Is a landline still a necessity?

Ian011

At the sort of per-minute rates (plus per-call connection fee) most landline providers charge for calls to landline numbers, 03 numbers and mobile numbers, those who use their phone for more than about 15 minutes per week will find an unlimited anytime call package works out cheaper.

brewerdave

The one issue for me, is the quality (or lack of) mobile phone signals at my home - even modern handsets can struggle to get a useable signal.
Consequently we still have a standard phone plugged in - I'd rather make calls in comfort - the last tradesman doing a job for us ,ended up making a call in the middle of the road.:rotfl:

We get weekends and evening calls included on our legacy phone/bband contract and use 18185 for the occasional daytime call out.

Trumpeter

Thanks for the replies & suggestions. Plenty to think about.

mickeymouse303

I only get nuisance calls on my landline, but I'd rather people be cold calling my landline than my mobile!

bertiewhite

I still need a landline because I get no mobile signal inside my house and I use broadband.

I have thought about ditching my mobile provider for one that gives a better signal so I can ditch the landline as well but my current mobile is very cheap and I'd need mobile broadband which I guess would be more expensive so I'd be no better off financially.

Owain_Moneysaver

boliston wrote: »

the catch with sipgate seems to be you need to buy a "call package" even if you make only one short call per month - i would prefer to pay a fair rental of say a pound a month for line rental and then pay for calls for the exact amount of time i use for each call.

Which you can (unless they've changed it since 2016) - you load up say £10 of credit and it's 1.2p/min to UK landlines.

boliston

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

Which you can (unless they've changed it since 2016) - you load up say £10 of credit and it's 1.2p/min to UK landlines.

It would take me several months to make 10 pounds worth of calls - if i load 10 pounds of credit would it have to be used up in just one month?

Owain_Moneysaver

boliston wrote: »

It would take me several months to make 10 pounds worth of calls - if i load 10 pounds of credit would it have to be used up in just one month?

No, I'm still using the £10 I put on Dec 2016.

Trumpeter

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

No, I'm still using the £10 I put on Dec 2016.

That sounds like what I need. I'll look into it.

Roger1

Our area was 'virginised' (cabled) a few months ago and we are waiting to see if Virgin will be making interesting offers. I see from press ads that they are offering fibre bb with and without calls.

We are currently with BT for phone and BB with an 020 8xxx xxxx number, contract expiring July. We are low users, making little use of the landline and are happy with Three 3-2-1 for our mobiles. The only disadvantage could be the lack of 18185 with Virgin, though we could use the 0808 link.

Sipgate could offer a solution for most calls, though 25p/min (rounded) to call family in Switzerland appears expensive. (3p with Three, so no problem for us). I see Sipgate could port our BT landline number. Questions for MSE experts:

1. does it take long to port a BT number to Sipgate?
2. is 18185 an option with Sipgate?
3. would it be worthwhile opening a Sipgate account now, presumably getting an 020 3xxx xxxx number(?), then changing to our ported number if/when we say goodbye to BT?

Many thanks for your advice.