Customer equipment - given a basic phone again?

[Gus]

It used to be when you got a BT line you got a BT phone supplied by them, ok that was decades ago but shouldn't that happen again?  Considering that fact that customers regularly now have no corded phone or they have a wireless DECT handset and they can't do the basic fault check for phone line noise.  Would it be a great hassle/cost to give every one with a phoneline account a very basic corded phone for that reason?

[Razorback]

I seem to recall rather than being given by BT they were rented. Years ago you didnt have the option to have your own telephone equipment. You can pick up a cheap corded phone for a fiver. I still have one in the cupboard from back in the day.

[HairyMcbiker]

Yep I am sure there used to be a "rental" charge on the phone bill way back in the 70's, I think that was when my dad bought a new phone.

[jelv]

That's correct. And when you said you didn't want it, and asked where should you send it back to, more often and not they said keep it!

[w23]

That's after they started replacing the hard-wired faceplates with sockets you could plug telephones into.

[catelliott]

Hi Gus,
I see where you're coming from, and it is a great idea, but unfortunately, it wouldn't be cost effective for us, as a company, to provide every customer with a phone handset. You can pick up simple handsets from a number of retailers for a reasonable price :)

[jelv]

I've just looked on Amazon and you can get a brand new BT handset for under a tenner!

[x47c]

Yes:
That was in the days when everything and all internal wiring phones etc was in  BT's (well GPO in those days) control.
You basically HAD to rent a phone for which you were charged.
Then the concept of the NTE5 socket came in being a demarcation point between the customer and BT.
At the same time now householders could do their own extension wiring internal to the house on their side of the NTE5 - with some of the dire results we have seen.
Did it change over at the point when the first tranche of GPO was privatised to become BT?
Basically this change allowed BT to offload internal house issues onto the customer so getting rid of lots of non revenue earning costs at the same time I'd imagine.
As ever its all costs
Around 25 million domestic properties in the UK
so BTOR supplies 1 phone to each at say  £5 cost each so that is £125m total bill
Then there is is admin/P&P/aggro whatever charges plus lost in post scenarios which is probably going to be the same/household again averaged out so you are getting on for a quarter of a billion pounds
Well we are now starting to talk serious money here!
So who wants to pay?

[Gus]

Lately seeing a number of threads all with the same issue, the customer can't do a basic fault check with their phone line as they have no phone at all or have a DECT handset.
Then the standard reply you can get one for £5-10, would you be happy if every ISP suddenly stopped supplying routers and modems/all in ones for ADSL/FTTC? I think not, so if I buy a phone service am I not buying the hardware to use it as well?

[catelliott]

Again, Gus, I do see where you're coming from, but these days, not all customers who have the phone line use it to make calls. In fact, it's becoming more and more common for people just to have it for the broadband :)

[peter10]

A very cheap corded phone can be picked up for £5-99 at Argos. If PN were to supply basic phones they would probably charge P & P as they do for ADSL routers so I can't see any benefit. I have very poor mobile reception so I bought a £5 corded phone from the now defunct Comet as in the case of a power cut my DECT phones wouldn't work. I certainly wouldn't want to pay even  slightly more for my phone and broadband package just to get a corded phone that I would rarely use.

[jelv]

Quote from: Gus

I think not, so if I buy a phone service am I not buying the hardware to use it as well?

You are not buying a phone line, you are buying a line which can be used to connect a phone, a fire or burglar alarm, a fax, to connect a Sky box to allow it to call home, an old or disabled persons emergency alarm and also for ADSL (and probably a few other things as well). Also 99.9% people coming to Plusnet from another provider will already have the phones they want. So why should Plusnet put up prices for everyone to supply something that in a lot of cases will just end up in the landfill unused?

[JayG]

People's telephony habits have changed much faster than copper telephone line technology, so there's little point PN adding to their costs by starting to supply a corded phone as part of the package now.
As Salmo has pointed out you need a corded phone as an alternative to a DECT during power cuts, so it has its uses apart from being a noise-detecting tool.

[HairyMcbiker]

Last corded phone I got I got from freecycle !

[picbits]

Last corded phone I gave away was on Freecycle !
There is no such thing as a free lunch. If PN gave every customer a basic phone, the majority would end up in a cupboard and we'd all have to pay for it somewhere along the line anyway as they would have to cover their costs by adding it to the bills somewhere. I have a few corded phones in a box in the attic. I've not used a corded phone for years. If I wanted to buy one I could nip down to Argos and grab one for a fiver (or used to be able to).