Do you still have a landline?

I changed to broadband only with BT and haven't missed the land line, particularly the scam calls.

Our landline has been replaced with a VOIP phone. Which we use. It is the number I give on online shopping forms and all non-family contacts.

I am neurally diverse and have a range of problems with using a mobile phone, that starts with having numb fingertips, and goes on to sequencing problems and having problems being able to hear people on the phone, if there is any ambient noise. This is not a hearing problem, but a concentration problem.

Monica - what is a VOIP phone? I thought a landline was a VOIP phone? I didn't know there was another type of phone.

VOIP - voice over internet protocol, comes down your b/b connection

Yes I want mine, do not want to rely on just my mobile.

Elusivebutterfly

My phone has now been switched over but is not working. BT have booked an engineer to come out.
I think the problem is that my existing phone is too old as broadband works, but they don't think so. It was only yesterday that I realised your phone has to be less than 10 years old and I cannot remember how old it is. Nothing in previous messages and letters from BT mentioned this.

Oh crikey - I didn't know that - ie re "phone has to be less than 10 years old". I do know both of my phones are over 10 years old - most probably noticeably older than that. My secondary one is so old that I can't do those "menu" calls one so often has to do with firms these days - I can dial a straightforward number and use it to receive calls and that's that.

Do you know the reason for the "less than 10 years old" provision? Is there some part or other that newer phones have got - but older ones haven't?

Yes, still got my landline and in no hurry to get rid of it. I don't pay any more for it with my package so it's not a liability. Like others, I find it easier to hold for long conversations and I can hear it ringing even in the garden. I'm not a technophobe but I don't see the point in getting rid of a useful backup. Besides, I'm quite fond of our 30 year old telephone number.

CariadAgain

Elusivebutterfly

My phone has now been switched over but is not working. BT have booked an engineer to come out.
I think the problem is that my existing phone is too old as broadband works, but they don't think so. It was only yesterday that I realised your phone has to be less than 10 years old and I cannot remember how old it is. Nothing in previous messages and letters from BT mentioned this.

Oh crikey - I didn't know that - ie re "phone has to be less than 10 years old". I do know both of my phones are over 10 years old - most probably noticeably older than that. My secondary one is so old that I can't do those "menu" calls one so often has to do with firms these days - I can dial a straightforward number and use it to receive calls and that's that.

Do you know the reason for the "less than 10 years old" provision? Is there some part or other that newer phones have got - but older ones haven't?

The old system your on now is analogue, the new system is digital.

Elusivebutterfly

Monica - what is a VOIP phone? I thought a landline was a VOIP phone? I didn't know there was another type of phone.

It is an internet based phone that replaces your landline and BT keep telling us how marvellous they are, do not believe them.

With our VOIP, despite having a Mesh system round the house, we cannot get reception in some rooms, calls get cut off without reason and sometimes we cannot get a line, and you cannot use it in the garden. Problems we never had with a landline.

We have smart phones and VOIP and our phone reception for both is unreliable.

I should have added that BT are sending out an adaptor which should enable my current phone to work with digital.
They do not mention anything about old phones not working or needing an adaptor in the letter, email and texts they sent about the changeover. You need to read the details on their website.
All this hassle makes me thing it would be easier without a landline!

Monica - thank you.

Elusivebutterfly

My BT landline is about to be switched over to Digital voice. I do not pay for inclusive calls so only use it for incoming calls. I kept it partly as it was needed for broadband, which is no longer necessary.
I am now considering whether to buy new handsets to be compatible with the new system or get rid of the landline and just use my mobile.
Do other people still find a landline useful or are you happy without one?

BT and EE have joined forces and we were given digital landline, not by choice, it operates by Wifi and if Wifi goes down the phone will not work at all. Also if it is off the cradle for too long it cuts out and starts to ‘synchronise!’ I now have an IPhone and my husband purchased an inexpensive mobile which we call the Home Mobile, he contacted BT and told them we will only use the landline for incoming calls only as it would be a pain to notify every contact about new mobiles. We now pay about £3 pounds for that service. It would seem households will not have an option with regard to their BT landline changing completely to digital only.

Yes.

Madmeg

All my life I have tried to keep up with changes. We were the first people I know to have a computer, a video recorder, a mobile phone. My DH worked all his life in technology areas. We both worked in Universities who were quick to use new technology.

But now we struggle with all of it. Every time (exaggeration I know) I switch the laptop on something has changed. Yesterday it told me I had no people in my mail address book - it took me four hours to find them. Our Smart TV has changed the way we have to use it (no notice from anyone). I recently got hearing aids and the technician proudly showed me the benefits of "linking" them to my mobile phone. Now I realise that if I don't have them in I can't hear it ringing - and of course neither can my DH. And when I DO have them in, I have no means of telling where the damn phone is cos it sounds as if it is inside my head! I can't work out how to switch the facility off either. The booklet doesn't tell me such a minor detail. What happens if I need a new phone?

I am losing the will to live with all this new stuff.

By now I've come to the conclusion that there are two reasons and only those two reasons why things keep getting "updated"....

1. So some people can make money by selling us "updated" stuff we neither need nor want.

2. For that group of people that have an ego motive for wanting to always "have/do the latest thing" - because they're "Special" in their opinion.

Personally - I want to know what way changes of anything will make my life easier/more enjoyable/etc and I just don't see that benefit with much of it.

Stuff like (conventional) central heating, landline phones, reasonable level tv's, etc have made our lives easier. But basically it feels to me like "improvements" stopped some point in the 1990's and after that much of it is down to someone wanting money and/or status for themselves and they don't really care about whether our lives are easier or harder as a result of it.

Cariad the existing analogue phone network is very old, difficult and expensive to maintain,
We live in a digital world, companies have to move on, as do we, the benefits generally outweigh any negatives.

Madmeg I too have synced hearing aids. To unsync go into settings. Select... Device connectivity then Bluetooth. Turn off Bluetooth.

I got rid of my landline when I moved house a couple of years ago.

For emergencies, I keep a 2nd, cheap, mobile in the house, topped up with 15 a month and charged every few days. It's a lot cheaper than a landline.

Thanks Aldom and *CariadAgain" I think you are right.

still got my landline , mobile is ok for texts,but I hate using it to talk as I sometimes can't hear what the caller is saying, I only got my first mobile when I was driving incase the car broke down...

Yes, I still have a landline, I prefer it for making calls . My mobile ring never stays on long enough for me to answer it!

I have one but, since leaving Sky, have not found a reasonable provider. Does anyone know of reasonable deals, please? Thank you.

We still have a landline, works well as the signal doesn't come and (often!) go as it does with some networks.

It also has a working answerphone -- nobody has EVER listened to a message left on a mobile when I've tried!

Oh, and for the people speaking about 'hands free' or 'put it on speaker' -- I tell people NOT to do that, if I'm on a call, as they have that wildly irritating echoey sound as if they're in a goldfish bowl?!

No surplus to requirements now wish I'd done it years ago.

we changed over top BT two years ago and now have two digital phones for digital calls. BT gave us these for free at the time, was a special offer. As we are on UC we get our broadband for £15 for the month and this gives us unlimited calls any time to landlines and mobiles for free. It is handy for incoming calls and I also use it for the odd outgoing call if I know I am due an incoming call on my mobile.
No use in a power cut as your broadband goes down so we also have mobiles.

LilyoftheValley

I have one but, since leaving Sky, have not found a reasonable provider. Does anyone know of reasonable deals, please? Thank you.

I use Utility Warehouse - for both fuel and landline telephone/broadband. For £180 a month I get unlimited usage of phone/broadband and that's the (gas central heating) system fuel usage for a 2 bedroom detached house. There's a limit on how many "international" calls are included in that - but I've not hit it yet. I use what fuel I decide I need to and expect a warm house for that.

They've not hassled me - either at the start or subsequently - to swop to a smart meter or stop using my landline phone.