exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

I have been puzzling over this again for the past few days :(

So the copper phone lines are being disconnected in 2025. Fair enough.

I am completely confused over pricing for packages for this. Currently I am with IDNET and basically paying about £400 per year for the phone line rental and broadband package, I have one of their older legacy packages so I have a 50GB download limit per month. Phone calls are charged individually.

Now I contacted them yesterday because I was confused about it all. But the bottom line is they are basically going to be charging me double the price for broadband and VoIP at £800 :WTF: There must be like 50 different price tiers and structures for them which make no sense. They asked them to confirm that that was their cheapest package. They said it was unless I have the VoIP with someone else then it would be about £100 cheaper.

I mean is VoIP what is being translated to having a " phone line" these days or what ?!

Some packages only is broadband, some with broadband and phone, but phone is in analogue or VoIP phone ? Is very unclear which is which to me unless they have just generalised the whole thing or something.

Having looked at other providers like SKY and BT. am somewhat confused over their packages when they just simply call it " broadband" . I mean is there still line rental in all of this or what ? have they not updated their prices, or do they have separate listings for broadband and VoIP or something ?

I am completely confused about it all. :stars:

But I think the bottom line is I probably will be better changing my Internet provider because surely all these improvements should work out at a cheaper package not twice the cost ?! :stars:

Yeah, I saw this in the details of my new broadband contract with BT about 6 months ago.

To boil it down, the only thing leaving your property will be a digital broadband line. Anyone wishing to do any 'voice calls' will have it done digitally by VoIP.

Wasnt aware about the pricing terms. It would be a bit rough if they were charging double for a 'phone line' though. :o

Looking at BT VoIP.

https://business.bt.com/products/busine ... oud-phone/

Seems getting on for £20 a month anyway. I mean isn't VoIP supposed to be cheaper, not double the price of the line rental ?!

Yeah even Virgin Media disabled their copper phone network recently and provided everyone with telephone plugs that go directly into the cable modem. I think it's a bit cheeky for these ISPs to charge what is effectively 'line rental' for lines that don't exist anymore, I mean, fair enough when they previously had to pay BT to lease the old copper network.

The average package price for Virgin media, TV and phone is generally around 70/80 pounds per month (but you have to keep an eye on it and call them for a better price, they put my grandad up to £120 per month because he didn't complain, I called them and had it brought back down to 80

£80 a month :shock: I think £40 a month is to much :(

I can't work out if the VoIP phone needs to be plugged into the router or not, or if it can be done over WiFi, or if you need a special VoIP router for it to even work. :pullhair:

exxos wrote: 25 Apr 2023 12:52 £80 a month :shock: I think £40 a month is to much :(

I can't work out if the VoIP phone needs to be plugged into the router or not, or if it can be done over WiFi, or if you need a special VoIP router for it to even work. :pullhair:

Yeah your modem needs to be a VoIP modem. Mine has two phone plugs on the rear, they're physical, then an adaptor goes into them (max 2 lines afaik) Then you physically plug your regular BT style phone cable into them.

When we moved here there was no option for copper, BT fibre was standard so our 'Landline' is VOIP.

I really don't like it as from an emergency PoV, the old copper landlines still worked during a power cut. Good luck with that with VOIP, since the phones are powered from the mains, not the phone line and need the router, also mains powered, to be functioning.

Not sure how many folks have a UPS or backup generator at home to keep the internet running, I used to have a UPS, but I don't any more.

In terms of cost I pay more than you've been quoted, however I have gigabit fibre with no download limit, VOIP as well as BT Halo, which means even if my fibre goes down, I still have 4G that keeps me online, and since I WFH 4 days a week that's a must.

VOIP does seem to equate to 'Line Rental' but IMHO it's just semantics so they can charge you for something else, because once you have broadband, you can do VOIP, it's not a separate line.

However I do know BT do packages starting at £26.99 a month, so I'd expect you can find something similar to your current deal.

I know not everybody likes BT, and they have their reasons, however I have been with them a very long time and it's usually been pretty good.

Have I had issues? Sure, but overall they did get dealt with very quickly.

Steve wrote: 25 Apr 2023 13:02 Yeah your modem needs to be a VoIP modem. Mine has two phone plugs on the rear, they're physical, then an adaptor goes into them (max 2 lines afaik) Then you physically plug your regular BT style phone cable into them.

So likely will need a new router ?. Only just got the hang of setting my TP-LINK one up :roll:

But if it has to be a physical network connection as well, then that will be a small nightmare to route a network cable from the router to the downstairs phone :(

Jesus, so basically paying double for the privilege of creating me a total nightmare scenario :roll:

Steve wrote: 25 Apr 2023 13:02

exxos wrote: 25 Apr 2023 12:52 £80 a month :shock: I think £40 a month is to much :(

I can't work out if the VoIP phone needs to be plugged into the router or not, or if it can be done over WiFi, or if you need a special VoIP router for it to even work. :pullhair:

Yeah your modem needs to be a VoIP modem. Mine has two phone plugs on the rear, they're physical, then an adaptor goes into them (max 2 lines afaik) Then you physically plug your regular BT style phone cable into them.

@exxos

Our VOIP phones connect directly to the BB router using wireless, so there isn't even a need for any cables. Different services will offer different options though. Again, that is with BT.

Also, you can opt for disks and set up a Mesh network too that will give you decent WiFi wherever. We have one disk upstairs and one downstairs.

rubber_jonnie wrote: 25 Apr 2023 13:16 Our VOIP phones connect directly to the BB router using wireless, so there isn't even a need for any cables. Different services will offer different options though. Again, that is with BT.

Wireless would be a lot better for me. Though is it some special router or would my normal router still work ?

Though I can't imagine normal routers will be made obsolete with this because imagine all the E-waste it would generate :shock: