yeah, just be aware tho everyone seems to be following suit, whilst I have no doubt there is cheaper out there than BT, pretty much everyone is extorting fees for caller display and the like as well as increasing above inflation annually. It does seem as I found out when ordering plusnet the best way to save is combine it with broadband, the cp's have been very agressive in forcing this and it looks like its working. I mean £180 given to me for taking plusnet voice I found pretty crazy, thats more than the entire line rental saver for 12 months.

I agree with Bob on this, BT has given good service over the past few years but these charges are not acceptable and when my contract ends in July I'm going elsewhere. If BT wants to wage a bidding war with Sky that's up to them, but quite a few of us are not going to finance it. Particularly annoying is that when friends and relatives have phoned about slow BB speeds they have been given a sales pitch for Infinity

BT asked me to fill in one of their 'web forms' via Twitter.

All they did was repeat the price increases to me!
I explained I've been with them 30 years (this year) for my phone, so am a loyal customer - but all they said was they were very grateful for me being a loyal customer for so long...

What a way to run a business - I certainly don't treat my clients that way. Especially the ones that always keep paying their bills on time and in full.

I see no one seems to have any experience of using the Post Office for their phone service, anyone use Zen just for phone and not BB?
Their prices are also more competitive than BT's.

I would predict if it went free at wholesale all WLR would go up by maybe 30p per month to cover it.

Zen line rental and xilo/uno partial LLU BB is absolutely fine for my needs - I would certainly recommend Zen for line rental to anybody who doesn't want a 12 month minimum term line rental and BB package.

Unhappiness with BT Retail caused me to switch to Zen for line rental 3 months ago and I've had no problems with the service so far - however I haven't needed to contact Zen regarding any problems so I can not comment on the quality of their support.

I suppose the way that BT retail see it that most existing customers will choose to renew their line rental saver anyway, so would be paying for 12mths regardless,There won't be many residential customers who won't opt for LRS due to the high price they charge normally for line rental
I don't think their social tarrif BT Basic is affected by this change as BT privacy inc Caller display will remain free,

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

There is more to it than cost alone (whereby some ISPs use phone to subsidise BB and thus increase their BB market share).

There are other good reasons for keeping the 2 separate utilities separate, e.g. BT's superior voice fault handling,

Really,? Maybe it was some time ago but not anymore
Today With their useless outsourced overseas call centers that they class as customer support (who i will no longer engage in conversation with) because they fail to grasp the english language properly , there's no way their faults handling service is any better than some other providers, the repair times are the same,so why pay BT a premium?

Nearley all the advantages of having line rental with BT have been removed free caller display with free 1571 competitve pricing on line rental ,

For me there is now only 2 advantages in staying with BT one is my calling plan offers 200 free sms texts each month, the other is that the price of call plans doesnt rise each year, But that price can be matched by other providers,

Edited by tommy45 (Wed 11-Dec-13 17:16:08)

Thanks for that.

It looks like this would be the equivalent to my current BT package:

£17.35 for 5,000 anytime minutes
Caller Id £0.90
1571 Answer Phone £1.80
Total: £20.05 compared to BT's £26.49
www.zen.co.uk/home-office/voice/phone-services.aspx

Zen seem to have a better reputation that the Post Office for telecoms.

Freeola my ISP use Entanet. I see Entanet offer a phone service so it would be ideal if they provided a combined package for my situation. I've asked them if they can investigate this.

In reply to a post by b4dger:

Thanks for that.

It looks like this would be the equivalent to my current BT package:

£17.35 for 5,000 anytime minutes
Caller Id £0.90
1571 Answer Phone £1.80
Total: £20.05 compared to BT's £26.49
www.zen.co.uk/home-office/voice/phone-services.aspx

Zen seem to have a better reputation that the Post Office for telecoms.

Freeola my ISP use Entanet. I see Entanet offer a phone service so it would be ideal if they provided a combined package for my situation. I've asked them if they can investigate this.

Zen line rental on a one month contract might tide you over until perhaps something happens with an Entanet deal?

I don't think Freeola are very interested in supplying phone packages as I've asked them in the past, so it might be ok for longer than a month!

After BT failing to offer me ANYTHING, after letting them know that that's not a good way to treat a customer of 30 years they have said they will get back to me - but I'm not holding my breath.