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Phone line installation options

Phone line installation options

Dear Simon, my new house has a BT landline but it has been disconnected because the previous tenants did not pay their bills. When I called BT they said they wanted £130 to connect the phone line. Can I get a landline from a different home phone provider other than BT?

Can you help?

Claudio Nogueira, London, via email, Updated: Tuesday 4 January, 2011

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Our expert says...

Hi Claudio, thanks for your email about getting a new phone line installed. The majority of people are unaware that most home phone providers offer line installation, so you don’t have to switch to BT (www.bt.com) to reconnect your phone line. TalkTalk (www.talktalk.co.uk), Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com) and others also offer line installation

BT says if there’s no suitable BT line at your home, if there’s no dialling tone, or if you have been previously disconnected for non-payment, there will be a standard phone connection charge of £130, however this is subject to survey by a BT engineer and may be less.

However, having a phone line installed by another provider may work out cheaper, as installation costs can be competitive. You should also take call plans and line rental into consideration when choosing a company to install your phone line. Take a look at the table below to see if you can get cheap phone line installation…

Line installation options

Most home phone providers offer new line installation. The table below shows the various providers and the price for line installation:

Provider Provider details Line installation cost
BT www.bt.com Now £30 with BT broadband and calls (£130 with just calls)
Direct Save Telecom www.directsavetelecom.co.uk £49.95 - Ring 0800 280 2021 quote "BBC01"
Post Office www.postoffice.co.uk £112.34
Primus Saver Primus Saver £59 - Ring 0800 036 0170 for more information
Sky www.sky.com Available on request - prices start from £39
TalkTalk www.talktalk.co.uk £50 (ring 0800 049 7834 for more information)

Cheapest way to reconnect your phone line

The cheapest home phone installation option (if opting for just a calls package) is currently Primus at £59. However this may not necessarily be the cheapest installation option for you. You need to do a postcode search to find out which home phone providers are available in your area, and weigh-up the cost of call packages and installation.

For bundled packages, BT offers cheap £30 line installation and TalkTalk (www.talktalk.co.uk) charges £29.99, however these are limited offers.

Phone line installation recommendations

While phone line installation may be a bit cheaper with another supplier, in the long run the company’s call plans may work out more expensive. You should compare the market and calculate how much it’ll cost you over the 12-month contract before signing up to a new package.

If you don’t want to sign-up to a 12-month contract, all Direct Save Telecom (www.directsavetelecom.co.uk) tariffs are 28-day rolling contracts. This means that your contract with Direct Save Telecom will be automatically renewed on an on-going basis every 28 days and until you give the company written notice of termination with 28 days notice. It’s line installation cost is £49.95 and it’s call packages are competitive, so this could be an option if you don’t want to be tied to a contract.

You could also reconnect your phone line with Sky (www.sky.com). Prices vary but typically start from around £39. However to receive Sky home phone you must also be a Sky digital TV customer or a completely new customer to Sky. Prices start from £19.50 a month, so this could make the overall cost more expensive, particularly if you don’t watch that much TV or already have Freeview.

Hope this gives you a bit more information Claudio. Remember, you don’t have to have your phone line installed by BT; there are other options.

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Comments

i have recently moved home and have rented a flat in chester ,i had applied for a bt landline to be connected and agreed for the £130 pounds installation charges,however the bt engineer came on two occasions and was unable to connect the line ,he now says the line is faulty and there is nothing they can do about it ,can you please advise me what to do as i have no landline ,no internet and no tv as all are interconnected with the landline .i even tried cable broadband with virgin but they dont provide cable connection in my area.also what are my rights as a tenant as the estate agents stated to me there was a bt line in the property before i signed the contract and now i find out the line has been faulty for a while - Oct 29 2011 10:19PM
dr binu george, chester

This same thing happened to me, only with O2 broadband. I was told I'd have to pay £85ish to have line installed, we use BT engineers. You'll have to wait in else you'll be charged again etc. I sat & waited & no one ever came... The line was switched on at the exchange they said when I called. I don't see how they can charge the same amount for this as a full blown installation. If I had not have called them I'd have waited in all day. It sounds to me like they're all as bad as eachother. - Jan 27 2011 12:59PM
nessie, West Midlands

Hi, I`m a Psychologist. My patients are mostly women and i want to connect with them by phone and also want to get visit fee while they call me. My questions is that if i have free phone line, how can i get visit fee? Is there any option to get money when people dial your number? Thanks - Sep 18 2010 9:55PM
rabia, N jersey

Hi
will relocate to a new rental flat in North London
Signed up for a deal with BT, and will get connection / phone by October first.
Flat has a Telewest Phone at the moment according to label at the socket. Is that the same socket for all providers so i can just plug in my telephone and once it is activated I am good to go ? How does BT know which flat to re-connect ? There are 4 parties / flats in the premises.
Do I have to get a line installed ( which I thought won't be necessary?)
many thanks
Frank - Sep 17 2010 5:11PM
We are building a new house and obviously need a new phone line. Builders are providing trench and ducting for services so presumably whoever installs our line will use this. We will also need internet services. We are not in a cable area and broadband max speed is about 6 which is fine for us as we are not heavy users. What is our best option? - Aug 27 2010 3:45PM
Vyacheslav, Watford

We are building a new house in our garden and obviously need a new phone line. Builders are providing trench and ducting for services so presumably whoever installs our line will use this. We will also need internet services. We are not in a cable area and broadband max speed is about 6 which is fine for us as we are not heavy users. What is our best option? - Aug 6 2010 12:59PM
Helen, Cambridgeshire

I had a line installed by the Post Office, and moved after 6 months, and they NEVER sorted it out properly - their call centres are hopeless, and they always try to sell you services!
I now have the bailifs tryign to contact me for a bill that was paid on one account and not credited to another account! I'll NEVER use them again until I'm in a box! - Jul 4 2010 10:51AM
I have my broadband,phone and landline with Utility Warehouse and want to switch providers,only trouble is my landline is not BT compatible.To reconnect to BT compatible landline will cost me £110 with the post office or a lenghty contract with BT.Is ther any way around this?. - Jun 14 2010 6:02PM
Malcolm Pickering, S.Wales

i have moved into a brand new property and have phone sockets in the lounge and bedroom, but if i wish to have phone and broadband a phoneline needs to be installed at a cost of over a hundred pounds, surely a phone line is allready conected all it has to is activated. steve - Jun 11 2010 2:00PM
steve powell, bournemouth

I wish I'd done some research before a phone line installation following what I read here. I asked for a new line install and asked if it was a BT type line, as I wanted to move my O2 broadband over, they confirmed it was. Line got installed but the idiots had put me on their LLU line, and O2 will not migrate me. They then had the cheek to tell me that on their website it says they "may" install a LLU line, and that I have to pay a further £40 to change to a BT type line, bringing my total to £156.30, DEFINITELY NOT CHEAPER THAN BT. I only hate one thing more than a thief, and that's a liar, and DirectSave Telecom are both. If anyone is considering this company AVOID DIRECT SAVE TELECOM LIKE THE PLAGUE. If just one person can avoid the expensive pitfall I know find myself in, this post will have been worth it. I just wish someone had done the same for me.
@Karen Shaw
I had enough of BT as well, use the Post Office, that's who I'll be switching to once my DST nightmare is over. - May 14 2010 2:02PM
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