In reply to a post by Oliver341:

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

As more people make calls within the bundles, then it is to be expected for bundles to go up, i.e. original bundles were perhaps a marketing drive with minimal or no profit, now as millions use them the move is towards making a profit.

And as has been mentioned before, it only takes 62 minutes of peak time calls to justify spending £4.90 on an anytime calls package. And that calculation ignores the frankly crazy 13.1p "set up fee" (BT pricing, but many other providers are similar).

Essentially, phone companies are pricing out "pay as you go" landline users and forcing them onto packages, or indeed mobile phone contracts.

That is if it is just one long call. You are forgetting the scandalous connection fee. One call of a few seconds each day will cost over 20p. Total rip off.

In reply to a post by kasg:

for years it was just a (roughly) 5p minimum call charge, no set-up fee.

My line rental is with Primus (which has recently gone up to 7.99/month) and the calls I make through 1899.com are still 5p per call to 01/02/03 numbers, so whether I am talking to someone for 5 minutes or 5 hours, it's still just 5p.

Only my wish to switch to Fibre when it becomes available will move me to renting a line from PN, or I'd keep things as they are. Unfortunately the 'Believe in Better' firm won't install a second line at a sensible price, despite suggesting in their literature it costs around 40 quid, else I'd have been willing to try them out on a second line, second net link.

What's to stop you having PN fibre on the Primus line rental?

If you know you want to stay with PN for at least another year why not sign up for the line rental saver scheme. This morning I paid £113.98 (£9.49/month) for a year's line rental. Presumably this is similar to the BT scheme where you save money by paying a year's rental up front.

Now that BT and PN have upped charges I suspect the others won't be far behind. Or if BT and PN find they are losing too many customers as a result of the rises there will likely be various offers to lure them back. It's a tough old commercial world out there, with a fair bit of genuine competition (not perfect but not too bad) so most of us can change suppliers if we don't like what's on offer.

In reply to a post by ppppenguin99:

If you know you want to stay with PN for at least another year why not sign up for the line rental saver scheme....

It might be an idea if you clarify who you are talking to.

You've replied to me, which is probably simply because I was the latest poster, but that doesn't make sense.

It can't be the poster I addressed either, as he isn't with Plusnet.

Have a read of the headers, and note that every post has its own reply button. There's nothing in your post to make the person it is aimed at read it. Especially if they rely on the email alert system, (see My Home options at the bottom), to tell them someone has replied to them, so to come and read the thread.

His may have been a reasonable 'general' reply, rather than one specifically to you (given nothing was quoted).

What's to stop me is PlusNet, who now say on their site that one needs a line rented from them.

I don't remember it ever saying that during the trial phase, but then (and even now) FTTC was not an option for me, so I could not take up the trial, unfortunately.

I dislike being forced into choosing my line by my ISP, even PN, and that's why I went as far as checking if Sky would install a second line and get FTTC with them instead (while retaining PN for the fixed IP I use), but it'll perhaps mean ditching Primus if my second ISP option doesn't allow me to have it on a Primus line... or possibly use Primus for ADSL (though I'm not especially tempted, but it may serve as a backup when I have cancelled my Three 15GB/ 8quid a month contract).

You can have Plusnet Fibre without a Plusnet phone line. You have to cough up 50 quid for installation though.
If you look on the fibre product page, there's a button about halfway down which says something like "just want broadband - we also offer fibre broadband on its own"

In reply to a post by pt1158:

You can have Plusnet Fibre without a Plusnet phone line. You have to cough up 50 quid for installation though.
If you look on the fibre product page, there's a button about halfway down which says something like "just want broadband - we also offer fibre broadband on its own"

Cashback is his friend .

In reply to a post by pt1158:

If you look on the fibre product page, there's a button about halfway down

Thanks for that - to be frank I thought there was a 50 quid install anyway - and when I rang PlusNet and specifically asked (having seen something about one needing a line from PlusNet) the person I spoke to did not clarify that I could have Fibre without renting the line from PlusNet

I have not re-visited to check, and must have missed that button - I felt that PN had decided to force a switch in recent months (ie after launch of the product) and it was "something new" as a condition of service (as far as I could tell) though from your comment it wasn't, just a 'desire' on behalf of PN, or so it seems!

Thanks again. Feel I was a bit misled about the need for a PN rented line from the person I spoke to. I indicated that I had a line with Primus and asked specifically whether a PN line is needed (since I had never previously spotted that bit of small print - though have to admit to infrequent viewing, since availability for me was months away from the time I started looking, back in January).

Though in truth, installing a line for 49 quid wasn't a bad price and I am wanting a second line, so since Sky was going to charge 110 or more - took about 5 calls to find that yes, they could install a second line, just that they didn't usually do so, and it would definitely cost more than 39 quid - so as I say, 49 quid is a cheaper option... and it would be thereabouts whether I got it on a second line or my existing line, just a charge for different things, perhaps!