SAYNOTO0870.COM - getting away from the local loop ie BT

barrythai Newbie Offline Posts: 13	getting away from the local loop ie BT Jul 25^th, 2005 at 9:44am Just read in the Mail on Sunday that Talk Talk are now charging less than BT for line rental. So you can at last only have one bill and not have a hundred numbers to press to get to a BT operative and wait days to have your service restored because you haven't paid BT in 2.3 microseconds from the bill falling on your door step.
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bill

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Re: getting away from the local loop ie BT
Reply #1 - Jul 25^th, 2005 at 9:49am

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Just read in the Mail on Sunday that Talk Talk are now charging less than BT for line rental. So you can at last only have one bill and not have a hundred numbers to press to get to a BT operative and wait days to have your service restored because you haven't paid BT in 2.3 microseconds from the bill falling on your door step.

Or you could set up DD payments and never have to worry about that sort of thing.

You could then safely stay with BT for your (£1 a month cheaper) line rental and not have to worry about being barred from using an alternative call provider like 18866, 1899 etc. for the sake of a saving of a few pence per month.

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« Last Edit: Jul 25^th, 2005 at 9:51am by bill »

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bigjohn

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Re: getting away from the local loop ie BT
Reply #2 - Jul 25^th, 2005 at 11:39am

Quote:

Just read in the Mail on Sunday that Talk Talk are now charging less than BT for line rental. So you can at last only have one bill and not have a hundred numbers to press to get to a BT operative and wait days to have your service restored because you haven't paid BT in 2.3 microseconds from the bill falling on your door step.

Dont always believe what you read in the papers.Talk Talk have not launched this service yet.When they do launch it it is expected to be £9.99p a month by dd.

But is such a good idea moving for such a small saving.As Bill points out you are likely to lose the ability to call an alternative supplier if you so desire.Also if you use caller display with BT it is free now,where as TT are likely to charge about £1.50p a month which cancels out any savings you might make on the line rental.

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BJ.

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barrythai Newbie Offline Posts: 13	Re: getting away from the local loop ie BT Reply #3 - Jul 25^th, 2005 at 6:02pm Well at least it's a start from getting away from the local loop monopoly and maybe other providers will come in and make it even more cheaper.
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bill Full Member Offline Posts: 193	Re: getting away from the local loop ie BT Reply #4 - Jul 25^th, 2005 at 6:52pm Quote: Well at least it's a start from getting away from the local loop monopoly and maybe other providers will come in and make it even more cheaper. But the wider implications should not be overlooked.
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NonGeographicalMan

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Re: getting away from the local loop ie BT
Reply #5 - Jul 25^th, 2005 at 7:45pm

Quote:

Well at least it's a start from getting away from the local loop monopoly and maybe other providers will come in and make it even more cheaper.

You are locked in for 1 year minimum with TalkTalk (otherwise there are penalties for leaving early) and TalkTalk overcharge for 0870 and 0845 compared to BT.

Also speaking as a TalkTalk CPS customer routing almost no calls with them (mainly use 18866) their billing can't be trusted and is highly erratic and flakey.

They can bill for calls that never connected and for calls that you never even ever made on that phoneline.

And their customer service staff are dreadful. They make even BT customer service staff look like they care! Shocked

No one can significantly improve on BT for Line Rental because the useless bas***ds at Ofcom allow BT to sell wholesale line rental at the same retail price more or less that they charge to their own customers. The same useless bas***ds at Ofcom allow other telcos selling line rental to lock you into making all your calls with them. This renders any potential savings on line rental massively offset by people like TalkTalk having ripoff prices for international mobiles and for 0845 and 0870.

Move to TalkTalk for cheap billing and line rental at your peril is all I can say.

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« Last Edit: Jul 25^th, 2005 at 8:08pm by N/A »

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bbb_uk

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Re: getting away from the local loop ie BT
Reply #6 - Jul 25^th, 2005 at 7:52pm

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...Move to TalkTalk for cheap billing and line rental at your peril is all I can say.

I agree. It is likely (but not at first) that these other line rental providers once they have significant customers will block the use of indirect access numbers (Call18866, etc).

The t&c of TalkTalk & I think OneTel state that you are locked into a minimum term of 3months if transferring your line rental from BT otherwise it is 12months.

Keeping BT as your line rental provider provides much greater choice for us customers and we now get free caller display.

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NonGeographicalMan

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Re: getting away from the local loop ie BT
Reply #7 - Jul 25^th, 2005 at 8:13pm

Quote:

I agree. It is likely (but not at first) that these other line rental providers once they have significant customers will block the use of indirect access numbers (Call18866, etc).

The companies who already do and who have in the past offered a Wholesale Line Rental product have all gone for a situation where the only people you can route your calls with are them. That is that you can't route your calls with 18866, 1899 or even with BT. Shocked

My suspicion is that they have to do this because the only way they can afford to offer a lower line headline rental price than BT is by ripping you off with high call costs on which they make a decent profit margin subsequently.

Wholesale Line Rental is Ofcom's idea of competititon but sadly Its not Actually Real Competition as we know it Jim................

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Shiggaddi

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Re: getting away from the local loop ie BT
Reply #8 - Jul 26^th, 2005 at 6:34pm

Cable companies also do the same trick.

A few years ago, we had a cable line, and Eurobell (now part of Telewest) would not allow you to connect to the internet via ISPs on a prefix code. Only AOL on an 0800 number would be allowed.

Also Eurobell at the time didn't offer unmetered internet access, so I had to switch back to BT, just so I can have unmetered internet!!

At least Talk Talk, and OneTel allow you to connect to the net with whoever you want, even if they won't allow you to make phone calls from anyone else (unless you cheat and use a mobile with inclusive minutes lol)

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I realy hait itt wen peeple canot spel proply. Itt getts onn mye nervs sew mutch annd streses mee owt. Knot onley iz itt vary bade speling butt allso bade gramer.

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NonGeographicalMan

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Re: getting away from the local loop ie BT
Reply #9 - Jul 26^th, 2005 at 6:39pm

Quote:

At least Talk Talk, and OneTel allow you to connect to the net with whoever you want, even if they won't allow you to make phone calls from anyone else (unless you cheat and use a mobile with inclusive minutes lol)

Yes agreed so quite soon you could go for a bargain basement line rental and then make all your outbound calls over broadband via Voip. But at the moment convenient Voip equipment that can replace all your phones and is easy for all the family to use still isn't quite there yet.

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davewilks Newbie Offline Posts: 10	Re: getting away from the local loop ie BT Reply #10 - Jul 26^th, 2005 at 9:25pm Hi, There is no minimum contract term for line rental with OneTel, which is £9.99 by direct debit or automatic credit card payment. Dave
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dorf

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Re: getting away from the local loop ie BT
Reply #11 - Aug 1^st, 2005 at 10:29pm

Many seem to be missing the fact that line rental by other than BT was actually available many years ago now.

I was one of the original subscribers to Localtel. That was something of a disaster (at least their billing and customer service was) and eventually they became effectively insolvent.

As others suggest here it is risky at this stage for such a small saving to move from BT for line rental. Hopefully with full unbundling of the LL the situation may eventually change and there could be real savings to be made when other providers are able to tap into the local loop with an external connection service.

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Ofcom are completely ineffectual

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BexTech

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Re: getting away from the local loop ie BT
Reply #12 - Aug 3^rd, 2005 at 8:46am

At the moment I wouldn't recommend using other providers for line rental.

Is it really worth the hassle/implications just so one company can bill you for line rental and calls.

I am happy to use BT for line rental with free Caller Display, TalkTalk for the free calls, 1899 and 18866 for other calls, seems silly to save 51p on line rental only to have to pay £1.50+ on Caller Display and possibly be prevented on using 18866 and 1899 and dial-throughs.

If you have a problem with your line you would then have to deal with your new provider who would then have to deal with BT, no thanks not when you are worse off cost wise.

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Heinz

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Re: getting away from the local loop ie BT
Reply #13 - Aug 3^rd, 2005 at 9:09am

Wasn't BT's latest 'Free Caller Display' move a clever ploy?

There are no on-going costs because their equipment already produces the data anyway and the initial - probably automated - task of switching it on for particular lines is minimal or non-existent.

So they instantly caught the other LR providers out big time - the minimal cost savings on offer were instantly wiped out unless they could follow suit and, AFAIAA, none has (yet).

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After years of ignoring govt. guidelines & RIPPING OFF Council Tax payers using 0845 numbers, Essex County Council changed to 0345 numbers on 2 November 2015

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BexTech Junior Member Offline A Proud European! Posts: 66 Gender:	Re: getting away from the local loop ie BT Reply #14 - Aug 3^rd, 2005 at 9:13am Quote: Wasn't BT's latest 'Free Caller Display' move a clever ploy? I believe it was.
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