Wholesale line rental
Wholesale line rental (WLR) is a service in which a telecommunications operator takes control of all the connections made through a telephone line from the native operator and collects the subscription fee from the subscribers.[1][2]
With WLR the alternative telecoms provider buys a wholesale product from the incumbent (usually in conjunction with a wholesale call product such as CPS) and is then able to produce a single bill for the end user covering calls and line rental. Broadband services can also be provided by the WLR operator (and included in a single bill) if a separate wholesale DSL product is purchased from the incumbent, but this is optional.
As part of the United Kingdom PSTN switch-off, BT Openreach is due to retire its Wholesale Line Rental service.[3] Providers are expected to implement Voice over IP to replace copper PSTN voice and ISDN connections.[4]
References
- "What is Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) for Business? | AdEPT". www.adept.co.uk. 2020-12-24. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
- "How to switch your broadband supplier - A Complete Guide | thinkbroadband". www.thinkbroadband.com. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
- "Openreach puts the stopper on copper". www.openreach.com. Retrieved 2023-10-04.
- "BT Switch Off 2025". Comms Connect. Retrieved 2023-10-04.