probably take part of the blame.
Ofcom did metion the wholesale of line rental cost had fallen but why it still increasing? Fishy!
£120 for Line Rental Saver at the Post Office and Co-operative.
The Line Saver option serves two purposes:-
a) It is a form of retention
b) It like a share offering, it let's the Company use your capital, up front, for whatever purpose the Company wants.
.........without any dividend payments!
The existing 'free' sports package has to be paid for somehow. Then of course there is the bidding process for the next tranche of Premier League Football screenings due shortly. Dare I say that those with Sky TV and line rental are paying twice for their sport viewing?
why does line rental keep going up and up?? it came down a lot over the last few yrs, now its going sky high, its almost like we are subsidising a football channel. i dont like paying monthly for 1100 metres of aluminium string!