I've just completed buying a new build house and have been told that I need to get a phone line installed by BT. BT will charge me over £100 for this unless I get one of their broadband/phone packages which are awful value for money and BT are pretty shit anyway.
I contacted Sky who said they could do it for £20 if I got a package with them and they're a lot cheaper than BT. However, this being a call centre in god knows where, I'm not sure how much I trust them to understand this property has no landline and never has.
So, in short - does anyone here know much about getting phone line installed in a new build and does it have to be through BT?
It doesn't have to be through BT. An independent BT subsidiary called Openreach installs and maintains the physical equipment. Openreach are legally obliged to provide services to all companies at the same price. Openreach charge £38.41 ex vat to connect a land line, so BT are really taking the piss with their connection charge.
Sky are probably the least-worst of the major providers, but they're not a patch on specialists like Zen, Pulse8 or AAISP. Before you choose, check that you'll be able to get fibre, otherwise you'll be stuck on "up to 17MB/s" ADSL. Virgin Media are worth considering if you can't get Openreach Fibre; their service is somewhat unreliable, but very fast.
Unless you're in Hull or a handful of other areas, there are only two sets of telephone wires in the ground - Openreach and Virgin Media. Every company apart from Virgin uses Openreach to connect to your house. Sky or BT or Plusnet provide the service, but Openreach provide all the wiring. If you can't get fibre via Openreach, then you'd better hope that Virgin have cabled your street.
