interestrateripoff Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14764551 TalkTalk has said it will increase its monthly line rental charge to £13.80 from October.The 9.5% rise - which will add £14 to customers' annual bills - follows a 5% increase in line rental and call charges announced by BT last week. TalkTalk said it also offers the option of an annual upfront charge equivalent to £9.50 per month, although it only applies to customers taking broadband. Will all other telecom firms be following? At least Merv will have another excuse to put in his next letter to George. Companies just keep increasing prices... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairies Wear Boots Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 It's the new form of deflation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terribad Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 pfff, these silly inflationist gadflies are clueless. Its all about the seasonally adjusted rate of change of the rate of change, discounting one-off factors like hotness, coldness, weddings, and price changes. It'll all be okay next year, as predicted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_w_ Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 (edited) It's due to the price of oil and gas falling so hard on the international markets. Thinking of which, it's probably time to do some more QE to fight these intense deflationary forces. <Edit to add: just remember, debt is wealth, war is peace and inflation is deflation. Repeat a thousand times and it will all become clear.> Edited September 2, 2011 by _w_ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
copydude Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14764551 Will all other telecom firms be following? They all have to pay BT in the first place, don't they, so yes. I never really understood the BT 'privatisation' . . . it still seems to me it's a monopoly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terribad Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 They all have to pay BT in the first place, don't they, so yes. I never really understood the BT 'privatisation' . . . it still seems to me it's a monopoly. i gather that the Virgin setup I have is nothing to do with BT, but I might be wrong. But BT still have the monopoly everywhere outside major conurbations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timak Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 So in the last few weeks my electricity,gas, water, phone, broadband, espn and car insurance prices have all gone up by around 10%. Basically (espn aside) the essentials of modern life are increasing at 10%. Stagflation ahoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim123 Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 They all have to pay BT in the first place, don't they, so yes. Not if they have LLU I never really understood the BT 'privatisation' . . . it still seems to me it's a monopoly. It's still a lot better than it was Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@contradevian Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 I doubt anything as irrelevant or trivial as telecoms/internet will be found in the BoE shopping basket! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priced_Out_GenXer Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 (edited) I've never really understood why BT charge line rental in the first place. They charge you £120 to install a line, and another £120 for an engineer visit if you have a fault and they can't trace it, and that's on top of the call charges and the money they get from ISPs and other telcos who use their network. It's a rip off. I'm not charged line rental by my mobile phone operator - who's costs are arguably higher - so I don't see why I should pay line rental for my land line. I don't think it's a coincidence that the mobile phone industry is a lot more competitive and BT have a near monopoly on land lines. I'd get rid of my land line completely and just rely on a mobile but I need broadband which requires a land line at the moment. When the next generation of mobile internet (LTE / 4g) is deployed, however, it might well become an option. BT really do take the p*ss, they're pretty much refusing to upgrade Milton Keynes' main telephone exchange to super fast broadband despite it being a fairly affluent area with lots of demand because they have 100% monopoly and they think they might be able to squeeze some public subsidy out of the Government. Edited September 2, 2011 by monstermunch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 They all have to pay BT in the first place, don't they, so yes. I never really understood the BT 'privatisation' . . . it still seems to me it's a monopoly. Don't tell Sid! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
copydude Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Don't tell Sid! Never mind about Sid, have you tried to tell Oftel it's a stitch up? My sister had a Talk Talk package. She thought she was BT free. Not so. Someone with a very similar number locally ordered a business line . . . BT made a mistake with the digits . . . and she then got calls intended for the local service station and, once that became apparent, she was cut off for nearly three weeks. Talk Talk couldn't do a thing because BT control the exchanges. The fact that she paid line rental to Talk Talk was immaterial. Prior to that she had a broadband package with British Gas. (Who incidentally aren't British at all.) Someone ran up a bill on her account using rogue number dial-up software. British Gas couldn't resolve the dispute, because the only people who could really trace the numbers were BT, who wouldn't or couldn't co-operate. Don't start me talkin' . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootsox Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Not if they have LLU Trouble is, or so I have found, LLU is very patchy outside the main towns: LLU availability I'm with TalkTalk who, although I have had a few rucks with, are ok-ish but (without the benefit of LLU) just seem to piggy pack on BT apparatus acting as a "frontman". In these straightened times, and with the highly competitive nature of broadband provision (everyman and his dog seems to be at it), I cannot see TalkTalk rolling out LLU to anything other than the biggest exchanges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@contradevian Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Trouble is, or so I have found, LLU is very patchy outside the main towns: LLU availability I'm with TalkTalk who, although I have had a few rucks with, are ok-ish but (without the benefit of LLU) just seem to piggy pack on BT apparatus acting as a "frontman". In these straightened times, and with the highly competitive nature of broadband provision (everyman and his dog seems to be at it), I cannot see TalkTalk rolling out LLU to anything other than the biggest exchanges. I don't know about TalkTalk who seem to have a saturation marketing operation, but the "unbundlers" cherry pick. Obviously it requires a lot of investment to put your own equipment in a BT exchange. My local BT exchange is 2 miles away as the crow flies. Benefits from being 21CN enabled and houses quite a few unbundlers, such as O2 etc. However its pointless as all the other providers are reliant on BT copper to get into people's houses, which is terrible as they are only just capable of providing a 1.4 Mbit/s service (promised nearly double). Unlikely to every get FTTC/Infinity as Virgin/NTL have laid fibre here, which I can't get as only BT have a presence into this newish development. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porca misèria Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 I've never really understood why BT charge line rental in the first place. Because they can (being in large part a monopoly) and because they have to (being in large part a pension fund with obligations), and because historical expectations work for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'Bart' Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Talktalk Follows Bt By Raising Line Rental Charges - 9% Increase Ahhh... deflation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim123 Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 I've never really understood why BT charge line rental in the first place. They charge you £120 to install a line, and another £120 for an engineer visit if you have a fault and they can't trace it, and that's on top of the call charges and the money they get from ISPs and other telcos who use their network. Because, as a monopoly supplier, the have to give you "open" access to any call provider that you care to use. If they didn't charge line rental you could use another Telco for your calls, thus paying BT nothing at all and hence there would be no funds to pay for the network. Mobiles are completely different. Once you have signed up with a supplier you have to route all of your calls (at least in part) through them so they can cover the network costs from their call income. tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.