MSE News: The death of the landline?

roddydogs

Not having a landline is totally selfish, why should we have to pay Mobile charges every time we want to phone you? Especially as some people (ME) get free 01/02 calls.
Someone i know has Virgin BB, & still has a BT line for the phone!

CKhalvashi

roddydogs wrote: »

Not having a landline is totally selfish, why should we have to pay Mobile charges every time we want to phone you? Especially as some people (ME) get free 01/02 calls.
Someone i know has Virgin BB, & still has a BT line for the phone!

I simply hand out an 01279 I don't pay anything for (through Orange)

CK

zagfles

CKhalvashi wrote: »

I simply hand out an 01279 I don't pay anything for (through Orange)

CK

How does that work? Is it an answering service, or does it divert to your mobile? Or VOIP which you need to be online to receive? Surely if it diverts to your mobile they charge you for it?

Caddyman

roddydogs wrote: »

Not having a landline is totally selfish, why should we have to pay Mobile charges every time we want to phone you? Especially as some people (ME) get free 01/02 calls.
Someone i know has Virgin BB, & still has a BT line for the phone!

Ha! Sorry, giggling like a 5 year old reading this!

Just exactly how is it selfish for someone like me who doesn't actually want a telephone line for making voice calls? No disrespect, but everyone of us has a choice on whether to call someone or not and personally, I couldn't care less if someone else has to pay to get in touch with me. Again, it's their choice if they wish to call me, just as it's my choice whether to use my inclusive minutes on my mobile Goodybag to call them!

As my landline (which I only use for BB anyway) telephone is permanently unplugged from the master socket (to reiterate, router is still connected via the DSL filter) clearly, I don't accept calls from people on it (As far as I'm concerned, it's an unmonitored line). The point behind my original post was, why should those of us who wish to have BB only but don't have a provider such as Virgin Media who can provide BB only over cable, continue to be forced to accept an ADSL line with a forced landline telephone package?

The biggest gripe I have with landlines, is the telemarketers who call to bug me with their often inane patter! It's all very well being registered with TPS and Silentgard, trouble is, there are still companies out there who deliberately flout TPS and call anyway. The only way of stopping them, is to email Ofcom with a complaint or do as I do, and unplug your 'phone. I don't want to spend nearly a hundred quid on a piece of kit that intercepts all voice calls before it gives me the choice of answering or not, that is why my 'phone is unplugged!

Completely off topic but seeing as it's been mentioned, rain fade and satellite dishes - I just put up a larger sized Sky dish with a new LNB (did it myself and saved £140 by the way!) and I rarely get rain fade anymore. Plus, some of the previously blocky or weaker bit rate channels, are now fine.

Pincher

I don't know whether it's urban myth or not, but some people apparently set up premium rate numbers, so that you PAY HIM when you call him.

Sounds like the kind of thing a second hand car dealer would do.

Caddyman

Pincher wrote: »

I don't know whether it's urban myth or not, but some people apparently set up premium rate numbers, so that you PAY HIM when you call him.

I think you'll find people like that are entrepreneurs! Can someone tell me how one does this lol?! Perhaps I could use it against telemarketers when my answerphone kicks in!!

zagfles

Caddyman wrote: »

I think you'll find people like that are entrepreneurs! Can someone tell me how one does this lol?! Perhaps I could use it against telemarketers when my answerphone kicks in!!

Various companies do them, here's one example http://www.uknumber.co.uk/premium.htm There's probably some phonepayplus hoops you have to jump through though.

But the company has to dial the 09... number, so you can give it out to anyone who you don't want to call you, or you want to charge to call you.

Or perhaps to people who've ditched their landline and expect you to call them on their mobile, you have to pay extra to call them so make them pay extra to call you

Caddyman

zagfles wrote: »

Various companies do them, here's one example http://www.uknumber.co.uk/premium.htm There's probably some phonepayplus hoops you have to jump through though.

But the company has to dial the 09... number, so you can give it out to anyone who you don't want to call you, or you want to charge to call you.

Or perhaps to people who've ditched their landline and expect you to call them on their mobile, you have to pay extra to call them so make them pay extra to call you

Thanks for the tip! Seriously, having looked at it, I'll give the option a miss. Just leaving the landline unplugged and not giving out our landline number will suffice - still doesn't stop auto dialing telemarketers, but hey, I have the satisfaction of knowing when my inclusive TalkTalk answerphone kicks in, they still end up paying for the call and that's good enough for me!

One thing I will say though, I would never 'expect' anyone to call me on my mobile. Again, it's down to choice, if they want to call me, they will, if they don't, I'm not bothered!

Pincher

Caddyman wrote: »

I think you'll find people like that are entrepreneurs! Can someone tell me how one does this lol?! Perhaps I could use it against telemarketers when my answerphone kicks in!!

Think like a single mother who does sexy chat lines.

Instead of sales calls, you'll get calls interested in what you are wearing. :rotfl:

alanq

Zebra wrote: »

So 27% of Under 30's don't have a home phone?

What percentage of under 30's these days don't actually have their own home to start with?

Under 30's are less likely to be settled in one place. Even among those who are renting their own home will be deterred from having a land line by line connection charges and/or minimum contract periods of 12 months+.