Do Landline only deals still exist?

Jlawson118

Since my grandad passed away in 2017, I've been managing my grandma's finances and bills.

Since moving in with her in May, I've been looking at further consolidating her bills and seeing what I can merge in with any of my packages etc to save money.

My grandad had a Sky TV, broadband and landline package, in which after he passed away I consolidated into just a landline as it's all my grandma really uses. She's had the same landline number for decades and everybody knows it, and is also hooked up to a local telecare system, it would be quite difficult to change that number.

But Sky are charging her over £30 a month for this which seems excessive to me? 

Living here now I do have Sky TV only and I haven't contacted them as of yet as I think they'll just try to sell me a broadband package, which I already have with BT (Full Fibre and a second line into the house to leave my grandma's equipment how it is.

I was looking online yesterday and most prices seem excessive but include broadband too. But then I know there is a plan to cut off the analogue network within the next 2-3 years and go IP based. So I am a bit stuck on this one?

I'm wondering if it would be possible to port her landline number over to my fibre line without losing anything?
Or if there are any landline only deals out there I could swap her into?

It's difficult because we've wanted to get her a mobile phone for years so she can carry it everywhere with her, but she's stubborn to try new things. Her landline is her only communication with the outside world

Neil_Jones

If eligible for social tariff probably worth going for one of those.  Something like https://www.bt.com/broadband/home-essentials for example

littleboo

Port the number to a VOIP provider and cease the landline, you'll need an ATA to continue using the existing phone or get a new VOIP compatible phone. The VOIP service can be accessed over your BT broadband. 

J_B

Whatever you do, make sure you don't lose the number (been there got the T shirt)

Check that, if you go with VOIP, it will work *all* the time

Jlawson118

J_B said:

Whatever you do, make sure you don't lose the number (been there got the T shirt)

Check that, if you go with VOIP, it will work *all* the time

I was half expecting the majority of comments on here to be "Just change the number and be done with it". But I can imagine it would be chaos, my grandma isn't a technical person and neither are most of the people who have her landline number

She was getting a lot of scam phone calls a couple of years ago and we were close to changing it but we could just imagine the chaos that it would cause 

Acer321

Jlawson118 said:

...Or if there are any landline only deals out there I could swap her into?

I switched my parents to this "Home Line Rental" only package. They don't have broadband.

£16.20 per month inc' VAT.

https://pulse8broadband.co.uk/line-rental

Grandad2b

Acer321 said:

Jlawson118 said:

...Or if there are any landline only deals out there I could swap her into?

I switched my parents to this "Home Line Rental" only package. They don't have broadband.

£16.20 per month inc' VAT.

https://pulse8broadband.co.uk/line-rental

I wonder... does that also work if you want to take landline from one provider and broadband from another?
(apologies to the OP for hijacking the thread).

eDicky

Does BT Basic still exist for new customers..? Or in this case to switch plan...

My mother had this and I inherited it with the house twenty years ago. Used to be just less than £5/month, a small increase made it slightly more than £5 and I added 15GB broadband for an extra fiver. Only available for pensioners etc, you probably have to ask for it. Some calls are included, I forget the free allowance as I only used it for broadband.