Incoming calls only - cheapest way?

guitaruser

Hoping for some advice from those in the know.

Basically with our mobiles we get the following minuted per month:

1500 evening weekend calls landlines/orange
500 anytime any number

For this we pay £15 and £30 = £45

We NEVER use a landline. However there are certain family members who wish to contact us and their preference is a landline.

Looking around we dont qualify for BT light user as we have mobiles.

So the only way I can see us getting a landline is going on the £10.50 per month basic BT or Cable package.

Anyone else having this problem or know of a better solution.

I know you can get calls through broadband but have no understanding of it. Does the computer have to be permanently on etc etc.

Thanks in advance

shelly

I have to be honest and say that if I never used my landline I would ditch it altogether. If members of my family didn't like it then they could pay for me to keep it. Why pay for something from your own pocket just so its convenient for others?


Sorry if it sounds harsh but thats what I would do.

gizmoleeds

guitaruser wrote:

I know you can get calls through broadband but have no understanding of it. Does the computer have to be permanently on etc etc.

No. The computer doesn't have to be on, provided you have the correct equipment.

Do you have broadband already? Becuase you need a BT line for most broadband services, except cable ones (which are actually better-suited to voip telephony anyway).

guitaruser

gizmoleeds wrote:

No. The computer doesn't have to be on, provided you have the correct equipment.

Do you have broadband already? Becuase you need a BT line for most broadband services, except cable ones (which are actually better-suited to voip telephony anyway).

No its cable broadband

bbb_uk

BT do a tariff called In-Contact Plus which is incoming calls. It costs about £10 per quarter as opposed to monthly. You are not meant to have broadband or a mobile with this tariff so don't let BT know you have both.

See this thread for more info on In-Contact Plus.

gizmoleeds

guitaruser wrote:

No its cable broadband

Ah! Well if you have cable broadband then VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol - the technical name for "telephone what you plug into broadband") is a real possibility.

Have a look at https://www.sipgate.com - these nice people will give you a free local landline phone number (for whatever area you live in), and they sell the telephone hardware too. All you would need in addition to one of their telephones is a router to plug both your modem, your computer and the phone into and away you go!

I think this would be ideal, but I am not that knowledgable on routers so I would let someone else check first before buying anything:

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=13414175940&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=41592

digp

yes but if you get in contact you cant get broadband

gizmoleeds

digp wrote:

yes but if you get in contact you cant get broadband

Sorry, but...what?

NOWSE

shelly wrote:

I have to be honest and say that if I never used my landline I would ditch it altogether. If members of my family didn't like it then they could pay for me to keep it. Why pay for something from your own pocket just so its convenient for others?


Sorry if it sounds harsh but thats what I would do.

I worked with someone with this attitude. He only had a mobile, no home landline. After a while he realised that people weren't phoning him. Reason being that they weren't prepared to pay the high rates necessary to phone his mobile from a landline. As a result he had his landline re-connected.

shelly

NOWSE wrote:

I worked with someone with this attitude. He only had a mobile, no home landline. After a while he realised that people weren't phoning him. Reason being that they weren't prepared to pay the high rates necessary to phone his mobile from a landline. As a result he had his landline re-connected.

More fool him