Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Elderly 'Hit by Line Rental Charges' (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the what's-happening dept.

An anonymous reader shares a BBC report: Recent increases in line rental charges have hit elderly people the hardest, according to an Ofcom report. Between December 2009 and December 2016, line rental prices had increased by as much as 49% for some customers, the regulator said. And of the people with standalone landlines in their homes, 71% were aged 65 or over. Ofcom recently revealed plans to make BT -- with nearly 80% of the UK market -- cut line rental costs by 5 British Pound ($6.1). A huge proportion (43%) of the 2.9 million households with a landline only are occupied by people aged 75 and over. "Older consumers are particularly affected, as they are more likely to be dependent on fixed voice services if they do not have a mobile phone or an internet connection," the report said.

82 comments

  1. Line Rental? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What does that mean? Like an old skool phone?

    1. Re:Line rental? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Its that thing where the Telco charges you a renal fee for the line between the street and your house. You know to "maintain" it. Much like the "daily connection charge" power companies charge people, and in the case of New Zealand this is as high as $2 per day!

    2. Re:Line rental? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Its that thing where the Telco charges you a renal fee for the line between the street and your house.

      It is by their benevolence alone that we still have our kidneys.

    3. Re:Line rental? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Theoretically you can get on your city council and put a stop to excessive prices for monopolies. As cities, counties and states are typically allowed to regulate which monopolies are permitted to operate in their jurisdiction. In the US, some cities give up and end up forming special non-profit companies to operate a local service (usually water, sometimes power). And with the state of technology today, it would be pretty straight forward to operate a local telephone exchange as the equipment is standardized and much of the regulations protecting local operators have been lifted (and also much of the regulation preventing them from merging into nation-wide super monopolies are gone too)

  2. Line rental? by silverkniveshotmail. · · Score: 0

    That's a weird name for it.

  3. Costs of maintaining infrastructure are fixed by mi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I guess, the costs of maintaining the wires and the rest of the land-line infrastructure are largely fixed. So, as people — primarily younger ones, according to TFA — drop their traditional land lines entirely, the remaining customers see their fees increased.

    Nothing to see here, nothing to do about it. Whoever feels sufficiently compassionate to "do something about it" can subsidize their favorite senior(s) directly — or help them switch to a cell-phone, etc.. I've switched two elderly couples I feel responsible for to IP-telephony years ago — they had mobile phones already — and now they don't even know, their "regular" phones use Internet...

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    1. Re:Costs of maintaining infrastructure are fixed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except in the UK there is the interesting situation where in order to get connected to the internet, you are required to pay for telephone land line rental, whether or not you actually require or use a land line phone.

    2. Re:Costs of maintaining infrastructure are fixed by tepples · · Score: 2

      I imagine that all DSL providers in all countries charge a fee for maintaining the copper. But I thought Virgin had laid a separate fibre network in much of Britain (source).

    3. Re:Costs of maintaining infrastructure are fixed by FudRucker · · Score: 1

      yup, my mom has both a landline and cellphone and i keep telling her dump the land line and use your cellphone, seems redundant to maintain two phones & two phone numbers, but nope she wants that umbilical landline cord as if she cant live without it, old habits are hard to kill

      --
      Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
    4. Re:Costs of maintaining infrastructure are fixed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some of Virgin might be Fibre but for most, the last mile or so is over 20year old Co-ax cable.
      On my road there are so many VM users that the broadband speeds are often little more than dialup rates between 16:00-25:59.

    5. Re:Costs of maintaining infrastructure are fixed by Nkwe · · Score: 1

      seems redundant to maintain two phones & two phone numbers

      Redundancy is good, it gives you a usable option when one thing fails.

      Accurate location services are not a sure thing with a cell phone, whereas if you call 911 (emergency services, for those not in the US) from a land line, they will know exactly where you are.

    6. Re:Costs of maintaining infrastructure are fixed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That might be so, but in the UK it is explicitly a land line charge, complete with being assigned a telephone number and getting caller ID services etc. Most people would have no problem for including fees to maintain the copper they're using, but this is explicitly more than that. The land line rental requirement also applies to FTTC. FTTP usually doesn't have the requirement, but "non-rental" packages charge a premium above those where a land line is not rented.

    7. Re:Costs of maintaining infrastructure are fixed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing to see here indeed. The telcos are businesses! They must be allowed to make a profit! I mean, it's not as though the governments allowed the telcos to operate as monopolies all those years, or even subsidized nearly every part of their operations.
      Move along citizen. Profits must be made!

    8. Re:Costs of maintaining infrastructure are fixed by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      I use voip (magic jack 2014 actually) and a cell phone. Plus I have a google number.

      Yea, the network effect of landlines is being lost. next up... Gasoline station prices as electric cars reach critical mass.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  4. Re:Bring back Logan's Run by Nkwe · · Score: 1

    Every article about old people is them being too poor, stupid, etc to handle life. Let's go back to the old days, the days of Logan's Run, where only the young are around.

    Other than the articles about congress where the members are old people who are rich and powerful and hmmm maybe Logan's Run isn't such a bad idea after all.

  5. Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

    "Line rental" covers the cost of maintaining a phone line used for POTS and/or DSL. POTS (plain old telephone service) is the "old skool phone" you mention, and DSL (digital subscriber line) is an Internet connection delivered over higher frequencies on the same copper.

    This probably raises a question among some of you: "So why even subscribe to POTS in the cellular era?" Even without considering the pricing structure differences between the U.S. and British phone markets, an advantage of POTS over cellular is that POTS lets you have an extension on each storey (as they spell it), so that you don't need to go upstairs or downstairs to answer the phone. In addition, POTS allows use of a fax machine. I know some federal and state government agencies in the USA still require certain tax records to be faxed; does Britain?

    1. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by Nidi62 · · Score: 2

      This probably raises a question among some of you: "So why even subscribe to POTS in the cellular era?" Even without considering the pricing structure differences between the U.S. and British phone markets, an advantage of POTS over cellular is that POTS lets you have an extension on each storey (as they spell it), so that you don't need to go upstairs or downstairs to answer the phone. In addition, POTS allows use of a fax machine.

      Also, doesn't POTS still work when the power goes out? And elderly tend to stick with what they know, the learning curve from an old landline to a cellphone (even a dumb phone) could be too steep or daunting for the elderly, not to mention ergonomically difficult.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    2. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by tepples · · Score: 1

      Also, doesn't POTS still work when the power goes out?

      Most cell phones have a built-in battery backup, which still works as long as the tower also has battery backup.

      And elderly tend to stick with what they know, the learning curve from an old landline to a cellphone (even a dumb phone) could be too steep or daunting for the elderly, not to mention ergonomically difficult.

      Here in the USA, both Verizon and AT&T offer cellular radios into which the subscriber plugs a POTS phone (source; source). (I haven't used them and can't speak for their quality, ability to handle extensions, or ability to run off batteries in a power outage.) In addition, GreatCall offers Jitterbug phones with large buttons and large display specifically for seniors.

    3. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by hackwrench · · Score: 1

      My cell phone can be answered upstairs or downstairs because I would have chargers in both places near wherever I was were I to have a second floor, which I currently do not have.

    4. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by eastlight_jim · · Score: 1

      People subscribe to it because most internet in the UK is via ADSL or variants which is delivered through the POTS system. Most often now, there is fibre to a nearby street cabinet with copper only for the last couple of hundred metres.

      Cable is available but is only used by 20% of the population or so as it's often more expensive or comes with unwanted TV services.

    5. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by zifn4b · · Score: 2

      This probably raises a question among some of you: "So why even subscribe to POTS in the cellular era?"

      I think you hit the nail on the head about the issue but didn't acknowledge it. What happens when there are a decreasing amount of POTS subscribers and an increasing number of cellular subscribers? The total revenue going towards the cost of maintenance of the POTS equipment and the employees starts shrinking. Eventually it gets to a point where there is risk associated with the "subscription fees" not being able to cover the total cost. At that point, there are two choices 1) Admit that your old product is done and retire it or 2) Start charging your shrinking subscriber base more money to be able to cover the costs.

      This is very much like the problem with the United States Postal Service. Now that we have e-mail, text messaging and all kinds of other ways to deliver digital content to each other, people don't write as much snail mail. Even legal documentation is sent over email these days. Statements and bills are delivered via email instead of postal mail. You get the picture. As a result, stamp prices increase because less people are using stamps. It seems kind of backwards but the economics make perfect sense.

      --
      We'll make great pets
    6. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by tepples · · Score: 1

      My cell phone can be answered upstairs or downstairs because I would have chargers in both places

      Unless you're upstairs and the phone is downstairs. Getting in the habit of always carrying it with you whenever you leave a room is fine if you always wear clothes with pockets suitable for carrying a cell phone, but a lot of my clothes lack pockets.

    7. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why a standard phone?

      * Everyone already has (had) one.
      * Far cheaper than a mobile subscription.
      * Network less likely to become overloaded during an emergency.
      * At least in the USA, phone companies are required to maintain battery backups that far, far exceed the duration of backups for mobile towers.
      ** Dumb landline phones function for as long as the phone company has power. They aren't tied to your electrical usage.
      * Far, far easier to use, especially if you have mobility, vision, or hearing problems. Plus no software issues to worry or deal with.
      * Supports fax machines.

    8. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      But it's still crappy cell phone service. And some cell phones can't handle hearing aids well (although this is becoming less of an issue).

      My hearing is perfectly fine (despite what my wife says), but if I need to really understand a conversation, I try to use a POTS line.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    9. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by tepples · · Score: 1

      [POTS is] Far cheaper than a mobile subscription.

      This is rapidly becoming no longer the case, particularly for subscribers who use a flip phone and therefore don't need a data plan.

    10. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by tomxor · · Score: 1

      Also, doesn't POTS still work when the power goes out?

      Yes they do, provided the exchange still has power... Thing is almost all modern phones you can buy require power for all the digital fluff it comes with. However if you can find a basic POTS phone ... or even better - just a speaker and a pen knife, you can strip the wires and dial by touching the wires together for pulses (this is effectively how the old rotary dial phones work)... disclaimer I last tried this when I was 10, I don't know if POTS still actually support decadic dialling.

    11. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      Also, doesn't POTS still work when the power goes out?

      Most cell phones have a built-in battery backup, which still works as long as the tower also has battery backup.

      My cell phone just about stops work if I look at it cross-eyed. I wouldn't trust my life on my cell phone working when I need it to.

      My home security system switched from landline to cell and it has become less reliable, but I don't care so much because for me an alarm system is more about being a deterrent.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    12. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by newcastlejon · · Score: 1

      Why a standard phone?

      ...
      * Far cheaper than a mobile subscription.
      ...

      Nope, not even close. Without looking around, I can tell you that there are mobile subscriptions with 500 bundled minutes for £10 a month or less. The line rental on my POTS line, which I only keep for Internet access, is £15 a month and includes no calls whatever.

      --
      If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
    13. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by Kjella · · Score: 1

      I think you hit the nail on the head about the issue but didn't acknowledge it. What happens when there are a decreasing amount of POTS subscribers and an increasing number of cellular subscribers? The total revenue going towards the cost of maintenance of the POTS equipment and the employees starts shrinking. Eventually it gets to a point where there is risk associated with the "subscription fees" not being able to cover the total cost. At that point, there are two choices 1) Admit that your old product is done and retire it or 2) Start charging your shrinking subscriber base more money to be able to cover the costs.

      More like 1) Announce it and watch people go batshit crazy over all the things and places that *need* landlines and back down. That's what happened here in Norway. On its high note in the late 90s the copper that 2.6 million subscribers. Now there's ~475k subscribers left (last official stats is 527k, but it drops 15%/year), that's 80%+ of your subscribers gone. Most of the remaining subscribers are elderly rather than heavy users and average call per subscription has gone from 3600 minutes to 1400 minutes per subscriber per year. And you get 1400/12 = 120 call minutes a month from a cell phone for nothing or next to nothing with your subscription and they don't want to reverse it so talking on the landline is more expensive per minute than the cell phone because that'd just accelerate it further, so the only thing they really have to bill you for is for having the line. They're scavenging parts now as the network shrinks but the future is fiber + mobile and it's just a matter of time before they end-of-life it for real.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    14. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you don't wear any clothes at home, just staple the phone to yourself to keep it handy. Problem solved.

      (Although, if it's a Samsung phone, you might want to make sure you have plenty of staple removers around to quickly remove it from your body.)

    15. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      My basic land line at home, with caller ID as the only service, costs... I think $50 per month. Prepaid cellular plans without data start at $3 per month. I could get a separate cellular phone on a separate prepaid plan in every room in the house that currently has a land-line phone, and it would still cost less than a third of what my land line costs.

      At this point, just about the only people that have them are businesses and the elderly—the former because it's easier to manage assets that don't move around, and the latter because picking up a phone is natural enough that people with degenerative diseases are likely to remember how to do it, whereas hitting an answer button isn't.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    16. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      Everyone in my aunt's nursing home has a cell phone so it can't be that complicated.

    17. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      If someone wears a hearing aide (like a few people I know do), why don't they get a cell phone that works with them (like a few people I know did).

    18. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I use Duct Tape you insensitive clod!

    19. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by nukenerd · · Score: 1

      Also, doesn't POTS still work when the power goes out?

      Yes they do, provided the exchange still has power...

      In the UK all exchanges have battery back-up AFAIK.

      Thing is almost all modern phones you can buy require power.... However if you can find a basic POTS phone ... or even better - just a speaker and a pen knife, you can strip the wires and dial by touching the wires together for pulses ...., I don't know if POTS still actually support decadic dialling.

      No, pulse dialling no longer works. As I am not one to throw things away, I still have an old (but tone dialling) phone I can plug in if I have a power cut. It is also good for fault finding around the house system.

    20. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by nukenerd · · Score: 1

      People subscribe to it because most internet in the UK is via ADSL or variants which is delivered through the POTS system.

      That is right. Cell phone coverage is not good everywhere (almost unusable where I live) and land lines are much faster for data. I am suprised the situation is not even worse in the USA, being much larger and with more remote area.

    21. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by nukenerd · · Score: 1

      What happens when there are a decreasing amount of POTS subscribers and an increasing number of cellular subscribers? The total revenue going towards the cost of maintenance of the POTS equipment and the employees starts shrinking. Eventually it gets to a point where there is risk associated with the "subscription fees" not being able to cover the total cost.

      Except that the "maintenance" issue is bollocks. I'd like to know where my 19 GBP per month standing charge really goes. What BT need to maintain, and its capital cost, is lightweight stuff compared with my electrical power provider, and their standing charge is half that.

    22. Re: Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is worse. The internet is worse. The health care is worse. The infrastructure is worse. The military is high tech, but haven't actually won a war since the Mexican-American War. Our corporate whores are the best by far.

    23. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by ChumpusRex2003 · · Score: 1

      Most cell phones have a built-in battery backup, which still works as long as the tower also has battery backup.

      However, not all cell towers have battery or generator backup. If they do, it is rarely more than a few hours. For example, in the Lancaster floods in the UK in 2015, when the whole city lost power, there was an extremely limited service available for a few hours, but for the majority of the power outage, there was no cell service available within the city.

    24. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Another advantage of POTS is that you are calling a location, rather than a person. A lot of time that's what you want - I want to talk to anyone at my parent's house rather than a particular parent, for example.

      Or if I'm calling my wife, and I know she's at home, I'll call the POTS (well voip) number, since there's phones in most rooms, while her phone is in her purse on the other side of the house from where she is.

    25. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by trawg · · Score: 1

      This probably raises a question among some of you: "So why even subscribe to POTS in the cellular era?"

      You generally need [to pay for] a POTS line if you want a DSL Internet service (at least, true in Australia (where I used to live) and the UK (where I live now).

      In Australia you can get "naked DSL", which means you don't get a POTS service with your DSL service. IIRC these are a little cheaper than DSL with a phone line. In London I don't seem to be able to get such a thing; I have to pay a line service fee which includes some phone service that I have no intention of ever using.

    26. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am in the UK and pulse dialling definitely DOES work! It doesn't always work for menu systems though (Press 1, 2 etc).

    27. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by hackwrench · · Score: 1

      Just what are you doing with your hands in your house? Even when you are using them to carry other things, a cell phone is usually capable of sitting on top. I suppose if you are carrying soup...

    28. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by demonlapin · · Score: 1

      It strikes me as somewhat odd that the British market doesn't have the same basic phone models we have in the US, but these mostly have the same functionality as the one I have in the US. Multiple handsets, plus the base has the ability to Bluetooth to two cell phones. I have a larger home, and we have the five-handset version (the feature is Link2Cell in the US version if you want to check out Amazon's offerings on this side of the pond for comparison). You can leave your cell phone plugged in and charging near the base, but you can still make and receive calls on it (in addition to on a landline, should you still have one - I do, although it's VOIP). I believe the newer ones are able to notify you if you get a text - though not able to read it remotely, which would seem to be a likely feature for the near future.

      FAX machines are covered under a different standard, T.38, which just has to be implemented at your VOIP adapter/ATA. The Obihai 200 and 202 both support it, and they're not exactly expensive. If you have a modern hybrid service, where the telephone adapter appears to be analog to you but is VOIP from the internet provider's box upstream, it should already be doing this for you.

    29. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by demonlapin · · Score: 1

      The last few generations of Panasonic cordless phones (which have basically taken over the entire market for good-quality cordless phones) have the ability to use one handset to power the base. I have VOIP, and my internet infrastructure isn't on a UPS, so I'm still toast, but if I wanted to pay AT&T's rapacious prices for a traditional landline, it would work.

    30. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can also carry a pen or your glass case. But you don't. Even though they can sit in your hands or even sitting on top of whatever you are carrying.

      But when your life does not revolve around a 0.7 second response time to the phone ringing, you do not consider carrying the phone around everywhere, just like you will not think to carry your glasses case though you use it.

    31. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      for me an alarm system is more about being a deterrent.

      Me too. That is why I just bought the yard sign and window stickers on eBay, and didn't even install an actual alarm system. I also installed some fake security cameras. I keep a broken safe in my living room that is glued shut with epoxy and filled with bricks, and I leave a copy of "Guide to Investing in Gold" sitting on top of it. I figure if the burglars focus on that, they won't have time to steal my laptop.

    32. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't need to go upstairs or downstairs to answer the phone if you have a cell either.

    33. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      See replies to hackwrench's comment.

    34. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by dryeo · · Score: 1

      My pots line lasts about 8 hours when the power goes out. Yay deregulation here in Canada.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    35. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thing is that broadband companies in the UK often inflate the cost of line rental to make it look like their service is cheaper than it actually is. Plus they can do double price rises that way too... one month it's "Infrastructure prices have gone up, so we've adjusted your line rental charge"; the next, it's "Operating costs have gone up so we'll be raising your broadband fees".

      This is why the UK's regulator recently ruled that ISPs must combine both prices from now on.

    36. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The last few generations of Panasonic cordless phones (which have basically taken over the entire market for good-quality cordless phones

      When did that happen? I was under the impression that that market was pretty much dominated by Gigaset (a Siemens spin-off). I don't think I've ever seen a Panasonic cordless phone.

    37. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by demonlapin · · Score: 1

      US-vs-EU divide here, then. In the US, you basically have Panasonic on the high end (it's a Matsushita brand, so might have a different name there), and VTech (based in Hong Kong) on the low end. Never heard of Gigaset until now. Go to Amazon US, look at cordless phones, and you'll see how completely those two dominate. I think the last time I bought a cordless home phone set that wasn't Panasonic was over twenty years ago.

    38. Re:Yes, "line rental" is for POTS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When there was major flooding in Louisiana recently, ATT's cell towers were out in most areas in and around the problem. Any old people relying on ATT were in major trouble. Verizon seemed to stay up, not sure about others. Not sure if any copper lines worked under water though, probably not. Strangely, a lot of people still had power and fiber internet from what I have been told, despite having feet of water in their home. I heard more than one account of people's air conditioners bits and pieces that are outside continuing to run despite those pieces being mostly or completely underwater.

  6. no worries, i have a solution. by nimbius · · Score: 1

    http://i.imgur.com/UeZan.jpg back in my day this always did the trick.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  7. This is inevitable by EndlessNameless · · Score: 1

    As the number of POTS phone customers decreases, the cost of maintaining the infrastructure is spread over a smaller and smaller number of subscribers.

    These people need to keep up with the times or go without the things they cannot afford.

    Cellular service is very affordable for basic use. A budget phone and a year of airtime is probably cheaper than a year of POTS service.

    I wouldn't mind seeing a subsidy for poor people who truly need a landline, e.g., for medical alerts.

    --

    ---
    According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
    1. Re:This is inevitable by locofungus · · Score: 1

      There's something dodgy with pricing going on though.

      AAISP offer an ADSL only copper pair for 10GBP/month. The only difference between this and a full telephone service is that there's no dial tone and no telephone number. It's still exactly the same wires as when you go to BT and have the full telephone service. I'm pretty sure they're actually reselling a BT offering.

      I think AAISP might put a recorded message on the line - because BT engineers were apt to just take any silent pair instead of following the correct procedure to take an unused pair - AAISP customers would suddenly find their ADSL had stopped working and investigation would discover that part of the route back to the exchange had been disconnected and the wires reused for someone else (probably due to a fault on that other persons line)

      IIRC BT charges 19GBP/month for line rental. So they're claiming that it's an additional 9GBP/month to provide the dial tone. (with call charges on top of that) Ofcom appear to be saying that that's excessive and they need to reduce their line rental by 5GBP/month.

      --
      God said, "div D = rho, div B = 0, curl E = -@B/@t, curl H = J + @D/@t," and there was light.
    2. Re:This is inevitable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where my Mother lives, Cellular is very hit and miss. Between April and November it hardly works due to the leaves on the trees.
      So she has a landline. It also works as her alarm line in case she has a fall and needs the medics.

      Mobile/Cellular is not the solution for everyone.

    3. Re:This is inevitable by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      These people need to keep up with the times or go without the things they cannot afford. ...

      I wouldn't mind seeing a subsidy for poor people who truly need a landline, e.g., for medical alerts.

      Yeah, fuck old people. I mean, do they really need a landline for medical alerts? (hint: hospitals are filled with old people) -_-

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    4. Re:This is inevitable by newcastlejon · · Score: 1

      As the number of POTS phone customers decreases, the cost of maintaining the infrastructure is spread over a smaller and smaller number of subscribers.

      This isn't happening nearly as quickly as you might think. Unless you have cable (which is hardly ubiquitous outside major cities and large towns) or mobile Internet, or none at all, you need a POTS line. Most people in the UK have either DSL or FTTC and for these you need a landline; FTTP is rarely seen here.

      --
      If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
    5. Re:This is inevitable by nukenerd · · Score: 1

      There's something dodgy with pricing going on though. AAISP offer an ADSL only copper pair for 10GBP/month. The only difference between this and a full telephone service is that there's no dial tone and no telephone number. It's still exactly the same wires as when you go to BT and have the full telephone service. I'm pretty sure they're actually reselling a BT offering.

      Look at their small print and I expect that you will find that they are reselling BT bandwidth. I am with UNO for my ISP and they buy bandwidth from BT, yet even with (presumably) a profit they are still cheaper than BT . BT are just capitalising on their "established" position.

    6. Re:This is inevitable by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      In texas, the cost for 1GB monthly service with unlimited texts is now down to $35 a month. My landline years ago was up to $38 minimum.

      Main reason for my voip and google numbers is to call and locate my cell phone.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  8. So, I'm an old-timer who... by Ranbot · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...prefers to tap out his messages on a telegraph. There's just no substitute for those clicks and pauses. But let me tell you, the cost to maintain my telegraph service between me and my one friend who uses it is criminally high! If someone doesn't do something to help me out soon I'll have to choose between my telegraph or my diabeetus medicine and that's just not right!

    1. Re:So, I'm an old-timer who... by mi · · Score: 1

      Yep. That's how I feel about horse-back riding myself — why can't the government provide the nice stables and other infrastructure necessary for easier travel in a saddle?

      Back to "telegraph"... One of our family's numerous grandfathers, himself Internet-literate, used to "share" Internet-articles by printing them and mailing the print-outs to his computer-illiterate friend in a different city... For better or worse, there is no such option in any of the "social" <div>s and <span>s out there...

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  9. A "renter" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't believe in that.

  10. Please add "in the UK" to the title by Guybrush_T · · Score: 1

    Come on editors, it is already annoying that some news are US-centric without any mention of it, but ... UK-centric ?

    1. Re:Please add "in the UK" to the title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The US formally apologised to the UK earlier for making wild, unsubstantiated, paranoic and above all false claims about its security services. A UK-centric article is obviously part of the reparations.

  11. Online shopping keeps the post office alive by tepples · · Score: 1

    This is very much like the problem with the United States Postal Service. Now that we have e-mail, text messaging and all kinds of other ways to deliver digital content to each other, people don't write as much snail mail.

    Which might very well be canceled out by the increase in online shopping compared to driving to brick-and-mortar stores. But then perhaps my perspective is warped by my day job. In the warehouse next door to my office, I can see a cart full of parcels that we mail through USPS because it's cheaper than shipping them through UPS Ground.

    Is Royal Mail seeing the same shift in its business away from letters and toward parcels?

    1. Re:Online shopping keeps the post office alive by AF_Cheddar_Head · · Score: 1

      The Parcel portion of the USPS business historically subsidized the first-class letter part of the business. By law the USPS has to provide first-class letter service (important point). When the law was changed to allow companies to compete with the USPS the competitors (UPS) skimmed off the profitable Parcel portion of the business and left the money-losing first-class letter delivery to the USPS.

      That is the chief reason, among many, that the USPS is not a profitable business.

  12. the same lines used to transmit DSL? by evolutionary · · Score: 1

    It's not like they companies actually lose money with people leaving POTS. The phone lines are still used for DSL and people have dry DSL. The telecommunications company are seeing an opportunity to take advantage of the less informed and saying "because of lower usage of POTS the cost of maintaining the entire infrastructure is up" while they make money on DSL subscribers and take advantage of people still on POTS which are increasingly the older population. Seriously, if a corporation has an excuse they can use to get away with actions based on pure greed, they will do it. As communications is now basically an essential service (especially if you have a physical disability), they should be under some price regulation.

    --
    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
  13. Fair is fair by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They had easy access to employment, education, low housing costs, they should have the savings to cover it.

    Regards millennial

  14. My 95 year old Grandmother couldn't use a cell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    She couldn't use a cell phone. First the useless touch screen UI instead of large buttons, that is BAR number one. Currently she has a cordless phone that if the great-gradkids don't put it back in the socket she can't find it and can't take or receive calls, not to mention its got a dead battery somewhere.

    Heck, if I don't put my cell phone back in the same place every time its sometimes hard to find. Plugging in those teeny tiny connectors to charge the dang cell phone is very difficult **for me now**. I hope they fix that nonsense *economically* and quickly, I have small hope for the new USB as the cords and connectors are still TINY. Gimme cheap standard something I can just lay my phone in if you can't gimme a barrel connector.

    1. Re:My 95 year old Grandmother couldn't use a cell by Solandri · · Score: 1

      Plugging in those teeny tiny connectors to charge the dang cell phone is very difficult **for me now**. I hope they fix that nonsense *economically* and quickly, I have small hope for the new USB as the cords and connectors are still TINY. Gimme cheap standard something I can just lay my phone in if you can't gimme a barrel connector.

      This has been solved for nearly 5 years now. Get a phone with wireless charging capability. I bought a Qi charging pad for $15 several years ago and put next to my bed. I just place my phone on top of it every night to charge it. Got one for my dad when I saw him having trouble plugging in the micro-USB cable, and he's been happily using it ever since. This is now a "must have" feature on any new phone I buy. I doesn't seem like much when you hear about it, but after you've used it you realize how much more convenient it is.

  15. Don't worry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The market will fix itself. Isn't it what they always say ?

  16. Life Link by wildfish · · Score: 1

    Probably different in every area but here on the N. Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, USA, the land lines are way more reliable than cell phone, especially when the power checks out for more than a few hours. Also, 911 location is more solidly established and the LifeLink service, where you wear a button that will call help, requires a land line. I still have a land line for the first 2 reasons, if I were older that later one might be important but I'm hoping to check myself out before that point.

  17. BT gets 100% of the line rental contracts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Since they own the lines, all of them. It's behind a "not even chinese" wall, but it's still BT, even if they "split" into Openreach to pretend they were a separate company. And BT (Openreach) rent the lines out at "cost" (in reality what they charge BT retail/business, but see Starbucks for how that works...) to everyone and BT (all of it) gets the cash to play with.

  18. Re:This is just the beginning. by tsqr · · Score: 1

    It's only going to keep getting worse under the Trump FCC>

    What, did he get elected President of the UK too?

  19. Translation please???? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can someone translate this from British-English Tech to Amercian-English tech?

    Is BT going to START charging a "rental charge" to landline subscribers or that they are increasing it?

    And they angle of the headline description appears to be "THIS ADVERSELY AFFECTS OLD PEOPLE!!!! DO YOU REALLY WANT YOUR GRANDPARENTS TO SUFFER???" In the U.S.the media uses kids as an excuse to push their agendas with "It's for the kids" and "We need to protect the kids" (along with a sad-face).

  20. 1% usage telecum and tivee cumpanies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The problem is that all of the telecum and tivee cumpanies
    can't use 1% of the bandwidth of their gigabit networks with
    their pone collection and tivee looped boxed sets.

    All the top fiber companies are now going from gigabit to 10 gigabit
    services and FPGA routers implementing symmetric DSL
    with equal gigabit upload and download speeds for under $50
    per month.

    The only choice for telecum companies and tivee cumpanies
    have now is to sell their entire copper and cable based
    systems for scrap and ditch their infrastructure and become
    1% customer of pure fiber companies.

    Reality is out there, but the dinosaurs don't get it
    and can't make the switch to the new era of fiber optics
    the face up to the fact that their entire infrastructure
    would not amount to 1% of the use of gigabit internet.

    So their high wire act of trying to be copper telecum and tivee
    cumpanies with fiber network reality and prices dropping leaves them to
    overcharge and milk customers. The real prices of fiber installs below:

    64 way splitter $85 - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/SC-1X64-PLC-Singlemode-Fiber-Optical-splitter-FTTH-PLC-Steel-tube-type-FBT-PLC-optical-fiber/32476975506.html
    fibre - --$375/km https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Fiber-Cable-Multimode-2core-Indoor-fiber-optic-cable-Duplex-Zipcord-PCV-jacket-3-0mm-Orange/793795646.html
    cleaver -$62- https://www.aliexpress.com/item/9-In-1-Fiber-Optic-FTTH-Tool-Kit-with-FC-6S-Fiber-Cleaver-and-Optical-Power/32647289225.html
    sleeves - 5 cents -https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1000Pcs-OD2-4-45mm-Fiber-Optic-Fusion-Splice-Protection-Sleeves-Fiber-Cable-Protector-Heat-Shrink-Tube/32732857639.html
    gigabit transceiver: 20km/1000BASE-LX - $17 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/SFP-Fiber-Optic-Transceiver-1000BASE-LX-SFP-MINI-GBIC-modules-Compatible-for-CISCO-glc-lh-sm/710717277.html

    Those are retail prices and shockingly low in comparison to copper.