Dropping the landline and just using mobiles

[Arron]

Hi. My wife and I have a landline and mobiles. These days I notice the only calls we seem to get on the landline are the sort we don't much care for. I think its time we reviewed our whole residential internet/communications thing as we are getting fairly ordinary service from current providers and the hardware needs replacing. So I'm wondering about dropping the landline and just using our mobiles.

I don't think we would save a lot of money as we have already converted the landline to VOIP. Its more a 'one less thing to worry about' thing.

My only reservation is that we would loose our landline number - which we have had for 30 years. Seems a bit of a wrench but on the other hand why is it a big thing if so few people ring us on it anyway.

The only overseas calls I make are to NZ, about once a month but fairly short.

So I'm wondering what other people who have dropped their landline have found. Is there something important I may be overlooking ? Something they forgot about and found out about the hard way ?

cheers
Arron

[ironik]

We bought a place about a year back with no copper installed so our only other option was to go VOIP. Never bothered setting it up, we rarely used the landline anyway and only seemed to be a target for telemarketers. A year on I can't say I've noticed any difference. The only issue we've had is with forgetting to charge the mobiles... if you are prone to this, or for whatever reason your phone breaks then you might be uncontactable for a bit.

My partner uses her international dialling card for O/S phone calls so the cost is the same regardless of mobile/landline/carrier (local call + card cost).

[jimfish]

Arron we dropped our landline when we moved to Tassie around 5 years ago and haven't missed it at all. Our internet is via fixed radio nbn which has also been a huge improvement over our old satellite broadband.

[BobL]

We dropped our landline 3 months ago - best thing we've done for some time.

MIL calls dropped from a couple a day to ~ once a week and they go direct to SWMBO'smobile who has no qualms about letting them go to voice mail and no more "let us fix your computer"

[DaveTTC]

Havent had a landline for maybe 5 yrs

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

[rrich]

The trend here in the US is that most people 35 and under do not have land lines. Another curious note is that the previous telephone company giants are selling off their land line networks. (Verizon selling to Frontier) They're even dumping the Internet and Cable TV services in with the land lines.

When the land line is sold I'm considering dumping the land line and changing the cable TV / Internet services also.

The communications landscape has changed more in the last 10 years than the previous 100 years.

[Fuzzie]

I don't use a mobile an awful lot but I recently changed my mobile to a data only sim on a pay as you go plan. I loaded an annual pass that includes a few gig allowance for $50. The data only sim has a telephone number and I can receive calls and send and receive sms as normal. To make an outgoing call I have configured a voip service so calls go via the data service. No way am I going to use 5GB on voip in 12 months.

[DonIncognito]

The only reason I have had a landline in the last decade has been to connect to the internet.

[snowyskiesau]

I only had a landline as it was a requirement for an ADSL connection. I had planned to drop it when NBN was connected but as porting the number over to VOIP was free, decided to keep it.
I usually give people my mobile number, not many have the landline number but it is listed.

[artful bodger]

Doesn't anyone worry about the future risks of brain cancer from using mobile phones that may take 20-30 years to manifest? Guess it doesn't matter if your an old codger 50+ like me but what about the young ones?
Might sound alarmist. However if you had told these guys shovelling asbestos at Wittenoom on a picknick day they were all going to die from it they prolly woulda laughed at ya.
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/139c600ddaf9637f991e7df0e4118fa4

[bsrlee]

Mobile only- if you ring 000 in an emergency and can't talk coherently there is no way to locate you quickly, and if your phone goes flat while they are trying to find where your call is coming from........

With a landline the address comes up automatically at the call centre (Police/Fire/Ambulance) so you will get attention more accurately and probably quicker.

20 years service answering 000 calls for NSW Police.

[DaveTTC]

Good point. Ive rung 000 numerous times over the last 10 years but never from home yet. Hope it stays that way

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

[Arron]

Mobile only- if you ring 000 in an emergency and can't talk coherently there is no way to locate you quickly, and if your phone goes flat while they are trying to find where your call is coming from........

With a landline the address comes up automatically at the call centre (Police/Fire/Ambulance) so you will get attention more accurately and probably quicker.

20 years service answering 000 calls for NSW Police.

Good point. That's what I wanted - to hear about the things I would never have thought of.

Thanks
Arron

[BCC]

Pardon my ignorance. We only really have our land line to get ADSL2. How do I get the internet without the land line?

Bruce

[Arron]

Yeah, sorry. I meant keeping the actual copper wire and data service, but dropping the phone service and phone handset.

[DaveTTC]

Pardon my ignorance. We only really have our land line to get ADSL2. How do I get the internet without the land line?

Bruce
Ive got wireless broadband (NBN)

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

[artful bodger]

With an air card. It's a small device that connects you to the internet without the need for a landline.

[q9]

You can get naked dsl - adsl but without a "phone" phone line, or I somehow got some discounted line rental with telstra when I ditched the call component. I used engin, and that registered an address against the phone number and was usable for 000 calls. NBN is the other choice for going phone line free.

Here in Japan, I haven't had a landline at all, but do have mobile. For calls home to Aussieland, I use skype - $16 of credit lasts me ages. Other than that, I basically never call anyone using the actual phone - apps like skype, line, etc do that for free.

[Arron]

Yes, I've thought of the Skype option but the two people overseas we call are 84+ years old - so I don't want to put them through the hassle of learning something new.

Anyway, I bought a phone card and tried using it with the mobile for call overseas for a test - wasn't bad. Not as clear as the landline - but then I got the cheapest card so maybe I should have spent more.

As the NBN is a long way off for this neighbourhood I'm thinking naked DSL plus mobiles. Its the 000 number thing that's making me hesitate. Exactly what was mentioned is what recently happened to the MIL.

cheers
Arron

[DaveTTC]

Yes, I've thought of the Skype option but the two people overseas we call are 84+ years old - so I don't want to put them through the hassle of learning something new.

Anyway, I bought a phone card and tried using it with the mobile for call overseas for a test - wasn't bad. Not as clear as the landline - but then I got the cheapest card so maybe I should have spent more.

As the NBN is a long way off for this neighbourhood I'm thinking naked DSL plus mobiles. Its the 000 number thing that's making me hesitate. Exactly what was mentioned is what recently happened to the MIL.

cheers
Arron
You can get skype credit whih allows you to ring a land line

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

[Arron]

You can get skype credit whih allows you to ring a land line

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

I did not know that.
Thanks
Arron

[q9]

I did not know that.
Thanks
Arron

Yeah, that's what I meant. You can call normal phones with it as well, super cheap rates. I use if to call people all over the SEA area, and Oz. $16 lasts me a long time...I even paid for an inbound number at one point. Didn't bother to renew that...but it is an option.