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BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006 (Read 24,377 times)
NonGeographicalMan
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #15 - Jan 8th, 2006 at 10:48pm
 
Tanllan wrote on Jan 8th, 2006 at 10:31pm:
So it is no coincidence that Ofcom Towers, 2a Southwark Bridge Road was previously BT's Riverside House...


As you know I was already always an ardent conspiracy theorist so far as the relationship between OFTEL (who originally took on 2a Southwark Bridge Road from BT I imagine) and BT was concerned but to now learn of this disgrace only further enhances my pre-existing conviction of Ofcom and OFTEL before it being basically in BT's pocket.
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« Last Edit: Jan 8th, 2006 at 10:50pm by N/A »  
 
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Tanllan
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #16 - Jan 8th, 2006 at 11:13pm
 
Quote:
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.

And Anonymous Call Rejection (ACR) should not be charged at the current punitive rate, but free. You want to talk to me? Release a real number (yup, real, so no scamming).
Rip-Off Britain (
ROB
) again.
"Unavailable" was a valid compromise before the CLI rules were rewritten. It accommodated all manner of commercial, police and security requirements, but has now been superseded. Come on Ofcom - help the citizen-consumer.
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Dave
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #17 - Apr 1st, 2006 at 4:08pm
 
I've just received my latest telephone bill and contained within it is BT chief propaganda leaflet, BT Update.

Why is it that it is always behind in those pesky price increases? No mention of the latest; the minimum charge going up. However there is talk about the increase in line rental of 50p. Shouldn't this have been printed at least three months ago before the increase?  Roll Eyes

The booklet starts with a message from Ms Jillian G Lewis, Customer Services Director, entitled "Important information for BT customers - our commitment to value." The first paragraph mentions the aforementioned increases:
Quote:
At BT, we are committed to providing great value for all our customers, by constantly developing innovative new products and delivering high quality services. To continue to do this, it's occasionally necessary to raise some of our prices a little. So from 1st January 2006, our basic line rental price increased by 50p for some customers. We understand that price rises are never welcome, so we will continue to innovate and introduce new products like BT Privacy and Friends & Family Auto Update, which give you extra benefits and help you save money.


Let's look at this statement in more detail:
At BT, we are committed to providing great value for all our customers, by constantly developing innovative new products and delivering high quality services.
Business speak for "We are providing a service."

To continue to do this, it's occasionally necessary to raise some of our prices a little.
Just how occasional are price rises that seem to be occuring every month? The sentence ends by saying that prices are being raised "a little."

So from 1st January 2006, our basic line rental price increased by 50p for some customers.
So all of those little but occasional changes have resulted in BT's effective basic line rental increasing by 50% within two years.

We understand that price rises are never welcome, so we will continue to innovate and introduce new products like BT Privacy and Friends & Family Auto Update, which give you extra benefits and help you save money.
More business speak for "We will allow certain 'reductions' to counteract those price increases for those customers who generate the most revenue for us." BT Privacy being a new 'innovative product' combining caller display that has been charged for all these years and inclusion on the Telephone Preference Service list, something that any UK citizen may register for regardless. Friends & Family Auto Update, a service that conveniently excludes 0845 numbers such as those used (by fewer and fewer) pay as you go ISPs.

Now I agree with Ms Lewis that price rises are never welcome. However, the common ground stops there. If the water companies put up rates and made an effort to curb leaks by taking on extra staff, then I think we would agree that the increase is a worthwhile one.

But BT waffles on about creating 'products' which, IMO, aren't worthy of such increases and are invariably ways of charging the low user more and giving the benefits to high users.
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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #18 - Apr 1st, 2006 at 5:06pm
 
Dave wrote on Apr 1st, 2006 at 4:08pm:
Now I agree with Ms Lewis that price rises are never welcome. However, the common ground stops there. If the water companies put up rates and made an effort to curb leaks by taking on extra staff, then I think we would agree that the increase is a worthwhile one.


This Jillian G Lewis seems to be a fictional computer derived image to represent the nice cuddly female face of BT instead of the reality of its avowedly exclusively male main board of directors.  I have tried emailing both Jillian.Lewis@bt.com and Jillian.G.Lewis@bt.com and the emails bounce back. Emails to Ben.Verwaayen@bt.com and Ian.Livingston@bt.com do not bounce and indeed I regularly receive short replies from them on their Blackberries as they jet around the globe.

And don't knock the water companies there Dave.  They only charge me £5.50 a quarter for my meter standing charge and the water only costs about £20 on top a quarter even though they are a monopoly.  Electricity standing charge per quarter is also £5.50 and gas is £11 per quarter.  I suspect gas is more expensive to maintain the network on because any leaks requre a visit by Transco within 1 hour.  So against all that how do we explain BT charging £33 per quarter for their 30 year old copper wire line even if you don't use it for calls but only need it because you are in the countryside and want a broadband connection.  And they have the cheek to charge for features like Call Diversion and Call Waiting, which in any case earn them extra calls money if you use them.

BT Option 1 my foot.  Its BT Compulsion 1 as far as I'm concerned and the line rental is propping up all of their huge. bloated and massively inefficient BT empire.
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« Last Edit: Apr 1st, 2006 at 11:14pm by N/A »  
 
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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #19 - Apr 1st, 2006 at 11:15pm
 
bill wrote on Apr 1st, 2006 at 7:12pm:
....... bloated ......... but 'boated' may fit just as well.


Due to an edit of my earlier post you will find that your comments have been left high and dry. Wink Grin
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« Last Edit: Apr 3rd, 2006 at 12:22am by N/A »  
 
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Dave
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #20 - Apr 2nd, 2006 at 4:59pm
 
Quote:
And don't knock the water companies there Dave. ...

I wasn't knocking them; my point was that price increases should be justified. Ms Lewis has not justified these increases as far as I am concerned. She has confirmed similarly to BT 'compulsion' 1, caller display, the principal and only BT provided service in BT Privacy will be paid for whether we want to or not. So all those 50ps from everyone will generate more income than the £1.75 from those who BT held to ransome all these years.

Quote:
... So against all that how do we explain BT charging £33 per quarter for their 30 year old copper wire line even if you don't use it for calls but only need it because you are in the countryside and want a broadband connection. ...

So are we actually benefiting from privatisation within the telecommunications industry or is it all just an illusion?

Quote:
BT Option 1 my foot.  Its BT Compulsion 1 as far as I'm concerned and the line rental is propping up all of their huge. bloated and massively inefficient BT empire.

I was under the impression that competition within the telecommunications industry was to make it work more efficiently.
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bbb_uk
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Re: BT Increase Line Rental Charges from 1/1/2006
Reply #21 - Apr 2nd, 2006 at 6:10pm
 
Dave wrote on Apr 2nd, 2006 at 4:59pm:
So all those 50ps from everyone will generate more income
I believe part of the reason for the 50p increase was due to bloody useless ofcon insisting that there should be a wider difference in price between basic residential line rental (BT Compulsion 1) and what BT charge for WLR.  This is fine but had Ofcon thought in advance or used a little anticipation then they could have made BT do this and force BT to keep the cost of the basic residential line rental the same so in other words force BT to reduce their profit margins slightly instead of BT increasing costs elsewhere to make up for the shortfall in revenue.

Ofcon, as usual, didn't use their brains!  Something similar happened when they forced the mobile networks to reduce their connection rates for calls terminating on their own networks.  The mobile networks reluctantly agreed to this but at the same time increased rates in other areas such as texts, etc.

In my opinion, it is pointless Ofcon forcing any of price changes on telecom providers unless they (ofcon) stipulate that they can't increase prices in other areas to compensate the loss of all those revenues they receive.

From the telecom companies point of view, they don't want to lose all that revenue so if they're forced to reduce their prices in one area then they simply increase them in other areas to compensate.  This of course applies to all companies and not just telecom companies.
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« Last Edit: Apr 2nd, 2006 at 6:12pm by bbb_uk »  
 
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