Social Tariffs for elderly

MouldyOldDough

J_B said:

littleboo said:

If someone wants a standalone telephone service, it will be bundled with a low bandwidth data connection, buts thats transparency to the customer, apart from the need for a router.

We have a 'phone only' contract with BT

We use a WISP service (Airband) for our broadband via a dish on the side of the house

It seems that the reason that you still manage to keep your 'phone only' line is purely historic but new customers are unable to do this any longer!! 

400ixl

They are currently looking at services for when the analogue system closes down to allow for both landline only and emergency service. Not much of a help now though, but there are solutions coming.

I believe to qualify for a social tariff when of pension age, you need to be in receipt of pension credit. Do you know if they receive that?

You can get landline only services https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/cordless-phones/article/cheapest-uk-home-phone-landline-provider-deals-aYknF4I4ajJ1

Looks like they are far less than they are paying for TalkTalk plus the bonus of getting away from one of the worst performing customer service companies in the sector.

iniltous

WLR , wholesale line rental ,
LLU , local loop unbundling,

WLR lines are what BT use , basically the ‘line’ is connected to PSTN equipment in the local that provides the telephone service ( dialtone )

LLU uses nothing other than Openreach for the wiring from the exchange to the customer house , it’s not connected to ‘BT dialtone ‘ equipment, it’s not connected to anything ‘BT’ , just the Openreach local loop .

LLU providers that offer telephony don’t supply it from the ‘BT’ PSTN exchange equipment but their own equipment, the BT PSTN switch off is by December 2025 so affects BT customers ( WLR ) and some other providers that use WLR , but the vast majority of other providers are LLU , very few are WLR , years ago companies like Sky and TT moved customers to LLU from WLR .

LLU providers are not affected by BT switching off the BT exchange equipment because they are not connected to it , but may have their own program to move customers onto IP telephony from their own legacy telephony equipment ( Sky are LLU and are doing this ) .

Talk Talk seem to be very area dependent, some Talk Talk FTTP customers are not offered telephony at all , if they have a program to migrate telephony customers I’ve not heard about it , but I’m not a TT customer .

As stated , if the OP relative wants to delay the inevitable for as long as possible, remaining with TT is probably the best option as they cannot move to WLR , and other LLU ( like Sky ) will probably insist on IP telephony .

CouldntResist

MouldyOldDough said:

My parents in law - do not have an internet connected TV either !!
They still use a good old fashioned aerial 

They simply need a reliable home phone - as cheaply as possible

mobile phones are out - my MIL is scared that she will lose it or will forget to charge it

Their phone is an old corded one - they used to have a phone with a dial until four years ago

they are obviously not exactly technically savy.

Buy a mobile phone, leave it plugged in on a long charging cable. Can only get lost if you unplug it and it otherwise acts just like a corded phone. This is as difficult as you want to make it.

littleboo

MouldyOldDough said:

J_B said:

littleboo said:

If someone wants a standalone telephone service, it will be bundled with a low bandwidth data connection, buts thats transparency to the customer, apart from the need for a router.

We have a 'phone only' contract with BT

We use a WISP service (Airband) for our broadband via a dish on the side of the house

It seems that the reason that you still manage to keep your 'phone only' line is purely historic but new customers are unable to do this any longer!! 

New customers can have a "Phone Only" service, but it will almost certainly be Digital Voice or the some other similar name (unless you find a LLU provider still offering analogue telephony to new customers)

MouldyOldDough

CouldntResist said:

MouldyOldDough said:

My parents in law - do not have an internet connected TV either !!
They still use a good old fashioned aerial 

They simply need a reliable home phone - as cheaply as possible

mobile phones are out - my MIL is scared that she will lose it or will forget to charge it

Their phone is an old corded one - they used to have a phone with a dial until four years ago

they are obviously not exactly technically savy.

Buy a mobile phone, leave it plugged in on a long charging cable. Can only get lost if you unplug it and it otherwise acts just like a corded phone. This is as difficult as you want to make it.

They will NOT use a mobile phone - FULL STOP

MouldyOldDough

littleboo said:

MouldyOldDough said:

J_B said:

littleboo said:

If someone wants a standalone telephone service, it will be bundled with a low bandwidth data connection, buts thats transparency to the customer, apart from the need for a router.

We have a 'phone only' contract with BT

We use a WISP service (Airband) for our broadband via a dish on the side of the house

It seems that the reason that you still manage to keep your 'phone only' line is purely historic but new customers are unable to do this any longer!! 

New customers can have a "Phone Only" service, but it will almost certainly be Digital Voice or the some other similar name (unless you find a LLU provider still offering analogue telephony to new customers)

Surely - when BT go 100% digital - every other supplier will follow suite ?

And this is supposed to be happening within 24 months ?

iniltous

Using terms like 100% digital isn’t really correct , the BT PSTN ( which is a digital network ) is being retired, it’s replacement is IP ( internet protocol ) hence the need to use broadband and connecting in the majority of cases to a broadband router …..Talk Talk are not bound by the dates BT are using , they have their own network that delivers telephony , they may decide to use the same dates , or they may do something different, as stated when it comes to Openreach FTTP they don’t offer telephony, so may decide to not offer telephony and concentrate on broadband only , your in laws should probably enquire with TT as to their plans 

CouldntResist

They will NOT use a mobile phone - FULL STOP

If they will NOT use a mobile phone FULL STOP then giving spurious info about having concerns of losing it or letting it run out of charge would seem to be a waste of electrons.....

MouldyOldDough

iniltous said:

Using terms like 100% digital isn’t really correct , the BT PSTN ( which is a digital network ) is being retired, it’s replacement is IP ( internet protocol ) hence the need to use broadband and connecting in the majority of cases to a broadband router …..Talk Talk are not bound by the dates BT are using , they have their own network that delivers telephony , they may decide to use the same dates , or they may do something different, as stated when it comes to Openreach FTTP they don’t offer telephony, so may decide to not offer telephony and concentrate on broadband only , your in laws should probably enquire with TT as to their plans 

But TT's network can never be a standalone network - surely, it must be connected in to BT/Openreach network - so must be compatible, in order for a user to phone anyone else on the phone network

I, myself, am also TT as my provider - but when I phone the local hospital - it uses BT network - so must be converted to digital at the same time as the rest of the country , at switch over date ??