BT to raise call and line rental charges

BT have today announced plans to raise both landline call charges and line rental prices.

BT will charge 10% more on each landline call made from October, and will raise line rental prices by 50 pence. It means that daytime connection costs will now sit at 6.4p, up from 5.9p, and peak connection charges will raise to 10.9p, up from 9.9.p. Line rental will also rise from £11.54 a month to £12.04, though a contract and paperless billing system will negate that.

The news will affect some 12.5 million BT customers, and calls into question the profitability of landlines for firms like BT in a world increasingly dominated by mobile phones.

“Like many businesses, we have to review our prices as we seek to cover costs and emerge from the recession in good shape,” said a BT spokesperson in an interview with The Telegraph.

“BT’s tries to protect its customers from high prices; it has been a key mover in Terminate the Rate, the campaign to get the cost of calling mobiles lowered.”

What do you think? Do BT’s price rises suggest that the age of the landline has begun to succumb to the mobile phone? Or will there always be a place for the reliable old house phone? Let us know in the comments below.