LLU package Question

Sinny · 4 Aug 2010 at 17:29

Hi,

just a quick question.

currently I'm on an ADSL provider (ADSL24) and for the price that I'm paying (well parents) I've been tasked with finding something cheaper as the line rental for a bt landline is not exactly small.

Would I be able to go with someone say Be* and drop the BT landline rental (as I understand it you use the old copper network rather than BT's lines. or would we recur other charges?

cheers

Ryan111 · 4 Aug 2010 at 17:35

You need an active BT phone line to have Broadband. The only broadband that you can have without a BT phone line is Virgin Cable.

vsmora · 4 Aug 2010 at 18:12

Ryan111 said:
You need an active BT phone line to have Broadband. The only broadband that you can have without a BT phone line is Virgin Cable.

Or TalkTalk, Sky, Orange, AOL or any other combined LLU broadband/telephony provider.

Technically BT always own the "old copper network" lines that come to your house but you don't have to take your line rental from them. You do however have to pay someone for maintaining that phone line although combo bundles often can work out cheaper. If not BT then the line rental, broadband and phone calls will all have to be from the same provider. If you don't want a landline at all, then your choices are a 3G dongle/router or Virgin. Although in the case of Virgin their ridiculous pricing if you don't want their phone service means you may not end up saving anything e.g. TalkTalk inc line rental and some free calls is cheaper than Virgin's cheapest BB only.

Ryan111 · 4 Aug 2010 at 18:53

If he wants to have Be Broadband he will need a BT phone line.

vsmora · 4 Aug 2010 at 19:18

Agreed, just like the majority of ADSL providers Be need you to have BT line rental. There is a much smaller selection of combo providers, but my point was just to make it clear to the OP that there are alternatives besides paying Virgin and BT.

Ryan111 · 4 Aug 2010 at 19:28

If you get bundled into one of the LLU providers and phone line packages like what sky offers you will have to pay to have the line put back on to the BT network if you ever chose to move to a different ISP. Just a thought.

MissChief · 5 Aug 2010 at 00:11

I'm sure Sky can put your line back on for £39 but you need to sign up to Line rental and talk package for a minimum of 12 months.

edGfaCTor · 5 Aug 2010 at 18:04

MissChief said:
I'm sure Sky can put your line back on for £39 but you need to sign up to Line rental and talk package for a minimum of 12 months.

£39 fee is if say you move house and theres an active bt line at new place they will charge £39 to transfer it.

MissChief · 5 Aug 2010 at 22:10

£39 is for a new line provide, implying if you want a line at all that's been deactivated Sky can activate it for £39.

edGfaCTor · 6 Aug 2010 at 14:18

I thought that as well until I had to deal with Sky for a mate which I was told by 3 people on the phone and a manager it's not that price I even mentioned web site saying about it and they explained it's for transfers.

to the original poster how much are you paying a month then? because to me the bt line price isn't expensive at all with broadband you can get say o2/bt line for £25month which for virgin 10mb broadband alone it's £20

FoxEye · 6 Aug 2010 at 17:43

Ryan111 said:
If you get bundled into one of the LLU providers and phone line packages like what sky offers you will have to pay to have the line put back on to the BT network if you ever chose to move to a different ISP. Just a thought.

The reconnection fee is normally £130. It's one of the things I had to consider when going full LLU with TT. It's extortion, but that's what you get with good ol' BT.

edGfaCTor · 7 Aug 2010 at 16:27

FoxEye said:
The reconnection fee is normally £130. It's one of the things I had to consider when going full LLU with TT. It's extortion, but that's what you get with good ol' BT.

The price is very harsh but to be fair to bt it's not there fault ofcom has forced them to charge this high price

JonJ678 · 7 Aug 2010 at 18:55

I dislike whoever is responsible for the £130 surcharge. I appreciate that installing phone lines is expensive, but when I know my line was active a week ago it makes me ******* angry that bt want £130 to "reconnect" it.

On a useful note, you can pay line rental to the post office instead of to bt retail. Both act as front ends for bt openreach. The PO might be nicer people than bt retail, they might not. You do appear to be stuck with a phone line (posting from a 3G modem, not recommended as an alternative).

tolien · 7 Aug 2010 at 21:18

Ofcom did not force BT Retail to charge anything. They removed the regulation that capped the price - but you shouldn't be charged £130 if the line was active less than 6 months prior. The issue seems to be getting someone at BT's Ringding Centre who has the faintest hint of a clue.

edGfaCTor · 8 Aug 2010 at 17:56

tolien said:
Ofcom did not force BT Retail to charge anything. They removed the regulation that capped the price - but you shouldn't be charged £130 if the line was active less than 6 months prior. The issue seems to be getting someone at BT's Ringding Centre who has the faintest hint of a clue.

ofcom forces openreach who are bt so yes they are forced if this wasnt the case then why do all others charge basiclly the same amount for a line install.

6 months means nothing if it has been disconnected from the box an engineer has to go there and reconnect it this is why the fees high, if it is still connected at the box and no service is on the phone then theres no a high £130 charge a simple switch on is done.

I know this because I have spoke to bt engineers about it many times and to check before i posted this I asked one who lives 3 doors up from me.

jimbobaggies · 8 Aug 2010 at 18:02

Ryan111 said:
If you get bundled into one of the LLU providers and phone line packages like what sky offers you will have to pay to have the line put back on to the BT network if you ever chose to move to a different ISP. Just a thought.

No you don't, BT are more than happy to have you back as a customer, I was with talktalk and all that BT do is tie you into a 12/18 month contract if you move back. The phone line from your house to the exchange is maintained by BT Openreach no matter what provider you are with.... if you change back to BT it is just a lift and shift the same as if you change ISP for broadband.....

I am now with O2 for phone / broadband.

JonJ678 · 8 Aug 2010 at 19:34

tolien said:
but you shouldn't be charged £130 if the line was active less than 6 months prior.

This is interesting. Do you have a reference that I could quote at bt?

tolien · 8 Aug 2010 at 23:39

Can't recall it off the top of my head.

edGfaCTor said:
ofcom forces openreach who are bt so yes they are forced

Bzzt. Voice is deregulated and has been for some time (Indy), likewise Ofcom statement, etc.

if this wasnt the case then why do all others charge basiclly the same amount for a line install.

Erm, because they're charged a fee by Openreach so they're just passing it on?

6 months means nothing if it has been disconnected from the box

...which typically happens after how long?

I know this because I have spoke to bt engineers about it many times and to check before i posted this I asked one who lives 3 doors up from me.

If he told you Ofcom set the voice connection charge then they have either been telling you porkies or, shock horror, doesn't actually understand the whole thing (seeing as it's not their job...).

edGfaCTor · 9 Aug 2010 at 01:38

tolien said:
Can't recall it off the top of my head.

Bzzt. Voice is deregulated and has been for some time (Indy), likewise Ofcom statement, etc.

Erm, because they're charged a fee by Openreach so they're just passing it on?

...which typically happens after how long?

If he told you Ofcom set the voice connection charge then they have either been telling you porkies or, shock horror, doesn't actually understand the whole thing (seeing as it's not their job...).

Your links are a different matter we are on about new line install thos links are on about ofcom removing the forced price they had on bt for phone tariff/bundles like unlimited weekend calls sort of thing also they wouldnt allow bt to do different bundle like telephone/broadband/tv now they allow it.

yet again your not understanding openreach is bt owned which ofcom sets the policy heres it simple for you i own a company then split it two do different tasks which each task has a manager i still as the owner say what the company does this is how ofcom works openreach do line installs not bt retail.

others charge the same fee because they pay openreach to install the new line who has a set price they have to charge minimum (otherwise why would people like sky charge £100+ for new line install when bt do it for that price they surely would want to boast about doing it for say £60 compared to bt £120 only virgin charge low prices because they don't use bt openreach)

bt will diconnect when ever they want if someone seize they are moving then they turn of the service so dial tone is still present then say an engineer is going to that junction box after 30 day for another job they will do it then if not it will be before 3 months period if that line is not used again in that period.

what do you mean by not there job openreach do new line installs thats there job to deal with the lines bt retail is the money side selling the products and they may deal with odd faults on lines.