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Landlines - Use them?

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neversay
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Landlines - Use them?

#283334

Postby neversay » February 9th, 2020, 9:48 pm

When our landline rings it's either an elderly parent or, more often a scam marketing call. When we make a landline call it's either back to the elderly parent (one in the UK and one in the US) or an occasional quick call to the dentist etc.

As we're renewing our fibre broadband we're faced with three choices:

- PAYG landline calls that seem to be 15p a minute plus 20p or something to connect, so we'll get a big bill the day someone forgets the cost
- evening/weekend calls but someone will forget it's not 7pm yet or it excludes mobiles
- or anytime calling, but our occasional calls don't warrant the £8 per month (£96 a year) charges.

How do others here deal with landlines these days? Do you have one? Do you have a VOIP or override service? or is it mobiles all the way? And what of the international calls? :?:

I'm imagining our future house will have a 'bat phone' style landline kept under a glass dome just for incoming calls from the kids' grandparents! :cry:

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283337

Postby TedSwippet » February 9th, 2020, 10:07 pm

neversay wrote:How do others here deal with landlines these days?

18185. 4p connection fee, and 1.7p/min to the UK (landline), 2.5p/min to the US. Other similar services exist.

neversay
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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283339

Postby neversay » February 9th, 2020, 10:16 pm

TedSwippet wrote:
neversay wrote:How do others here deal with landlines these days?

18185. 4p connection fee, and 1.7p/min to the UK (landline), 2.5p/min to the US. Other similar services exist.


Thanks @TedSwippet. I have used them in the distant past but time after time my family (wife) kept forgetting to dial the number, so we reverted to anytime calling. Do you know if they (or others) have some sort of in-line box, or line override, that makes sure all calls are automatically diverted?

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283342

Postby TedSwippet » February 9th, 2020, 10:23 pm

neversay wrote:Do you know if they (or others) have some sort of in-line box, or line override, that makes sure all calls are automatically diverted?

None I'm aware of. We programmed our phones for names of friends and family to include the prefix. (Actually, programmed twice for each, one with the prefix for weekdays, and one without for weekends, when calls on our plan are free.) For others, we just have to remember. This seems to work well enough for us.

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283346

Postby JohnB » February 9th, 2020, 10:32 pm

£8/month anytime landline with Fibre Broadband. 3-2-1 PAYG mobile I top-up with £5 every few months.

I'd much rather email people than ring them, so its the landline for call centres, Skype for the US occasionally, and 1 minute mobile calls. The landline goes through a call-blocking answering machine.

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283351

Postby Stompa » February 9th, 2020, 11:03 pm

If you're in the process of renewing your broadband then contact your provider and see if they will offer you any sort of deal. For me, BT gave me free anytime calls in order to retain my custom, though admittedly they only gave me such a good deal after I'd instigated a switch to another provider.

neversay
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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283354

Postby neversay » February 9th, 2020, 11:19 pm

Stompa wrote:If you're in the process of renewing your broadband then contact your provider and see if they will offer you any sort of deal. For me, BT gave me free anytime calls in order to retain my custom, though admittedly they only gave me such a good deal after I'd instigated a switch to another provider.


@Stompa As it happens, my very cheap deal with Sky has just run out but we are expecting TalkTalk UFO ultra-fibre optic down our street in the next few months. Hence I don't want to be locked into a deal (Sky want 18-month contracts) and it is making me question what service we actually need.

@JohnB, I do work from home so my £8 anytime landline can be mostly written off as a business cost. It's just the annoyance that we use mobiles 95% of the time and TBH my American wife doesn't ever think about which line to use. (We also have Whatsapp, skype etc).

The broader question is whether life would be simpler without a landline.

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283363

Postby EssDeeAitch » February 10th, 2020, 6:07 am

No landline for the last two years. Saved us from receiving (probably) hundreds of unwanted marketing calls.

Mobiles only for local calls and we use WhatsApp for voice and/or video calls to family in South Africa and New Zealand.

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283375

Postby mutantpoodle » February 10th, 2020, 8:31 am

re OP post

I am also with Virginmedia and they continue to try and increase prices every October/November so I have literally just ended my landline 'anytime calls' and shut down the line..
like you 99% calls were silent or similar....telephone preference service an absolute waste of space...must be jobs for cronies!

i use a O2 3-2-1 payg tarif .....but I dont think this is anylonger available to new customers.....

there is another thread somewhere here about good PAYG options

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283407

Postby Howard » February 10th, 2020, 11:28 am

Answering the OP, yes we do use our landline for most of our calls. Two reasons: Sadly age and retirement :? and historically mobile reception was bad in our village, but now much better.

Is the reason for the question mainly cost? We pay Plusnet just over £40 a month for anytime international, line rental, unlimited fibre extra broadband and a fairly generous mobile allowance which I've never exceeded, including modest mobile use elsewhere in Europe. The international package is used for a weekly call to Europe which can be half an hour or more and an occasional call to the USA.

Apart from possible cost, I don't see any disadvantages in a landline. We are ex-directory and this may be the reason that we only get one or two scam calls per year, if that. (Apart from a well-known double-glazing firm who we used and now call us a few times a year! But they'd call my mobile number if I was foolish enough to give it to them).

Keeping the mobile usage fairly low is an advantage for me. Unlike some acquaintances, I have zero scam calls on the mobile. Maybe because I haven't switched on voicemail. Or perhaps there are a few hundred unanswered messages from scammers languishing there. :?:

Overall, a reliable fibre service and voice for less than £500 a year doesn't seem too bad to me.

regards

Howard

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283415

Postby neversay » February 10th, 2020, 11:49 am

Thanks @Howard. To be honest it's not cost as I can offset a large part against my business. Principally it's the annoyance of having too many 'inboxes' and trying to simplify. The ex-directory landline is an annoyance for the marketing calls or a whole household 'interruption' when it rings. As a family now we mostly use messaging services and make direct calls only when required. Calling the 'house' seems a bit pointless when we all have mobiles.

All that said, I understand your position. Just trying simplify/optimise for our family use-case. :P

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283427

Postby UncleEbenezer » February 10th, 2020, 12:58 pm

No landline since my 2013 house move, when I switched to VOIP to bring my old landline number with me.

Now have incoming number, and PAYG outgoing calls. No connection charges, about 1p/minute calls to most of the world. And a software phone so I can take/make calls on the mobile when data to that is free (as it usually is). Total cost about £10 or £20 per year. Alternative packages with inclusive calls also available.

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283436

Postby neversay » February 10th, 2020, 1:27 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:No landline since my 2013 house move, when I switched to VOIP to bring my old landline number with me.

Now have incoming number, and PAYG outgoing calls. No connection charges, about 1p/minute calls to most of the world. And a software phone so I can take/make calls on the mobile when data to that is free (as it usually is). Total cost about £10 or £20 per year. Alternative packages with inclusive calls also available.


Ooh, that sounds ideal @UncleEbenezer. Can I ask what provider you use? :?:

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283437

Postby UncleEbenezer » February 10th, 2020, 1:36 pm

neversay wrote:Ooh, that sounds ideal @UncleEbenezer. Can I ask what provider you use? :?:

I use sipgate.

It works well enough for me, though with one or two non-serious gripes (my settings get overridden from time to time - notably my number as displayed on outgoing calls). Recommended only if you're happy configuring it yourself, as they don't have a handholding support line. Other providers are of course available.

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283441

Postby Lanark » February 10th, 2020, 1:55 pm

The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is a "free" service run by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA)

The very LAST thing you want to do is give those charlatans your phone number.

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283471

Postby Howard » February 10th, 2020, 4:10 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:No landline since my 2013 house move, when I switched to VOIP to bring my old landline number with me.

Now have incoming number, and PAYG outgoing calls. No connection charges, about 1p/minute calls to most of the world. And a software phone so I can take/make calls on the mobile when data to that is free (as it usually is). Total cost about £10 or £20 per year. Alternative packages with inclusive calls also available.


Could I ask what you mean by a software phone? Is this a smartphone? And do you have a desktop or laptop computer for surfing the web etc?

£20 a year sounds very cheap for a full fibre speed broadband and phone service. Whilst I use a smartphone which syncs to my desktop and chromebook, I find it very "fiddly" for typing something like this post. The Plusnet service is very joined-up and fast and requires no technical input. Does your experience suggest that one doesn't need a fibre connection these days?

regards

Howard

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283473

Postby UncleEbenezer » February 10th, 2020, 4:56 pm

You're conflating different issues here.

Howard wrote:Could I ask what you mean by a software phone? Is this a smartphone?

I mean an app on android. You have a wide choice of apps, so (unlike monopoly services like skype or whatsapp) you're not left stranded if an update stops it working on your device. This is one of many ways of using VOIP, and you can use as many as you like on your number. Others include regular handsets that look like a landline: useful for having several so there's one convenient for wherever you happen to be around the house, office, or whatever.

£20 a year sounds very cheap for a full fibre speed broadband and phone service.

It isn't. It's just for the phone. Gives me a geographic number (other options are available) and the ability to make and receive calls from it. As well as free calls to other VOIP numbers. If I never use it for outgoing calls, the cost is exactly £0.00. With PAYG my credit gets topped up in £10 chunks, and that's never happened more than twice in a year.

Connectivity is entirely separate. I have an ISP (and wifi) at home, and a 4G mobile phone when out-and-about, both with regular contracts.

Whilst I use a smartphone which syncs to my desktop and chromebook, I find it very "fiddly" for typing something like this post. The Plusnet service is very joined-up and fast and requires no technical input.
Howard

If you have plusnet service, you can run a VOIP service on top of it, regardless of whether you (also) have a regular landline. I expect plusnet would also supply a VOIP service, though I've no idea on what terms.

Does your experience suggest that one doesn't need a fibre connection these days?

Yet another different issue.

My entirely separate experience is yes to that. At my previous address I had a Virgin cable non-service that was so dreadful it was often unusable for long periods (about six months continual worse-than-dialup before I finally quit). During that time I bought a 4G wifi device with an EE sim, and found that gave much better and more reliable service than Virgin. For my last 18 months at the address it was my only ISP service. But of course that depends on where you live.

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283479

Postby scottnsilky » February 10th, 2020, 5:25 pm

I think this discussion has come at a very opportune time for me, as my Plusnet landline contract expires in a month, and I'm hoping to move house soon, and Plusnet charges £65 to change address, if I can avoid all that expense, so much the better. The trouble is, I'm a total novice about all this technology, I had to look up VOIP to check what it is. It seems, I can buy an adapter to connect to my existing handset, and do without a Plusnet landline, just pay for broadband, is that correct? Is a fibre connection necessary, probably my new house won't have it.

I do have a smart phone but never use it, its on EE, with a payg connection, so at a pinch I could use that, but its too fiddly for general use.

I've always had landline and broadband with the same company, but I suppose that's not necessary either?

Any advice welcome....

TIA

dp

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283485

Postby Mike88 » February 10th, 2020, 6:14 pm

Although I don't use the landline for outgoing calls I answer always as the phone number is the one used by the doctor and hospital.

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Re: Landlines - Use them?

#283490

Postby Sobraon » February 10th, 2020, 6:41 pm

Although I can see Lincoln cathedral from my window we don't have a mobile phone signal from any operator (using any phone type) of sufficient strength to make or answer a call or send or receive an SMS from either inside or outside the house. A landline is therefore essential. An outcome the decades long slow dis-investment in the midlands and north of England by governments of all shades, part of the 'managed decline' program I suppose.


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