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Home phone line rental - Is it worth switching?
The monthly telephone line rental charge is increasingly being questioned by consumers. It has come under the spotlight with BT's decision to increase its line rental from £11.50 to £12.50 from April 1 2009. BT's competitors are keen to get a piece of the telephone line action, so you may find a deal that suits you. By Seamour.Rathore@consumerchoices.co.uk on 09/01/09.
These days you aren't compelled to rent your home phone line from BT (www.BT.com), you can rent it from other telephone companies that pay pay BT on your behalf. Alternatively you can get a cable landline through the Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com) network which covers most of the UK.
Whatever option you're considering for your landline, you should check that your call charges will be lower under your new provider, too.
Click here to Compare line rental charges
Line rental - the options
Traditionally a BT (www.BT.com) phone bill consisted of two components; your line rental and your call charges. Then the system was deregulated and you were permitted to buy your call service from other suppliers. Nowadays you can get line rental - as well as a call service - from other companies. As a result many suppliers have since lowered their line rental charges, so your bill may come down too. Even if you get your line rental from a company other than BT, you can keep your existing phone number and you won't need an engineer to come round.
If you get your home phone via a cable landline from Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com) instead, you won’t be paying BT since you won't be using their copper wire network. Virgin Media has its own network of cables laid across Britain. However Virgin Media doesn’t list its line rental separately, the cost is included in your package cost, so it’s not as easy to compare their line rental with other suppliers. If you don't have a cable connection at your house, you will need to get that set-up. Virgin Media's current installation charge is £30.
Benefiting from competition in the market
All home phone providers other than Virgin Media’s cable connections use BT’s copper ADSL lines. Recent years have seen a host of competitor companies spring up in the home phone market offering cheaper line rental and often more competitive call charges.
Use the table below to compare line rental costs:
Several companies now offer free call charges - within a monthly package - if you sign a contract for their line rental. Primus Saver and Direct Save Telecom www.directsavetelecom.co.uk have the best deal at the moment at £9.99 and £9.74 a month respectively. Both deals include free national calls at the evenings and weekends.
With many companies, you can make further savings by bundling broadband and home phone services
You should also look at your complete range of options using our Home Phone comparison service
The future for line rental
Many people have landlines in order to get broadband, but you currently can’t get broadband-only packages unless you have cable. In the US however, you can purchase pure broadband without a cable connection, known as naked ADSL. Communications regulator Ofcom allows suppliers to choose whether or not they want to offer this service and as yet in the UK, none do. However, naked ADSL could have a massive impact on the future of both line rental and VoIP (Voice over internet protocol) connections.
There has also been a rise in mobile broadband recently, which is totally separate from your home telephone line. To find out more read our guide to mobile broadband.
Line rental - top tips
You shouldn’t switch to a new home phone provider just because they have cheaper line rental as the most you will save is around £3 a month. However, combined with the cheaper call charges of many companies you can make huge savings. Check out our best buy tables for a quick idea of who offers the most competitive home phone price packages.
Also, if you don’t already pay by direct debit and are able to, you should definitely do so as this can save you as much as £5 a month with some suppliers. And find out if your provider offers paperless billing, as it’s good for the environment and will usually earn you a discount too.
Think about the kind of calls that you make, how long they are and where they’re to. If you only have a phone line for your broadband connection then maybe moving to Virgin Media would be a good idea – they also offer free digital TV with some phone packages, allowing you to switch to digital, if you area hasn't yet done so.
If on the other hand you make daily calls abroad, then one option is to go for a provider who offers cheap line rental and low international rates such as Talk Talk (www.talktalk.co.uk) or Tiscali (www.Tiscali.co.uk).
You should also look into making international calls over the internet, this is known as Voice over internet protocol (VOIP) .
Keeping your needs in mind and thinking about the way that you use the service you’re paying for is the best way to guarantee that you get the best value deal, catering for all your needs.
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