The BBC reports that UK Minister Ed Vaizey says the charges of around £18 a month are "outdated".
The BBC continues, saying he wants householders to only pay for the services they use, describing the current system as an "analogue billing system in a digital world."
He's right in that the current billing structure is a hangover from earlier times but wrong to think it's magically going to go away.
The UK Broadband market grew up on the back of the analogue phone network. Consumers were used to paying a line rental and call charges. Broadband was piggy backed on the land line enabling the same copper circuit to be used for both voice calls and broadband signalling. At the time, consumers received an extra bill for the broadband and all was well.
Times has changed and many people are more interested in broadband with voice being of less interest; many people use mobiles or VoIP and hardly ever use the phone line for calls. Broadband suppliers sell their services on the headline broadband service call and in the smallish print point out that a phone line is required and must be paid for.
It seems to be this extra charge that Ed Vaizey thinks is outdated, no longer relevant and should simply disappear.
There are three services being supplied and perhaps one can go. The services are:
The BBC continues, saying he wants householders to only pay for the services they use, describing the current system as an "analogue billing system in a digital world."
He's right in that the current billing structure is a hangover from earlier times but wrong to think it's magically going to go away.
The UK Broadband market grew up on the back of the analogue phone network. Consumers were used to paying a line rental and call charges. Broadband was piggy backed on the land line enabling the same copper circuit to be used for both voice calls and broadband signalling. At the time, consumers received an extra bill for the broadband and all was well.
Times has changed and many people are more interested in broadband with voice being of less interest; many people use mobiles or VoIP and hardly ever use the phone line for calls. Broadband suppliers sell their services on the headline broadband service call and in the smallish print point out that a phone line is required and must be paid for.
It seems to be this extra charge that Ed Vaizey thinks is outdated, no longer relevant and should simply disappear.
There are three services being supplied and perhaps one can go. The services are:
- network connectivity - this is the part of the phone line rental that pays for the physical copper circuit. This is the 'line rental'.
- broadband services - this is the modern digital bit
- voice service - this is the outdated analogue bit
Currently consumers pay for a combined line rental and voice service plus a broadband service. Perhaps they could pay for a combined line rental and broadband service plus, optionally, a voice service.
Problem is the voice service charges are only a small fraction of the existing line rental so the savings in not having a voice service will be lower.
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