Sky to offer cut price phone line rental!

[Mr Angry]

Sounds fantastic - since I'm currently paying £5 a month for a broadband connection I don't receive I'll soon be able to pay £9 a month and have no phone service either !

I'll probably spend the savings on books to enjoy the peace and quiet and/or shoe leather to pop down the road to a wireless enabled coffee shop.

[Alan b]

Sounds fantastic - since I'm currently paying £5 a month for a broadband connection I don't receive I'll soon be able to pay £9 a month and have no phone service either !

Why will you be paying £9, no one is forcing you to sign up to this.

[Mr Angry]

Errr ... yes I know ... you have heard of sarcasm ?!

[Gaztops]

One thing though, when Sky offer line rental to customers if ever they have a line fault BT customers will get priority first.

I've personally witnessed this practice when Mercury was the first and main competitor to BT.

[Simon]

It will be interesting to see what services are available with Sky line rental. I'd be lost without Caller ID and Answerphone service.

[cprompt]

I'd be lost without Caller ID and Answerphone service.

That was what caught me out last year when I signed up for TalkTalk's line rental service. I didn't even want it in truth but I got called up by a very pursuasive salesperson who said it was cheaper than BT and that was all there was to it. She didn't even mention select services. I signed up over the phone and when the service went over I promptly lost my caller ID which I too rely on entirely. When I phoned up TalkTalk they told me it would take a week to put it back and then my total monthly charge would be higher than with BT!
When I queried all their marketing claiming they were allways cheaper than BT, they just replied that "hardly anyone uses select services so for most of our customers, that's true!"
I cancelled my TalkTalk line rental, my TalkTalk phone service and two mobile phone accounts because of that.
The underlying fact behind all this is that only BT can currrently provide services such as CLI and so firms like TalkTalk and Sky will have to buy them off BT and resell them to us. That could leave Sky being more expensive than BT as well if you need these services.

[andycswt]

Bring it on i say, i just had my fone bill and the line rental was almost as much as the charge for calls. I just signed up for Sky Talk so all BT will be getting is the line rental until i can switch that also.

As for caller ID, i will miss that as well, but even if you don't recognise the number who is calling then you still answer the fone. Line rental is a rip off in my opinion,if you want me to pay you for calls then that's fine, but why should i pay you for the ability to make a call?
let's get it as low as possible..

[cprompt]

As for caller ID, i will miss that as well, but even if you don't recognise the number who is calling then you still answer the fone.

Yes, but its when you do recognise the number (mother in law) that you cherish the ability to leave it ringing safe in the knowledge 1571 can take the full force!