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Message 1 of 10

Line Rental Getting Expensive !!

Line rental charges are going UP very soon.

Why do I, or other BT customers have to pay Line Rental who are using FTTP and Not FTTC.

The Copper Wire Circuits have been removed from our local network for some time and therefore BT should consider to remove the line rental charges fully from our monthly bill keeping Only the Broadband charges.

Will any body in the Forum would agree with me??

9 REPLIES 9
3,386 Views
Message 2 of 10

Re: Line Rental Getting Expensive !!

The line charge is for the line, whether that is full fibre or copper. Without the line you would not get broadband through either medium.

If you have a broadband only package the line rental is included in the price and is not billed separately and you can not do away with it. 

There are numerous other posts about this on the forum if you use the search facility. 

3,368 Views
Message 3 of 10

Re: Line Rental Getting Expensive !!

No one with any understanding of this would agree with you.


Someone with broadband  doesn’t have the term ‘landline’ on their bill , they have a charge for providing the broadband service , the physical medium used to get the service to someone’s property, copper pair , hybrid copper / fibre ( FTTC ) or FTTP quite reasonably needs to be paid for…with BT there isn’t any difference in the price just because of the different medium used , the price differences are only for speed and or facilities provided…simply being on FTTP doesn’t mean the network doesn’t need to be paid for.


The only people who see it on their bill and pay ‘line rental’ as an item on the phone bill , are telephony only customers , and line rental can mean copper or fibre, although it’s unclear if there are actually any FTTP telephony only customers, but it is possible, are you suggesting they shouldn’t pay ‘line rental’ ?


Its a separate discussion to state if Fibre is more reliable and cheaper , then shouldn’t service on FTTP be cheaper than copper pairs , but , much like buying a stamp isn’t cheaper if you post a letter to someone in the same town rather than the other end of the country, it’s a standard pricing model , Ofcom would be all over differentiating between FTTC and FTTP given that some cannot get both, but your implication is that line rental is no longer needed as copper lines are being replaced is daft.

3,361 Views
Message 4 of 10

Re: Line Rental Getting Expensive !!

I paid and still paying Line Rental for last 45 years, never complained because land line has to be maintained due to many engineering issues developed on old Copper Wire Circuits.

Now where I live is Fully Fibre Network to my premisses. Less or No maintenances at all. I have not seen an Open Reach engineers for a very long time. When Copper Wire network was used Open Reach engineers visited to my premisses many times to fix line problems perhaps three times a month.

Now, the engineers driving time and as Parts & Labour is Zero, Zero Zero....

That was why I posted "Line Rental Getting Expensive !!" earlier today.

Any comments are appreciated.

3,351 Views
Message 5 of 10

Re: Line Rental Getting Expensive !!

If you have broadband you haven’t paid separate ‘line rental’ for years ( probably a decade or more ) , your broadband ‘fee’ includes ‘line rental’ , its one figure on the bill , not arbitrarily subdivided into broadband and LR.

Historically, line rental cost was inflated to make broadband look cheaper than it actually was , when wholesale line rental was £7 ( that’s what Openreach get ) typically ISP would say LR=£20 , so they could say on a bill of £25 , ‘our broadband is the cheapest out there at £5’ , they had the margin between £7 and £20 to play with , that’s why ( in large part ) Ofcom dictates that the headline price is advertised, for example £25 , and not some misleading breakdown into two parts of £20 and £5 , that are not even reflective of the true cost.

As FTTP becomes ubiquitous, and copper becomes less and less , the only regulated network provider Openreach may be pressed by Ofcom, as it is already , to justify any wholesale price increases, basically if OR want to put prices up , they have to show increased input costs …retailers are not regulated, they leave that to the market , if you don’t like one service providers price there are literally hundreds to chose from

Ofcom gave OR a little leeway with FTTP prices , after all , why invest £25 billion, if Ofcom say you are not allowed to actually make a profit, any new infrastructure needs to be paid for , and if a return on investment isn’t allowed, why make the investment in the first place 

FYI, the mean time ( average ) failure on a copper line is 9 years , I have lived in my current house for 30 years and have had 1 fault that needed Openreach attention, so you have been unlucky, if your address needed constant attention, perhaps that areas fault liability is one reason why you have FTTP 

3,346 Views
Message 6 of 10

Re: Line Rental Getting Expensive !!

Honestly, do people think bb is delivered via thin air or something?

3,302 Views
Message 7 of 10

Re: Line Rental Getting Expensive !!

I suspect you must be paying for "Line Rental Saver" if you are seeing a charge for "Line Rental" on your bill because normally the "line rental" is included in your broadband package and is not shown as a separate charge.

As well as what has already been explained to you in the other posts, see this link about "line rental" and why there is a charge showing on your bill.

Line rental included in your package | BT Help

As regards your comment "The Copper Wire Circuits have been removed from our local network for some time and therefore BT should consider to remove the line rental charges...

It has already been explained to you that the "line rental" is not just because of the "Copper Wire Circuits" it is because your Broadband and Digital Phone, if you have one, still have to have a "line" albeit it is Fibre but it is still a line made up of fibre strands, because your broadband does not magically arrive at your home without a line of some sort. 

 

3,257 Views
Message 8 of 10

Re: Line Rental Getting Expensive !!

I take your point  gg30340

However, BT has confirmed Line Rental will be increasing its monthly prices by nearly +15% on 31st March 2023.

Also the CPI charges will add to the monthly BT bill too.

I guess If we need the service from BT then bite the tongue.

 

3,248 Views
Message 9 of 10

Re: Line Rental Getting Expensive !!


@GAM23 wrote:

I take your point  gg30340

However, BT has confirmed Line Rental will be increasing its monthly prices by nearly +15% on 31st March 2023.

Also the CPI charges will add to the monthly BT bill too.

I guess If we need the service from BT then bite the tongue.

 


There are many other posts about the price rise if you search the forum.

As I and many others have stated in some of these posts there should be no mid term price rises but I will not be holding my breath for that to happen and like all the others who complain will just have to suck it up if I stay with BT.

Having said that, all the other ISPs with a few exceptions also have mid term price rise so "frying pan and fire" spring to mind if you move to another ISP.

3,194 Views
Message 10 of 10

Re: Line Rental Getting Expensive !!

Thank you  gg30340 for your reply & comments.

I have been with BT for last 45+ years, early days 'Line Rental Saver' was very helpful, however times have change !!

Life has to ago 'ON'.

Just like you, I am a loyal Customer to BT. I have researched on "Telephony Systems" in the UK and other service providers are very poor on their after care & technical customer service. Thanks again for your valued time & comments..