MSE News: The death of the landline?

iniltous

moon777 wrote: »

I agree that increasingly we have a land line just for broadband, and as such we pay to much for that service. However it should not be a free service because we want those lines maintained and we want them invested in and improved over the coming years ( we want them all ripped up and replaced with fiber!).

A fair compromise would be to have a deal for those who don't want a home phone of say £50 per year for the line rental - this would cover BT's costs and leave some spare for investment in the service.

How do you know £50 would cover BT costs ?, the fee BT can charge for a local loop is regulated by Ofcom and is based on actual data, it's based on cost and a small profit margin, after all it's BT's cable, if you want a broadband only line, pick a provider that's cheap and don't plug a phone into the socket...simple

zagfles

Caddyman wrote: »

Noooo, sorry, not missing the point at all my friend, indeed, I think you are missing my point entirely! I'm just not interested in having a voice call package on a land line, I just want broadband over a landline because I don't have the Virgin Media option of cable only. I couldn't care less if I was offered a so called 'free' voice call bundle with the line, I'm just not interested! I don't need the voice call option. I'm sick to death of nutters calling my landline number offering utter garbage, pointless marketing calls and the odd sicko who thinks it's fun to dial a random number and give people the you know what's. That is why my 'phone is unplugged. I have no issue whatsoever with paying an element of my line for the upkeep of the infrastructure.

Err, yes, so how does that differ to what I said in the post you were replying to? You want the landline but not the "free" calls. I want a haircut but not the "free" coffee. What's the difference?

Caddyman

zagfles wrote: »

Err, yes, so how does that differ to what I said in the post you were replying to? You want the landline but not the "free" calls. I want a haircut but not the "free" coffee. What's the difference?

The difference is my friend, you are just being pedantic.

I still don't want a voice package and I think you are having difficulty accepting that. Sad part about it is, as a consumer, I'm not being given a realistic choice here. I either accept the situation as it is or I don't have a landline telephone and therefore no broadband into the house. I certainly don't wish to 'dongle up' and pay a fortune using that method thanks.

The fact is, until there are enough voices to say enough is enough to the present sorry state of affairs, we've effectively got to put up or shut up. I'm just deeply disappointed that no telecoms provider has yet bothered to survey my particular area to gauge the level of interest in laying fibre-optic cable.

ukcarper

Caddyman wrote: »

The difference is my friend, you are just being pedantic.

I still don't want a voice package and I think you are having difficulty accepting that. Sad part about it is, as a consumer, I'm not being given a realistic choice here. I either accept the situation as it is or I don't have a landline telephone and therefore no broadband into the house. I certainly don't wish to 'dongle up' and pay a fortune using that method thanks.

The fact is, until there are enough voices to say enough is enough to the present sorry state of affairs, we've effectively got to put up or shut up. I'm just deeply disappointed that no telecoms provider has yet bothered to survey my particular area to gauge the level of interest in laying fibre-optic cable.

When was the last time anyone other than BT ran cables to anywhere other than a new estate.

zagfles

Caddyman wrote: »

The difference is my friend, you are just being pedantic.

I still don't want a voice package and I think you are having difficulty accepting that.

What, when I said "You want the landline but not the "free" calls." yet I'm "having difficulty accepting you don't want a voice package? :rotfl:

I've accepted that in at least 3 posts !!!!!!. You don't want something you get for free with something else. It happens to me too and probably everyone. Good luck in your campaign to not be offered something you don't want.

Caddyman

zagfles wrote: »

What, when I said "You want the landline but not the "free" calls." yet I'm "having difficulty accepting you don't want a voice package? :rotfl:

I've accepted that in at least 3 posts !!!!!!. You don't want something you get for free with something else. It happens to me too and probably everyone. Good luck in your campaign to not be offered something you don't want.

If you'd accepted what I'd been saying in at least three posts, then why do you tripping out the same guff?

I think you just don't like the fact there are people out there who don't necessarily want what everyone else is resigned to accept. I feel sorry for you, I really do. :laugh:

Caddyman

ukcarper wrote: »

When was the last time anyone other than BT ran cables to anywhere other than a new estate.

Yes, and that is one of the problems isn't it? Our current system still revolves around the whole BT Openreach system. My argument is, the whole telecoms industry needs deregulating further. The Government keep batting on about how it wants every household to have superfast broadband, but at the moment, it's just pie in the sky. Laying fibre-optic during the build phase would help things along.

ukcarper

Caddyman wrote: »

Yes, and that is one of the problems isn't it? Our current system still revolves around the whole BT Openreach system. My argument is, the whole telecoms industry needs deregulating further. The Government keep batting on about how it wants every household to have superfast broadband, but at the moment, it's just pie in the sky. Laying fibre-optic during the build phase would help things along.

I’m not sure but I don’t think there is anything stopping other providers providing there own cabling.

The thing is BT has most of the infrastructure and that's not only the local network most calls will go over BT’s main network at some stage,

iniltous

Caddyman wrote: »

Noooo, sorry, not missing the point at all my friend, indeed, I think you are missing my point entirely! I'm just not interested in having a voice call package on a land line, I just want broadband over a landline because I don't have the Virgin Media option of cable only. I couldn't care less if I was offered a so called 'free' voice call bundle with the line, I'm just not interested! I don't need the voice call option. I'm sick to death of nutters calling my landline number offering utter garbage, pointless marketing calls and the odd sicko who thinks it's fun to dial a random number and give people the you know what's. That is why my 'phone is unplugged. I have no issue whatsoever with paying an element of my line for the upkeep of the infrastructure.

Does a naked broadband line cost less to provide and maintain than a line with telephony and broadband ?, you state you are not in a VM area, so presumably you would consider their broadband only deal, that's £22.50 upto £38 depending on speed, shop around and you could match or beat that with a low cost line rental provider, one that makes a bit extra by charging for things like caller display and an answer service that you don't need and a broadband provider, then don't plug a phone in, you then have what you want.

Paul_Varjak

My land-line is essential to me. I make up to 200 calls to 0845 numbers per day in my work and even if I could get a decent mobile signal, it would cost a fortune!

I can call an unlimited number of 0845 numbers totally free from my land-line, with a TalkTalk Plus package; you cannot do that from a mobile phone.

As the land-line is in constant use, I do re-route incoming land-line calls (using TalkTalk's divert facility) to a virtual geographical number on my mobile phone and answer the calls over a WiFi connection. The call diversion is also totally free with the TalkTalk Plus package.