Finally ditched Land line.

Capt Lightning

Capt Lightning

Well-known Member
Location
Historic Buchan, Scotland
Sick and tired of BT and Openreach, the main phone providers in this area. Years of broken promises about their zillion trillion gigabyte fibre broadband and digital phone, I've gone to mobile only. My landline, which I had only kept as a backup , developed a fault, but nobody contacted me or made any effort to fix it.
When I phoned BT to cancel my land line, they were surprisingly sympathetic and suggested that I shouldn't use their network.
Anyway, we bought a neat little phone on a docking station and this works just fine. Unlimited calls and texts for 7 pounds a month.
 

I haven’t had a landline since 2004 or 5. Every time we had an appreciable rain, it went out. The local joke was that phones on our rural road went out because we were still operating on the old Ma Bell lines.

They kept saying we would be getting new/improved lines up our road and we did ——- this year —— 2025. No thanks. It’s too late, regardless of how many frills come with the lines.

I don’t miss it.
 

Capt Lightning said:
Sick and tired of BT and Openreach, the main phone providers in this area. Years of broken promises about their zillion trillion gigabyte fibre broadband and digital phone, I've gone to mobile only. My landline, which I had only kept as a backup , developed a fault, but nobody contacted me or made any effort to fix it.
When I phoned BT to cancel my land line, they were surprisingly sympathetic and suggested that I shouldn't use their network.
Anyway, we bought a neat little phone on a docking station and this works just fine. Unlimited calls and texts for 7 pounds a month.
Click to expand...
I have my landline, I wouldn't give it up, because it's a back up for any reason the mobile can't get a signal.. which is not great around here..

I don't have any probs with it.. but I have my contract with Sky... who also are my Mobile phone provider... I get 10gb of Data & unlimited texts... £5.00 per month...
 
officerripley said:
If we got rid of our landline, the cable bill would go up (our cable package gives us a discount for having tv, internet, and landline through them). So we've just left it there.
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I have just made a deal with my provider.. I get all incoming calls and the line rental on my landline, but 25p a minute for outfgoing calls ...so I won't now use the landline for any outgoing calls other than emrgencies..

Along with that, I get my internet, and my satelite channels... I got them to remove all the channels I never watch, which leaves me still without 150 channels.. and for that package it costs me £41 per month... then I pay just £5.00 seperate for my 10gb of data and unlimited texts on my mobile.. and I choose to pay for 2GB of Extra storage on my computer , as a seperate bill.. which cost £8.95 per month...

....so the Saelite channels , The landline, The Internet... my Mobile phone.. and the extra storage I pay for comes to a total of les than £55 per month... and I can choose to remove the extra storage at any time.. which would lower it even more to mid 40's...per month..

I know people who pay upwards of £150 just for their Intenet & tv package... not including their landlines or mobile phone packages
 
I have my own practical perspective. I have a brother living in northern California, and about a decade ago a grassland fire swept through his immediate area. When it was rampant and came within a mile of his & wife's home, they were quite worried. As the fire destroyed power lines in its path, cell towers lost power as did homes in at least portions of their town.

My brother & wife were without electricity for quite a while... no lights, TV, or recharge for electrcal devices. Their smart phones went dead, of course. They took shifts sleeping at night, and had a transistor radio, and extra batteries, for news & crucial information. But also they still had a land line, and it functioned. I was able to talk with them (I'm in Canada, a thousand miles north) and they'd been able to keep in touch with friends closer to the fires' leading edges whom they wanted to help evacuate.

So actually, DW and I consider a land line to be something worthwhile.
 
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Michael Z said:
Our cell phone bill is probably a good $60 cheaper than most as we have inexpensive Trac phones. Our land line costs about that much. It all works out.
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I don'tknow about the USA.but here it doesn't matter what phone you have, your phone charges are completely seperate from your phone..

of course if you choose to rent a phone which I believe some people do, then that might be different.. but I buy my iphones outright, so my charges are the same as they would be if I had a cheap throway phone..
 
That Lady in PA said:
It seems some have different ideas of what a landline is.
In my area, a landline is the POTS, the copper lines separate from the internet or cable.... NOT VoIP.
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here the landline which is now Fibre optic so our internet and phone lines run along the same system


For the rest of the country who haven't already changed

... this



BT ( British Telecom) is switching its landline network to a digital system powered by fibre optics, and this transition is underway. This means that while landlines will still be functional, they will utilize your broadband connection for making calls using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, says BT. The old analogue copper network will be phased out by the end of January 2027.



Key points about the transition:
  • Digital Voice:
    BT is moving from the traditional analogue landline system to a digital system using Voice over IP (VoIP).

  • Fibre Optic Connection:
    Landlines will be delivered over your broadband connection, which is often fibre optic in newer installations.


  • Phased Transition:
    The switchover is happening gradually, with some customers already moved to digital landlines.


  • Timeline:
    BT expects to have all customers moved to digital landlines by the end of January 2027.


  • No more copper:
    The old analogue telephone network, which has supported landlines and broadband for years, is being retired.
 
Many people still think they have a landline when they haven't for years. Often a cable or fiber provider has suckered them into VoIP, and when they lose Internet access... no more phone.

"Landlines" are copper wire that runs all the way to a switching central office or phone company multiplexer.

When AT&T got permission to start dropping copper wire support here I was offered "AT&T Phone Advanced" which actually uses their cellphone infrastructure from a box in my house with battery backup. My home phones plug into that. But it doesn't save me much on my bill, and isn't as robust as copper when it comes to resiliency during really bad weather. If the cell network is down, my home phones are down as well.

I have a cellphone with another carrier, but I realize they often share facilities.

I haven't decided what to do yet. I've thought about getting a dual-SIM phone and transferring the home phone number to a second cell phone "line." Both numbers are now "known" all over the place since I've had them for many, many years.

Another consideration is that online account logons and actions already want periodic "verification" via a second path, and most ask if I want a voice call or a text to one of my two phone numbers. If they start asking for a third path as well... there is email too. So decisions, decisions.
 
I had one in my last place in London but when I moved here never had a landline installed. Mobile phone reception is variable, but I tend to use WhatsApp calls
 
I keep thinking of disconnecting my landline. It would save me almost 60.00 per month. Thing is I really like my phone (landline) and enjoy talking on it more than on my cell!
 
Capt Lightning said:
Sick and tired of BT and Openreach, the main phone providers in this area. Years of broken promises about their zillion trillion gigabyte fibre broadband and digital phone, I've gone to mobile only. My landline, which I had only kept as a backup , developed a fault, but nobody contacted me or made any effort to fix it.
When I phoned BT to cancel my land line, they were surprisingly sympathetic and suggested that I shouldn't use their network.
Anyway, we bought a neat little phone on a docking station and this works just fine. Unlimited calls and texts for 7 pounds a month.
Click to expand...
My cell phone relies on the internet which occasionally fails so my only recourse is land line.
 
They are slowly phasing out all the copper in this area. It’s being replaced with fiber. Quantum Fiber is only about three blocks down the road from me working on the transition.
 
We have never had a landline since moving to Kansas.Our cell phone provider is Texas based and works very well up here.
The other day noticed on a phone/Internet bill -that we have been charged or phone line for over two years. Soo I called and got usual . you have to have a phone for the the internet. Nope,not true. Oh well back the the company had it mandatory for home phone use of internet. But that has changed now, so I can lower your bill by $20 plus dollars. She probably knew I could have kicked up a a real hissy fit over that.
I caught cable company it a real biggie in Texas. Was asking to increase my internet speed at the price of a daughters who happened to live across the street. Oh the rep claimed- no possible especially at that price. Um so I asked why then does my daughter across the street have it? Got what I wanted. Also experimented and do know I could call the same company 3 times on the same day and get 3 different quotes or the very same thing?:mad:
 
RedAlert76 said:
We have never had a landline since moving to Kansas.Our cell phone provider is Texas based and works very well up here.
The other day noticed on a phone/Internet bill -that we have been charged or phone line for over two years. Soo I called and got usual . you have to have a phone for the the internet. Nope,not true. Oh well back the the company had it mandatory for home phone use of internet. But that has changed now, so I can lower your bill by $20 plus dollars. She probably knew I could have kicked up a a real hissy fit over that.
I caught cable company it a real biggie in Texas. Was asking to increase my internet speed at the price of a daughters who happened to live across the street. Oh the rep claimed- no possible especially at that price. Um so I asked why then does my daughter across the street have it? Got what I wanted. Also experimented and do know I could call the same company 3 times on the same day and get 3 different quotes or the very same thing?:mad:
Click to expand...
I had exactly the same thing happen... 3 different calls 3 different quotes , same company... but over the space of a week, not the same day
 
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I have a mobile phone but I will never give up my landline.

At my age with nerve damaged fingers and hearing aids mobile is a nightmare.
I do keep it for emergencies and texting which now seems to be a requirement with government, banking, etc for codes and whatnot to be identified.
My TV and Internet are with Bell and as part of the package I get free long distance in Canada and US.
on the home phone.
I had to work with them on that but was satisfied with their cost. It goes up every year of course but what doesn't ...
 

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