MoneySaving Poll: Is the landline dead?
Comments
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I need a landline in order to get broadband but I almost always ignore the phone. I never use it to make calls and rarely answer it.
Two reasons. :-
A significant number of friends and family only use mobiles and it made it expensive to call them from the landline.
I was getting95% of nuisance calls on my landline despite being on the TPS system. I now never give my mobile number to anyone other than friends.0 -
I'd like to follow up on Duchy's comments regarding the problems around mobile signal in rural areas.
We would love to be 'mobile only' but our signal availability is so poor that we simply can't ( we live in rural Shropshire).
I now have absolutely no signal on my mobile, ever, within 6 miles of my home. It is a Tesco contract running over O2 network. All the coverage maps I consulted before buying indicated we had good coverage: it appears we sit in some sort of dead spot with no coverage. I've tackled Tesco about it but got nowhere., plus there seems to beno WiFi at home option. The only saving grace is that the contract is very cheap indeed and so I keep it for when I am away from home. My wife has an EE contract and she does get signal but it is poor and usually breaks up mid conversation; most incoming calls go directly to voicemail.
The key points for me are:
-many online sales, banking apps etc. use security codes sent to mobile to complete transaction: we can't do this and it has caused numerous problems;
-most companies and organisations don't seem to understand that some of us have no or only transitory access to mobile signal: their forms, contact systems etc are often based around mobiles;
-mobile service providers seem to just shrug their shoulders and say that the maps and tests show perfect signal; how do they get away with that?
-MPs and local representatives huff and puff a lot but nothing seems to improve.
-the few telephone kiosks remaining are spread far and wide and disappearing rapidly. This means that service providers working in these rural areas such as vets, doctors, carers et al can't be contacted over large chunks of rural areas.
Sorry to go on but I do think the question as phrased might mask the fact that many of us would love to ditch the landline but simply can't.0 -
its about time the link between land line and broadband was severed.
to have broadband you need a land line. to which you have to then pay line rental.
line rental has been steadily increasing year upon year and for no logical real reason. the majority of he infrastructure has been in place for years. needs little maintenance (according to my openreach engineer friend) and was heavily subsidised by government anyway. unfortunately its all managed by the !!!!! cartel known as British Telecom!
what we are all really paying for is the scandelous figures BT have been paying for its sports television rights and prime time adverts with high profile film and sports stars. they've got to pay for them somehow. and everyone with a landline is effectively a cash cow!
its about time BT's monopoly on land lines was finished.0 -
Poverty_Bank wrote: »I'd like to follow up on Duchy's comments regarding the problems around mobile signal in rural areas.
We would love to be 'mobile only' but our signal availability is so poor that we simply can't ( we live in rural Shropshire).
I now have absolutely no signal on my mobile, ever, within 6 miles of my home. It is a Tesco contract running over O2 network. All the coverage maps I consulted before buying indicated we had good coverage:
All the coverage maps are notoriously inaccurate, have you considered getting a free PAYG sim from each network and testing coverage at home, you might find one of the others who don't show coverage actually has some.
Also, have you tried your sim in another phone? To preclude it being a fault on your phone.====0 -
Poverty_Bank wrote: »We would love to be 'mobile only' but our signal availability is so poor that we simply can't ( we live in rural Shropshire).
Me too. I'm not in a 'rural' area per se, only a couple of miles from a city and more of a commuter belt. But, my house is in a gap between coverage areas, and although I can get a 4G signal upstairs near the window or stood outside in the garden (brrr) the mobile signal is pretty useless in the house. 100 yards either direction would make all the difference. And before anyone chimes in with ideas to change that, all the providers have the same problem here, and my visitors all complain about the poor signal no matter whose service they are on.
And anyway, I rely on my broadband connection which comes in on the phone line. Bizarrely, my line provider says my ADSL2 is faster than a connection to fibre would be in my area!0 -
What a surprise, retired people (over 65) who are at home, use a landline. Whilst those at work all day.., don't!0
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Can't use mobiles here - no connectivity, so have to rely on landline. Same with internet - very poor, slow broadband. Until the government gets our internet and mobile phone providers to get their fingers out, us 'poorer' rural cousins will have to use old fashioned means of communication (carrier pigeon anyone?)0
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I have a landline only to access broadband, pretty much 90% of the calls received are cold-callers.0
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Only use my landline to call 0845 numbers tho if I use SAYNOTO0870 can usually find a landline to call cheaper by using my mobile! Only have a landline for Fibre, with 11 devices that could connect simultaneously it essential. Get free Overseas calls with the dreaded Talltalk, so happily chat to my folks Down Under every week. But now they have iPads so we FaceTime. Do I need a landline now??0
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There are large rural areas where there is no mobile signal - a landline is a necessity. I always warn people I have no mobile signal at home, and may have to drive half a mile to pick up messages. Depending on a mobile is just not practical.0
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