£3 to keep phone number

[londonman]

once again BT/EE just keeps taking the **bleep**

move from actual landline to digital 

now bt/ee wants £3 just to keep my number 

[imjolly]

you can have broadband only and that is price you most often see but if you want broadband and phone (ability to make and receive calls on home phone) then there is an additional cost of £3/5pm

[londonman]

the phone line line was included in the broadband package 

now it is an paid extra

the phone is now digital 

[iniltous]

You are looking at this backwards, in the past there always was many complaining about having to take a phone service just to get broadband , and the push was to stop being forced into having a telephone service if you only wanted broadband, this is now available and has been for quite some time.

If someone gets rid of telephony but keeps broadband they expect to save some money by not having telephony anymore , and that’s £3 …the difference between having and not having telephony, you can’t have it both ways , a reduction for not having telephony and paying the same for telephony and broadband as broadband only .

You  presumably want telephony so should expect to pay £3 more than broadband only , what’s not fair about that , that’s what the original complaints were about only those that want telephony pay for it .
Legacy customers,  on the old format or style bills , who ‘payed’ for telephony regardless of wether they wanted it or not , pay for both services together as the overall bill didn’t really divide the services, the customer probably don’t realise around £3 of the bill was for telephony , when they re-contract  or join BT they gat a new style bill , which has a charge for broadband and a charge for telephone and are separate items , someone may think they are being charged £3 for something they used to get  for free , but they never did get it for free, it was just the way the bill looked .

Put it this way , if you have broadband and phone (because you want a phone service ) and paid £35 , if I don’t want telephony why should I also pay £35 , I should pay less …..that’s the £3 you are being asked to pay because you want a phone and I don’t , it’s just a different way the bill is presented.

[imjolly]

the phone line was always included in your package but now you have a choice whether like many just go broadband only and don't want ability to use house phone or if you still want home phone and ability to make/receive calls then there is a cost of £3/5pm  this applies whether you are on digital voice or not

[londonman]

for a digital phone line what added cost is there for BT ?

legacy customers who have phones should not be now charged more 

[licquorice]

They are not charged more.

The price of telephony is exactly the same whether analogue or digital.

Do you think calls magically arrive to your number when on digital or do you think that there might be equipment involved to route calls.

[iniltous]

There is no compulsion to take telephony from BT , so if you think calls should be ‘free’ because it’s now IP telephony, the simple solution is to join a third party VoIP provider that offers free telephony and use them instead , spoiler alert, there aren’t any , however if you look at these other independent VoIP options you will find that the BT price isn’t actually that bad, £3 for a phone number , unlimited incoming calls , access to emergency services and the option to make outgoing calls , other VoIP provider may be cheaper on a pence per minute, but charge more than £3 standing charge , if you really only want the phone number because you have had it  for years and get the occasional incoming call , and would only ever  use a mobile if making outgoing calls , £3 isn’t a huge amount to keep the number  , but if it is too much , take the broadband only offer and then you don’t pay that £3