Press release today: http://mediacentre.o2.co.uk/content/...?ReleaseID=609 (tariff details along the right of the page).

O2 Broadband users will be able to get landline for a monthly line rental starting from £9.50 a month. If you have O2 Broadband for £7.50 (O2 Mobile customers), then the two will cost from £17.

No I don't work for O2 (!), just thought it was an interesting development

that looks really good, £1 cheper than direct save + free evenings

i might be tempted, there will proboably be a offer of som sort

I will switch when my BT landline contract finishes.

I have O2 BB & Mobile and am very pleased they are adding Landline deals to their packages.

I already have my mobile and my broadband with o2 so I am tempted by this , but I have always been a bit nervous of switching my landline away from BT in case in the future I wish to change ISPs.

In the above case would one have to pay BT £200 plus to reconnect with them?

no, you would just get your number moved over, because your line would not be 'cut off' and bt would own the line, becasue they installed it

What about BE* customers, will they get it as well?

if they moved to o2?

^ Yes - I think they would have to move to O2. Although it wouldn't surprise me if the two became one at some point (BE are owned by O2)...

One thing worth mentioning - 1571 is not included in the £9.50 line rental - it is £1 extra, whereas other providers include it in the price. If you don't like having to rush to the phone within 7 rings or don't use 1571 , e.g. if you have an answerphone of your own then you can make savings.

Savings compared with BT of course depend on how you pay your BT Bill (online or paper, direct debit or not). I understand O2 billing is online (with e-mails/text alerts) like you get now and direct debit only.

The O2 bill e-mail I received had "O2 Home phone and broadband" in the title, even though the home phone service hadn't been announced at that point in time, so they must be getting the infrastructure in place.

i think it will be clone of the contract mobile, on the broadband and homephone subsection, with a new link within myo2

"There's a minimum 8.17p set up fee for calls that aren't included in your package."

http://broadband.o2.co.uk/telesales/.../broadband.jsp

Ooh, as a Be customer, this would be nice if they matched this... A couple of quid cheaper than BT, every little helps eh!

That's me moving my line rental from Post Office then.

Nice one O2

At £12.50/month for the all inclusive package, I imagine they will steal a few BT customers as that price is only around a quid more than BT's basic line rental - and you only get weekend calls with that.

Not quite. I have Evenings and weekends included in my BT line rental.

But the £12.50/month is equal (maybe even better) to BT's Anytime plan for £4.95 on top of the line rental so its better value as even with DD and paper-free billing the total would be £16.20/month with BT.

The only downside is I'm in flipping contract with BT until November

Never mind, O2 contract and BT contract end about the same time so maybe a deal.

They add the evening bit if you agree to a 12 month contract, if not it's just weekends.

Yes. True. but as both require a contract, and BT manage to screw up my bill every quarter, I know which I'd rather be with .

could someone please explain this to me.

When its stated £9.50pm does that mean its that price regardest of how many calls you make.

And i already have home broadband and a mobile with O2 , does that mean i will have to enter into a new 12 month contract with my broadband? or can i just take the home phone service

Thanks

Ruud, for £9.50 a month, you get:

Evening & Weekend Package

* Line rental
* Unlimited evening and weekend
calls to UK landlines


or for £12.50 a month, you get:

Anytime Package

* Line rental
* Unlimited calls to UK landlines
at any time
* Calls to 0845/0870 numbers
* Calls to international landlines
in over 20 countries at any time
* 25% discount on daytime mobile
rates to UK mobiles compared
to the Evening & Weekend
package


Not sure about the 12 month contract on your current broadband package, but I wouldn't have thought so as this is a seperate contract?

Yes it does mean a 12 month contract.

Copied and pasted from the link earlier:

Terms and Conditions

Subject to availability, Direct Debit & 12 month minimum term contracts. O2 Home Phone is only available when you have O2 Home Broadband. Cheapest market pricing at time of publication. Evening and weekend calls to standard UK landlines (starting 01,02 and 03) for less than an hour each between 6pm and 6am weekdays and 6pm Friday to 6am Monday. There's a minimum 8.17p set up fee for calls that aren't included in your package

The almost 9p connection charge is annoying - all the providers seem to have it. Is it a BT thing that all other providers have to pass it on? I've noticed when BT changed the minimum call charge of 5p to a connection charge of 3p, everyone else followed. And likewise when it was increased gradually over time to around 9p.
Must be a way of "encouraging" people across to all-inclusive packages.

I don't think it'll be too much longer where there won't be any call packages, as such, on landlines. You'll just pay a flat fee to cover the rental and all calls to other landlines and certain '08' numbers will be included.
The same will happen with mobiles - flat fee and use the phone as you wan't (subject to FUP as per the norm!), in fact this has already started to appear on certain T-Mobile business deals so it'll not be long before it creeps over to private use.

wel the broadband move has been great so i suspect the phone will be as smooth

might be tempted, depends on whether its on the LLU, or just the rebadged BT

thats broadband

you can get LLU phoneline now though cant you? have seen several posts where people have been moved to Sky or TalkTalks phone service, on their LLU (or whatever it is) and get charged to move back to BT?