Home Phone coming to O2 Broadband soon

We know that many of our home broadband customers love our service but would also like the ease of being able to get their home phone with us as well. The great news is that we’ll be launching O2 Home Phone in spring, offering our broadband customers a convenient, great value package with no hidden costs.

We’ll be launching two home phone packages. ‘Evening & Weekend’ costs just £9.50 per month and offers unlimited calls to UK homes on evenings and weekends. ‘Anytime’ is available for £12.50 per month and offers any time, unlimited calls to UK homes. It also offers unlimited calls to 0845/0870 numbers and landlines in over 20 international countries, although these are subject to a fair use policy.

This means that if you’re an O2 mobile customer you’ll be able to get our standard broadband package and Evening & Weekend calls for just £17 per month, including line rental - one of the best value deals on the market.

O2 Broadband has won award after award for performance and quality of service and adding Home Phone offers customers the complete package. You’ll be able to benefit from our high quality broadband service (with great connection speeds and a line check before sign-up), free 24/7 UK-based technical customer care, completely transparent pricing and a simple set-up process.

Launching Home Phone is an important next step for us in our strategy of moving beyond mobile to becoming a leading connectivity brand. It’s probably the most significant launch for us in the home market since we launched broadband back in 2007.

For full information on the packages launching, visit www.o2.co.uk/homephone.You can see the details of our tariff below.

 

Comments

[MrEd]

This is all very well but it still means forking out a tenner a month for a "home phone" line rental that many people do not use these days, other than for broadband. It seems that the country will forever be in BT's pocket.

[Gulam]

Will BT line rental charges still apply?
Caller ID not Free, BT offer this free so wuld have to pay £1.75 extra per month :-(

[AlbanRampon]

Dear O2,
Delighted you are starting to offer more services on that copper!
Hopefully you will apply your ***EXCELLENT*** mobile customer service (and I love that Glaswegian accent each time I need to call) to the landline as well...
A wee effort on prices might be needed to motivate early adopters.
Keep up the good work!
Cheers, Alban
http://twitter.com/AlbanRampon

[Scott Dryden]

Will O2 be able to set-up phone lines for customers who aren't currently with BT, similar to the service offered by TalkTalk?

[Richi]

As I mentioned on Twitter, your tariff is kinda weird: it would cost me £2.75/month just for the privilege of voicemail and callerID, both of which I get free in my bog-standard BT package.

This stuff should just be included -- at the very least in the £12.50 package. Might I suggest the product manager has a bit of a re-think?

[william mackenzie]

can u get this without a BT line? I live in hull and would like this

[Sam]

Fantastic news. Been waiting for this to happen for a long time after wonderful experiences with o2 Broadband and mobile phone. Can't wait to have the whole package and finally move away from BT.

[Jamie]

Just a suggestion...free calls to o2 mobiles from the home phone line (orange offer this with their home phone service)

[O2]

Hi all
Thanks for all the comments. If you get O2 Home Phone you won't need to pay for BT line rental but you will need to have a phone line installed and you can move from your current provider if you like.

Jamie - thanks for the suggestion, I'll pass it on!

[Darren Gillman]

Is this going to be a PSTN service where we can continue to use existing copper infrastructure (handsets, answerphones, extensions, etc) or is it a VOIP service delivered over ADSL which requires new kit?

[Kasam]

So when can I place an order?

Also where are the terms and conditions?

[steve]

You would get alot more uptake if you included voicemail and caller id for free, These seem to be a very big reason not to change from BT.

[james]

Would be very keen if the package included caller Id at £12.50

[Mark Simpson]

But, erm, it's no cheaper than BT, mainly because you don't add caller display by default (their privacy option is free). So no ta.

[rich]

Dear 02,

I currently have my phone line and BB from Tiscali/Talk Talk.

Obviously my phone line was LLU'd from BT to tiscali in the past. Can I move everything over to O2 without too much hassle?

I've heard, that because I'm LLU'd I might need to take my phone line back to BT for 12 months first. I can't believe this is true... please tell me it isn't... :-)

[O2]

Here's some answers :)

Darren Gillman - the service will be via copper wire, no extra kit needed

Kasam - you'll be able to place an order (and see full terms and conditions) in March when we launch the service

James, Steve & Mark - thanks for the feedback, we'll pass it on

Rich - I don't think that will be the case but give us a call in March and we'll be able to give you specific details

[Madhu]

Yes, Would agree with most of the posts above. This service gives a chance to break up the calling features, opt and pay only for only that we need.
It is not too much different from BT if I need Caller ID, Voice mail and inclusive calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers (on evening and weekend calling option which comes at the same price as weekend only option with a renewable contract on BT).

£12.50 package seems more promising, but lacks the basic Caller Id feature which is free on BT. Voice mail feature can be replaced with answer machine on the phone.
My vote for £12.50 package if given with a free Caller Id feature.
Last but not the least.. I have been with O2 mobile for 3 and half years and O2 broadband for 2+ years.. Service is awesome!!!

[Paul]

I was excited when I saw this, but like others, I'm put off by having to pay extra for caller display. Sort it out!

[Andrew]

Will O2 definitely not be doing new line activations?

I'd like to sign up with O2, but if I need to get BT to activate my line first then I'm automatically locked in to a minimum 12 month contract with them. I'd prefer to bypass BT entirely.

[Yatish]

Will O2 be able to install new lines. I have virgin and would consider moving to O2.

Any ideas on cost for a new line?

[Lee Branch]

I left talk talk and did not re-connect the phone, are you able to re-connect (at what charge)or do I need to go through BT?

[Jon Allsop]

I would change to an O2 Land Line, I already have O2 broadband

However, the Caller ID and Voice Mail is in with the price with BT. I would definitely switch if it was included in the £12.50 anytime package.

Come on O2, I can be out of my BT contract early as they've changed the contract and I have the right to cancel within ten days, help me to switch to you.

[Colin Pickett]

Will you be offering the ability to book a particular day for the transfer to take place. Many of us will currently be tied in to BT Rolling Contracts to get an extra discount, and will incur penalties if the LLU transfer takes place too early. Also, will the landline transfer to O2 affect our existing O2 broadband service during the changover?

[Peter]

I'm under contract with BT until the end of September 2010, do I have to wait until then to sign up, or would O2 take it on?

Currently have O2 broadband, lowest package, love it.

[Mark]

I would like to move to O2 but as has been mentioned the extra charge for the caller display is the stalling point over BT. However, BT have seriously p*****d me off with their redefinition of evenings from 6pm to being from 7pm and I would probably move to O2 on that basis. I would definitely move if caller id was included.

The problem is that I need to give BT 14 days notice to move so even though you say the service is launched from March 1st it actually can't be active until March 15th if you can't place orders before 1st March... or am I missing something?