Should I keep a BT phoneline ?

[iemb]

Around the beginning of September 2023 BT installed full fibre 100 - Halo 3. With a download of 145mbps and not supposed to drop below 100 mbps. Along with this I have a BT phoneline with 700min of anytime calls to landline or mobile phones. I was told by a BT rep'  when arranging the new contract, that I could go online and change the phone  calling plan at anytime during our contract without penalty. 

This I tried to do but couldn't do it online as I was only being offered an upgrade.  So, I called BT and was introduced to their "Values Dept." When speaking to them about this, I was informed I could either take an anytime 500 minute calling plan or move to PAYG with calling charges billed at around 21ppm plus call connection charge. Or just move to Broadband without a phoneline at all. When I looked further in to the take up of any of these changes. What was being offered included a downgrade in broadband speeds to 75mbps. On questioning this I was told that BT had problems with the system, so they couldn't offer me anything different at the moment and went on to say, " I could try calling again in about another 2 hours or the next day.

"We are not full Wi-Fi as yet, the BT lines into the property are still copper lines. BT are changing to VOIP ("Digital Voice" as they call it) in the near future. I already have a VOIP service supplied by Voipfone, with call charges of only 01ppm and no connection charges either. Meaning BT's call charges are going to be exorbitant when compared to Voipfone's call charge (21ppm vs 01ppm).

Just wondering now, whether to change to Broadband only and not bother with a BT landline. Any thoughts on this please?

[iniltous]

The calling plans PAYG, 700 mins , unlimited minutes are interchangeable, so you should be able to downgrade or upgrade as required but the effective saving may be small , from £7 to £5 saving £2 if downgrading from 700mins to PAYG , to save the ‘extra’ £5 by having no telephony at all ( so no phone number no incoming, no emergency calls etc ) may not be possible depending on the T&C , TBH , if you already had a VoIP service it’s odd to sign up with telephony when a broadband only option was available, moving from broadband and phone to broadband only will ultimately depend on if the 24 month minimum term is for both services or the telephone can be removed.
As far as it incorporating a downgrade of speed seems unlikely, if there was a technical issue that was making this the only option for customer service, try again later ( in expectation that the issue has been fixed )
There is a BT FTTP customer service team using them rather than regular customer service may be advisable, search for their phone number

[iemb]

Thanks for the input. A broadband only option wasn't offered to me at the time of talking with a BT rep' about a new contract. And I wanted to keep our landline number. You have mentioned that without a BT landline we wont have access to emergency calls. When BT changes our phone line to voip. Then we wont have access to emergency calls through BT either from what I understand. As for the part about downgrading speeds. The 75mbps was the only option available, so I was informed by the BT rep. I will look into it further though.

[gg30340]

Do you actually use BT to make phone calls?

If you have and use your VOIP service and no doubt you will have a mobile phone with a calling plan which is probably with unlimited calls there is no need to keep the BT phone service or as BT call it a "Landline".

If you change your BT Broadband package to Broadband only this will require you to sign onto a new two year contract which might not suit you so you could just "downgrade" your present calling package to "PAYG" and just don't use it to make calls, instead use your VOIP or Mobile phone.

If you keep the BT Landline phone on a PAYG you will still receive any calls that are made by people who don't know your other numbers. That won't cost you anything and if you do get any calls you can enlighten the caller about your other numbers if need be.

EDIT: The reference to emergency calls is only relevant in the event of a power cut as that would affect your Internet connection. That would also apply to your VOIP service and any other Internet provider you choose. It would also affect you at present if you use a cordless phone because the base station would not work in a power cut.

If you get a good mobile signal you can use that. 

[countrypaul]

Are you sure you are on Full Fibre as that is normally FTTP, FTTC uses copper for the final leg which is what you indicate is currently used. What do you mean by not "full WiFi" as WiFi is independant of how the BB is delivered?

Just wondering if your customer service agent has confused what BT are supplying.

[iniltous]

If you had said to BT you need to keep the phone number then a ‘landline’ with your broadband was always going to be necessary so no surprise that stand alone broadband wasn’t on offer ( obviously you could have independently exported the number to a third party VoIP provider but that would have ceased to your previous broadband service ) , so you are where you are.

As you are considering getting rid of  BT telephony completely ( PSTN and at some point in the future DV ) then obviously if you want to keep this  phone number ( just with someone else ) then you could export the number to a VoIP provider, but this risks losing your BT broadband ( if the two are inextricably linked ) or you could ask BT for the telephone number to be cancelled and hope that in the 30 day window after cessation, the VoIP provider you want to use could get it back , but these are risky options…or  simply downgrade the telephone to PAYG , this means you still have the number with BT but pay a small supplement over stand alone broadband, but depending on how many calls you make , it may be a poor choice.

FYI , at some point your copper pair PTSN telephone will be migrated to DV , ( so you plug your phone into the router ) but that wont change the price you pay .

As far as third party VoIP providers, the one you currently use don’t seem to have a ‘free’ service anymore , the website states from £5 +VAT , with the BT plan you have ,  if you make less than 700 mins of calls the  price per minute and call connection fee is irrelevant, so moving the number to that VoIP provider would cost  £6 compared to £7 for 700 mins with BT , the saving is not really very much .

[iemb · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the input everybody. I have now got BT to change the landline to "PAYG." I'll use Voipfone at 01ppm (BT charges 26+ppm) for calls or the mobile.

[pippincp]

Personally, I'd've cancelled the landline unless there was a pressing need for it. As regards Digital Voice, if BT haven't sorted it out by now, they have a problem. Openreach have issued a Nationwide "Stop Sell" on traditional copper phone lines.

Any upgrade, new customer, renewal of contract, etc will all now be Digital Voice.