Anyone ditched landline 'phone

Al1944

Al1944

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No
.. and use a mobile only?

Thinking about doing this as our home 'phone is rarely used these days. I can't help wondering if there are downsides to it though?

AL
 
Depends if you use the line for broadband or not I suspect. If you do may as well keep a land line just in case.
 
As above, rarely use the landline but need it for broadband :)
 
We are with Virgin Media, so no problem with (cabled) broadband.

AL
 
It depends on who your Internet provider is

At my previous property I had no choice about the BT Landline, as there was no alternative in order to obtain dialup and then broadband

However, at my current property phone and Broadband are separate (TeleWest, now Virgin Media)
My first years contract was cheaper with phone line, but I rarely used it
I then removed the phone line from the rolling contract and use mobile phone only
Whilst this has reduced my annual costs this does present some small issues where some companies require a landline and won't accept a mobile phone, but that is their loss

As an example, every year I compare my electric costs
This year it worked out slightly cheaper to move to another provider
However, during the appication process my mobile phone number was rejected
I then phoned them up and was advised they could only accept new customes with a BT Landline
I then pointed out I was a Virgin Media customer, and they corrected this with a Landline from any provider
I then phoned up my current electric provider and they agreed to match that offer, by way of an adjusted online discount

Mobile phone costs are slightly higher, but if you terminate the landline this in effect releases at least £10 per month, and this pretty much offsets that higher cost
 
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Al1944 said:
We are with Virgin Media, so no problem with (cabled) broadband.

AL
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if youre on a bundle deal it can work out more expensive by ditching the landline. at least i was looking at new packages with virgin recently and you got a better price having tv, internet and phone than by having just the same tv pack and internet speed.
 
MJKerr
Thank you very much for that detailed reply which covers some issues which I thought might arise (y)

AL
 
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I ran a similar thread / poll HERE recently,
I was kinda surprised at the outcome TBH.
 
neil_g said:
if youre on a bundle deal it can work out more expensive by ditching the landline. at least i was looking at new packages with virgin recently and you got a better price having tv, internet and phone than by having just the same tv pack and internet speed.
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Yes, to get the best advantage I would go for Broadband only - £28.50 IIRC. I've got freesat from Sky too, which is adequate for us (even though we do find the on demand service useful at times. Monthly cost at the moment to Virgin is around £47. More thinking to be done yet though ;)

AL
 
I remember the previous thread. Apart from the broadband issue, a lot of people reported that they didn't have much choice because of poor cellphone coverage.

We get a weak/unreliable signal on Vodafone and O2. That's it. The closest 3G signal is about 20 miles away, and I haven't a clue about 4G.
 
neil_g said:
if youre on a bundle deal it can work out more expensive by ditching the landline. at least i was looking at new packages with virgin recently and you got a better price having tv, internet and phone than by having just the same tv pack and internet speed.
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Don't look at the short-term pricing, look at the long-term
I currently only have broadband from Virgin Media and it is cheaper than their Broadband and phone line package
However, if I cancel my existing rolling contract it would be cheaper for 6 months, but after that it would be more expnsive than what I am currently paying

I have been looking at reinstating their TV service, but it would mean an end to my rolling contract, and as a consequence a slight price increase in the broadband (after the 6 month promotional period)
 
We ditched ours three years ago....but then realised that it affected our credit rating so we done a deal with our broadband provider and brought it back....I have never used it
 
Not had a an actual physical landline phone for about 10 years although I have had a "landline" connection purely for broadband supplied by my isp but they certainly do not allow chargeable calls to be made on it!

I have a voip landline (01823) number which normally diverts to my mobile as the beauty of voip is that you can choose a memorable number at very low cost (£1 per month) and give that out if anyone needs to ever call you. I would never have the first clue what my "07" mobile number was if anyone ever asked!

An added benefit of voip is that if you are ever in an area with wifi but no mobile signal (eg supermarkets, coffee shops etc) you can make and receive calls using the zoiper free app.
 
Slightly different question, our broadband speed via landline is 0.30mbps, we are 5 miles from the nearest village. On the EE network my brother can get 8mbps whilst sitting in our house. I am considering getting rid of the landline and getting a EE sim, sticking it in an old phone and using it as a wi-fi hotspot to connect our tablets etc too. Anyone done this?
 
phil_b said:
Slightly different question, our broadband speed via landline is 0.30mbps, we are 5 miles from the nearest village. On the EE network my brother can get 8mbps whilst sitting in our house. I am considering getting rid of the landline and getting a EE sim, sticking it in an old phone and using it as a wi-fi hotspot to connect our tablets etc too. Anyone done this?
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I'd imagine in rural areas that 3g is often much faster than a long lossy bit of copper. The only downside could be higher latency as it's normally about 50ms on my mobile vs about 10ms via a landline, but more of an issue if you game. Also the signal can fluctuate at different times whereas a landline will give a rock steady speed at any time of day (unless you have a crappy isp that overloads their network)
 
I've managed to get my Virgin Media deal cut by just over £100 per year so I think I'll keep the 'phone for the time being.

If anyone is with Virgin I would suggest they check the current bundle deals and compare your cost with the cost new customers pay (after the initial promotion new customer ends). Needless to say if you think you are paying more for the same thing get on to them ;)

AL
 
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