Telephone landlines without broadband
Discussion
This might be useful to someone out there so I’m posting it.
A bit of background
My Dad (in his 90's) has been with Virgin Media for years. Mum used to use the internet but she has long since popped her clogs. Dad doesn’t do IT; he has no use for broadband and he only watches the terrestrial TV channels, but he does still want his landline telephone and answering machine, preferably the one he is used to using.
The Virgin monthly bill was almost £90.
The fix is...
For TV he is now using Freeview.
Getting a telephone landline wasn’t as simple. The assumption is everyone wants broadband with landlines as an chargeable extra.
We found a company called Simple Telecoms who offer a package called Home2Phone which is aimed at the older generation.
The Home2Phone system is a small router which uses a mobile phone card, they then port your landline number to the card. The router plugs into the mains, you plug the existing phone into the router and it all just works.
Power cuts aren't a worry as the router has a backup battery, although as his telephone is mains powered that might not help
There are a couple of quirks with using mobile technology.
1. All calls must include the area code when dialling.
2. Mobile phones assume you will be using voicemail so drop out after so many rings. Setting the answering machine to answer before this point (5 rings in our case) has solved the problem and his telephone answering machine kicks in.
There is an initial set-up cost but after that it’s £16 / months including all calls.
Dad’s as happy as a happy thing with it all.
A bit of background
My Dad (in his 90's) has been with Virgin Media for years. Mum used to use the internet but she has long since popped her clogs. Dad doesn’t do IT; he has no use for broadband and he only watches the terrestrial TV channels, but he does still want his landline telephone and answering machine, preferably the one he is used to using.
The Virgin monthly bill was almost £90.
The fix is...
For TV he is now using Freeview.
Getting a telephone landline wasn’t as simple. The assumption is everyone wants broadband with landlines as an chargeable extra.
We found a company called Simple Telecoms who offer a package called Home2Phone which is aimed at the older generation.
The Home2Phone system is a small router which uses a mobile phone card, they then port your landline number to the card. The router plugs into the mains, you plug the existing phone into the router and it all just works.
Power cuts aren't a worry as the router has a backup battery, although as his telephone is mains powered that might not help
There are a couple of quirks with using mobile technology.
1. All calls must include the area code when dialling.
2. Mobile phones assume you will be using voicemail so drop out after so many rings. Setting the answering machine to answer before this point (5 rings in our case) has solved the problem and his telephone answering machine kicks in.
There is an initial set-up cost but after that it’s £16 / months including all calls.
Dad’s as happy as a happy thing with it all.
My mother is now unable to use a computer/Internet so I phoned her provider (EE).
After explaining the situation they said that broadband was needed to have a landlines contract, but gave my mum a discount. She has to pay less than £20 a year for the broadband so it has worked out OK.
As the landlines is a lifeline for her this seemed the only Real solution.
After explaining the situation they said that broadband was needed to have a landlines contract, but gave my mum a discount. She has to pay less than £20 a year for the broadband so it has worked out OK.
As the landlines is a lifeline for her this seemed the only Real solution.
Many ISPs that have a phone option can provide a basic broadband connection to enable phone services. Something like the original “broadband” speeds of 512kbps is fine for just running a phone.
OPs solution is a good one if you get a decent mobile signal. BT used to do a solution for business like, basically a landline phone that had a sim, that but seem to have stopped.
You can roll your own with a smartphone and a SIP service but that gets a bit complicated for non techy users, the sort who still want a landline!
OPs solution is a good one if you get a decent mobile signal. BT used to do a solution for business like, basically a landline phone that had a sim, that but seem to have stopped.
You can roll your own with a smartphone and a SIP service but that gets a bit complicated for non techy users, the sort who still want a landline!
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