Do I actually need my house phone now?

redux

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82025319#Comment_82025319

In a discussion whether people still need a landline, those BT and EE prices don't compete with using a mobile phone to make calls

horsewithnoname

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82026690#Comment_82026690

I could get rid, but I would not pay any less if I did not have the landline, so since it costs me no extra, I don’t see any point in not having.
yes I know I am “paying” for it, I’m not an idiot, but getting rid of my land line would not reduce the amount I pay. What part of that do you not understand?

iniltous

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82027334#Comment_82027334

Care to name the provider that has the option to remove telephony but it’s the same price or better still provide two links to the website one for broadband and phone and the other for broadband only both showing the same price ?

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82027437#Comment_82027437

Does this count?

Is it cheaper to have broadband without a landline?

Depending on your broadband provider, they may charge less if you choose not to have a landline with them. If you choose one of our broadband plans, you can decide whether to include landline or not at no extra cost.

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/broadband/broadband-and-landline

Detail_Merchant

Similarly Sky broadband ( https://www.sky.com/broadband ) say:
"All our broadband services are inclusive of landline rental and Sky Pay As You Talk (£0pm) as standard."

I suspect they see it as a chance to make some extra revenue from their customers.

iniltous

My challenge to the contributor was to show their provider that had the option to remove telephone completely but still charge the same as their broadband and phone service , the Vodafone link doesn’t offer that.

Vodafone are effectively the same as Sky , you get the phone service even if you don’t want it , there is no option to remove the phone service and get a cheaper price (the entire point was that by bundling the telephone and saying it is ‘free’ is disingenuous, the price of the phone service is included in the broadband price , it’s not free ) , even if there were a company that charged (for example) £26 for phone and broadband and said click here to remove telephony completely but the price is still £26 that’s actually worse , in that the ISP could reduce the price because they reduced the number of facilities but they don’t reduce the price (thereby making it nonsensical to chose to remove the telephone service, if no corresponding reduction in price is offered you would take the service , as it would be ridiculous not to take it ) .

The point is , if anyone wants to think Sky and Vodafone are being generous by giving customers a genuinely free telephone service and they are not simply adding the cost of the telephone service to the broadband , and that if they had a broadband only they couldn’t make it cheaper than phone and broadband even though they no longer need to provide that customer with a phone service and the corresponding savings the ISP makes by not supplying telephony , that’s up-to them …but the fact is it’s an inclusive phone service (included in the broadband price ) not a free phone service .

flaneurs_lobster

I know you are trying to make a point about how broadband/telephony products are sold/priced but you are now really just arguing the meaning of words.

Whether a contract says "free" or "included at no extra cost" the outcome is the same - there's a mechanism to make terrestrial telephone calls if you want to use it. Don't use it - no additional cost.

Arguing about how the service is "bundled" or "added" or "extra" is just semantics.

Of course it's not free (if by free we mean that there is no cost associated with providing the service) but what it can be is provided at zero cost to the consumer.

JSmithy45AD

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82027796#Comment_82027796

Sky may be happy for it to be considered a loss leader and literally not charging anything for it, especially as more and more are dropping any option of a landline entirely nowadays.

As an experiment, I just unplugged my landline and checked my bill and nothing changed ;)

Yorkie1

I've just gone from Plusnet to Zen at end of contract in order to retain my landline (VOIP) number as well as the BB. City Fibre installed the full fibre and so far it has gone smootly. I seem to be getting more spam calls on the mobile now than I did previously on the landline.

Mum is 84, easily confused, and although has an ancient iPhone she doesn't use it. We're just in the process of moving her to Zen too. I couldn't risk the EE customer service falling down.

Rob5342

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82022989#Comment_82022989

You could buy a cheap mobile phone and keep that at home, that would still give you everything you mentioned and would probably be cheaper too.