BT Digital Voice Hi Just had a email today saying BT are moving me to Digital Voice and I’ll be emailed a date when this will take place. Just been on to BT...

[kev2021]

Hi

Just had a email today saying BT are moving me to Digital Voice and I’ll be emailed a date when this will take place.

Just been on to BT chat to get some clarification around the line rental saver I pay.

So it appears whenever they switch me to Digital Voice, I will still need pay the Line rental once moving over to digital voice and the price remains the same.  I can still pay the line rental upfront using the line rental saver.

Seems a little odd as I would no longer have a landline but there argument seems to be that we still have a line for the fibre and its leased from open reach so need to pay for it.

I was hoping to drop the line rental fee once moving but appears not, BT must be making a fortune from this move surely as before I had a landline and fibre connection.

Think I could be moving away from BT when contract runs out, I have seen 2 local companies near me offering same FTTP connection and speed for around £10 cheaper per month and no price increases during contract as well as no line rental to pay.  Surely BT can offer something in comparison but I suspect until everyone has moved and they start loosing lots of customers or customer start complaining why they are paying line rental with no landline, they are going to milk this for all they can.

Just found out my parents got a email like this a while back but nothing has happened since so looks like it is not going to happen anytime soon, which might be a good thing as hopefully I can potentially switch before they move me.

I still got a year to go on my contract so I’m stuck with it for now but it will give me a chance to try and see what local companies are like as tbh BT has been very stable for me, in the whole 5+ years I’ve been with them (through 36mb/52mb fibre and now FTTP) they have been very good, think it may of only gone down once and then wasn’t for long so been very stable and reliable so for that reason I’d sooner stay with them but if the price difference is going to be £10+ a month then I might have to take my chances and switch as that’s a fair chunk of money to pay over the top compared to other providers.

Kev

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[UK Sentinel]

Was you on any form of BT Digital Voice trials which was a pilot scheme. I did read that from April 2023 they’ll start expanding those pilots to include lower usage landline customers (those who have a full fibre broadband connection already)

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[kev2021]

Hi,

Let me into the site now, didn’t yesterday or today hence not been able to reply, apologies. Tried in 2 diff browsers too (one I very rarely use so never logged into this site from it).

I wasn’t part of a BT Digital Voice trial.  I rarely use the phone line, its more of an emergency use incase mobile is out etc tbh.  Parents are the same as there landline call quality is not very good, used to be ok but about a year or so ago, it has got very bad in that you can’t hear anyone on it so we have moved to VOIP (was free at the time, although they now charge for new customers) so was fortunate to get in on that when it was free.

For me, i don’t really need the digital voice from BT as it looks to be a requirement to use there smarthub2 which I no longer use.  I’m hoping I can continue to pay the line rental up front for another year before potentially switching providers or having BT reduce the price some as mine has gone up approx. £5 a month now since the rice has come in, this month is slightly higher then it will changed to a fixed amount each month.

Kev

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[UK Sentinel]

kev2021 wrote:

Let me into the site now, didn’t yesterday or today hence not been able to reply, apologies. Tried in 2 diff browsers too (one I very rarely use so never logged into this site from it).

Good news, I have been doing a lot of SEO work behing the scenes, so stopped when you messaged me

 

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[UK Sentinel]

BT’s Line Rental Saver is only available for customers with a landline and broadband.

I forget,do you have both a DSL Line and FTTP connection currently ?

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[kev2021]

Hi,

I have FTTP and also have a phone line.  According to the BT Chat, when i move to digital voice, i will *still* need to pay the line rental even though it all goes over my internet connection at that point.  They said it was due to the fact i still have a cable to my property and that is leased from OpenReach..  Seems a bit odd as at the moment – technically I have 2 cables – the phone line and then Fibre line. It seems to me BT still want to the line rental and effectively they add that into the total cost…. so on a new package if you say “no phone, just broadband” the cost comes down hardly at all – £5 tops… considering line rental is approx. £19.99 a month, I’d be expecting a £30 package – line rental of £19.99 to be £10.01 a month but nope, they want £30 regardless…. Hence why I’m considering potentially moving if a local provider is reliable, has good reviews etc as I don’t want to have issues of it keep going down or not being able to access stuff when not at home etc, not ideal.  BT may want more money but I cannot fault the reliability and uptime – its been rock solid.  My power goes out briefly more than my internet goes down, I doubt it has gone down at all since I’ve had it.  Only time *maybe* recently when i couldn’t’ access anything at all BUT as soon as I got home and bounced the router, it will came back up so I think maybe the router hung but as I had to reboot it, I have no logs to advise what happened.  I’ve had the router i guess a year or so now? the RT-AX86S, its been no issue at all and comes back on when power has gone out in bad weather etc so can’t fault it at all.  Its been ok since I powered it off and back on so that was about a week or so ago now so I’m waiting to see how that goes.

Still considering the 3G dongle option but if the router is locking up then I doubt 3G dongle will help as its prob not the internet going down but worst case might need to see if still in warranty or worst case but something else which I’d sooner avoid.

Was going to update the firmware but now waiting to see how it goes for a bit before I do that. If it goes down again, I’ll prob bite the bullet and update it and then see, it just takes about 2hrs for everything to re-connect.

Kev

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[UK Sentinel]

kev2021 wrote:

They said it was due to the fact i still have a cable to my property and that is leased from OpenReach

That is odd, I assume your landline (DSL) is still in contract ?

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[kev2021]

My existing FTTP and landline is in contract un 2024 (had to sign up to 2yrs) but they have told me that they plan to move me to digital voice and to make things easier it will be one price going forward and I can still pay line rental saver etc as the line rental isn’t for landline, its the lease fee from open reach for the line to my house.

So my take is BT are still goign to charge the line rental fee for as long as possible albeit make it as hide the line rental charge in the total interent conenction until more competitors come out and customers start to leave as they can get away with paying a cheaper price without line rental then BT will drop it al together i suspect.  Its a crafty way to make you still pay the same money, just in a diff area effectively.  So as an example.

Lets a FTTP with landline today costs £30 and Line rental for the landline is £20..

ATm you can pay line rentl up front and you only pay 11 months, the 12th is free as you paid in advance so once you pay that upfront, your monthly bill is £10.

So going forward you would image the same package that costs £30, without a landline/digital voice should therefore be £10 a month but oh no you still need to pay that £20 as well…

Whereas competitors are saying you can have FTTP for £25, no line rental to pay and no in-contract price rises.  I suspect these price are £25 purely because they are undercutting other main internet providers and also making a bit of profit due to the startup costs they have had etc as 2 in my area only started up in 2021 and one of them is actually running there own fibre cable (I’d of thought would made sense to use the existing one if its there but need to clarify that part nearer the time) so I’d be £5 a month (£120 over 2 years, taking it like for like with BT) and I also get a slight increases as the lowest package they do is 200mb instead of the 150mb and the 200mb is in both directions whereas i think BT 150mb is down but slowed, maybe 30 up?) So seems a bit of a con but they can get away with it atm so they will as they must realise eventually they will need to loose that £20 but they will just hike the prices anyway to recoupe it

Kev

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[UK Sentinel]

kev2021 wrote:

My existing FTTP and landline is in contract un 2024 (had to sign up to 2yrs)

That makes a little more sense, I agree not very generous or helpful of BT, but imagine all that copper in the Land line you can harvest after contract finishes in 2024

BT do like sticking to their contracts, as I have found out and role on 2024 when you can ditch the landline and switch to alternate FTTP provider and go VoIP.

At least with BT’s digital voice you should be able to keep you existing Tel number and then use a porting service to transfer same number to another FTTP provider when BT’s contract finishes.

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[kev2021]

Yes, I already have a VOIP service as for myself my landline is seldom used and only family have the number and they have my mobile so I suspect i will ditch the number when the time comes as I have a VOIP number already (which i managed to get for free, I just need to top it up occasionally but due to very little usage on it, its not costing me much at all.  Think i put £10 on it when I got it and I’ve still got over £9 left in credit but I do need to use it every so often to keep it active or they will drop it and then I’ll have to pay a monthly fee for it since they changed plans etc and now its paid for service but for existing it remains as is :)

Kev

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[UK Sentinel]

kev2021 wrote:

Think i put £10 on it when I got it and I’ve still got over £9 left in credit but I do need to use it every so often to keep it active or they will drop it and then I’ll have to pay a monthly fee for it since they changed plans etc and now its paid for service but for existing it remains as is :)

Enjoy the BT landline bill (hidden) for another year, then you are free

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