BT line rental going up to £16.99 per month

[jimbouk]

Makes you wonder what's going on when mobile companies can provide a line and a large amount of minutes, calls and data for similar money. Complete lack of competition I guess.

How many people would pay line rental if it wasn't needed for broadband? And I'm surprised there aren't more offerings linking up a mobile data plan with a physical iP phone and a geographic number, you could easily cobble it together with Skype and a data only contract for less.

[MrRockliffe]

I upload a lot of content to Google drive too - I back up my computer a lot so at the moment I leave it on almost 24/7. I seed what I take, mostly Linux distros to try on my laptop and phone roms. Uploading on my old adsl took ages, but now recently I've had a glitch on my vpn where I'm getting 100 up - take a look at my most recent speed test on the post that's floating around somewhere.

[Splash]

I operate a 4:1 seed policy, but then I'm not torrenting games... In terms of a glitch on your vpn... I'm assuming this is a university or similar?

[DanceswithUnix]

Makes you wonder what's going on when mobile companies can provide a line and a large amount of minutes, calls and data for similar money. Complete lack of competition I guess.

How many people would pay line rental if it wasn't needed for broadband? And I'm surprised there aren't more offerings linking up a mobile data plan with a physical iP phone and a geographic number, you could easily cobble it together with Skype and a data only contract for less.

BT looked into it, they called it "Naked ADSL" at the time. I think when they realised that most people would drop their land line like a thermonuclear spud they stopped looking with the excuse that their isn't any demand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_DSL#United_Kingdom

How is this: http://www.cordless-phones.uk.com/co...etooth-gateway

If you have a mobile, then when you get home your phones work off your mobile. Would pay for itself in 3 months. If you don't have a phone, you could get a cheap phone on contract from Tesco for £7.50 a month and still be better off in a few months.

So what do we pay BT for again?

[jimbouk]

It's disappointing that Virgin don't cater for broadband only competitively. I've had them before a few years ago and it was a lot cheaper to just go for a single item out of the three provided, but I'm assuming because there's no competition they're charging £26.50 pm for basic fibre on it's own yet £15.50 pm when you take it with a phone line (at £15.99 pm).

[Agent]

Voice lines are a 'cheap' way for them to add 'value'.

The additional cost is more about the upkeep of the physical network (your phone line goes down for example, and they need to send someone out). But I'd much rather see an approach of just paying for that, and not any call related stuff. I wonder if there would be any saving though and if the calls are almost free once it's factored in?

[Top_gun]

So what do we pay BT for again?

Champions League football.

[MrRockliffe]

I operate a 4:1 seed policy, but then I'm not torrenting games... In terms of a glitch on your vpn... I'm assuming this is a university or similar?

Nope just home broadband.

[BareBuns]

Does it actually cost internet companies for you to use a line? I guess repair costs across the country, but why don't they just do a fixed cost instead of having internet options+line rental.... oh... advertising...

[peterb]

So what do we pay BT for again?

Return on investment in the infrastructure, maintenance, future investment in infrastructure, R&D... 24x7 availability, obligatory 24x7 999 service....

[DanceswithUnix]

Return on investment in the infrastructure, maintenance, future investment in infrastructure, R&D... 24x7 availability, obligatory 24x7 999 service....

But mobile phone operators have much the same problem apart from the last mile which is a bit of copper that has been in place for 40 years. If anything I would have thought the upgrade cycle for mobile phone masts is worse than anything BT have to implement, yet their contracts start at £7.

I know a few people who have already dropped BT for a mobile only setup, if I didn't like having a static IP address I would be tempted to do the same.

[MrRockliffe]

Right so I've just moved house, around 500m away from my old one and I can no longer get fibre from bt. However when I look online it says that fibre is available in my area but when trying to order it through bt maximum speed is 5mb down. Sky offer a maximum of 76 down for my property - why is it BT don't?