Phone service not needed
 

Hi all,

Has anyone removed the phone part of there package? If so, did it make much difference to your monthly bill for just TV & internet?

Cheers

Re: Phone service not needed
 

I enquired a few years ago and was told the price would go up, not sure if that's still right but would expect it to be knowing VM

Re: Phone service not needed
 

Yep, (When I was still with VM) I looked into it, and due to the way bundles worked, it was more expensive to remove it.

Re: Phone service not needed
 

Checked with a couple of providers and if you don't pay for phone calls or services - it is no cheaper.

Re: Phone service not needed
 

It's great isn't it, probably 98% of people in the UK have a mobile phone of some description (and a contract), yet if you want the cheapest Broadband & TV deal you need a phone line too

There are times I wish the 'internet' idea had failed miserably and soon forgotten about when first initiated :D

Re: Phone service not needed
 

This may not be the case for much longer. Most of the costs for landlines are due to the legacy switched exchange system that is still in use. This will come to end of life in a couple of years with everyone moving to VoIP (VM currently operates a hybrid system). All full VoIP providers only charge for calls, so a "Line Rental" will no longer exist after switchover. In VMs NexFibre new build areas there is no landline service on offer.

Re: Phone service not needed
 

hmmm . . . a year or so ago I was kindly informed by VM that I was required to go VoIP for my phone. I wasn't keen so rang to enquire - long story short, yes if you still want the phone option you have to go VoIP . . and, after a further question from me - you will still be charged for the phone 'line' because we are still supplying the phone connection over VoIP.

They fully deserve every loyal customer that walks away at the end of contract :Yes:

Re: Phone service not needed
 

My contract was coming to an end next week so Virgin kindly emailed me to say that my discount was ending and it was increasing to just under £200. I contacted them to say I was not prepared to pay that so I was put through to a British lady where we had a discussion about how I used the service. I did say that I do not use the landline and she said to keep it in as it lowers the price. Long story short, I have the full movie, sports including TNT and 1 Gig broadband and it is now £83! i do not understand why they don't just offer these realistic prices in the first place.

Re: Phone service not needed
 

OK yes I get your point, but firstly it’s not, absolutely not, a VoIP provision - they sometimes call it that, but mainly through ignorance or a marketing department edict that says it sounds better so....

The ‘line charge’ hasn’t really been a thing for some time; think of it more as the cost of VM providing the service to you, whether you use it or not, it was never really, to pay for the physical cable, it was always to pay for the all the backend infrastructure.

Now the ‘weird’ thing about it being cheaper to take a landline (and never use it) than to not have one, is fairly straightforward. If you have a landline provision as part of your package, then you might, might use it and rack up extra call charges. Presumably VM have done the maths and concluded that they get more money by giving an inducement to have a landline, and bank on enough customers using it to offset the headline price reduction.

So, the obvious thing is to go for it, but one word of warning. If you peruse VM’s official customer forum, you will see a number of posts by people claiming that, although they have no phone physically plugged in, they are being charged for ‘phantom calls’. And having quite a battle in getting them rescinded.