Phone & Broadband packages

We use or phone very little (compared with the average figures quoted in
various adverts) and mainly during the day for what are mainly short calls,
and thus "free" evening & weekend packages at increased rental are of little
attraction.
BT are about to add a "connection charge" for calls, which will make all our
short calls even more expensive.
There are a number of combined broadband/phone packages becoming available -
can anyone comment on the financial aspects of these? If they are non-BT, do
I still have to pay BT for line rental or would I pay it to the new
provider? Then if the line fails, who fixes it?
So far I've identified Tiscali, PlusTalk, Virgin, Talk Talk - no doubt there
are others, but it seems remarkably difficult to find out what one gets and
to work out costs.

Retired

"Retired" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:46667678$0$8727$(E-Mail Removed)...
> We use or phone very little (compared with the average figures quoted in
> various adverts) and mainly during the day for what are mainly short
> calls, and thus "free" evening & weekend packages at increased rental are
> of little attraction.
> BT are about to add a "connection charge" for calls, which will make all
> our short calls even more expensive.
> There are a number of combined broadband/phone packages becoming
> available - can anyone comment on the financial aspects of these? If they
> are non-BT, do I still have to pay BT for line rental or would I pay it to
> the new provider? Then if the line fails, who fixes it?
> So far I've identified Tiscali, PlusTalk, Virgin, Talk Talk - no doubt
> there are others, but it seems remarkably difficult to find out what one
> gets and to work out costs.
>
> Retired
>
There is a Sky digital offer where you get digital TV, Broadband and phone
for £26 per month. As far as I am aware you still pay BT for line rental,
it's just the calls which are through a third party.

On Wed, 6 Jun 2007 09:57:08 +0100, Retired wrote:

> We use or phone very little (compared with the average figures quoted in
> various adverts) and mainly during the day for what are mainly short calls,
> and thus "free" evening & weekend packages at increased rental are of little
> attraction.
> BT are about to add a "connection charge" for calls, which will make all our
> short calls even more expensive.
> There are a number of combined broadband/phone packages becoming available -
> can anyone comment on the financial aspects of these? If they are non-BT, do
> I still have to pay BT for line rental or would I pay it to the new
> provider? Then if the line fails, who fixes it?
> So far I've identified Tiscali, PlusTalk, Virgin, Talk Talk - no doubt there
> are others, but it seems remarkably difficult to find out what one gets and
> to work out costs.
>
> Retired

Much the same here. Have Homecall (Pipex) anytime calls and BB for £25pcm,
but since Feb. make few calls. If anyone knows of an inclusive package
that's cheaper...

TalkTalk /looks/ good, but...!
--
Peter.
If you can do it today, you didn't put off enough yesterday.

In article <eurloa0158cr.19bzz4w4tbrxj$.(E-Mail Removed)>, PeterC
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>On Wed, 6 Jun 2007 09:57:08 +0100, Retired wrote:

>> We use or phone very little (compared with the average figures quoted in
>> various adverts) and mainly during the day for what are mainly short calls,
>> and thus "free" evening & weekend packages at increased rental are of little
>> attraction.
>> BT are about to add a "connection charge" for calls, which will make all our
>> short calls even more expensive.
>> There are a number of combined broadband/phone packages becoming available -
>> can anyone comment on the financial aspects of these? If they are non-BT, do
>> I still have to pay BT for line rental or would I pay it to the new
>> provider? Then if the line fails, who fixes it?
>> So far I've identified Tiscali, PlusTalk, Virgin, Talk Talk - no doubt there
>> are others, but it seems remarkably difficult to find out what one gets and
>> to work out costs.

>Much the same here. Have Homecall (Pipex) anytime calls and BB for £25pcm,
>but since Feb. make few calls. If anyone knows of an inclusive package
>that's cheaper...
>TalkTalk /looks/ good, but...!

I am on an old Pipex deal which gives me 1 Mbps uncapped and no phone
calls for 23.44.
The new Virgin Media ADSL looks good at up to 8 Mbps uncapped and all
phone calls for 19.99.
I phoned them and confirmed the have a newsfeed and webspace; static IP;
no migration cost.
The phone call element of
"Unlimited Broadband & Talk (Bundle One)"
looks good in terms of the new BT connection charge.
Do they use traffic shaping or port blocking?
--
Chris