Higher telephone bills for BT customers

Just two weeks after winning praise for scrapping fees for its customers with call packages to call 0870 and 0845 numbers, BT has been criticised by industry experts for its latest round of price increases. The new charges are summarised below:

Line rental charges

BTs 14 million customers will see increased telephone bills with a £1 per month increase in line rental charges. Line rental is increased from £12.50 to £13.50 per month ( for standard customers).

BT stated that their customers could save money by opting for paper free billing, According to BT, 13.5 million of their 14.5 million customers are missing out on the potential savings offered by choosing paper-free billing.

Call Set up and charges

Customers who don’t have a call inclusive commitment package with their BT line will also face an increase in call costs, with daytime prices rising by 15% to 4.5p per minute. BT also announced that it would be increasing its call set-up fee from 6.85p to 8p per chargeable call, an increase of 17%.

BT Statement

The company defended the price rises, pointing out that international calls and calls to mobiles had fallen substantially, and that some of their customers would only see a marginal increase. "If you look at other sectors such as gas, food and electricity, the price of telephone calls have come down a lot over the last five years," said a spokesman.

"We recognise that there is a recession on, but we also recognise there are savings that consumers can make: you can save more than the increase in the line rental charge, for instance, by opting for paperless billing."

It is not just BT telephony customers that will be affected by the increases, but also the millions of broadband customers of other suppliers who rent their lines from BT. “This will be particularly frustrating for customers who only use BT’s landline for ADSL broadband access," said Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director.

“When these price increases come into play, BT’s line rental will cost £3.51 a month more than its cheapest competition, Toucan Broadband at £8.99 a month, while some other local loop unbundled (LLU) providers such as Tiscali Broadband or TalkTalk Broadband even offer “free line rental” or “free broadband”, making their packages significantly cheaper.”

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