Cheapest Landline Package Available

[ska1]

We pay £23per month for a landline incl unlimited weekend calls. Is there any cheaper way of having a landline?

A landline is essential for safety reasons. We live in a remote location with no mobile signal, and therefore need a landline for the off chance that we need to call emergency services. We have broadband and use a mobile via wifi, however when the wifi / electrics are not working it means we have zero communication and we are a good 4 miles from the nearest mobile signal. We lose electrics/wifi on average 3 to 4 times a year, sometimes for protracted periods eg in October our broadband was down for nearly 3 weeks. Hence the essential nature of our landline if we have an accident.

Our broadband is with a private provider on a community network because none of the main suppliers have services here. BT can offer us broadband of 1-3mb, which is no good, so no point in trying to consolidate into a bundle deal.

I've tried to find anything cheaper than what we have, but nothing seems to show up on the BT site. Yet I read in the forums that people seem to have cheaper deals - unless I've misunderstood.

Any help much appreciated. £23pm is expensive (cheap if you need the air ambulance) and if I can save even a little it would make a big difference to us.  Thank you.

[licquorice]

A quick Google search offers up

If you don't have broadband and you're not planning to get it, you could get a discount on a BT landline. To find out if you're eligible, call us on 0800 587 0083

From this page https://www.bt.com/landline/deals/

Bear in mind the analogue landline service will cease in 2025 in any case.

[ska1]

Thanks for the quick reply. I will telephone and see. We would love to have decent broadband, it's just not available here. Fibre goes to the village 4 miles away but no further. All the surrounding farms are on a community mesh.

Re 2025, I'm hoping that by then there will be some sort of alternative - but they can't simply leave us all with no emergency comms, we're not the only remote community in the country that doesn't have any mobile signal to fall back on. 

Thanks again.

[imjolly]

@ska1 

as you already have broadband to your home ( supplier is immaterial) you are not eligible for the cheap landline only deals

[ska1]

I rang BT on that number and quoted the page and the bit about "if you don't have broadband you could get a discount", but they said that £23 was the cheapest they have and no discounts are available. To make matters worse they said that in March it will go up by CPI plus 3.9%. So not much of a warm feeling.
Thanks for trying to help anyway.

[ska1]

Thanks. It's not that we have a choice on the broadband ie it's one provider only costing £45 per month, zero competition and very poor service. I would happily go with BT or Virgin or whoever and consolidate, because it would be heaps better service than what we've got. But unfortunately we're stuck and paying through the nose for it, both on the landline and the broadband. So much for the levelling up! Thanks anyway.

[-Richie- · Accepted solution]

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@ska1wrote:

We pay £23per month for a landline incl unlimited weekend calls. Is there any cheaper way of having a landline?

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It's not much of a saving but have a look at Home Phone Saver which would be better value as it includes unlimited minutes :

ust want a telephone service from BT? Home Phone Saver is our exclusive telephone-only plan that bundles line rental, calls and features into one neat package for just £21.99 a month.

What you get:

• Your monthly line rental
• Unlimited calls to UK* landlines at any time, for up to an hour
• Inclusive calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers at any time, for up to an hour
• 1000 free minutes to BT Mobiles (excluding BT Business Mobile)
• Free 1471 Call Return >
• Inclusive 1571 Call Return if you have the BT Answer 1571 voicemail service >
• BT Privacy with Caller Display
• International Premium Rate Call Barring and up to seven useful calling features for free when you opt-in
• You can also have Call Minder with Enhanced BT Call Protect.
  If BT Call Protect isn't available in your exchange then Anonymous Call Reject will be offered.

You can pay for Home Phone Saver Plan by any means of payment that we currently accept.

Home Phone Saver Plan is a telephone only deal, so can't be taken out as part of our BT Broadband packages.

How do I order Home Phone Saver Plan?

Just call 0800 587 7218, between 8am-8pm Monday to Friday and 9am-6pm at weekends.

[ska1]

Thanks for this. I wonder why the BT rep who I spoke with didn't offer this, it may only be a tiny saving, but as you say I would get more for my money when we do have electric or broadband outages as they don't usually fall on weekends so we end up paying even more for the phone calls to the broadband provider and the electric company to let them know we're offline. Very helpful, thank you.