On Tue, Nov 30, 2004 at 02:18:16AM +0000, Ricky Bruce wrote:
I can't see why they have to charge for it, particularly an ongoing quarterly rate. This sort of facility should be available either free or for a minimal one time set up fee. It requires no ongoing maintenance on the part of BT so why should they charge each billing period.
agreed, just another way to fleece the consumer
Except that the same could be argued for the cost of calls, once your line is installed there is virtually no cost to BT to make connections when you call someone, so calls should be free.
It's a difficult thing to put prices on a telephone system. Realistically the costs are virtually all installation costs with a much smaller maintenance cost. Thus to get a phone line should really cost a huge amount at installation and a small rental to cover maintenace with no call costs but I suspect that many people would object to that approach.