Is there any way you can find out what phone line was installed in your house?

Question

I am moving home soon and checked with BT that there is no working BT line.Its not a new property so I wonder if previous tenant or landlord didn't have to use a home phone? Maybe they used a phone line from different company? Is there any way I could find out which company provided the landline?

Answer 1

Before BT was the only provider of phone lines, other companies used to install phone lines. Now, the only company allowed to install, un-install or modify phone lines is BT. Just phone BT, they should be able to tell you who installed them. The other possibility is that there is no phone line. But this seems very unlikely.

Answer 2

We encounter this a lot when students move into an area, where a house has been converted into flats and there is no evidence of a phone line, so until you get access into your flat, you won't know if there is a line in there. If there isn't you will have to pay the full installation charge to BT. If you find a socket in your flat and inform BT of this, you may be able to get a discount from them as this is classed as an all insitu provide. BT/Openreach are and have been the only people to install phone lines, excluding Virgin.

One thing you could try is to club together with your flatmates, put the phone line in a communal area and share the costs, put wireless broadband in and share the bandwidth. Be warned if you decide to do this only one name will go on the bill, so if your flatmates are less than honest, come the end of term they may not pay you up full and you are left with the bill.  

Answer 3

All landlines are owned by BT. No other company can install them. You can switch provider but must have an active BT landline first.