Broadband and home landline phone

[JeffL]

I am considering the pros and cons of disconnection of our home landline telephone (3 cordless phones). We stopped using our landline phones for outgoing calls several months ago as an experiment and just use our mobiles, keeping the landline phones for incoming calls only (not many incoming landline calls these days though). We have unlimited calls on our mobiles and this saved us continuing to pay the monthly call plan of £8 per month for the landline call package.  Question: Have any of you had your landline phones disconnected and have you missed it? I know we have to adapt to change but being in our 70s and having had a landline and the same telephone number for the last 50 years feels a bit strange to give it up! Nothing stays the same and we have to adapt to change but not always that easy. 

You are all probably aware that by the end of 2025 the traditional copper wire (ADSL) telephone lines will be switched off. Therefore we will all switch to Full Fibre by that date. We are currently with Plusnet (part of BT group) and have been for many years with no problems. Our current contract ends 31st March this year so I am looking at options taking into consideration the withdrawal of the copper wire landline at the end of 2025. Until recently I had Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) - the green metal cabinets you see on the street. These cabinets are gradually being withdrawn/decommissioned and that has happened in our street very recently. I now have Fibre to the public pavement and copper wire from the pavement to our home. The copper wire facilitates our landline telephone. Option 1: I can renew my existing deal with Plusnet, keep the copper wire and retain our landline phone and its number, but only to the end of 2025. Option 2: I can get a new deal with Plusnet where they will replace the copper wire with Fibre so the I have Fibre all the way to the home (FTTH). BUT I lose the landline phone as Plusnet don't offer Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP). VOIP would allow the use of our Panasonic cordless phones via the Fibre network. Plusnet don't offer that facility full stop! However BT, OneStream, Vodafone, Zen etc do offer VOIP at an additional cost per month of around £6.  Option 3: Change supplier, but before deciding on our options I really need to decide if we are going to relinquish the landline phone it will then make the choice of supplier, speed Mb/s and price comparisons a lot easier. Hope this wasn't too long winded!

 

[PaulWhitt20]

I would be interested to know what you decide. We have a landline that we don’t use and no one phones now my mother is not with us except the nice man from amazon saying there is a problem with my account. 🙃

We have fiber to the house from BT for broadband. I am not sure if you need a land line and line rental for the broadband or if you can just have broadband on fiber and use mobiles for voice calls.  
 

If you did get rid of the land line, who would you have to tell?

[Eggie]

I used to be with sky broadband which required a landline.  However I have now changed to vodafone and City Fibre.  I get 930mbs download speed and use my cordless phone via voip. Accordingly I have no landline.  I went into a vodafone shop and accordlingly I managed to get the broadband and unlimited phone calls in uk plus to mobiles included for no extra cost.  I also have emergency backup should the fibre network fail and the system changes over to 4g. 

i kept the same landline number. 
The knowledgable people say you better having a secondary contact method for backup such as a mobile in case system goes down as voip would not work if this happened.

so far after 3 months I very happy.

hope this helps.

[ColinBarber]

1 hour ago, JeffL said:

Question: Have any of you had your landline phones disconnected and have you missed it?

I have a Virgin Media package which does includes a fixed phone line (VoIP in our area rather than traditional telephony) but I've never plugged a phone into the router in the three year's I've had it - we just use our mobile phones and only have the VM phone offering because it is cheaper to have it than not.

[JeffL]

1 hour ago, PaulWhitt20 said:

I would be interested to know what you decide. We have a landline that we don’t use and no one phones now my mother is not with us except the nice man from Amazon saying there is a problem with my account. 🙃

We have fiber to the house from BT for broadband. I am not sure if you need a land line and line rental for the broadband or if you can just have broadband on fiber and use mobiles for voice calls.  
 

If you did get rid of the land line, who would you have to tell?

Yes I will report back here when decided. Re who would I have tell? Good point, I had thought about that and would make a list.

[DavidCM]

Some similarities to you.I was all set to move to Vodafone ,from BT,for my broadband and considering dumping my landline and use my all calls included mobile contract.

Spoke a few times to BT and ended up getting a noticeable discount off my broadband and retaining my long standing land line number (Only now for a few incoming calls.).£2.00 month. Win win on broadband and landline.It pays to haggle...

Now,let battle commence on car insurance....£200 up to,£600.…I don't think so.

[Newbie777]

We moved over from BT to Virgin  media and rook the broadband optoon about 1 year ago, we  th the landlines.

Quite a few of our elderly relatives have mobile phones so no concern there. Just problematic regarding the NHS. They take forever making the changes you have asked for.

The good news, no constant harassing nuisance  calls!

It'd a big change and everyone has their own way. Good luck.

[Bob99]

I’ve kicked the can down the road after signing up with plusnet for 18 months in December. I could still upgrade at anytime and maybe move to A&A for voip. We had no internet for a time yesterday due to plusnet DNS issues but my son who is on plusnet full fibre across the road was ok so it only affected FTTC.

[GMB]

We had a landline with SKY but all we ever got were spam and nuisance calls from DAY 1. We dumped it ( and SKY ).

Now that we have fibre to the property the line is much more robust and stable. We simply rely on two mobiles for all calls.  ( Giff Gaff  £6 per month ). The new contract with Plus net is also faster and cheaper than SKY.    Plusnet=£29.99 per month for 150Megs - consistently real speeds about 135-140.  Up to now no downtime whatsoever.

If you have an old fashioned burglar alarm or in-home security/ warning system that calls up the police or another agency then you will need to upgrade that as it will rely on a landline to make contact.  Simple enough to arrange usually.

 

[Boomer54]

We are slightly stuck in the sense that the local BT exchange won't 'pump' more than 50mbps regardless of whether we pay for a package with higher speeds. By the same token the last time I looked at getting fibre laid in with Virgin (some years ago now) it didn't happen ,because the access point they said was right n the middle of what is a busy road. They just went away. My daughter just went into anew build with fibre pre laid in and she gets approx 750mbps !! Not a misprint.

We dropped the landline when we went with Zen. All contacts come via mobiles and the landline is just what I thought, obsolete and no more silly cold calls to deal with although I miss doing my James Bond 'license to thrill' impersonation.

Anyway not too bothered I doubt we will be here for more than another couple of years. Just too big to look after now and just the two of us rattling about in here.

[GMB]

54 minutes ago, Boomer54 said:

BT exchange won't 'pump' more than 50mbps

One just has to wait until Openreach run Fibre direct to the property ( as opposed to an intermediate copper twisted pair connection ). Then the world is your lobster - up to Gigabit speeds at a price. Openreach have a plan for future builds on their website --

[JeffL]

Great responses so far. Thank you everyone. I will report back on whatever deal we decide on in due course. 😀

[Cotswold Pete]

If you want to know a bit more about what might be near you then this web site is good - I use it at work a lot to suss out options for my clients.

UK Broadband Map  - scroll to bottom enter your post code and then tick the boxes in the right hand panel

This will give you some idea of whether you can get fast fibre. 

If you tick the 'Speed Test Results' box then it will pop up speeds of people near you and sometimes who their provider is, which might help.

There are over 100 Alt-Net providers in the UK so it can be a faff if you have options in your local area

So although the map will show you an Alt-net provider it is not possible to ask the web site just to tell you who that alt-net is.

[RONNIE W HODGEKINSON]

16 hours ago, JeffL said:

I am considering the pros and cons of disconnection of our home landline telephone (3 cordless phones). We stopped using our landline phones for outgoing calls several months ago as an experiment and just use our mobiles, keeping the landline phones for incoming calls only (not many incoming landline calls these days though). We have unlimited calls on our mobiles and this saved us continuing to pay the monthly call plan of £8 per month for the landline call package.  Question: Have any of you had your landline phones disconnected and have you missed it? I know we have to adapt to change but being in our 70s and having had a landline and the same telephone number for the last 50 years feels a bit strange to give it up! Nothing stays the same and we have to adapt to change but not always that easy. 

You are all probably aware that by the end of 2025 the traditional copper wire (ADSL) telephone lines will be switched off. Therefore we will all switch to Full Fibre by that date. We are currently with Plusnet (part of BT group) and have been for many years with no problems. Our current contract ends 31st March this year so I am looking at options taking into consideration the withdrawal of the copper wire landline at the end of 2025. Until recently I had Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) - the green metal cabinets you see on the street. These cabinets are gradually being withdrawn/decommissioned and that has happened in our street very recently. I now have Fibre to the public pavement and copper wire from the pavement to our home. The copper wire facilitates our landline telephone. Option 1: I can renew my existing deal with Plusnet, keep the copper wire and retain our landline phone and its number, but only to the end of 2025. Option 2: I can get a new deal with Plusnet where they will replace the copper wire with Fibre so the I have Fibre all the way to the home (FTTH). BUT I lose the landline phone as Plusnet don't offer Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP). VOIP would allow the use of our Panasonic cordless phones via the Fibre network. Plusnet don't offer that facility full stop! However BT, OneStream, Vodafone, Zen etc do offer VOIP at an additional cost per month of around £6.  Option 3: Change supplier, but before deciding on our options I really need to decide if we are going to relinquish the landline phone it will then make the choice of supplier, speed Mb/s and price comparisons a lot easier. Hope this wasn't too long winded!

 

Jeff.. If You Do Disconnect your Landline be prepared for a £78 disconnection charge from BT At Least that,s what they charged me...Absolute disgrace But Just what you would expect from BT..!!!

[Thackeray]

15 hours ago, JeffL said:

I am considering the pros and cons of disconnection of our home landline telephone (3 cordless phones).

One factor to consider in giving up the landline, is how reliable the local mobile phone masts are and how good the mobile reception is at your house. We had repeated problems with reception from local masts, while they were doing upgrade work for several weeks.

So, as you may know, the easy solution is to make sure you have Wifi calling available from your mobile phone service provider. This means that if the signal from the local mast is unavailable, the phone automatically switches the call to the internet router in your home. This means you have the convenience of the mobile phone being in your pocket but you also have the reliability of the wired connection to the house. Not 100 percent reliable, of course, but the fibre connection is likely to survive most of the time except for when remote parts of the country are cut off by snow.

[First_Lexus]

I moved into a new build property in 2021, and they don’t fit landline sockets or wire for the landline network any more.

I thought I’d miss it, but with fibre broadband and unlimited mobile calls (connected via wi-fi calling when at home) I don’t miss the landline at all!

[Malc1]

Forever had that BT landline since my parents on New Cross 0728 back in the 1950’s 

just hanging on in there with the last gasp of my landline as the people I called in Australia only had a landline …… they’ve “ passed “ 

I never answer the landline now, it was only ever scam calls recent times …… but it’s there till my contract expires later this year when it will get dumped …… I don’t pay for the landline UNLESS I make any non-existent calls to anywhere 

relying on our mobiles is fine….. they seem to cover all and any eventuality ALWAYS 

Strange tho’   My business office in Delhi has several UK landline 020…. Numbers that’s free for UK callers to contact …… but I pay Acefone monthly whatever, my Delhi provider ……

Until my UK contracts expire later this year ( I think ) I’m with TalkTalk for home Wi-Fi and. 3.for Iphone mobile calls etc 

Zen has popped up here and I’ll investigate that at the time ….. it’s not available all over the uk tho’ 

Cruises, Ambassador anyway  now use the Musk Starlink facility and I’ll hope that’s better than the crappy Wi-Fi cruises used to have and charge a fortune for 

SYNOPSIS for you:

Dump your landline and provider PROVIDED you have a great mobile signal of course 

Good luck

Malc 

[First_Lexus]

2 hours ago, Malc1 said:

Dump your landline and provider PROVIDED you have a great mobile signal of course 

^^ Or good broadband if signal is patchy using wi-fi calling…

2 hours ago, Malc1 said:

Forever had that BT landline since my parents on New Cross 0728 back in the 1950’s 

^^ I tell youngsters that when I was growing up, lots of areas were yet to have ‘direct dial.’ Family in London we could call direct, but those in more rural areas we still had to pick up the receiver, tap the buttons to connect to an operator, and ask for a line to the location before dialling the three or four digit number. Good times…and yes, I do miss them regardless of how much simpler technology makes things. Somehow speaking to the operator was more civilised…

[Bluemarlin]

I doubt you'll miss the landline.

Due to the fact that I worked in the mobile industry I haven't used a landline in over 20 years. Like some others I'm with Virgin, so have a landline included in the package, but have long since forgotten where the socket is. It just perversely works out cheaper to keep it.

The only possible reason to maintain a landline is if you make a lot of international calls, to people who don't have any kind of wifi calling capability, as fixed line offerings for international calls are often a lot cheaper than mobile.

[Malc1]

11 minutes ago, First_Lexus said:

^^ Or good broadband if signal is patchy using wi-fi calling…

^^ I tell youngsters that when I was growing up, lots of areas were yet to have ‘direct dial.’ Family in London we could call direct, but those in more rural areas we still had to pick up the receiver, tap the buttons to connect to an operator, and ask for a line to the location before dialling the three or four digit number. Good times…and yes, I do miss them regardless of how much simpler technology makes things. Somehow speaking to the operator was more civilised…

Dialled 100 for the Operator and asked for “trunks” …… assuming one’s shared line was free ….. and then, if lucky, the Operator called you back telling you “ connected “ sir, then you could dial ( or was it ask for ?) that other rare number …… my Uncle Bert in Bispham Blackpool 🤔

Malc 

[Boomer54]

There was a time before land lines for poor people. I am talking about pigeons. I once tried to bribe Santa to get a bike by tying a kit kat to the leg of one of my father's pigeons and sending it off to the North Pole. We never saw the bird, or kit kat again and needless to say no bike just a belt. I have never trusted men with beards since.

[GMB]

12 minutes ago, Boomer54 said:

tying a kit kat to the leg of one of my father's pigeons

Oh the things kids do. The poor pigeon probably died of gangrene as the kit kat rotted off its leg.

 

5 hours ago, RONNIE W HODGEKINSON said:

£78 disconnection charge from BT

Never heard of that one -  a real rip-off.  I remember when we moved house and rang Virgin to set up broadband at our new address. It's not available at this address they said. You will have to get another provider, and by the way you must pay £36 disconnection fee.  What!!! They disconnected me, so why should I pay.🤬

[Malc1]

When did it all move from the GPO …… to BT whatever 

Press button. A. insert 4 pennies ….. connected then press button B.       Cap’n Mannering …… ah the long lost days of the Bank Manager bowler hat and all 😂

Malc