Well, August 8th will mark the first anniversary of my move to PlusNet from Madasafish - I've already had an email from them about renewing the Line Rental Saver Contract, so presumably I'll be able to do that at the old rate. On the whole, I've been pretty happy with PN's service, but I'm not happy with these price rises, on top of the fact that my first year discount of £7.50pm on the broadband component will expire. So it will be interesting to hear what the dreaded Customer Options Team will have to offer me.

I've come across a deal with SSE which looks quite attractive (this is ADSL, there's currently no FTTC at my exchange):

- Free broadband for two years (then £8.00pm)
- Unlimited usage
- £12pm line rental (not paid upfront!)
- Free weekend calls
- Call costs cheaper than PN (I think).

Does anybody have any experience of SSE? They seem to be a bit of an unknown quantity in the broadband world.

In reply to a post by 961a:

The connection charge is the only reason I feel I need pay for an anytime call package. It's a long winded calculation to work out which is actually cheaper, anytime or 16p a call

Yup, the "pay as you go" landline rates are being pushed up hard by all providers to "force" people onto anytime calls. Meanwhile line rental also goes up more and more, yet providers increasingly give no bundled calls at all with line rental.

For the people who use landlines in preference to contract mobiles (yes there are still a few of us) it's pretty hard to swallow. At the very least Ofcom needs to get providers to include mobile phone calls in anytime calls package (line TalkTalk have done), now that the mobile termination rates have dropped.

There are several suppliers that have no call connection charge, per second billing, calls at 1p and no contract tie-in. have to keep it under my hat - Wouldn't want to get flamed and banned again - NAART!

Don't you think "All providers" is stretching it just a tad?
https://www.zen.co.uk/home-office/voice/call-rates.aspx
https://pulse8broadband.co.uk/line-bundles

Look around and you will find EE home phone includes 1,000 minutes of calls to mobiles. A service we have at our other home.

Edited by professor973 (Tue 30-Jun-15 13:28:41)

Yes, "all providers" was an exaggeration. But equally, a lot of the cheaper broadband providers require you to take their line rental, or at the very least inflate their prices if one doesn't take it.

Pulse8 might have £6 line rental, but £19 for broadband is considerably higher than Sky and TalkTalk.

It's BT managed White Label, or was and I assume still is. We deal with SSE for power at our northern address. A decent company. We looked at this deal. Adding line and anytime calls brought a quote of £22:50 per month as a customer - Only a couple of quid cheaper than our EE which throws in 1,000 minutes of calls to mobiles. Did not seem the free deal it looked at first glance.

Yeah, but most want around £17 line rental and a tie-in - £25 line and unlimited BB is not bad, especially on a Market 1 exchange as we have here - Certainly beats PN price.

In reply to a post by professor973:

Yeah, but most want around £17 line rental and a tie-in - £25 line and unlimited BB is not bad,

Yes the price is good, but they should offer an anytime calls package for those that want it even if their PAYG rates are reasonable (I couldn't find an anytime calls option on their site).

In reply to a post by professor973:

especially on a Market 1 exchange as we have here - Certainly beats PN price.

When I put in a Market A telephone number the price is much higher, £28 excluding line rental: http://s10.postimg.org/k3kkexay1/pulse.png

Edited by Oliver341 (Tue 30-Jun-15 14:24:07)

Aww thats a bit more expensive than Plusnet's options "without contract"

In reference to www.plus.net/info2/legal/price_guide.html:

Outside low cost areas
Fixed term Broadband Only £19.99
Broadband & Phone £10.00 for the first 12 months, £17.49 thereafter
No contract Broadband Only £22.49
Broadband & Phone £19.99

Edited by mlmclaren (Tue 30-Jun-15 14:12:00)

In reply to a post by professor973:

BT managed White Label

Forgive my ignorance - what does that mean?