Considering cancelling landline

agw_01 · 18 Jun 2011 at 15:45

Not had a landline phone (still had a landline where needed for ADSL) since moving out of home. My mobile contract has enough minutes to easily cover me for calls to friends/family etc.

Saynoto0870.com usually sorts out the issue of 0870/0845/0844 numbers.

Merlin5 · 18 Jun 2011 at 15:46

Neil79 said:
Mobile Contract + inclusive of 0800/0845/0870's

300 min, unlim text £12.50 a month

Ditched my phoneline a long time ago

Did you get any powercuts since ditching it?

Neil79 · 18 Jun 2011 at 16:01

Merlin5 said:
Did you get any powercuts since ditching it?

No

Jimz · 18 Jun 2011 at 16:11

Honestly more and more people are just using cell phones these days, its so much easier. do it!

Merlin5 · 18 Jun 2011 at 16:56

Neil79 said:
No

I asked because of what Werewolf said above. I was wondering if you'd ever had any powercuts in your area since being without a landline and if you were able to make any mobile phone calls.

Jimz said:
Honestly more and more people are just using cell phones these days, its so much easier. do it!

Yeah I think I'll take my chances and quit BT landline on monday.

Biohazard · 18 Jun 2011 at 17:12

I got a letter from VM saying phone charges are going up. No apology for it, no reason just 'this is what you will pay now'. For ancient, at times crackely, copper lines.

For that very reason, I'm leaving them. Ignorant so and so's.

Neil79 · 18 Jun 2011 at 17:33

I have a landline for my broadband

, i just don't have a phoneline

lewism · 18 Jun 2011 at 17:52

Merlin5 said:
I asked because of what Werewolf said above. I was wondering if you'd ever had any powercuts in your area since being without a landline and if you were able to make any mobile phone calls.

Do you realise how silly keeping a landline just for this is? when was the last time you actually had a power cut? Even then what are you going to use it for? probably to phone your mum to see if shes had a power cut too.

Not really worth the £120-50 quid a year.

Wolfe777 · 18 Jun 2011 at 18:05

I tried cancelling my land-line and my basic cable as I never use either.

Wanting to keep the same speed internet I was amazed that they quoted me a HIGHER price to lose both unwanted services.

So naturally I've kept both, but it's idiotic, Virgin Media clearly don't want to supply just internet - because let's face it, many people simply don't watch TV or use land-lines anymore.

.

Strife212 · 18 Jun 2011 at 18:07

How are you meant to get internet without your phone line? :/

Sonea Fifer · 18 Jun 2011 at 18:11

Strife212 said:
How are you meant to get internet without your phone line? :/

Lots of people have cable bb now a days

Unfortunately I'm not one of them, if I didn't need a land line for my ADSL broadband then ours would be gone as well. As for your Sky services (we've cancelled all of ours) but I was under the impression that the Sky digi box had to be be connected to a land line for the first 12 months of contract in order to allow call backs to be done to the box.

Pawnless Endgame · 18 Jun 2011 at 18:30

Relentless81 said:
Not had a land line for over 5 years

Same here. Ditched LL after I graduated in 2002. For internet access, I went to NTL cable in 2002, now part of the Richard Branson franchise. Dunno what percentage of England cable covers though.

RJC · 18 Jun 2011 at 18:33

At the moment I use O2 for my Landline as I only use this for Broadband, I tend to call people from my mobile. I pay £7.50 for the line only.

Bennie-Mac · 18 Jun 2011 at 18:47

Cable isnt available here yet, so im stuck with my £12pm line rental. Even when cable becomes available, if its not cheaper than what im paying at the moment im not changing.

uvarvu · 18 Jun 2011 at 18:56

RJC said:
At the moment I use O2 for my Landline as I only use this for Broadband, I tend to call people from my mobile. I pay £7.50 for the line only.

Same. My phone doesn't have a display so I don't need the extra features like caller display etc. I've dropped my mobile tariff right down and use my landline every day to make calls in the evenings. It sees heavy use at the weekend too.

LordSplodge · 18 Jun 2011 at 19:14

Wolfe777 said:
I tried cancelling my land-line and my basic cable as I never use either.

.

I've just gone back to Virgin Media for 50Mb (soon to be 100Mb) broadband. Not fussed about TV but seeing as it often works out cheap to get it at the same time, why not? Plus my step-son is paying for the TV anyway!

Werewolf · 18 Jun 2011 at 19:36

lewism said:
Do you realise how silly keeping a landline just for this is? when was the last time you actually had a power cut? Even then what are you going to use it for? probably to phone your mum to see if shes had a power cut too.

Not really worth the £120-50 quid a year.

Depending on circumstances the knowledge that you've got a line that should work (and keep working), in the event of a power cut can be very important, but one that a lot of people forget about.

We don't get many power cuts round my way, but when we do, it tends to be for several hours at a time (a couple of years back we had a spate of them due to the building of a new estate, they kept digging through a main underground line).
Also depending on your cell phone reception that land line can be quite handy, and less annoying

Wolfe777 said:
I tried cancelling my land-line and my basic cable as I never use either.

Wanting to keep the same speed internet I was amazed that they quoted me a HIGHER price to lose both unwanted services.

So naturally I've kept both, but it's idiotic, Virgin Media clearly don't want to supply just internet - because let's face it, many people simply don't watch TV or use land-lines anymore.

.

IIRC the reason why VM do the internet for more on it's own than with phone/tv is pretty much because the cable that brings your internet (and TV) is twinned with the Phone cabling (so no additional expense in maintaining it), but there is a good chance you will make some calls on the line, which defrays the other costs.
Likewise it doesn't cost them much/if anything to offer the basic TV over the line, but there is a chance you're going to use the ppv/vod services which brings in money

Wolfe777 · 18 Jun 2011 at 22:51

Thanks for the insight Werewolf, so that's their plan huh.

Well I'm glad to say it's not working on me, I make maybe 2 land-line calls a year and never watch any cable.

The only real use of a land-line I've had recently has been for verifying online details - I can't remember specifics but I think having one made it much more convenient and far quicker to register a purchase or something like that.

.

Rainmaker · 19 Jun 2011 at 01:08

0800Buster provides a normal geographic/landline phone number you can dial from a mobile, so you can enter a freephone number for it to redirect you to. It allows the call to come out of your free minutes (provided you're on contract of course).

Merlin5 · 5 Jul 2011 at 13:09

Well, took the plunge and cancelled today before contract would have renewed on the 10th. Phone gets cut off sometime on the 11th.

Apparently there's a 2 week advance notice for cancellation so they'll charge me about £7 for 2 weeks line rental in the final bill.

I'm saving £13.90 a month on line rental by quitting BT. That helps me justify paying £9.99 a month insurance for my new mobile phone. Apparently, if I decide to reconnect there's no guarantee I'll recover my same landline number as it goes back into a 'numbers pool'.