Do we need a telephone landline anymore?
Discussion
I'm just in the process of investigating broadband and TV deals with a view to either switching from Sky or negotiating a new deal. It seems landline rental prices are now around £200 per year for a service we barely use. I think the only calls received on our landline are from one or two aging relatives, I can't think that many of my friends even have our landline number.
Is there any reason why we can't just dump the landline and continue to use our mobiles?
Is there any reason why we can't just dump the landline and continue to use our mobiles?
Nope, if you live in an area with good mobile internet and don't really stream video you can get by just fine without a landline.
Mobile net is fine for emails, web surfing etc.. Personally though I'd find it a bind as I do use the net a lot and watch most of my tv through streaming services.
Mobile net is fine for emails, web surfing etc.. Personally though I'd find it a bind as I do use the net a lot and watch most of my tv through streaming services.
You'll still need the phone line with Zen Fibre, Zen do an option of just getting BB from them (with a small surcharge for not paying line rental) but it's really to allow you to keep paying your existing phone provider until the contract expires, at that point you can switch to paying Zen for line rental.
As sad above the only domestic broadband I know of that can provide BB without a phone line is Virgin.
As sad above the only domestic broadband I know of that can provide BB without a phone line is Virgin.
I was getting 50mb d/l on EE 4G about a mile from our house, sadly I cannot get a signal once in our property, we have had to make do with 1-2MB broadband for the past 10 years but finally now on fibre at a peak of 73mb but requires line rental, we do not use a home phone for outgoing calls now EE have activated wifi calling.
I would love to ditch the phone line.
I would love to ditch the phone line.
Most broadband and phone package bundles Whether £20 , £30, £50 £100 or whatever a month generally seem to be packaged about £1 a month more than broadband band only, talk about a cartel market.
Maybe the broadband only deals is something Ofcom and the CMA (comp & markets authority) should be checking out for what good it will do
Maybe the broadband only deals is something Ofcom and the CMA (comp & markets authority) should be checking out for what good it will do
JimbobVFR said:
You'll still need the phone line with Zen Fibre, Zen do an option of just getting BB from them (with a small surcharge for not paying line rental) but it's really to allow you to keep paying your existing phone provider until the contract expires, at that point you can switch to paying Zen for line rental.
As sad above the only domestic broadband I know of that can provide BB without a phone line is Virgin.
Cheers. Is there a technical reason why we need a phone line or is it just a way of hiding the true cost of broadband by splitting the bill?As sad above the only domestic broadband I know of that can provide BB without a phone line is Virgin.
JQ said:
Cheers. Is there a technical reason why we need a phone line or is it just a way of hiding the true cost of broadband by splitting the bill?
How is the signal going to get to you if it doesn't travel down the wire from the local cabinet to your house? That physical bit of connectivity isn't owned by your broadband supplier & needs to be paid for.JQ said:
Cheers. Is there a technical reason why we need a phone line or is it just a way of hiding the true cost of broadband by splitting the bill?
Any xDSL supplier who uses BT Openreach infrastructure, eg operators like BT Retail, Zen, TalkTalk, Sky, Plusnet, AAISP etc needs to rent a wholesale copper (or fibre) line from BTOR. That line then allows them to offer voice and data services to you the customer using their kit held in the exchange. The current and somewhat outdated way to do this is to mandate that you rent a "voice" landline on a monthly basis, and pay either for individual calls or get them bundled in. Once you have your voice line, then you can get your data or broadband service added to it.If you think of the landline as the physical wire itself, and not the telephone handset bit, then yes, you still need to rent the wires in order to get fixed line broadband to your house. If you don't actually use home telephone at all, then try and find the cheapest line rental package, which may be where you pay annually in advance. Some providers (eg Andrews & Arnold) offer naked DSL where there is still a fixed monthly line rental charge but no voice service. You then need to add on the monthly broadband price.
TL:DR
Try thinking of it as the rental charge for the physical wire needed to provide you with a broadband service instead of a charge for making voice calls from your landline.
Martin_M said:
Am I correct in saying that if you have SKY internet you must have an active telephone line? Obviously I know that a modem requires a phone socket but does that mean one has no choice but to pay for a line as well?
Yes - regardless of the ISP, if it comes in over your phone line, you need to pay for the phone line.If you can get internet through other means, e.g. mobile broadband, Virgin Media (which uses its own cables) then you have an option to no longer pay line rental.
JQ said:
Sorry, I should have clarified, the plan would still be to have broadband, but go independent with someone like Zen Internet for one of their fibre packages.
It's worth clarifying exactly what fibre optic broadband means it most cases - it means that it travels along a fibre optic network as far as the local cabinet, at which point the normal copper wires take over (named FTTC, Fibre To The Cabinet). This is why line rental is still required, because you need to pay BT Openreach for the maintenance of the copper wire to your house. Virgin Media is a FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) network, hence why the line rental can be dropped as the copper wiring is redundant.
It's possible in certain cases to get BT Openreach to install a fibre optic cable into your house. The cost would typically make line rental look like small change.
I'm about 6 months into having no home phone line. My broadband was 1-2mb so an easy decision to make with good 4g coverage. Have a mobile contract with EE with a load of data. Extra sim-card in a little 'MiFi' box which shares my contract data and acts as a hub for all the kids' tablets etc and our laptops.
It's not perfect, but a million miles better than our fixed-line broadband ever was and I'm not paying rental on a landline without a phone even plugged in it.
It's not perfect, but a million miles better than our fixed-line broadband ever was and I'm not paying rental on a landline without a phone even plugged in it.
Defcon5 said:
How much does,that cost 22?
It broke my heart as I was on truly unlimited 3g, calls & texts (after 20 years loyalty with Orange) for a tenner a month - which I had to ditch to move over to 4g. I opted for the 20gig plan - which according to BT was about our monthly usage. I'd have to check my statements as I have a few phones on the same bill, but I *think* it was £39.99 a month. £30 more than I was paying Orange, but I was also paying BT £50 a month sometimes (wife would ring and natter to her nan, despite having a gazillion free minutes on her mobile). The MiFi box has an extra sim which should be £5 a month, but I got that included.
I went over the 20gig in my second month and had to buy a bolt-on data allowance - which was horribly expensive. Rung EE, whined a little (EE customer service is hit & miss whereas I found Orange always spot on) and managed to bump to the 50gig package for an extra fiver (and my bolt-on refunded).
My worst case scenario was pay the same and have better broadband, but I think I'm still paying less overall (would need to check with the finance director/wife).
ladderino said:
Yes - regardless of the ISP, if it comes in over your phone line, you need to pay for the phone line.
If you can get internet through other means, e.g. mobile broadband, Virgin Media (which uses its own cables) then you have an option to no longer pay line rental.
Thank you :-)If you can get internet through other means, e.g. mobile broadband, Virgin Media (which uses its own cables) then you have an option to no longer pay line rental.
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