Phone concern?

[Buckman]

We have a back up in place for our router so that we can make outside calls in the event of a power failure. We still have a landline. However yesterday we had no broadband connection due to the system failing and it lasted a couple of hours. The technician was working on the box yesterday and we were not the only ones in the village that were affected. We have fibre to the box and then copper to the household. the main "exchange" is about 2 miles away. Our mobile signal is virtually non existent as we live in a rural area and one needs to drive up the road to get a decent signal.

If they are doing away with landlines and broadband fails, if one has an emergency it may not be a good idea to leave OH behind while going up the road or if you are on your own you may not be able to drive due to your condition. A lot of "ifs", but obviously a concern especially as our broadband contract is coming to an end and not having the landline can save us about £10-£15 a month. We are supposed to losing our landline late 2025 or early 2026.

I am thinking that whether or not be have a landline, if the broadband fails we would still be in the same predicament. Any advice would be helpful regarding loss of broadband for whatever reason. Thanks.

 

[Tobes]

We have a back up in place for our router so that we can make outside calls in the event of a power failure. We still have a landline. However yesterday we had no broadband connection due to the system failing and it lasted a couple of hours. The technician was working on the box yesterday and we were not the only ones in the village that were affected. We have fibre to the box and then copper to the household. the main "exchange" is about 2 miles away. Our mobile signal is virtually non existent as we live in a rural area and one needs to drive up the road to get a decent signal.

If they are doing away with landlines and broadband fails, if one has an emergency it may not be a good idea to leave OH behind while going up the road or if you are on your own you may not be able to drive due to your condition. A lot of "ifs", but obviously a concern especially as our broadband contract is coming to an end and not having the landline can save us about £10-£15 a month. We are supposed to losing our landline late 2025 or early 2026.

I am thinking that whether or not be have a landline, if the broadband fails we would still be in the same predicament. Any advice would be helpful regarding loss of broadband for whatever reason. Thanks.

A classic physical copper land line can support a Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) "standard" corded telephone (that is a phone that has no external power supply its self) with power supplied from the exchange. They run on a completely separate system to the broadband infrastructure, sharing only the copper wire between the exchange and your home for access.
When moving to a "fibre to the home (FttH)" or "fibre to the premises (FttP)" broadband model, the copper used to supply the original POTS phone service is no longer needed, and _CAN_ be disconnected. In this case, some providers (like BT) will provide you a "landline service" using the data on the fibre broadband for access. This is often presented as a phone jack on the router they provide you for the phone service.
In the event that you loose power in the home, or the broadband service goes down, your land line will indeed stop working for that duration.

The major landline providers however, do have a duty of care to vulnerable customers, and there is a post here that has some information worth reading on the subject.

 

[otherclive]

We transferred our landline to VOIP via Virgin in March. We got a good overall monthly deal of £34 pm for 250mb cable, router and Virgin box. Our old DECT phone hub just plugged in to the router, and we have Anytime calls 24/7 up to 59 minutes a call.

I thought about obtaining a UPS but that really wouldn’t help much. Like you our mobile signal in house is rubbish and using mobiles requires wifi to be available. None of our kids or grandkids have landline numbers any more. For some reason my wife want to hang on to a functional landline albeit on provided via VOIP. Next September our contract with Virgin ends and I will seriously look at whether a landline via VOIP is required particularly if the new cable contract makes a big jump up in price. But what to do in the event of a power outage, loss of broadband and emergency our jury is still considering their decision.

 

[Buckman]

Thanks OC for reminding me. I forgot about the fact that we have a phone in the kitchen, the bedroom and the living room for obvious medical reasons. We hardly ever carry our mobile phones around with us when at home and being hard of hearing, if the phone is ringing in the living room, I probably will not hear it. Not sure if there is a work around for this issue?

 

[Sam Vimes]

If you have a very poor or non-existent signal from your mobile phone service provider, you can still make emergency calls via 999 as your phone will attempt to use whatever service there is in area. So, you may be with EE and have no signal but O2 does, in which case that will get used.

Nothing is perfect and its mostly about risk reduction. Mileage may very but our old broadband system on pieces of wire used to die more often than fibre.

Even the old copper/aluminium landlines were not available 100% of the time. Ours would frequently go down when water got into the underground boxes or someone put a spade through the cable. So, no landline or broadband.

The whole issue of an interconnected world is being taken seriously with many calls to ensure resilience of these systems and that includes dealing with the increasing frequency of cyber attacks and the poor roll out of updates.

 

[RogerL]

Most new broadband connections that offer to keep your old landline number will use VOIP through the internet connection - and thus not be available if your broadband isn't available, for any reason - so keeping the old copper wired landline isn't an option with a new contract, even if, as in our case, the broadband uses copper wire from the street cabinet to the property.

We're in the process of switching broadband from Plusnet to Vodafone as we're out of contract- Plusnet couldn't offer a landline, but did offer to transfer us to BT, who own Plusnet, but that's £10/month more plus calls - Vodafone was marginally cheaper than Plusnet but included a VOIP landline at no extra cost.

 

[Tobes]

Thanks OC for reminding me. I forgot about the fact that we have a phone in the kitchen, the bedroom and the living room for obvious medical reasons. We hardly ever carry our mobile phones around with us when at home and being hard of hearing, if the phone is ringing in the living room, I probably will not hear it. Not sure if there is a work around for this issue?

If your existing phone system is wireless, you can plug the base handset in to the router provided socket. If you rely on the house wiring, it is possible to plug "the house" into the socket too.

 

[Tobes]

Most new broadband connections that offer to keep your old landline number will use VOIP through the internet connection - and thus not be available if your broadband isn't available, for any reason - so keeping the old copper wired landline isn't an option with a new contract, even if, as in our case, the broadband uses copper wire from the street cabinet to the property.

We're in the process of switching broadband from Plusnet to Vodafone as we're out of contract- Plusnet couldn't offer a landline, but did offer to transfer us to BT, who own Plusnet, but that's £10/month more plus calls - Vodafone was marginally cheaper than Plusnet but included a VOIP landline at no extra cost.

You can also switch your land line to a VoIP provider for a small fee (about £10) and then access that phone service via dedicated phone to network tool. I did this about 4 or so years ago, and now pay £3 a month just for the land line number. We make no outgoing calls, but retain the number for others to call us on.

 

[Sam Vimes]

One thing to be cautious about when switching broadband suppliers that have VoIP or Digital Voice as BT call it, is that cancelling your service to transfer to another provider may lose your current phone number.

 

[borderbilly]

I stay out in the sticks with nothing but hills àround me. I am on Vodafone and SWMBO is with tesco and get excellent signals. I would look into a decent mobile provider.

 

[Buckman]

I stay out in the sticks with nothing but hills àround me. I am on Vodafone and SWMBO is with tesco and get excellent signals. I would look into a decent mobile provider.

We have tried other providers, but no joy. They all probably use the same base or transmitter tower. We are in a slight dip which doesn't help matters.

You can also switch your land line to a VoIP provider for a small fee (about £10) and then access that phone service via dedicated phone to network tool. I did this about 4 or so years ago, and now pay £3 a month just for the land line number. We make no outgoing calls, but retain the number for others to call us on.

Not sure about VOIP as surely for the extra cost, you might as well keep the landline until it is removed?

 

[RogerL]

One thing to be cautious about when switching broadband suppliers that have VoIP or Digital Voice as BT call it, is that cancelling your service to transfer to another provider may lose your current phone number.

In the case of switching to Vodafone, you need to tell them early in the online application process if you want a landline and the number you want to keep.

 

[Buckman]

You can also switch your land line to a VoIP provider for a small fee (about £10) and then access that phone service via dedicated phone to network tool. I did this about 4 or so years ago, and now pay £3 a month just for the land line number. We make no outgoing calls, but retain the number for others to call us on.

Would you mind telling me who supplies your VOIP service? At £3 or even £6 a month, it is still a saving of about £10 per months for us. Thanks.

 

[Tobes]

Would you mind telling me who supplies your VOIP service? At £3 or even £6 a month, it is still a saving of about £10 per months for us. Thanks.

I use a company called VoIPfone. https://www.voipfone.co.uk. They are very simple, but do require some tech expertise to set up the solution.

 

[Buckman]

I use a company called VoIPfone. https://www.voipfone.co.uk. They are very simple, but do require some tech expertise to set up the solution.

Thanks. I thought that setting up was why we had grandkids? LOL!

 

[RogerL]

Would you mind telling me who supplies your VOIP service? At £3 or even £6 a month, it is still a saving of about £10 per months for us. Thanks.

Check out Vodafone broadband - there's no extra cost for a VOIP landline.

 

[GUMPY]

I find this odd🫣
My next door neighbour has no land line and rubbish mobile signal on O2 as the mast is a couple of miles away. I have suggested he change to 3 or EE as the mast is at the top of the road, he hasn't.
I actually lost internet last night for two hours, that's internet both mobile phones and all the dependent systems. Luckily it was 0230 so I didn't notice but my immersion heater told me about it this morning 😱

 

[Sam Vimes]

Would you mind telling me who supplies your VOIP service? At £3 or even £6 a month, it is still a saving of about £10 per months for us. Thanks.

If one of your concerns is loss of broadband then VoIP isn't going to help as it needs that to work. You might just as well go mobile only and save the landline costs completely. That's what I did this year.

 

[Buckman]

If one of your concerns is loss of broadband then VoIP isn't going to help as it needs that to work. You might just as well go mobile only and save the landline costs completely. That's what I did this year.

Very poor mobile signal in our area no matter which provider we tried. We are seriously considering dumping the landline, but a concern is the phones in the other rooms. Seems an awful waste dumping them although they are several or more years old. Vodafone is offering some good deals at present, reasonable prices and also wifi 6 if that is of interest.

 

[Sam Vimes]

If we discount the possibility of using the good old landlines then the two options are...

1. Mobile phone
2. VoIP

Because of your location the mobile phone would need to use WiFi Calling. So both Mobile and VoIP are dependent on having broadband working.

The advantage of using a Mobile Phone is you can use it virtually anywhere in your house and outside in areas where there's a good signal.

I think you mentioned that your hearing may be a problem. I have Bluetooth enabled hearing aids and I can take a call on them, even if my phone is in a different part of the house.

If you choose to go VoIP, then this is another service that you're going to pay for which still uses the broadband. So your paying for Mobile and VoIP. Only possible advantage is you may be able to keep your old landline number.

For what it's worth I use Plusnet for Broadband at £24.99 per month and 1pMobile for phone and SMS at £4 per month. No landline or VoIP service.

 

[Buckman]

If we discount the possibility of using the good old landlines then the two options are...

1. Mobile phone
2. VoIP

Because of your location the mobile phone would need to use WiFi Calling. So both Mobile and VoIP are dependent on having broadband working.

The advantage of using a Mobile Phone is you can use it virtually anywhere in your house and outside in areas where there's a good signal.

I think you mentioned that your hearing may be a problem. I have Bluetooth enabled hearing aids and I can take a call on them, even if my phone is in a different part of the house.

If you choose to go VoIP, then this is another service that you're going to pay for which still uses the broadband. So your paying for Mobile and VoIP. Only possible advantage is you may be able to keep your old landline number.

For what it's worth I use Plusnet for Broadband at £24.99 per month and 1pMobile for phone and SMS at £4 per month. No landline or VoIP service.

Currently we are with Plusnet at a cost of almost £39 a month which includes land line. If we switch to Plusnet Fibre it drops down to £25.99 a month with the annual increase of £3 per annum. The latter makes you wonder why you are signing a 24 month contract if it increases anyway regardless of inflation?

 

[otherclive]

If we discount the possibility of using the good old landlines then the two options are...

1. Mobile phone
2. VoIP

Because of your location the mobile phone would need to use WiFi Calling. So both Mobile and VoIP are dependent on having broadband working.

The advantage of using a Mobile Phone is you can use it virtually anywhere in your house and outside in areas where there's a good signal.

I think you mentioned that your hearing may be a problem. I have Bluetooth enabled hearing aids and I can take a call on them, even if my phone is in a different part of the house.

If you choose to go VoIP, then this is another service that you're going to pay for which still uses the broadband. So your paying for Mobile and VoIP. Only possible advantage is you may be able to keep your old landline number.

For what it's worth I use Plusnet for Broadband at £24.99 per month and 1pMobile for phone and SMS at £4 per month. No landline or VoIP service.

I have IDmobile and find them excellent. I had been with EE right back to their birth as 1:2:1 but their moved their offering in to a more expensive realm. So earlier this year I switched to IDmobile who run on Three, and my wife has Tescomobile who run on O2. So we rarely get caught with no mobile signal.

 

[Woodentop]

I have IDmobile and find them excellent. I had been with EE right back to their birth as 1:2:1 but their moved their offering in to a more expensive realm. So earlier this year I switched to IDmobile who run on Three, and my wife has Tescomobile who run on O2. So we rarely get caught with no mobile signal.

For the record EE did not, per se, start as 1.2.1.
The original SPs were Orange (built by Hutchison) which were later sold to France Telecom, and 1.2.1 which was part of Mercury owned and operated by Cable and Wireless. They were sold to T-Mobile. Orange and T-Mobile eventually joined to become EE.
In between this Hutchison built another system known as 3 which they still own. T-Mobile and 3 set up a distribution company called MBNL. To equate them VF and O2 set up a similar system called Cornerstone, Both still operate and if you take a close look at a street cab - especially one of those new white things - you will find many are 3 and EE but the operator of the cabs is MBNL, and some other sites (especially rural) that carry O2 and VF are in Cornerstone cabinets.

 

[otherclive]

For the record EE did not, per se, start as 1.2.1.
The original SPs were Orange (built by Hutchison) which were later sold to France Telecom, and 1.2.1 which was part of Mercury owned and operated by Cable and Wireless. They were sold to T-Mobile. Orange and T-Mobile eventually joined to become EE.
In between this Hutchison built another system known as 3 which they still own. T-Mobile and 3 set up a distribution company called MBNL. To equate them VF and O2 set up a similar system called Cornerstone, Both still operate and if you take a close look at a street cab - especially one of those new white things - you will find many are 3 and EE but the operator of the cabs is MBNL, and some other sites (especially rural) that carry O2 and VF are in Cornerstone cabinets.

Very interesting, we are all so much better informed.

 

[JTQ]

If going VoIP check out the offer from A & A Andrews & Arnold.

Go about it with their friendly advice you can transfer an existing BT group landline number for a service costing about £1.20 per month, coupled to low price calling rates, both UK and to some international destinations.

The account cost about £12 one off cost to set up. Additionally you need some other kit.
This is a VoIP based service using any Internet provider you wish to have. They can also at cost provide an internet service, but in my case not at the price my present provider does.
Calls to others on A&A are free of call charges.

We have been very pleased with this VoIP and save big time to what EE had extracted from us for years.

To use these third party VoIP systems you will need either a Ethernet Phone Adaptor, which is used with a normal analogue phone, or better a "soft phone"[ SIP/VoIP phone] that is a phone connected directly via an Ethernet cable.
The later is digital and self contained; our is a basic Yealink Like this more modern version. Earlier versions of this, via the well know auction site can be had for about £65.A random example [ I found it gave a break even period of about a year relative to holding in with the BT group's offering]
Prices stated are based on my costings and may vary for newer contracts.

This does require "powering" at various points, at home, at exchanges and data centres etc. So if that goes belly up at any, then its viability depends on what emergency provisions are in place at each.