Internet/phone line

matelodave

steviebuk said:

wongataa said:

RumRat said:

wongataa said:

Yes you will need a physical landline connection but you do not have to ever use it for voice calls or pay for voice call packages.  You don't have to plug a phone into it.  The price displayed includes all necessary costs such as line rental.

You do not have to contact BT to connect a landline first.  Doing that would just complicate things. Just sign up with the ISP of choice and they do any necessary connecting.

BT is not the cheapest ISP.

Why would you need a phone landline connection?  Most providers now offer internet without any phoneline. Phonelines are being phased out in favour of fibre and if you did need a house phone you can go Voip.

The landline is used for both voice calls and internet.  There is no separate phone line.  It is just one line that you need for broadband delivered over a wired connection.  If you don't plan on using a telephone you just don't pay for a phone package or phone service but you still have to pay line rental as that is for the physical line to your property.

The point is all copper phonelines are going by 2025 so a phoneline isn't required if the area can provide fibre. 

not actually true, the PSTN (Public Switch Telephone Network) is being shut down in 2025 but that doesn't mean that all copper lines are being ripped out. Many people will have an adequate broadband service over copper connections between the cabinet and their premises and those who just want a phone service will in many may still be served by copper. I suspect that there will be a lot of copper around for the foreseeable future and well past 2025

Unless you go wireless you will need some sort of physical connection between you and the ISP to provide and internet connection whether that be copper or fibre, a landline if you like but not necessarily for a fixed phone.

Somehow you will be paying for some sort of line rental whether it be copper or fibre which will be rolled up into the service that you require whether that be broadband, broadband with phone service or just phone service. If you require the option of a fixed phone service then it will be provided over the IP connection.

johnph

There seems to be a complete lack of proper infomation about this new system that the authorities want to impose on us without discussion. It is not a simple one for one upgrade of existing facilities.

For example, the new fibre system is digital VOIT and if your phones are analogue you may need to buy more expensive new phones (as happened to my nephew). The phone plugs into the base router that could be in the hall, whereas you might want in your study or living room, and you can't have any extensions. 

It is possible the installer can leave a copper line in place for now instead, but probably with an extra line charge.

I am with VirginMedia at £32/ month with no TV and wanted to go onto pensioners Social Tariff at half the cost, but VM said they would have to cut off my land line, so that was no good.

And if I change to another server what happens to all the emails that are stored on VMs server. Could I still access them from another provider.

Where can we get proper independent advice, as the present companies customer advice services just say everything is better and wonderful, and no problems exist!

PHK

Good heavens, Digital Voice has been discussed for many years. Going back to the early 2000s witn 21CN. And there was a delay which shoul have allowed people to catch up. The last thing we need now is to open up more discussion and fear mongering. 

Everything will be fine. If you don't want new phones then you can have an adaptor and schemes are inplace for the vulnerable.