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"BT phone service - new charges for free services."

As most BT customers will know by now (announced in September) BT are going to start charging for previously free services - 'Caller Display' and 'Answer 1571'.

They are going to charge £1.75 each per month - so an additional £42 per year!

It's a shame Freeola don't offer a phone service to go with their broadband as having a separate phone provider isn't so efficient.
I'm guessing many Freeola customers will be using BT for their line and phone service.

I've been with BT *forever* and for the first time am thinking of moving away.

Is anyone here using the Post Office?

Comparing them with BT they look a lot cheaper - unless I'm missing something???

Post Office:
Line rental: £12pm, Anytime calls: £5.75, free Caller Display and free Voice mail.
Total: £17.75
Anytime calls says it also includes UK mobiles at weekends.

Against BT's £15.99, £7, £1.75 + £1.75
Total: £26.49

I can opt in to a 12 month BT contract and get 'Caller Display' free for a year and buy an answer machine to avoid the other charges but I thought I would ask to see what others here do :¬)

[s]Hmmm...[/s]

Hi Pete,
If your colleagues' TT connection is via their LLU product then it is using different equipment in the exchange to those using BT Wholesale. So there could be an issue there or with their 'line management' which works differently to BT's.

Having said that, TT LLU has a decent reputation - it's just let down by customer service as far as I can tell.

So there's a chance the line from the exchange to the home or the internal wiring is a problem. If there's some damage to the line then getting any provider to fix it (via BT Openreach) can be tricky.

I would start by proving it's not the internal wiring which is all you have control over, by using the TEST Socket.

It does take time to do things properly.
I'm a fair way from the exchange and manage to connect just over 6Mb/s when most of my neighbours are around 2-4!

This will either show they can improve things themselves or if they are happy the wiring/equipment isn't at fault they should ask their ISP to test things to see what they find - but it's often not easy. Could be aluminium phone lines or dodgy joints or damage caused by a tree etc., etc. They'll only get if fixed if the ISP can 'see' a problem.

[s]Hmmm...[/s]

EDIT:
If they aren't on LLU then of course they may only by on standard ADSL (up to 8Mb) rather than your ADSL2+ (up to 16/24Mb) - so that's worth checking!

pete_21 wrote:
pb, 2 of my Freeola connections are supplied from the same exchange as the TT one I mentioned. 1 of these is slightly closer to the exchange the other about a mile or so further away. The TT connection is noticeably inferior.

Ok. That rules out the exchange, then.

pb, 2 of my Freeola connections are supplied from the same exchange as the TT one I mentioned. 1 of these is slightly closer to the exchange the other about a mile or so further away. The TT connection is noticeably inferior.

pete_21 wrote:
Hmmm, seeing as my colleagues TT connection is rubbish (and it is rubbish!) would another providers connection be any different if it were to be carried on their line?

But have they had another ISP and phone line to compare it to?

It may just be the distance to the exchange or the wiring? If it's a physical issue then be telecom company won't make a difference.

Hmmm, seeing as my colleagues TT connection is rubbish (and it is rubbish!) would another providers connection be any different if it were to be carried on their line?

Yes, but I'm only talkingsic about phone services not BB.
I believe the PO switched to using TT this year.

But if there's an issue with my BT line their (BT's) customer service from far away places is often *lacking* - so perhaps it doesn't matter who you are with. The problem with switching is there's a chance BB will get broken if they mess things up.


[s]Hmmm...[/s]

By TT I presume you guys are referring to Talk Talk? One of my colleagues is with them and says they're awful. Seriously rubbish connection (even though she lives about 1/4 mile from our local exchange) and says their customer service is appalling. I've had the misfortune to deal with Orange & Tiscali and wouldn't go back to either (regardless of the deals they were offering), it would appear as though Talk Talk are something of a similar operation.

Thanks Eccles,
Glad it's not just me that didn't trust PO/TT not to mess things up!

I see Zen also offer a more competitive phone only plan than BT.
I'll have to think about this.
[s]Hmmm...[/s]

Hmmm... we have looked into this and at the moment it's just not viable to offer a phone line service. It's something I have wanted and I had to do a bit of research with the latest BT price rise for my landline. In the end I just downgraded everything. Chose to skip the Post Office as I think they are SMPF over TT and they could not assure me that my broadband would not be messed up with the move, also check them out on the review sites.
I can always investigate some prices for you via our wholesalers if you want.

Thanks Hmmm for the reminder. I had notification from BT a few weeks ago and thought about dumping 1571 service. For free I had it, to pay for it ... no chance! If someone needs me that bad, they'll ring back ... business or not :¬)

I'm not happy at all about any of BT's services, but as pete says, I'm not convinced by the 'others' either.