Do I need a Landline if I have FTTP

[Lordsnooty]

Iniltous, thanks for that. The breakdown of my cost are the following:-
Broadband - £54.99 - Fibre 100 with Halo 2
Line Rental - £19.99 - with using Line saver
Total - £74.99
I get around 115mpbs on average it very rarely goes above that. I don't think I would interested in breaking my contract with those ETC costs involved but surely I could get a better deal when the contract ends at maybe getting more speed for the same price. No I don't have TV or TV Sport but I do have mobile which is another £39 (but that is a family plan of three mobiles and I haven't included that £39 extra in my costs. But if I did that would be over a £110 a month...quite a bit of money I'm paying out to BT no matter which way you look at it. Do you see any savings to be gained in any of those costs?....I don't, unless I take a slower package which I don't want to do

[garybs29]

Do you have 2 lines or something? The 54.99 should include line rental as well

[Lordsnooty]

No....but I agree with your assumption as I have just been looking at their deals and their Full Fibre 300 with Halo 2 is £35 a month with Landline rental on top of that.....which is roughly what I'm paying now with slower speeds. Would you agree?

[Lordsnooty]

oh and I just checked my wireless speed no and it is roughly 90mbps....which I know can vary but it's definitely never near the 150mbps quoted but I also know that would be the ultimate speed if I had ethernet at the router and I suppose I probably would be getting near to that speed if I was to do it

[Lordsnooty]

Sorry, guys I have just been looking at my bill and it appears the way the bill is laid out I have been reading it wrongly. My fault but honestly it is so confusing the way this bill is set out

They say that the £54.99 includes the line rental and then later on down the page they take that £19.99 off

So you are correct it is £35 a month and then on top of that is the £19.99......but I have seen that for that same money I could get an increase in speed to the Fibre 300. What do you think?

And again sorry for the confusion

[iniltous]

I think you still are misunderstanding the way ‘broadband’ is marketed, if Fibre 100 is £40 ( that’s the current price on BT.COM) thats it, it’s the total you pay, no plus line rental, it’s included....you still seem to think there is more to add, there isn’t.
If you pay for Halo 2 with Fibre 100, the £54.99 includes LR, if you pay separately another amount you are being incorrectly charged.....if you have a line rental saver, it complicates the bill, because you have paid for 12 months in advance the (arbitrary) LR amount, so there should be adjustments on the bill to take this into account, but you certainly shouldn’t be paying LR twice.

As far as FTTP is concerned, it’s a totally different way of ‘syncing’ up, with a rate adaptive system like ADSL or VDSL (FTTC)  distance is the main factor in the speed you get, you could be on an system that can theoretically deliver 80Mb, but on a longer lines you don’t get that, the rate is negotiated ( rate adaptive) to suit your line conditions, with FTTP, there is no negotiation as there is effectively no distance related losses, you pay for 150 Mb, your speed is set as that ( so in basic terms you are sync’d at 150 Mb) the advertising authority demand that the speed advertised has to be speed you get , not sync speed, at peak times , and that at least 50% of the customers on that product get it, that’s why it’s called Fibre 100, you are going to get at least 100 Mb, but in reality better, but any testing has to be ‘wired’, not a WiFi device.

I think you need to speak to BT, it’s possible that your plan has been set up wrong and you are being double charged the LR element, or it’s possible the bill , which are not the easiest things in the world to understand, has credits added to balance out the LRS payment...if you are being charged an extra £20 for line rental when the £54.99 includes LR, then obviously you should be refunded any overpayment and your bill adjusted so you don’t continue to over pay

[Lordsnooty]

iniltous, you are totally correct I am reading that bill wrongly....the way they have that bill set out is totally confusing.....it is further down the bill that they take the £19.99 off
Sorry for that misinformation.

[iniltous]

TBH, although rarely look at my bill detail , the last time I did , it wasn’t the easiest thing to decipher, but at least you know now what the costs are,

looking ahead , with the current ( list ) price, you are paying around £15 more than necessary,  for the Halo element of the deal, that may be something , if you at some point decide you could do without , you presumably could give this up to reduce the total amount , or IMHO, when time for renewal ( in 8 months ) you presumably could negotiate.

I wasn’t aware of the  difference between Halo 1 and 2 , but it seems you can get a BT ( not OR ?) visit to sort out your home network on Halo 2, if your WiFi speeds are not what you expected, perhaps you could arrange one of the visits included in H2 , to see if wireless performance can be improved 

[Lordsnooty]

Oh, are saying I can get rid of the Halo part of the deal? It appears that for the same price as I am paying now £35 a month I can get the Fibre 300 and get faster speeds....do you not think that would be worth going for because I am paying that already? What do you think?
Thanks again for being so helpful, it is much appreciated

[iniltous]

Isn’t it the case you are ‘only’ paying £35 because of LRS ( you paid £216 upfront ?) , so it’s really £55 including H2, you probably couldn’t drop the Halo until the end of the minimum term ( 8 months )

I only checked the Fibre 100 price to compare the new customer price to what you pay, I don’t know the price of Fibre 300, if the list price of F100 is £40, it would be odd if F300 is less, ( that’s list price , negotiations can sometimes get discounts )

TBH, it’s quite possible that for the same monthly fee , you could get a speed upgrade , wether that would be available now ( whilst you have 8 months left of your current deal) or could be negotiable now , I don’t know , you could always try contacting them, but you probably would be in a better position to haggle closer to the end of your current deal .

I wasn’t suggesting Halo not worth keeping , I just assumed it was a reduction in price you wanted to achieve, but if the price now you know the bill breakdown is fine, the Halo of value to you, then perhaps when negotiating, you state the price is OK, but a little more speed would be good, TBH at a wholesale level giving more bandwidth for committing to a longer term, may be good for both party’s