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BT Line Rental Up. Evening and Daytime Calls Up.


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Old 30-01-2008, 14:39
davidredge
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BT are set to launch a new range of packages on Friday, otherwise known as robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Option 1 (renamed The Unlimited UK Weekend Plan) will loose its evening and weekend calls rates (4.5p up to an hour). This will be replaced with a per minute charge of 1.5p, plus call set up fee for for weekday evenings of 6p (your first minute will cost 7.5p), with weekend calls now being free. This will cost you an additional 75p per month.

Option 2 will be known as The Evening and Weekend Plan and benefits will remain as is, although monthly cost will drop to £2.70 on top of your line rental (£11.75)

Option 3. The Anytime plan will be reduced to £5.95 per month, again on top of your line rental (11.75)

Daytime calls will be increased to 4p per minute.
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Old 30-01-2008, 15:13
poppasmurf
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That's Call Sign dropped then, saving me £1.50 per month. When will BT learn that they are too darned expensive?
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Old 30-01-2008, 15:34
Heinz
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Option 2 will be known as The Evening and Weekend Plan and benefits will remain as is, although monthly cost will drop to £2.70
The price drops on 1-4-08 but, if you agree to a rolling 12 month contract, it'll be free. That aspect starts 1-2-08.
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Old 30-01-2008, 15:53
sla_steve
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so will this automatically happen to all customers or is it only for new customers?
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Old 30-01-2008, 17:08
davidredge
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Current option 1 customers, who this affects most, are migrated onto the new plan from 1/2/08. New and existng cutomers.

Since Option 1 is now an 'inclusive call package', how does this stand legally? Its firstly squeezing competition, and secondly, its not actualy line rental is it?
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Old 30-01-2008, 20:29
timboy
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how does this stand legally?

Its firstly squeezing competition, and secondly, its not actualy line rental is it?
Is BT Retail still classed as having SMP?

If not they can pretty much do what they want, just like the opposition.

No-one HAS to have BT Retail line rental these days or have they needed to for a while now, lots of options about from different providers.
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Old 30-01-2008, 22:59
TheFirstCut
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Is BT Retail still classed as having SMP?

If not they can pretty much do what they want, just like the opposition.

No-one HAS to have BT Retail line rental these days or have they needed to for a while now, lots of options about from different providers.
Though not normally wise to move line rental away from BT, otherwise you usually lose the ability of making cheap calls via other providers.
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Old 30-01-2008, 23:00
TheFirstCut
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BT are set to launch a new range of packages on Friday, otherwise known as robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Option 1 (renamed The Unlimited UK Weekend Plan) will lose its evening and weekend calls rates (4.5p up to an hour). This will be replaced with a per minute charge of 1.5p, plus call set up fee for for weekday evenings of 6p (your first minute will cost 7.5p), with weekend calls now being free. This will cost you an additional 75p per month.

Option 2 will be known as The Evening and Weekend Plan and benefits will remain as is, although monthly cost will drop to £2.70 on top of your line rental (£11.75)

Option 3. The Anytime plan will be reduced to £5.95 per month, again on top of your line rental (11.75)

Daytime calls will be increased to 4p per minute.
Is not the discount for going paper-less increasing, therefore for those who are paperless and DD the line rental remains the same?
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Old 31-01-2008, 10:12
sla_steve
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Current option 1 customers, who this affects most, are migrated onto the new plan from 1/2/08. New and existng cutomers.

Since Option 1 is now an 'inclusive call package', how does this stand legally? Its firstly squeezing competition, and secondly, its not actualy line rental is it?
and when are they going to tell us about this!!!?

EDIT: also is there a source for this anywhere? I cant see it on their site and they are still calling option 1 the "1 hour plan" on there
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Old 31-01-2008, 11:29
davidredge
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its all launched tomorrow on Feb 1st, some changes take place tomorrow and others on the 1st April. You'll find no sources until tomorrow.
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Old 31-01-2008, 12:45
sla_steve
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its all launched tomorrow on Feb 1st, some changes take place tomorrow and others on the 1st April. You'll find no sources until tomorrow.
So they are going to change my tariff tomrrow with no notice whatsoever??
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Old 31-01-2008, 13:52
John Dough
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The new 'evening rate' is an utter disgrace!
I only make the required 6 chargeable calls to avoid the fees for caller display and BT answer, I wonder if so called 'free' weekend calls will qualify for this purpose?
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Old 31-01-2008, 16:06
TheFirstCut
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The new 'evening rate' is an utter disgrace!
I only make the required 6 chargeable calls to avoid the fees for caller display and BT answer, I wonder if so called 'free' weekend calls will qualify for this purpose?
From what I have been reading, it will!!
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Old 31-01-2008, 16:28
darkjedimaster
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BT are set to launch a new range of packages on Friday, otherwise known as robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Option 1 (renamed The Unlimited UK Weekend Plan) will loose its evening and weekend calls rates (4.5p up to an hour). This will be replaced with a per minute charge of 1.5p, plus call set up fee for for weekday evenings of 6p (your first minute will cost 7.5p), with weekend calls now being free. This will cost you an additional 75p per month.

Option 2 will be known as The Evening and Weekend Plan and benefits will remain as is, although monthly cost will drop to £2.70 on top of your line rental (£11.75)

Option 3. The Anytime plan will be reduced to £5.95 per month, again on top of your line rental (11.75)

Daytime calls will be increased to 4p per minute.
No offence op even thou I wouldn't put it past BT pulling this kind of stunt, but may I ask where you heard of it before it's press release of tomorrow ?.
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Old 31-01-2008, 16:48
Heinz
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No offence op even thou I wouldn't put it past BT pulling this kind of stunt, but may I ask where you heard of it before it's press release of tomorrow ?.
You can ask, but I'm sure you won't be told.

There is a similar thread on MSE which has some slightly different information/speculation.
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Old 01-02-2008, 11:13
forumuser
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Heres the full release from BT This morning those of us on paperfree billing will see no change in Line rental with this remaining at £10.50.

------


Friday February 01st 2008. Posted: 10:00

Actress Sarah Parish, star of the BBC1 drama series Mistresses and Dr Who, helps to promote BT's free weekend call charges

BT has today (Friday) made UK weekend call charges a thing of the past by extending free weekend calls to UK landlines for its 10.8 million Option 1 customers.

The move takes effect from today and will mean that, for the first time, all 14.8 million BT households - the majority of those in Britain - will no longer have to pay for weekend calls.

BT says the giveaway is the first step in a revision of its prices that will also see the cost of its two most inclusive calling plans slashed from 1 April. BT says the move will undercut its closest rivals for such standalone plans.

The main changes are:

Unlimited Weekend Plan (replaces BT Together Option 1): This plan is free with customers paying line rental only. From today, customers on this plan will receive free weekend calls without having to do a thing. If they take a 12-month renewable contract, they will also get free evening calls, saving them a further £32.40 a year on top of the savings they will enjoy through receiving free weekend calls

Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan (replaces BT Together Option 2): BT is cutting the price of this plan, which offers free calls at weekends and evenings, by 22 per cent from £3.45 to £2.70 a month. The monthly cost of this plan has now fallen by more than 50 per cent in two years

Unlimited Anytime Plan (replaces BT Together Option 3): BT is cutting the price of this plan, which offers free calls at all times, by 25 per cent from £7.95 to £5.95 a month. The monthly cost of this plan has now fallen by almost 60 per cent in two years. The plan includes discounts of up to a third on calls to mobiles as well as 200 inclusive texts.

BT says customers will enjoy further savings from April with the launch of a new International Saver calling plan. This offers highly-competitive rates for calls to all international destinations for just £1 a month.

This is the third time in the past two years that BT has slashed the price of its inclusive calling plans. A recent report from Ofcom estimated that a typical basket of fixed-line calls had fallen in price by 30 per cent since 2002 and that fixed-line prices are now lower in the UK than in France, Germany, Italy and the US.

BT Retail consumer managing director Gavin Patterson said: “These are radical changes that will benefit millions of our customers - and they don’t need to do a thing. Millions of people will see the price of their call plans fall whilst millions more will enjoy free weekend calls for the very first time.

“These are fantastic deals and, unlike with some of our competitors, there’s no need to take another costly service to get the benefits. Weekend calls are being given away free to millions of people and there’s the added bonus of free evening calls if customers take a contract and stay with BT.

“Our research shows that customers prefer to know what their bill will be in advance and that’s what we’re giving them.

“Customers can now get all their calls for less than 20p a day - less than the price of a second class stamp, or what you’d pay for sending a couple of texts. We’re moving towards a world where people won’t pay per call in the same way they don’t pay per e-mail.”

From 1 April, BT is revising some other prices. For the first time in two years, the price of line rental - now available with free calls at the weekend - will go up by 75p to £11.75. Customers who take paper-free billing will see no change, however, as the discount for that option is increasing by 75p to £1.25.

The price of daytime calls is also being increased from 3.25p a minute to 4p a minute. These calls are free for customers on the Unlimited Anytime Plan.

The price of evening calls for Unlimited Weekend Plan customers is also changing to 1.5p a minute. Those customers can enjoy these calls free if they sign a 12-month contract which will then operate on a rolling basis. This means they will enjoy free weekend and evening calls as long as they stay with BT. The existing set-up fee of 6p will apply to all chargeable evening calls.
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Old 01-02-2008, 11:56
sla_steve
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heres the full list from bt:

http://www.productsandservices.bt.co...CON-TOG-OPT-R1

So BT Option 1 is basically staying the same (costs in evening are till 4.5p for an hour) except for free weekends?
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Old 01-02-2008, 13:11
littleboo
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Unless you take a 12 month contract in which case you get inclusive evening calls for no additional cost.
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Old 01-02-2008, 14:08
TheFirstCut
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So the advice is:

BT for line rental with Paperless billing.
Primus Saver 2 with Penny Mobile add-on - Free. Inclusive evening & Weekend calls and calls to UK mobiles up to 20 mins for 20p.
Call 18185 for daytime UK landline calls - 5p per call, Internation, and mobiles outside the Penny Mobile value.

Use BT for a few calls at the weekend for no charge and get Caller Display for free.
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Old 01-02-2008, 14:11
John Dough
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The details are not as bad as they appeared to be earlier in the week.
I'm relieved that the 1.5pence per minute for evening calls hasn't materialised but connection fees and whole minute pricing are still greedy practices IMO, BT has had the means to price all calls per second for over ten years now and they're just profiteering to my mind.

Edit-Reading on the BT site and they ARE bringing in the new prices for evening calls from April 1st!! What shameful behaviour.
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Old 01-02-2008, 14:13
Heinz
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So the advice is:

BT for line rental with Paperless billing.
Primus Saver 2 with Penny Mobile add-on - Free. Inclusive evening & Weekend calls and calls to UK mobiles up to 20 mins for 20p.
Call 18185 for daytime UK landline calls - 5p per call, Internation, and mobiles outside the Penny Mobile value.

Use BT for a few calls at the weekend for no charge and get Caller Display for free.
I'm having difficulty getting my head around that last bit because one of the notes associated with BT's announcements today is:
Free UK Weekend calls
Available to residential BT Together Option 1 ("Unlimited Weekend Plan" from 1 April 2008) customers making at least one chargeable call a month with BT.
So, if you have to make at least one chargeable call to qualify for free weekend calls, how can those free weekend calls count as qualifying chargeable calls for free Caller Display and/or 1571?
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Old 01-02-2008, 14:24
TheFirstCut
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I'm having difficulty getting my head around that last bit because one of the notes associated with BT's announcements today is:So, if you have to make at least one chargeable call to qualify for free weekend calls, how can those free weekend calls count as qualifying chargeable calls for free Caller Display and/or 1571?
I see sneaky.
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Old 01-02-2008, 14:29
sla_steve
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Edit-Reading on the BT site and they ARE bringing in the new prices for evening calls from April 1st!! What shameful behaviour.
Where do you see that?

This is what i have found:

Price includes line rental at £10.50 a month when paying by direct debit and elect for paper-free billing. Otherwise add £1.50 per month for payment processing fee levied by BT Payment Services Limited, a BT Group company, plus 50p without paper-free billing discount. Discount is via bill credit. Exclusions and conditions apply. From 1 April 2008 line rental will increase to £11.75 a month, which can be offset by an increased paper-free billing discount of £1.25.
Option 1: ('Unlimited UK Weekend Plan' from 1 April) available to eligible residential customers making at least one chargeable call a month.
Option 2: ('Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan' from 1 April) available to eligible residential customers. £3.45 a month (£2.70 from 1 April).
Option 3: (the 'Unlimited Anytime Plan' from 1 April) £7.95 a month (£5.95 a month from 1 April).
All Options: Line rental costs, terms and conditions apply.
A minimum contract term of 12 months applies on line rental.
It just says these tarffis are avilable from 1st april!?
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Old 01-02-2008, 17:51
John Dough
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It takes a bit of clicking through but here it is:http://www.productsandservices.bt.co...BT_Pricing.pdf As usual it's hidden from the headline 'good news'.
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Old 02-02-2008, 14:41
krob2
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BT certainly won't be winning any Plain English awards for these announcements!
Currently on Option 1 and only use phone in the evening/weekends so looks like I'll have to upgrade to Option 2 to avoid the outrageous evening charges. Don't like the idea of 12 month contracts at all...
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