London 4G Wireless ISP Relish Says Brits Underestimate Landline Costs

Relish, a London-based and focused 4G fixed wireless superfast broadband ISP, has continued to highlight the high cost of landline phone rental by claiming that 30% of UK adults do not know how much they are spending on their landline and estimate their monthly expenditure at £11.39 (well below the £16.77 average of the big ISPs).

Furthermore the survey, which was conducted during October 2014 by online market research company OnePoll, also found that 39% of people in the United Kingdom have no idea how much their total broadband and line rental package costs them every month. We can’t help but wonder whether this is because people A) don’t care so much about the cost of landlines, or B) aren’t very good at keeping track of their personal finances and expenditure.

Respondents were asked to estimate the average price they pay for landline rental each month and the average for all those was £11.39. This figure was subtracted from the actual average monthly landline rental cost (£16.77) in the UK to establish an average discrepancy of £5.38 for the UK and, over the course of a year, this works out as £64.56. Multiplied by the total number of fixed residential landlines in the UK according to Ofcom (25 million), the total average miscalculation is estimated at £1.614 billion.

Will Harnden, Chief Marketing Officer at Relish, said:

“Many people have a landline for the sole purpose of accessing the internet, but complicated bills and promotional packages mean we struggle to understand how much they actually cost us. At almost £1.6 billion, this is an unbelievable amount of money for Brits to be spending without realising it, particularly as we enter the New Year looking for ways to cut down on unnecessary costs.”

According to Relish, the study was commissioned to show how the landline is a “redundant piece of technology” that “we are forced to pay for” and indeed a huge number of Brits (51%) claim they rarely or never use it. The study also revealed that one in four people in the UK don’t even know their own home phone number and 35% ignore their home phones when they ring in anticipation of it being a sales call.

Admittedly it’s true that a growing number of people don’t use their home phone service (most of us prefer our mobiles), yet some form of physical line is usually still required for the broadband connectivity and this often comes down the same line as your phone. In other words you still have to pay for that line even when it’s fibre optic instead of copper, although the prices, service options and quality do vary quite a bit between different platforms and providers.

Naturally the survey is all part of Relish’s on-going campaign of indirect self-promotion, which aims to highlight the cost of landline connectivity and in so doing encourage consumers to take a look at their fixed wireless service that requires no physical landline. Sadly Relish’s service can only be taken in central London, although there are plenty of other Fixed Wireless ISPs dotted about the UK.

Some fixed line providers, such as Virgin Media, Hyperoptic, Gigaclear and B4RN, also allow customers to take a broadband-only service; but they aren’t available to everybody. Meanwhile BTOpenreach are currently testing a Single Order FTTC product without the voice/phone component, but the price difference isn’t expected to be significant because you’ll still need the underlying copper line for broadband.