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Originally Posted by dellwear
For most NTL customers there is a reason they won't take out a BT line to have their calls cheaper, its because NTL force you to pay for their phone line whether you use it or not if you have DTV with them. Why should people have to pay twice?
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I can't defend NTL's phoneline policy, it makes no sense. When it's convenient to them, they suggest it's a freebie; when it makes them look uncompetitive with $ky they say otherwise.
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As an aside my understanding was that you play line rental for the line who you use to make your calls is your business, surely the price of line rental should cover the cost of it to the company? Thats just good business practise, why should they use the revenue from phone calls to support their creaking network? 
The only way Ntl would ever get my phone business back is if they under cut my current phone supplier.
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No, a phone company has the absolute right to decide who you can call on its lines, except for BT. BT is forced to allow you to call anyone or anything you like due to its effective monopoly status. This is the only way the Government could allow competition initially, by allowing people to dial free numbers accessing other networks. NTL, Telewest, Orange, T Mobile, Vodafone and O2 are under no such obligation. I'm puzzled at how 18866 is being allowed by NTL to run a service via its lines.
As for what the various elements of your bill covers, no business ring-fences certain types of income in the way you're suggesting. It's not so simple as the line rental pays for the line and the call charges are a licence to print money. Every penny they earn, whatever the source, is used to pay staff, post your bill out, maintain the network and pay off their crippling debts.