Outdated landlines charges should be scrapped?

[#1]

I understand there as been articles from Ofcom and BBC about Outdated landlines charges should be scrapped?

When are Plus Net my provider going to called it a day on landlines charges that are unfair who don’t used the LANDLINE Service I only used broadband!

PlusNet Customer Services don’t know about it so do you have Email Address and the person at Plus Net who doses know

Its so frustrating

[#2]

Hey Pete,

Appreciate your point, I also only use my mobile too. However the unfortunate matter is that your broadband relies on a working telephone line to operate. Until technology becomes a little bit less reliant on having a phone line, (there are a few bits and bobs in the works for standalone broadband) then unfortunately we'll always be charging for the landline too.

What may change in the near future, is that you may start seeing bundled costs for both your phone and broadband together, showing a complete price. Appreciate this isn't a cut of the cost, but it'll probably give things a little bit more clarity.

Matty

[#3]

As a line is needed surely it is not beyond the capabilities of technology to block outgoing / incoming calls on the line, thus eliminating the potential for a user to accrue a debt. And with this ability removed then reduce the cost of the 'phone line' to provide a 'broadband carrier'.

[#4]

A&A already do for £12 per month http://aaisp.net/broadband-phoneline.html

[#5]

@Anonymous- I guess so, though I presumed it was the line rental, rather than the call charges that @peteholland was talking about.

[#6]

@MattyC - Yes, it would be (line rental), but that 'line' allows you to make and receive calls so if that facility were removed it would be no more than a carrier for your broadband, so in theory the cost could be eliminated or reduced as it serves no other purpose and is redundant without broadband.

[#7]

Blocking outgoing calls is possible, it is just not a feature/add-on that we offer unfortunately.

[#8]

@HarryB - Maybe something to think about for the future.

[#9]

It's been discussed quite in depth. Most recently, being yesterday:

https://community.plus.net/t5/Phone/Cannot-bar-mobile-numbers-dial-led-from-landline/td-p/1328413

It's a commercial decision as far as I know.

[#10]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Yes, it would be (line rental), but that 'line' allows you to make and receive calls so if that facility were removed it would be no more than a carrier for your broadband, so in theory the cost could be eliminated or reduced as it serves no other purpose and is redundant without broadband.

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However, the line rental is (supposedly) to cover the cost of maintaining the line, independent of length. If you use the line, it needs maintaining, including the ability to test for faults. Think of the complaints on here if maintenance was "charged by length"

I wonder how people would feel if there was a charge for installation and maintenance of the remote test equipment or the deployment of an engineer in order to test the last segment of the line to the home

Our younger son refuses to answer his land line phone, so we only get to talk to him, by phone, when he phones us as we refuse to pay the exorbitant charges to ring his mobile

Phil

[#11]

The BT 'naked VDSL' aka SoGEA is described on page 25 of this presentation:

https://www.btwholesale.com/assets/documents/Previous_Events/ISP_Forum/ISP_Forum_3_February_2015_Sli...

Note that the E-Side line is still required for diagnostics.  For someone who has no use of a voice service, maintaining the exchange to cabinet connection purely to support diagnostics does seem a bit backward, especially as a fault on the (unused) voice circuit could have a detrimental effect on the VDSL performance.

However, don't expect BT to reduce the wholesale cost for naked VDSL significantly and, given that the retail cost of line rental bears little resemblance to the wholesale cost anyway, for ISP's to offer much in the way of a reduction either.  The UK broadband market is too firmly entrenched in keeping the headline price of the internet connection low and blatantly subsidising it from line rental income to change overnight!

As I've mentioned before, I feel really sorry for phone customers who require voice service but don't need (or have) broadband.  They're being royally fleeced in order to keep broadband prices low and, of course, they're not best placed for investigating the market to find those providers that do offer a reasonable rental price

[#12]

Line rental is indeed supposed to cover the cost of maintenance. We all pay the same, and faults are dealt with free at the time of need. Better that, I think, than paying no rental, but being charged maybe a grand or more for a repair.

However, it seems to me, and many others, that of late the price has been unfairly ramped up to compensate for the ridiculously cheap offers made by ISPs for broadband.

[#13]

Taking in to consideration what has been said above then it's a bit of a no win situation. Since a line is needed to carry the broadband, and that line needs to be maintained it has to cost something. So if you add that cost to the cost of broad band then some would complain that their being charged too much for broadband!

[#14]

Surely then if you have FTTP , you will not have a phone line so FTTP is the obvious way forward for BB only connections

[#15]

Thats right @rongtw We have a few people on FTTP only connections.