MSE News: The death of the landline?

Tropez

I don't tend to use my landline for making calls much, simply because of the 1-hour catch on a call. I don't always intend to make long calls but sometimes when you call a friend to arrange something you get talking about something else. My mobile phone bill shows a few calls a month with times of 90 minutes plus but all using my call allowance.

With landlines, all of the providers I know of start charging you after the call exceeds 60 minutes and I don't wish to spend my time on the phone clock watching, nor do I like the idea of hanging up just to call back, so I don't use my home phone.

If the phone companies would like to get rid of that stupid little clause I'd be inclined to use my home phone more often but of course they won't because it's a way of generating revenue for them.

westv

Naked BB? Mmmmmm.....nice!

Caddyman

Azari wrote: »

Sigh.

How much do you think you would save with naked ADSL?

How much do you think it costs to provide and maintain hundreds or thousands of metres of cable or fibre from the exchange to your home?

And how much do you think it costs to provide a couple of circuits to connect you to the telephone system?

Even if naked ADSL was provided it would only save you a few pence a month.

The real problem is that there are so many idiots who think they get 'free' minutes because they pay the equivalent of well over the cost of line rental to a mobile phone company. (A lot of them also think they get a 'free' phone. )

Oh, dear! Facepalm! You clearly actually failed to even bother reading my post properly! From my own perspective, this is not about 'saving money' necessarily for me, it is about the fact that I don't personally want a landline to make voice calls, I just want a line for broadband/VOIP calls. Unfortunately, as a consumer, I am not given the choice at a reasonable price. I accept (a repeat from my previous post) that I should pay for the maintenance of infrastructure. If that is £14 a month, so be it.
It's just utterly pointless from my own perspective, having a call bundle (however small) and having my telephone permanently unplugged from the wall because I just don't use it.

Concerning my calls from a mobile, I have been on PAYG for years because I make very few 'phone calls anyway, certainly not enough to warrant having a contract, hence a network such as giffgaff is ideal for me and using an app such as fishtext, gives me dirt cheap texts to family and friends abroad anyway.

AndysDad

coupleuk wrote: »

I agree that most (not all) people use a home phone line just to get internet access. I have this stupid contract where I MUST make 2 calls a month on my BT account - so we phone the local takeaway twice and just put the phone down !! - the alternative is a £1.50 "no call charge" every month from BT.



I don't think you have to make 2 chargeable calls as such,free evening & weekend calls count.Never paid any £1.50 's yet,

jhp

And if you need a 01/02 geographical number and dont want to pay call divert ,you can get one free of all charge from www.sipgate.co.uk and turn on free voicemail to email feature.

AvidSaver

Have been reading this thread with interest. Lucky enough to own a property in Spain and this year signed up to broadband at the apartment. One off fee of 50 euros for a "box" of some description, then monthly payments of 15 euros for broadband.

It has long been a big gripe of mine in UK that I have to pay line rental in order to get broadband, thus making internet a costly monthly expense. The landline is used rarely as friends/family contact us on mobile and rarely used to make calls. Roll on the day when technology moves on in UK.

zee_2

just a question ,if the primus line only offer £7 odds and no calls ,if you had call charge with bb supplier ,could you use primus for bb and calls as no calls would be charged by primus

zagfles

AvidSaver wrote: »

Have been reading this thread with interest. Lucky enough to own a property in Spain and this year signed up to broadband at the apartment. One off fee of 50 euros for a "box" of some description, then monthly payments of 15 euros for broadband.

It has long been a big gripe of mine in UK that I have to pay line rental in order to get broadband, thus making internet a costly monthly expense. The landline is used rarely as friends/family contact us on mobile and rarely used to make calls. Roll on the day when technology moves on in UK.

You can get line rental plus broadband for similar price in the UK. See the guide on this site.

Pincher

Mains electricity, mains water, mains gas, they give you so much convenience, but somebody will always object to paying standing charge for them.

I love my landline. Compared to satellite internet, it's much faster and cheaper, as well as more reliable: think about losing your FreeSat signal when it rains.

To those who say nay to landline: wait till they cut it off, then see how you like it.

Put these guys back two thousand years, and they'll say to the Romans, don't build the aqueduct, I'm fine without it.:)

zerog

I must say I'm quite happy with TalkTalk, who actually paid me to have the landline, i.e. the cashback covers the line rental component of their charges. I also like having 0870 calls inclusive.

I wonder how much people are paying for electricity to charge their mobiles. Maybe it's insignificant in comparison to the total costs, but landlines don't use mains power at all (unless you want a caller display).