[Gllug] Combined phone and broadband in the Barnet Area

[John Winters]

Andy Farnsworth wrote:
[snip]
>   I can understand the phone company wanting to charge to wire a house 
> for the first time as they have to send a team out and physically run 
> the wire, however, if all they have to do is turn on the switch via a 
> computer keyboard, I think the charge is too high.  Remember though, 
> that once a house or flat has been hooked up to the phone network, the 
> maintenance required on that line is extremely low thus making the 
> profit off the normal line fees easily cover any installation charge.

I too was surprised to hear how much it now costs to have a phone line 
installed in the UK.  My recollection from the last time I had it done 
(about 10 years ago) was that it was much cheaper, at least for POTS. 
ISDN has always been ludicrously expensive to have installed.

BT do not (or at least didn't last time I checked) bother to check how 
much work will be involved in installing a line.  It doesn't matter 
whether all the wires are already there or they're going to have to 
plant a new telegraph pole - the installation charge is the same.

A trick I used to use in the days I moved house more often was always to 
request a re-connection rather than an installation.  Unless it's a new 
build house (not likely in the bracket I was working in) there's almost 
certain to be some sort of phone wiring already in the building.  Make 
sure there's a phone (wire one in yourself if necessary) and then 
request a re-connection.  Once the job had been entered into the system 
as a re-connection (at a much smaller charge) it didn't seem to matter 
how much work they had to do - the price didn't go up.  I don't know 
whether it would still work these days.

HTH
John

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