BT is putting up phone line rental by £3.60 per year, a 3.7 per cent rise. The present cost of line rental is already high enough.

It is high time that their monopoly on line rental was broken.

BT says the cost of calls is being cut. This will make very little difference to the small domestic user, as in most cases it is not the cost of calls that makes the bill large, it is the overheads imposed.

With BT making £95 per second, it says line rental is excellent value. I beg to differ.

The present yearly cost of line rental is £84.36 and with the increase added on it will be £87.96. That is near enough the cost of a TV licence.

Little wonder they can afford to hire Bob Hoskins on TV. His saying 'it's good to talk' should be 'it's expensive to talk' - especially with the overheads.

J SMITH (Mr), Leeds Close, Blackburn.

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