Looking at all my monthly costs as you do, and seeing how much I am spending on my Virgin media, I am looking at my home phone line rental costs.
I very very rarely use my landline. I always have my mobile in my pocket, I get free calls within its package and I would use that even in the house.
Don't know if its because when we lived in rented accomodation for a year, we had no land line and people just phoned our mobiles and vice versa.
Nowadays, my parents in law phone the landline, but I think everyone else contacts through the mobile, texts or email! Even the kids' pals will just text each other to make arrangements.
My brother hasn't had a landline for 6 years and it hasn't caused him any problems.
I remember when I was a kid, 30 odd years ago and the house phone was the old dial type and there was a lock on the "1" that my mum or dad had to remove to let us phone out!
Do you use yours? Will there still be landlines in 10 years or so?
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Hardly use mine - only kept it really because it is a pre-requisite for V+ internet and TV services. SWMBO called someone a few doors along just before Christmas and the call was a whopping £2.99
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I rarely make voice calls on the landline - my last quarterly bill showed no calls.
But the landline is my broadband connection, which does get used every day.
Some organisations ask for a landline number as a way of establishing your bona fides.
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>> Will there still be landlines in 10 years or so?
>>
I hope so. None of the mobile networks get a signal at our house. That would just leave satelite phone and internet. Is that expensive?
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We use the home phone all the time... I regard folks who only use a mobile as a bit dodgy... sorry.
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We have a phone line, my parents use it all the time. I only use it for broadband. I only need broadband for my business because it is all mobile phones and VIOP.
The vast majority of my customers now ring on thier mobile, in stark contrast to just two years ago.
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no landline = no broadband for me.
SWMBO regards 50 minutes as a brief phone call, that could get very expensive at mobile rates (either for me or the calling party)
In the event of a power cut the landline is likely to stay up longer than the mobile.
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reasons for refusal for a mortgage
no home phone so you lose points on the credit listing
if i hadnt seen it in print i wouldnt have believed it
so i have no home phone as i use virgin for my internet only and ive just been fined £12 late credit card payment due to snow on the pavement
im doomed.............
doomed..........................
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>> no home phone so you lose points on the credit listing
>> I regard folks who only use a mobile as a bit dodgy
That's one of the reasons I keep my landline, for what it's worth. A little bit of stability, if you like.
Last edited by: Dave_TD {P} on Tue 18 Jan 11 at 14:15
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>> We use the home phone all the time... I regard folks who only use a
>> mobile as a bit dodgy... sorry.
I'd tend to agree there, Fenlander.
Even more dodgy are people who withhold their number - I have never done this, and refuse to answer anything CallerID flags as such.
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Our landline is for making phone calls, and our pay-as-you-go mobile sits in the car's door pocket ready for a motoring emergency.
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I also tend to be a bit suspicious of people who have a mobile only. A landline is a mark of a stable background, and like others I need one for my broadband anyway.
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I'd dearly love to do away with the landline but have no alternative. It's the only way to get broadband (no cable to rural areas) and the mobile doesn't receive here either. It would have been binned ages ago if I could have done so.
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I use the landline most of the time, mainly because I have a hearing problem and don't get on with mobile phones, but it's part of my broadband package and I get free evening and weekend calls. I use 18185 for any calls during "non-free" times to keep costs down. I use my mobile mainly for texting.
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Haven't even got a phone plugged into the landline. It's there for broadband and that's it.
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Sky TV conditions say the box should be plugged into a 'fixed and operational' phone line.
Or they did when I signed up for my service about five years ago.
Happily, the previous owner of Iffy Towers had Sky, so there was a phone extension lead already run to the corner of the lounge where the telly is.
About a year later, a call from my Sky box appeared on the phone bill.
It was only a few pennies, but I resolved it would not happen again, so I yanked the extension lead out of the back of the box.
I got a few on-screen messages saying 'Please connect to a phone line", but they stopped after a while.
Last edited by: Iffy on Tue 18 Jan 11 at 14:49
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"Our landline is for making phone calls, and our pay-as-you-go mobile sits in the car's door pocket ready for a motoring emergency."
Delete "car's door" and that's what I do too.
John
Last edited by: Tooslow on Tue 18 Jan 11 at 15:07
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You only have to have a phone line connected to your Sky box for the first 12 months you own it. After that it is up to you - I suppose it has to be connected to order PPV movies?
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>> You only have to have a phone line connected to your Sky box for the
>> first 12 months you own it. After that it is up to you - I
>> suppose it has to be connected to order PPV movies?
>>
For a single box subscription you're right PP, however they do (or did) check the phone connections on multiroom subscriptions regularly, to stop people flogging the second box and card. The only time my Digibox has been connected to the phone line in the last 9 years was to automatically reset the PIN which suddenly appeared at some point.
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Tue 18 Jan 11 at 15:53
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I was considering this point as well - keep it for now was the decision - don't you need it for your boradband to work ?
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We mostly use the landline, we've had the same number here for over 40 yrs and most folk we know have it in their books.
TTQ's always on the phone, the kids phone her on it. She rarely switches on her handy.
I never switch mine off, but unless it's work, I rarely make calls on it. It's pay as you go and I don't have to top it up very often.
ChrisP....I have hearing probbies too...I recommend a Doro. You don't get anything fancy, like a camera, but you do get a loudspeaker you can easily hear from a metre away.
Ted
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I still use the landline, but thats because its free. I don't pay for telephone calls home or abroad.
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It won't be *free*, must be included in a cost somewhere surely?
Failing that, who is your provider?
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No all calls are free, I dont pay for any of them
Tiscali contract (now Talk Talk)
24.99 for up to 20 meg broadband (no download limit) Line rental and free calls 7 days a week.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 18 Jan 11 at 17:40
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My TalkTalk AnyTime International3 phone and broadband package costs £11.31 a month (plus line rental) and delivers free AnyTime UK phone calls, free AnyTime international calls to 36 different countries and broadband averaging a 14Mb connection speed.
I've also had a mobile since August 2000 and reckon I haven't, even now, used more than £90 to £100 in phone costs over that period - it's basically for emergency purposes or for people to ring me if I'm out..:-)
Just one problem with landlines these days - and I acknowledge that more and more are using a mobile only - are the spam calls. Unfortunately the TPS service is unable to have any influence over them.
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>> only kept it really because it is a pre-requisite for V+ internet and TV services
That's true Smokie. The interactive stuff goes over the cable connection and not the phone line. In fact the V+ box doesn't even connect to the phone line :-) However, if you don't have the phone line then broadband is more expensive.
If you have ADSL or VDSL then you need a working BT Openreach phone line. So for most of us we now need a phone line. If you're a Virgin Media cable broadband customer then the phone line is not necessary. But they charge a little bit more for only broadband vs. broadband, phone and basic TV package.
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I have both, for various reasons.
Mobiles only work upstairs or outside at my place, PC uses landline for broadband, and I'm another who regards people without landlines as potentially dodgy.
Mobile is essential in my job; I have a good deal from Orange which gives me shed-loads of calls and free broadband for £30 per month, renewable (with new handset) every 18 months. Landline is through TalkTalk and costs £15-20 per month.
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im amazed at the people who think that you need a home phone line or you are classed as dodgy
this is 2011 and some of us think that a monopoly that charges too much for too little can stick it
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What monopoly? I have a choice of 4 phone providers.
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>> What monopoly?
Cartel, then. :)
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I'm on similar deal to HM with Orange, and we need the landline for B'Band, the cable never got connected to our house as it was built later than the other houses....didn't stop NTL billing us for cable telly though...tic mumble tic.
Use mobile for all calls except 0845/0800 etc.
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Whatever else happens I still need the wires for broadband. Had same landline number for 21 years, as it ends with x00 it's memorable and it would be a royal pain to tell everyone it's changed. SWMBO's marathon chats with cousins/colleagues/mate down road etc etc would make even the most generous bundled mobile minutes scheme blanche and calls to/from her brother in Ireland would be pricey as well. Experimented with a Mercury/C&W smartbox for a while but it was too much trouble.
Might have had that wireless phone system that launched in Northampton in the 90's but mercifully I never got round to it. Still see the odd house with the dish/box thing - like the BSB squarial its a reminder of technology's cul de sacs.
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I hate mobiles - only useful for emergency and, possibly receiving calls.
The thought of paying £30 or more, a month in call charges for a mobile is horrendous.
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Of course I use land line! BT offers free 1 hr calls to other landlines in off peak hours. My wife makes full use of it ;)
AFAIK, land line is also required for ADSL broadband.
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>>The thought of paying £30 or more, a month in call charges for a mobile is horrendous.>>
Don't know if this Tesco offer is still available:
tinyurl.com/4maqwr7
Beats everyone else hands down.
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>> Don't know if this Tesco offer is still available: Beats everyone else hands down.
>>
>> tinyurl.com/4maqwr7
>>
My daughter after a lot of searching bought this deal a few days ago
She too claimed it was THE best deal around.
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quote.................
Research conducted by telecom watchdog Ofcom suggested 14% of households in the UK had mobile phone access but were without a landline into their home in 2010, up 2% from 2009.
.........................unquote
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>> quote.................
>>
>> Research conducted by telecom watchdog Ofcom suggested 14% of households in the UK had mobile
>> phone access but were without a landline into their home in 2010, up 2% from
>> 2009.
>>
>> .........................unquote
>>
The same 14% who sell cars from the pavement outside?
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are you being serious RR?
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Yeah he is. We all know car dealers are dodgy.
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>> >> tinyurl.com/4maqwr7
>> >>
>> She too claimed it was THE best deal around.
= Tesco Mobile offering £10 SIM-only deal with 500 minutes, unlimited texts, 500MB internet
Presumably that's because, as it's SIM-only, you're not subsidising the cost of the phone. That's great if you've got an unlocked one, but for example an HTC Desire that is going to make use of the 500MB data allowance costs ~£350?
So over 24 months:
Tesco SIM-only: £350 + £10x24 = 590
With phone: £25x24 = 600
although you can find with-phone deals that include a number of free months.
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>> That's great if you've got an unlocked one
...or you don't want a phone that's as expensive as a Desire.
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>> >> That's great if you've got an unlocked one
>>
>> ...or you don't want a phone that's as expensive as a Desire.
>>
or like my daughter who does not want an Iphone or similar because " You have to look at the screen to create a text message so I would not be able to text with the phone in my pocket ".
I joked that she could operate on a patient with one hand and text me using the other hand.
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Just make sure she still has the phone when she comes out of the operating theatre.
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Somebody once asked me if I had an internal fax (they meant an extension number for a phone on on the office phone network) made me giggle that !
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you do really,
you see, you draw. (or you hear, you write)
Your a giant walking fax machine.
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I've run out of paper....!
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...I've run out of paper....!...
Frustrating, that.
I'm old enough to remember when fax paper also came in rolls.
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>> I'm old enough to remember when fax paper also came in rolls.
Same here and can remember if you referred back to it at a later date the thermal paper was often blank.
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...the thermal paper...
A few retailers still give out till receipts 'printed' on thermal paper.
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Yeah, if you used to leave a petrol receipt on the dashboard in the sun, you ended up with grey blank paper!
Most of them now use pressure sensitive paper, with impact printers.
Handy really, I write the mileage on them using the tip of my carkey. Never need a pen.
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>> Just make sure she still has the phone when she comes out of the operating
>> theatre.
>>
Lots of space to mislay it after a C section.
She could always check " Was that an internal call ?"
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...so I would not be able to text with the phone in my pocket...
A lady can probably get away with texting while the phone is in her pocket, but if a gentleman did it, his actions could be misunderstood.
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I'd sooner have the convenience of our three cordless phones and one fixed phone strategically placed around the house than having to carry a mobile all the time.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Thu 20 Jan 11 at 14:41
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Home phone line - do you still use? - smokie
