Update 16 March 2026
Following the expiry of existing commitments, and considerations about how best to support BT’s landline-only customers, BT has confirmed that this group of customers will receive a £1 per month increase on their line rental, with no increase in call plan charges, from 31 March 2026 for a period of 12 months.
Landline only customers have a landline phone service with BT but do not have broadband with BT or another provider. The size of this group of customers is shrinking over time. As networks modernise, we expect all landline services will eventually be provided over a broadband service.
While this group of customers is getting smaller, it tends to be made up of largely older customers, who do not engage in switching provider as often as younger customer groups. We expect BT to continue to take this into account when setting prices for these customers in future and we intend to monitor BT’s pricing for landline only customers, as part of our regular monitoring of consumer prices.
We encourage financially vulnerable customers on means-tested benefits to check if they are eligible for a social tariff. BT offers a £10 per month landline-only social tariff for eligible customers, which may be more cost effective than the landline only tariff. Telecoms providers, including BT, have committed to ensuring that social tariffs are easy to find and signposted to eligible customers as part of the UK Government’s Telecoms Consumer Charter.
The ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic continues to highlight the increasing importance of telecoms services. This is particularly the case for a small number of customers who, now more than ever, rely on their landline phone to make calls. In 2020, there were 1.1m voice-only landline customers and over 75% of these customers take their service from BT.
Since April 2018, the prices these customers pay for their voice-only service have been protected by BT's voluntary commitments. These commitments expire on 31 March 2021 and we have now accepted a new offer from BT of further voluntary commitments to ensure continued protections for its voice-only customers until March 2026.
This statement sets out the responses we received to our December proposals and our decision to accept BT’s further commitments.