In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Perhaps ultimately no one should subsidise anyone

Precisely .
(In respect of this matter as opposed to life in general).

The best way for that and it would also allow Ofcom to manage prices is for everyone to be removed from the line rental value chain. Leave it to OpenReach to rent lines to customers with a small mark up on their current wholesale prices to cover the billing and management. All that allowing BT Consumer/Retail/Business, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk &c to sell line rental does is increase prices to te end users. Take them out of the chain and everyone pays the same base cost. Call packages could still be purchased from your own choice of provider and maybe network services ...

Ultimately yes, and would give a billing relationship for dealing with faults and shorten chain when reporting things.

My money is this change might get an objection not from BT Consumer, but Sky and TalkTalk

Ofcom is hoping other providers will also cut prices

Why hope when they can force the issue, they are strange at times.

Given most providers only care about multi play services I think competition wont reduce it on other providers.

and it should be ignored.

Not sure why everyone is saying its just sky and talktalk who like the line rental situation, as BT retail are guilty as well and usually raise prices first. I dont think BT retail would be happy about losing its line rental margins.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Also if PlusNet don't change pricing it will be cheaper to have BT voice line rental and PlusNet broadband even with the £2.50 supplement they charge.

This scenario might not go down well with Sky and TalkTalk either as

For a consumer with zero interest in broadband it is clearly a good deal. The subsidy part applies to many add-ons and taken to its conclusion Ofcom would have to outlaw bundling and added extras

PN might not be stupid but instead they probably add £1.50 extra on top of £2.50 supplement they charge to make it £4 charge.

What is being said is that competition for line rental does not work. That is a big idea for Ofcom to swallow.

We have competition for gas and electricity prices. The problem is that many do not take advantage of it. So is it what the public really want?

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

You noticed that more people will be paying for BT Sport packages after July?

Small operators such as Fuel and Post Office who have carved a voice line rental niche may be less happy, as there is no underlying changing in pricing for them, so to compete they will need to destroy their margin.

Are Fuel really going after line rental only customers any more? They want £17.60/month according to their website.

And Plusnet want £17.99 for line rental only without broadband as well. Ofcom should check it out all isp's really not just for BT.

I assume that Ofcom expect that if they force the dominant provider to reduce prices then the rest of the market will have no choice but to follow. But, I wonder how many people use Sky just for landline without a broadband connection? Bet it is a very small percentage of their customers.