Main Contact Number 0845 458 9000 is now 01608 434 000

See: http://www.thephone.coop/about-us/news-and-press/2014/january/no-more-0845-and-0...

derrick wrote on Jan 28^th, 2014 at 11:01am:


I doubt very much it means that at all. 

Thanks for pointing out my mistake.

I used them for broadband and phone , was constantly getting interruptions in broadband service, now back with goold old BT, expensive but mainly reliable.

NGMsGhost wrote on Feb 14^th, 2014 at 11:50am:

Is it possible to switch from The Phone Co-op to Post Office Home Phone without having to revert back to a BT WLR (non-LLU) provider for which there may be a connection charge? My understanding is that both these providers use the wholesale services of TalkTalk.

Dave wrote on Feb 15^th, 2014 at 4:00am:


Yes it is possible to move from any WLR phone line rental provider to another WLR provider without going back to BT on phone line rental alone.  It would be quite outrageous if this was not the case given that BT try to impose a one year minimum contract period on returning customers with ancient ex-BT copper lines that they have made no recent investment in.  It is BT which has the most outrageous and highest monthly line rental increased nearly 150% in less than 10 years since the days of BT Standard whilst inflation has been less than 50%.

Where Post Office Homephone takes any services from TalkTalk it does so at a wholesale level.  The customer's relationship is not with TalkTalk and PostOffice Homephone's more generous contractual relationships for phone only with a one month contract continue to apply.   This is the same as the different between being with Tesco Mobile as distinct from directly with O2.

TalkTalk enabled an LLU on my exchange two years ago but I have been with Post Office Homephone for six or more years.  I have no idea if my phone line uses TalkTalk LLU equipment or not.  It certainly has no bar on using Indirect Access services like 18185 as I use them all the time.  It is possible that on a larger country exchange like mine with only 2,000 lines that Post Office Homephone has remained with BT as the costs of migration may outweigh the long term savings.

The bottom line is BT is the incumbent holder of their huge ancient network with numerous ancient unused copper line capacity.  If anyone wishes to come back to them they should be falling over backwards to accept them with open arms with a one month contract and an incredible deal on calls.  Instead of this they try to punish them for coming back with a 12 month contract and ripoff monthly line rental that can only be lowered through their iniquitous Line Advance product that is a massive bar on ever leaving them again (as you can only leave once a year without losing money).  Line Advance should be made illegal as a blatant inhibition on phone line competition (you can hardly ever change provider spontaneously without losing money) and a huge form of discrimination against the less well off who cannot afford to pay up front.

I get the impression Dave that you still wrongly seem to see BT with rose tinted spectacles as being some kind of best quality phone provider rather than as the evil monopolistic anti competitive ogre that it actually is in practice?????

In the long run my wish would be to ditch my fixed phone line completely specifically because of the ever spiralling and ever more unreasonable line rental cost.  Whether I can do so depends on how good any 4G mobile phone network services ever turn out to be in this particular locality.

Fortunately some ISP resellers of BT's phone services also do not insist on BT's ridiculous 12 month minimum contract period and only have a one month requirement.

See for instance:-

http://adsl24.co.uk/linerental/

http://www.aquiss.net/phone_line_rental.php,

the latter interestingly do not levy any Connection Fee on their itemised phone calls unlike BT and nearly all its main rivals who have just played Follow My Leader.

Although BT seems to be about to get away with blocking Indirect Access all that means is I will only us their wretched line to provide broadband service and start making all my phone calls on an Unlimited type mobile calls and data deal such as that with Virgin for £15 per month.  So BT's loss if they continue to behave like monopolistic bovver boys as they insist on continuing to do.  In this situation I would use a voip service like www.sipgate.co.uk to provide incoming calls to my friends at landline prices when I am at home.