Maybe a daft idea, BUT….

We use internet a lot, but mainly some forums, email and research etc.
We use phone a lot.
We are on bundled BT exchange, so when I add up line rental+calls+broadband+a mobile contract = a lot.
.
What about going ‘no landline’? eg Iphone or similar that we can (usually) check emails/forum surf etc, and that can be used as a modem if we want to use the desktop (eg upload flickr pics). I can get some silly cheap deals on minutes/texts and loads of data…
.
Daft? Downsides? Anyone else do it?

depends on if you have decent 3G coverage. if not, forget it.

and currently iphone can’t be tethered to a laptop/PC to use as a modem.

Change from BT to O2 for calls/broadband/mobile. Just keep BT as a bare minimum £10.50 line rental because you have to.

Mobile broadband can be OK provided you’re in a very good signal area. You may need to give consideration as to where in the house you’ll use it – obviously not an issue with regular home broadband. The latency can be pretty poor though, while it may be quite quick to transfer data there can feel like a lag between clicking on something and anything happening.

Can you get Virgin cable? We get 10Mb broadband, TV (inc iplayer) and phone with unlimited weekend calls for £14 a month.

concur.

you want something like talk talk do, line rental cheap incl calls and internerd.

then get a sim only moby with enough mins/mobile intertard and dont lose yer handset.

hth

as jambo says – without a decent 3G mobile alternative you’ll be stuck on GPRS baud rates which are pretty rubbish.

We dont have a “landline phone”, but we do have a BB landline.
Our mobile numbers are our only numbers.
We are with O2 sim only contract and it’s pretty good.
I get free unlimited data for about £5 a month too which is great as I use my phone as a modem/email/browser all the time when Im working away from home.

As soon as a 3G signal is consistent at my house (and it isnt at th emoment because of topography) I will probably drop the BB line and save £30 a month.

and currently iphone can’t be tethered to a laptop/PC to use as a modem.

Well it can, but you’d be in breach of your contract with O2.

not unless you’ve hacked it or are running the 3.0 beta.

Do you now lose something not having a physical landline number – I seem to recall some companies don’t like it if you don’t, though I may be talking complete tosh as normal.

And think how much those 0870 numbers are too as they’re not normally included in any ‘inclusive’ minutes.

And I’m assuming when we say “we…” there are multiple of you, so what happens if one person goes out and wants to take the mobile with them?

Check on the mobile reception where you are moving too – deep valley on the edge of the highlands – might be difficult.

Some interweb sites insist on a home phone number and numbers starting.. 07 or 08 are not valid

What TJ said. Any kind of ‘modern’ reception for stuff can be very patchy up here in the wilds.

breatheasy – mrs S and I have a mobile each.
That’s it.

john – if a company needs a landline number I give them one chance to provide the order over the phone. If they dont then they dont get my business. It has happened in the past.

O2 web bolt on for £7.50 is limited to 200Mb though (so 400Mb for the two of us) so at the moment wouldnt replace a BB landline.

the O2 mobile broadband product is £15 for 3Gb.

Stll cheaper than a BT Landline (£10.50) and BT BB (£25.00) = £35

FAO breatheasy
and anyone else paying both the telecoms companys and the businesses to call them, most usually to alert them to their mistakes….!

http://www.saynoto0870.com/

no land line here, interweb works fine with my mobile as modem, and the best bit is I dont get numpty’s ringing me attempting to sell me insurance, kitchens or double glazing 😀

Talk Talk etc = more expensive than BT, because it is a ‘locked’ exchange to BT. BT really is the only option it seems – even Orange (I am in contract) wanted £15 a month for their ‘free’ broadband with 1gb limit…. 🙁
Virgin cable? Not in the wilds….
I got full reception on Orange in the new house when we visited, and used google maps on the phone and it was as fast as here in Sheffield. Clearly not an accurate test, but good indicator. ‘3’ was also good reception, but not as good.
*If* The orange signal is good (or another provider), it seems that a mobile contract *could* be cheaper, with included minutes etc – for example my contract with Orange is free landline calls at all times, 600xnet minutes and (I think) 1gb of data for £30…(and a free phone, wii and £60 cash).
Thats waaay cheaper than using BT phone, BT broadband and a separate mobile contract…

Matt we have poor landline choices here, we were on BT but that was a rip off, now on talk talk for LL and BBI and shot our mobiles off for PAYG, much cheaper now

Have a land line and as I’m a slave to Murdoch, I get free calls and line rental as part of a TV+BB+phone package. Struggling to remember when I last made a call using it though…

Yeah forgot to mention, Sky is mucho cheap, sadly we couldn’t get it due to all the trees by us (and one of the reasons i’ve been without internet for so long)

matt – you should get free broadband with that. I do.

With Orange? yes, but ‘free’ on a BT exchange = £15 a month with 1gb limit

is that still not reasonably cheap overall?

yes, but Orange want me to sign up to 24 months contract, at current cost (was that for business use), which if I have a landline, I dont want to..

I guess I am being a Yorkshireman moving to Scotland…the cost of BT line (@£11pm)+ BB(@£15-20pm)+mobile(@£15-20pm) is @£500-600 per year!!!

Stay in Sheffield then 😡

Matt, do you want me to have a dig around here at work and see what we can come up with??

You gonna pop a mast up for him? 😯

Man you are awesum

Somewhere in the back of my head I think not having a landline makes you a higher credit risk in the eyes of those clever people who judge our suitability for loans and keep our economy bouyant. Maybe wrong though.

BANKERS – that was the word I was looking for.

Teetosugars – Member

Matt, do you want me to have a dig around here at work and see what we can come up with??
That would be great…

Whats yer new postcode Matt?

FK21 8SW

*Plans robbery*

Also, you can get Wifi adapters for 3G USB sticks. If you get great reception in one room, you could, in theory, put the stick + adapter in there and flood the rest of the house with Wifi. There are a number of drawbacks to mobile broadband, however. Might be worth seeing if you can get cable, as Virgin Media is offering some good deals at the moment, including £25 a month for TV, 10Mb cable and mobile broadband. Vodafone will also add mobile broadband to your monthly tariff for £5.

I read that as “landmine” and wondered why you’d be forced to have one (other than wanting one for the shed security).

If you can get virgin you don’t need a landline I believe, thats what I have in my flat and we get the TV stuff + BB with no Landline…

I don’t underand Matt. I got a 18 month contract with £10 off by waiting till after my contract ended.

£25 contract for £15 and free broadband (with bt landline)

Longweight – if you have cable to your door, you don’t need a landline. However, Virgin also offers a DSL option for those outside the cable footprint (about 49% of the UK), which will need a landline. DSL is pushed over the copper (or sometimes aluminium) lines originally installed by BT for voice.

Landline usage is falling steadily, because people tend to just use mobiles or VoIP instead of circuit switched voice. People get landlines purely for the broadband connection – I’ve done it myself. It’s a huge problem for the companies that own this stuff.

AS Cynic-al says, you can (and should) haggle like hell. I saved £60 a year on my Virgin connection – landline, M TV package and XL broadband for £28 a month. It would have cost more if I’d said no to the phone line. 😆

No cable in the wilds where Matt is moving to. Infact he will be lucky to have ‘leccy