| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Samantha |
Broadband bt vs other provider - very confusedWasn't sure where to put this but it does involve broadband.My latest downsizing obsession is my telephone services provider (B!****T). Latest bill reads like this: Service charges £74.00 Call charges £47.55 Payment charges £12.00 (because I choose to give them cash rather than DD=£4.50 and because I didn't pay within 10 days of received the bill late payment charge of £7.50). We both have mobiles one on contract and one on pay as you go so my questions are: Do I really need a landline = -£28.07 Call charges = -£47.55 Total saving of £75.62 per quarter. DH gets more than enough free minutes on his mobile to cover the calls currently made on the landline. He could also get broadband for free through his Orange contract - saving £45.93. However, do I need to keep something from BT in order to run broadband with another provider? I'm confused thats a huge quarterly saving I could make and yet I don't know if it's possible. Can anybody help? Samantha |
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| MarkS |
needing something from bt is not as straightforward a Q as it seems. If you are in a rural bit of north yorkshire then it is very unlikely that you can get broadband other than through BT. that does not mean that it has to be bt that provides it though - most isp's are reselling connectivity which is provided by BT (unless they have llu local loop unbundling - unlikely in rural areas)
I think that orange resell the bt service, so you would have to keep a bt land line - so you cant get rid of the line rental - although I thought that bt did a special low user tariff? but you can loose the call charges now by starting to use the mobile. changing bb provider only takes about 10 days. |
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| dougal |
To clarify MarkS's post
There are various ways you can get "broadband" internet access. The most obvious are - via a phone line (commonly called "ADSL" - whether or not that is exactly what it is) and the phone line has to be 'live' so paying 'line rental' on it. Usually, the retailer (like Orange) is actually selling a service that includes BT connection. - via tv underground cable. AFAIK this requires you to buy other cable services, whether phone or tv. IIRC now only via Virgin (the old NTL really). Naturally requires cable in your road. - now broadband is available via "3g" mobile networks. Historically arm and a leg expensive, now not outrageous, if actually available for you. eg £15/month for 3gb download quota - that's fine for personal, non-dvd downloading use. That's from 3 by the way. http://three.co.uk/personal/products_services_/mobile_broadband_/index.omp The coverage looks fair oop north, but rubbish on the South coast till sometime next year... One thing to watch for is that BT tend to send quarterly bills. Most others charge by the month. £10/month sounds less than £28/quarter to marketing types and other fools. Another is that you can get all manner of call deals. It'd be worth examining your phone usage to see where the call charges are coming from. BT have deals. Like "Family and Friends". Check that you are making the most use of the deals on offer. But even with a BT line you can use other phone services. My mother (with a BT line) uses a service from Asda of all people (she'd not be seen shopping there) to phone my brothers that live overseas. Its cheap enough. And simple enough for her to use. Prepay ("Pay as you go") £10 a time - lasts for months. But yes, use the mobile 'contract minutes' - or change to a cheaper contract with less minutes. How much per *year* is the landline costing, compared with the *yearly* cost of those mobiles? Are you *both* on Orange? Pay-as-you-go calls to another network are usually shockingly expensive. There was some Orange deal involving calls between you and your 'best buddy' with an Orange mobile (wasn't it free calling?) Then there's Skype and such, to use the broadband internet connection rather than making a conventional phone call. Lots of options. No one answer for everyone. |
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| ken69 |
Hi Sam.....BT Low User terms and conditions say no mobiles and no computer use. No problem YET for me, tho when asking for broadband, providers say NO GO until I change from Low User. | ||
| skedone |
unless your in a cable area yes u need a active BT line but that is it but if u go with tiscali at the mo they offer free UK landlines calls and line rental with there broadband AS IN by by u thieving gits errr i mean BT lol | ||
| RoryD |
On a linked thing. Does anyone use Sky Broadband? And if so is it any good? | ||
| Samantha |
Thank you for your replies - kind of confirmed what I thought.
I'm very rural with an 'amber' verging on 'red' line - looks like it's connected to the main line with a large paperclip and come a strong wind everything stops working for a bit. BT wont fix it until it stops working altogether!!!! The question DH asked is do we need internet connection  I had to go and lie down for a bit to reflect on my response to his question i.e. nausea and lighthead.
Need to do a bit more thinking - at the moment we receive approx 1 telephone call a week and make even less (if that's possible). |
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| MarkS |
Hellish long calls if you rack up near £50 of call charges though. Never bother complaining to bt about the internet connection speed/quality. Complain about noise on the line for ordinary calls and ask them to check the line. But first check your own wiring. |
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| john of wessex |
Whatever you do, DONT EVER GO NEAR TISCALI!!!!!!
Having dealt with both, I would rather deal with the Child Support Agency any day. If they were utterly incompetent, it would be a significant improvement. |
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| Lorrainelovesplants |
I was till last Friday on a BT tariff 3 (use the phone anytime basically).
I was harassed into initially agreeing to a 1 yr contract on this by a salesperson who phoned telling me (at tea time when the kids are nipping at my ankles and frankly Im not the calmest person) how much i could save and Id be 'silly' not to.. Anyway did it because I run a business from home..thought it would be nice to have hour long chats to my mother (what AM I saying?...) A year later paying £78 a quarter didnt seem such a good idea...I dont use BT for Broadband (Orange), only speak to my mother for 15 mins once a week to check she's alive and see who she thinks is following her this week( the council or MI5).. and hardly make business calls as they are incoming. I phoned them and EVENTUALLY got some lady in Calcutta or somewhere. I siad I was quite fed up paying this ridiculous amount and to immediately change me back to tariff 1. I got the usual well change you to direct debit...you bloody well will not or your fired! So at least we'll pay less for the phone. |
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| RichardW |
Orange now include the line rental so you can ditch BT.
Justme |
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| Samantha |
Yes I saw a tv ad for that the other day - when I have a moment I'll investigate!! |
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| Barefoot Andrew |
Agreed - useless organisation. A. |
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| dougal |
Is that what you have? It looks a very interesting deal for those who *don't* make weekday daytime calls (or don't mind doing that on their "internet phone second line"). I'm not sure it'd be good for someone making lots of daytime local calls and wanting to avoid the risk of sounding as though they were in India... However, for anyone running a business from home that involves lots of long distance UK calls, BT's "option 3" can be a reasonable, fuss-free and no surprises deal. And don't forget that it is charged/billed quarterly, so annualise things to get a fair comparison. As ever, its a case of whether that specific deal offers what *you* want/need. Horses for courses... One of the marketing ideas behind offering packages of different services (like line rental, calling package, and broadband, maybe plus tv, maybe plus mobile) is that you are making it that much more difficult for customers to escape and change supplier in future. The barrier to exit becomes higher... |
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| VSS |
i have just switched to the new orange line rental inclusive broadband package £24 / month.
Bearing in mind my call charges on BT, option one standing charge, and my dial up fee of £7 a month, i won't be paying any extra. Added bonuses of broadband, second phone line and wireless internet connection should in theory be virtually free. The biggest potential drawback is the 18 month contract. |
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| RichardW |
Nope. As the OH uses her mobile ALOT she upgraded to a £30 contract (18 months) we then got either free broadband with limits or for £5 get broadband plus internet phone (free landline 01 & 02 calls 24 7) with no limits. As we droped the option 3 down to option 1 on BT and saved on OH's mobile bills as she now gets more inclusive calls we are about £15 month better off. Next time round this current offer looks very good. Justme |