In a world where fewer and fewer people use their landlines to make calls, new proposals from the Culture Minister will be welcome news. Under plans unveiled today, Ed Vaizey said that phone companies could be banned from charging for landlines.
He accused BT and other telecommunications providers of charging households for landlines that they often did not use. Householders can be made to pay around £25 a month for landlines even if they do not make calls on them as part of broadband packages. It is estimated that one in five customers do not use landlines but still pay for line rentals. Vaizey has written to BT, virgin, Sky and TalkTalk to call for urgent talks. He described it as an ‘analogue billing system in a digital world’.
In the past the consumer group Which? has said that broadband companies like BT should be subject to the same penalties as major utility providers of gas and electricity to homes across the UK if they fail to provide good service.
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