Sky line rental, returning to BT

I'm thinking of going for Sky line rental, as it's £11.25 against BT's £13.60 and also offers £5 off broadband, so a £7.35 saving per month in all, not bad.

My question is, should I wish to return to BT line rental (i.e. change broadband) then will the full £130 reconnection fee (or £30 with a deal) apply?

Not an answer to your question but I think you get the £5 off by having sky talk, rather than having to have the full sky line rental.

Yeah, I'm considering that too, but I'm curious as to the line rental situation. I suppose I could contact BT and pretend to be a Sky Talk line rental customer thinking of switching to BT.

Thing is with bt they are always changing things, line rental is going up in april to £13.90, (bt) sky will no doubt follow suite, i personally would keep the voice side of the line with bt, take out the line rental saver, and depending on which call plan you want,shouldn't work out more than £15, + skybb + £12.50 =£27.50 or less ?
i used to pay £24.99 a month just for my bb,lol
as for what it would cost you to move back to bt should you go FMPF with sky, that would all depend on if bt had any offers on new connections ect at the time you wanted to move back return to donor i believe they call it

Edited by tommy45 (Tue 22-Mar-11 22:03:12)

Sky also offer discounts for paying a year's line rental in advance.

So returning to BT from Sky's MPF always costs the same as a brand new line?

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

Sky also offer discounts for paying a year's line rental in advance.

So returning to BT from Sky's MPF always costs the same as a brand new line?

All depends what offers if any are available If/when you decided to move,currently its £130 or £30 if taking an 18 month contract

Who knows what the future holds?

In reply to a post by broadband66:

Who knows what the future holds?

Not me, but I'm glad I know how it stands as of today.

Still seems odd that it costs as much to move from MPF as it does to physically install wires into a house.

Edited by Oliver341 (Tue 22-Mar-11 22:21:41)

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

Still seems odd that it costs as much to move from MPF as it does to physically install wires into a house.

It doesn't. You have to call BT and ask for a "Return to Donor". I believe this requires the number was once a BT number that was donated to a gaining LLU voice service.

When I returned from Bulldog in 2008, this was free, but I had to sign a 12 month contract for voice services. I was warned that most of BT's call centres wouldn't have a clue what this was and to insist (politely) on being put through to the "Customer Options Team"

I've since read that OpenReach charge the *gaining* Communications Provider (CP) an £80 fee for any move from operator to operator - as to OpenReach, BT retail and Sky are both LLU.

In my case BTretail (for voice) did not pass on this charge. However if they did it a lot less than the quoted £130 for a new line.

Edited by jchamier (Tue 22-Mar-11 22:37:50)

Sounds like I might need to hunt the BT price list for this option then, so that I can point it out to any staff who may be unaware of it.

Have a look at Sky's official forums re sky talk and see if you think it's worth it, I am still debating what to do. Although I don't think I'd move the line rental to them, some friends of mine went over to them recently and were without a phone for about 10 days (no dial tone) it eventually got fixed but took some time. I'm thinking of just moving the calls to get the discount off BB

The problem with switching calls only is that you have to make 2 chargable or inclusive calls every month on BT to qualify for free BT Privacy (if you use it), otherwise they charge you. Sky Talk calls only apparently stops you from using BT, even with the 1280 prefix.

Edited by Oliver341 (Tue 22-Mar-11 23:41:37)

I scrapped BT privacy and just joined the telephone preference service seperately, but I guess you probably want caller display as well?

I've been considering the same options.

Of course you could pay BT for caller display which is less than the £5 a month you would save with sky talk. This is my current likely option in June when my current contract ends as it would be some saving and keep the same features. I don't like the idea of passing line rental to sky as I am fickle and will probably change BB in a year or so's time.

I'm like you, I'm not one to stick with the same ISP for years. The calls-only option is possible but I don't much like paying for caller-id, even if I will make a (small) net-saving overall. Couple that with the fact that I use 18185 and am worried that Sky may block that option somewhere down the line (if they don't already) and it doesn't look very attractive to me.

I'm still waiting on BT to reply to my question about connection charges when returning to them from Sky line rental. If it's definitely free I'm guessing it will stay that way in a year's time it may prompt me to move, but there's always the possibility of losing my landline number during the switch(es) due to some cock-up.

Is caller ID not available with sky with the calls ony package?

No, caller-id is always tied in with line rental.

Thanks that's decided then I'll have to stay with BT

In reply to a post by tobykim:

Have a look at Sky's official forums re sky talk and see if you think it's worth it, I am still debating what to do. Although I don't think I'd move the line rental to them, some friends of mine went over to them recently and were without a phone for about 10 days (no dial tone) it eventually got fixed but took some time. I'm thinking of just moving the calls to get the discount off BB

I joined sky LLU and phone line rental today, downtime was about 5 minutes.

That's good news. And some more good news is the email I just got from BT about returning to them from Sky line rental:

---
I confirm that if you will transfer your services from Sky to BT then there will be no connection charge and the services will not be interrupted as well because it will be a take over of the services, If you wish to make the arrangement then you can directly contact our Customer option team on 0800800030 they will place the order for you.
---

So I'm still considering Sky for landline and calls.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

That's good news. And some more good news is the email I just got from BT about returning to them from Sky line rental:

---
I confirm that if you will transfer your services from Sky to BT then there will be no connection charge and the services will not be interrupted as well because it will be a take over of the services, If you wish to make the arrangement then you can directly contact our Customer option team on 0800800030 they will place the order for you.
---

So I'm still considering Sky for landline and calls.

Yes, that's good news - looks like I'm in line for some M&S vouchers

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Yes, that's good news - looks like I'm in line for some M&S vouchers


Well on that subject, dont forget to go via quidco or topcashback for some free money