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BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006 (Read 24,546 times)
bigjohn
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BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Dec 16th, 2005 at 1:35am
 
BT are to increase their line rental charges on opt 1 package on the  1/1/2006 from £10.50p to £11.00 a month.

See  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/15/bt_wlr/    

Also  http://www.btplc.com/News/Articles/ShowArticle.cfm?ArticleID=64b356d0-9494-422f-...
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« Last Edit: Dec 16th, 2005 at 1:51am by bigjohn »  

BJ.
 
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Dave
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #1 - Dec 16th, 2005 at 2:08am
 
Quote:
According to regulator Ofcom this is important because if telcos want to compete effectively with dominant telco BT - which has some 18m punters - they need "a clear margin between the wholesale price they pay to rent a telephone line from BT, and the price that they charge their retail customers for line rental".

Only Ofcom could possibly view such price rises as "a good thing."  Roll Eyes

So that's a 50% increase in BT's most basic residential line tariff in the last 18 months.

Quote:
"Increasing this margin will mean greater competition in the calls and line rental market, expanding consumer choice and increasing value for consumers as more providers compete for their custom," said the regulator today.

Ah yes, force up the amount most pay for line rental and then that magical force known as competition will work. Now why does this remind me of the way in which 0870 is charged at BT's 'non-discounted' national rate, just so that there'll be plenty of the pie left for all those competiting 0870 telcos?  Roll Eyes
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mc661
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #2 - Dec 16th, 2005 at 11:13am
 
again?

This just prooves that OfCon doesnt give a sh** about us consumers.
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« Last Edit: Dec 16th, 2005 at 11:14am by mc661 »  
 
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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #3 - Dec 16th, 2005 at 9:28pm
 
I hope that some sort of WiMax may turn up in the southern Surrey countryside in the next 12 months and then it will be bye bye BT line rental and hello WiMax and Voip phone calls.

It may also be worth everyone reading this thread filing a complaint with BT Complaints Review service (more like BT Couldn't Give a Toss About Complaints in my experience) about the fact that it is only possible to be on the BT Light User Scheme if you don't have broadband on a phone line.  This becomes a more and more disgraceful requirement as BT Compulsion 1's cost spirals upwards and out of coutrol.  It would be worth taking such a complaint to deadlock with BT and then taking this on to www.otelo.org.uk for adjudication.

See www.bt.com/customerservices/cust_details.jsp?parentcat=cs_complaint_service&chil... for more details on how to file a complaint.  As BT Complaints Review is so shockingly incompetently that it routinely fails to take any further action on the complaint you will need to take a record of the date you complain and then chase them again one month later.
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gdh82
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #4 - Dec 16th, 2005 at 10:26pm
 
qtel wrote on Dec 16th, 2005 at 4:49pm:
For those who believe geographic calls are free of charge, the point I was trying to make is that there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Everything has to paid for.



I completely agree qtel.

I seriously doubt, however, that few people on this forum believe geographic calls are free of charge.  Even those of us who have an inclusive call plan understand that it is only by paying a monthly figure, we then recieve  'free calls'.  More accurately these 'free calls' are merely 'prepaid calls'.

As you say, everything has to be paid for.
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« Last Edit: Dec 16th, 2005 at 10:27pm by gdh82 »  

There's more of us that them, stick together and challenge 0870/0845 etc etc
 
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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #5 - Dec 16th, 2005 at 11:05pm
 
But the £33 a quarter or £132 a year line rental BT want won't pay for a penny piece of the calls I make with 1899, 18185 etc.  It will only pay BT to continue to run its grotesquely inefficient and bloated BT Retail with its endless pointless customer call centre workers etc.  The only thing you can do with an outfit like BT is to shoot it, write off its debts and start again.  Then we might start to see some vaguely sensibly priced line rental for the millions of customers living in rural areas who cannot take their line rental from anyone other than BT.

How is it that BT used to be able to rent me a line at £22.20 or so a quarter (after calls rebated) but now it charges it competitors nearly £6 more than this for wholesale line rental.  WLR is a scam which Ofcom has as usual signed off because it is a totally and utterly corrupted organisation that never ever takes a brave or radical approach to dealing with unfair anticompetitive behaviour by BT. Angry
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« Last Edit: Dec 17th, 2005 at 12:08am by DaveM »  
 
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gdh82
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #6 - Dec 16th, 2005 at 11:21pm
 
Don't get me wrong, NGM, I'm in no way supporting BT's increase in line rental.  I was merely countering qtel's suggestion that forum members believe that geographic calls are free (which I'm sure no one here thinks anyway!).

It seems to me to be a desperate measure by BT.  Either they want to lose customers (unlikely) or they bank on the vast majority of their customers not being aware of this increase (or at least not until their next bill) and so in meantime pocket 50p x many million per month.  Easy money when you get away with it. Thanks again Ofcom for looking after our interests here.

It follows, in a twisted sort of logic, that the only way this line rental increase can be in the interests in competitions, is if BT line rental customers en masse buy their line rental elsewhere.  But is this going to happen ?  I doubt it (unfortunately).
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« Last Edit: Dec 16th, 2005 at 11:22pm by gdh82 »  

There's more of us that them, stick together and challenge 0870/0845 etc etc
 
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bigjohn
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #7 - Dec 17th, 2005 at 9:13am
 
gdh82 wrote on Dec 16th, 2005 at 11:21pm:
It follows, in a twisted sort of logic, that the only way this line rental increase can be in the interests in competitions, is if BT line rental customers en masse buy their line rental elsewhere.  But is this going to happen ?  I doubt it (unfortunately).


This thread on the MSE site http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=125791 gives some good reasons not to move your rental.
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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #8 - Dec 17th, 2005 at 9:53am
 
bigjohn wrote on Dec 17th, 2005 at 9:13am:
This thread on the MSE site http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=125791 gives some good reasons not to move your rental.


Basically BT Caller Display will cost you more than the so called line rental saving per quarter with one of these other WLR firms so unless you can live without caller display (and that is the one BT Network Service I cannot do without) there is no saving on the line rental.  Then the incomptent and toothless regulator has allowed all these WLR companies to stop you making calls with anyone but that company using indirect access codes - so no 1899 or 18185.  The only workaround is either Voip or alternatively using dial through phone services on 0844 and 0871 etc (dialaround, abroadtel etc).   I don't like the latter services for most of my calls because when you look at a bill you have no idea who you were calling.  Also they charge you for calls that are not answered.

If the regulator wasn't totally useless it wouldn't have allowed these WLR firms to block indirect access because it means these WLR firms aren't offering the same service.  Not forcing them to at least allow the 1280 code to route calls with BT is quite outrageous.

With regards to the BT Line Rental increase they are only doing it because Ofcom are twisting their arm to do so in order to make it looks as though it is achieving something with the Unfit for Purpose WLR product.  Ofcom think we would be better off with TalkTalk who are doing their damndest to let the 084/7 call charge ripoff continue.

However as the WLR firm doesn't deliver the broadband service I assume there is no way they can block the Voip ports on the broadband part of the line?
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« Last Edit: Dec 17th, 2005 at 9:54am by N/A »  
 
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Dave
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #9 - Dec 17th, 2005 at 8:46pm
 
Quote:
Basically BT Caller Display will cost you more than the so called line rental saving per quarter with one of these other WLR firms [...]

I think that it's a complete rip-off to have to pay extra for caller ID. Does it really cost that much, or is this private companies holding us all to ransom? What's more, the saving with having 'free' caller display has now be negated by the increases in price of the line rental.

The way in which mobile providers are allowed to charge far higher prices to 0845/0870, and freephone especially, than geographical numbers only serves to illustrate that this 'choice' that we all supposedly have is a complete nonsense.

Another example is the plethora of directory enquiries services. Why do we pay a complete fortune for all this? Before all this 118, Talking Pages was on a freephone number. Now it is "new and improved" for which you have to pay for it! What's more, with the internet you can look it up for free. Surely this is a dying market.
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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #10 - Dec 17th, 2005 at 9:38pm
 
Dave wrote on Dec 17th, 2005 at 8:46pm:
Another example is the plethora of directory enquiries services. Why do we pay a complete fortune for all this? Before all this 118, Talking Pages was on a freephone number. Now it is "new and improved" for which you have to pay for it! What's more, with the internet you can look it up for free. Surely this is a dying market.


Help pay voice Directory Enquiry services die by calling 0800 0192190 for directory enquiries instead.  That still seems to be free for DQ even though Onetel isn't any longer

Although I normally use www.192.com or www.yell.com for looking up phone numbers one still has to call the voice service for someone who is not in the directory but available "on request".  I also used to need to call the voice based service to do a nationwide company search but now I find that www.192.com does allow nationwide searches, unlike www.bt.com/directoryenquiries
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« Last Edit: Dec 17th, 2005 at 9:45pm by Dave »  
 
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joe65
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #11 - Jan 1st, 2006 at 3:13am
 
Dave wrote on Dec 17th, 2005 at 8:46pm:
Quote:
Basically BT Caller Display will cost you more than the so called line rental saving per quarter with one of these other WLR firms [...]

The way in which mobile providers are allowed to charge far higher prices to 0845/0870, and freephone especially, than geographical numbers only serves to illustrate that this 'choice' that we all supposedly have is a complete nonsense.

Another example is the plethora of directory enquiries services. Why do we pay a complete fortune for all this? Before all this 118, Talking Pages was on a freephone number. Now it is "new and improved" for which you have to pay for it! What's more, with the internet you can look it up for free. Surely this is a dying market.


It's the obtuse outcome of the type of selective 'Competition' in this country, which only serves to Drive UP prices.  The extra we pay of course is required to cover the costs of maintaining the illusion, that it's actually good for us.
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Dave
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #12 - Jan 8th, 2006 at 9:40pm
 
Putting aside those people who are still paying for it, has anyone stopped to think how this move of making caller ID free coupled with the 50p increase in monthly line rental benefits BT?

Put it this way, the 50p increase on every line is the equivalent of 2 lines in 7 paying £1.75 for caller ID. I doubt that the uptake of paid-for caller ID was that great, so I think that BT, yet again, quietly increased its revenue by more than it appears at first. Oh, and ironically it has undercut other providers who still charge for such services.
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« Last Edit: Jan 8th, 2006 at 9:52pm by Dave »  
 
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Tanllan
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #13 - Jan 8th, 2006 at 10:31pm
 
Dave wrote on Jan 8th, 2006 at 9:40pm:
...so I think that BT, yet again, quietly increased its revenue by more than it appears at first. Oh, and ironically it has undercut other providers who still charge for such services.

So it is no coincidence that Ofcom Towers, 2a Southwark Bridge Road was previously BT's Riverside House...
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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #14 - Jan 8th, 2006 at 10:45pm
 
If Ofcom wasn't so utterly useless at protecting the consumer they would have made it illegal to charge for any fixed line Network Service for which the original development and equipment cost has long since been written off, as is clearly the case with Caller ID which was developed back in the 1980s.  Also how does Ofcom justify fixed line networks being able to charge for a service that every mobile phone product provides for free?  Given that Caller Display protects customers against nuisance calls you would have thought Ofcom would have insisted on this and would also have stopped the Number Unavailable (as opposed to Number Withheld) nonsense that applies to so many calls from corporate and hotel switchboards.

If Wholesale Line Rental was to be Fit for Purpose (which it most definitely is not) then all call providers would have to allow routing through indirect access codes (1899, 18185 etc and even 1280 for BT) although I would not force them to offer CPS which I think is only an obligation that needs to be imposed on BT.  In addition BT would be forced to rent Network Service products to other carriers at costs which ensured that the other telcos could offer them at prices no higher than those chaged by BT.

Wholesale Line Rental is an utter disgrace because at the back of it is Ofcom just accepting BT's utterly distorted figures for how much it claims it costs to provide a copper wire phone line to each uk household per quarter.  Also utterly disgraceful is that Ofcom haven't forced BT to ablished the out of date Light User and In Contact Plus schemes and replace them with a simple low cost minimal standing charge line rental product available to any customer not routing many calls with BT.  My mother was told she couldn't have Light User Scheme on her second line that is there only for a burglar alarm link because she was foolish enough to admit to owning a Pay as You Go mobile on the Fresh network.  But what has this got to do with BT's operating costs for the line or the use my mother gets out of that line?  Answer - precisely nothing at all.
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