Ditching the landline

[petermillard]

As per the title, anybody done this, ditched their landline and used some kind of VOIP solution instead? Long story short, we've just realised we've been paying Sky 15 quid a month for broadband and calls that we don't use, for god knows how long. They won't cancel it as they link it to the landline, and we need the landline (another 17 quid a month) for the occasional call from parents/family who can't be trained to call our mobiles...

Or do we? I'm on Virgin broadband (totally separate from the phone system) so the theoretical plan would be to buy a £40 box from Amazon, hook this to our router, plug our existing (DECT) phones into this and connect the box to a basic free VOIP service (AKA a "SIP"). Existing BT number can be transferred (I'm told) to the SIP, so everyone who has our home phone number (yes, both of them...) can call us just like always. And we save 300-odd quid a year, which we can spend on wine. Or shoes, apparently.

Which sounds like a plan. So, anybody done this, or looked into it seriously??

TIA, Pete

 

[RogerP]

Do you have Virgin fibre-optical connection?

 

[Farmer Giles]

I transferred my landline to Zen who I use for broadband. I avoid Sky/BT/Virgin/Craphone Whorehouse etc. I work from home 2 days a week and I would lose the privilege if I had bad broadband so won't risk pathetic service. I also use Skype and rent a London number so I have a separate office number so the family calls don't interfere and when I'm working from home in Yorkshire it looks like I'm working from London.

 

[Mark A]

Our company changed over from BT Business to Zen for Broadband and Vonage for calls and haven't looked back.

 

[tomatwark]

You can move a BT Number to VOIP, I did it when we moved business premises so we did not lose the number when had for the 9 years at the old place as the code was different.

It was cheaper to do this than call divert.

I would ring sky and tell them you are going to cancel your whole package including TV because of the phone issue and I bet they let you stop the broadband and call package.

You do not need a sky phone service to watch their repeated tv programs.

If you do not watch sport I think about which channels you watch, we did this and discovered apart from one every thing else was on freeview or freesat.

A freesat recorder just plugs into the sky dish without any month charges.

The other thing we did was go for a land line package which had evening and weekends calls as we use or mobiles to ring out but it means folks can call us.

 

[petermillard]

Thanks everyone. Yes, our virgin broadband is fibre, so separate from the landline. Big sports fans here and "we" do watch a lot of the sky-only channels, so we won't be ditching the TV anytime soon. We did have a moan to Sky and they have given us 'free' broadband and calls for 12 months, but it still rankles and, frankly, sparked the idea of switching to a VOIP service.

Cheers, Pete

 

[tomatwark]

Pete

Why don't you get Virgin to supply the land line?

Seems odd you have fibre with Virgin, Broadband and calls with Sky, when Virgin will fibre and landline.

That way you could then ditch the Sky broadband and calls.

One thing to watch out for on the VOIP number though is to make sure you can port it if you change providers, some firms will not let you.

 

[petermillard]

Virgin media want the same £ as Sky for the landline - slightly more, actually. When we were first with Sky the broadband was included in the overall package, but at some point in the not-so-recent past it was split out as a separate cost, as were 'evening & weekend' calls. I want the fastest broadband I can get, which was/is Virgin; I also quite like having broadband completely separate from the creaking phone system, and Virgin is my only option, currently.

Our monthly phone bill for (landline) calls is less than £1, so as you might expect it stick on the craw a little to be paying £17-odd for the privelidge, wether to sky or virgin; it's this that I'd like to eliminate, and VOIP seems to be a viable option, albeit not without a few concerns/possible pitfalls.

Excellent point about number transferability out of a SIP - something to be checked carefully before committing.

Cheers, Pete

 

[RogerP]

Dial 999 from a LL and it's routed straight through to an operator who, if necessary, can trace where you are and get help even if you can't speak. Not at all that easy with a mobile or VOIP. A small point maybe but one that may save a life.

 

[petermillard]

Dial 999 from a LL and it's routed straight through to an operator who, if necessary, can trace where you are and get help even if you can't speak. Not at all that easy with a mobile or VOIP. A small point maybe but one that may save a life.

Absolutely something to consider, though from what I've read on the various SIPs, you register emergency details with them and everything is taken care of. But it requires an Internet connection, of course, and a steady power supply...

Much to consider.

Cheers, Pete

 

[RogerP]

Dial 999 from a LL and it's routed straight through to an operator who, if necessary, can trace where you are and get help even if you can't speak. Not at all that easy with a mobile or VOIP. A small point maybe but one that may save a life.

Absolutely something to consider, though from what I've read on the various SIPs, you register emergency details with them and everything is taken care of. But it requires an Internet connection, of course, and a steady power supply...

Much to consider.

Cheers, Pete

No power no emergency phone! LL needs no power as it's supplied down the line.

 

[petermillard]

No power no emergency phone! LL needs no power as it's supplied down the line.

Yes, I do understand. But, in all the time we've lived here (almost 25 years, mortgage paid off next month, yay! ) we've never had a power cut, and I've never lost my broadband, aside from temporarily, when changing providers. I've only ever dialled 999 twice, and both times were from a mobile.

So yes, whilst access to emergency calls are certainly something to consider, it isn't such a high priority for us given where we live.

Cheers, Pete

 

[Eric The Viking]

What's the probability of a significant power cut?
What's the probability of needing 999?
What's the probability of needing 999 during a power cut?

I'd say the last one is pretty unlikely, especially in West London.

That said, 20 years ago, when we rewired the ground floor, I had the study's sockets broken out of the ring main and separately wired through a 16A plug+socket at the distribution board (under the stairs, breaker at 16A). If there is trouble with electricity supply (coming Real Soon Now to a country full of windfarms, etc.), I have the choice of powering through a UPS, or even using a genny in the back garden, to keep the important kit going.

We're on Virgin (high-bandwidth co-ax "broadband"), but with a conventional POTS landline. The POTS thing is powered by good old 50V from lead-acid cells in the exchange (but what used to be Mercury/Telewest, NOT BT), but I have no idea how protected the co-ax is. I know the line-boosting amps down the end of the road (under a manhole cover) are fed by DC along the cable (it causes corrosion and occasionally something burns out, expensively), but I don't know what backup cover there is for the voltage source, back at the 'exchange'. Given the size of the cooling fins on the diecast boxes underground, the system must use rather a lot of power and be quite inefficient.

So frankly, in the modern world, I'd expect all the security of landlines, etc. to be illusory after the first few hours of a serious power outage. We'd almost certainly lose mobile coverage very quickly.

And that would be the least of our problems. We're in a high part of the city, close to the Downs water tower. It's main use nowadays is as a mobile phone mast - AIUI it doesn't have the capacity to be useful as a water pressure regulator any more. There are huge pumps on that site though, maintaining the water pressure for a lot of north west Bristol. If they went down, we'd lose our water supply, which is probably a lot more of an issue than merely no leccy nor telephones.

Does London still get a lot of its water from boreholes? I think I'd heard that the aquifer was drying up faster than it was refilling, and that anyway contaminated groundwater was working its way downwards too.

E.

 

[Harbo]

Power cuts are perhaps not an issue in towns and city's but certainly are in our village which is fed by overhead lines.
Never had to phone 999 though but 101 a couple of times.
We also have no choice in broadband - BT or Plusnet!

Rod