Landline Telephones

[PanBiker]

I had an issue yesterday with the landline. Incoming calls when answered just kept ringing but with a buzzing type ring. No dial tone if you wanted to make an outgoing call. The VDSL side and the fibre braodband component of the line was fine apart from a slight drop in speed from my normal 39mbps to 32mbps.

I went on the online tech support chat and had to move from my laptop to establishing a chat connection via 4G on my mobile phone as the tests they needed to run would disconnect the landline, broadband and everything. Upshot was they detected an exchange faut and raised a ticket with Open Reach.

Open Reach called on me this morning to shove a tone onto the line from my master socket. Only took about 5 minutes from then to sort the problem, they have flipped me onto another spare line. Dial tone is back and I have just checked my broadband speed which is nailed back to where it should be at 39mbps and showing a 60mbps max available on the line.

I will be seeing Open Reach again tomorrow afternoon as they are installing a new line for us at the Bosom Friends Centre for the broadband connection to our smart display and Wifi througout the building.

[Tripps]

New topic, and very timely for me to unburden myself.

I changed my land line number a while ago having become tired of nuisance calls intended for the previous owner. Now I have the same problem again.

A lady phoned me from "Switzerland" to ask me what sort of skin I had.

I replied - the usual - the type that stops your blood from leaking.

She had little sense of humour or irony, and continued to say that I qualified for a special promotion on mens' grooming products including moisturiser and shaving cream. We had a pleasant enough conversation, and nothing I said would convince her that I had little use for a moisturiser. I use Morrsons shaving foam (£1.00) and Bic single blade razors from Homebase (5 for 50p).

I've registered the line with the Telephone preference Service. We'll see what happens. I doubt foreign operators will take any notice. I found later she was actually calling from an Italian number.

[Wendyf]

We are considering doing away with the landline as we mainly just get nuisance calls.

[chinatyke]

We did away with ours 4 years ago and haven't noticed any ill effects though I wasn't pleased at the time when my wife told me what she'd done. I guess they are old fashioned now and the young kids wouldn't be able to use a handset with a dial on it . (Do they still have those?)

We still get nuisance calls on our smart phones but most come with a message like "Spam" or "Advertising" or "Property Company" so we just reject them or I answer and say I'm in London and they can't get off the line quick enough! Have fun at their expense!

[Tripps]

Within 4 minutes of my posting above - I got an email from Plusnet headed 'updates to your service', with the sub heading 'changes to prices'.

Guess what - 'update' and 'change' means increase. Looks like £2 per month.

I think I need a landline to get the internet? Also I believe it's one of the factors taken into account during credit checking, and having one counts in your favour. I think it's more reliable than just a mobile with the risk of flat battery or loss at a critical time.

I'll do nothing and let the 'triple lock' look after it.

[chinatyke]

I think I need a landline to get the internet?

We have a physical cable connection for the internet and the telephone used to come through the same connection as the Internet. Apparently we save about 60 pence a month by not having a telephone number allocated to us. Big deal! My wife was right in that we don't need a telephone number - we haven't missed it.

[Pluggy]

The only thing keeping the landline going is that in many/most parts of the world and certainly in Britain, is that getting reasonably fast & cost effective internet is dependant on old school landlines. My daughter for one and I'm pretty certain she isn't the only one has a land line and has never connected a phone to it. It does the essential stuff like Netflix, but voice calls are what mobiles do. My father who has never done internet (or text messages for that matter) killed off his landline years ago because he got fed up of paying £20 a month or so line rental to make and receive about 6 calls.

[Wendyf]

Our landline has never provided more than dial-up speeds. Mobile reception here can be a bit iffy especially upstairs, so any emergency calls in the night would go unheard. I might persuade the boss to keep it for a bit longer...

[Marilyn]

I don't know anyone with a landline.

[Stanley]

My view is that when required to give a telephone number, mandatory on most web orders, I never give a mobile but the landline. I don't get nuisance calls on my mobile.... And I ignore the landline unless I am waiting for an order to be delivered. It seems to work.

[PanBiker]

My landline is to deliver broadband in the main. The telephone side of things is a bonus and with the call barring etc works quite well. When you commission a new line from Open Reach you are allocated a new mumber from the pool,, it needs the number as it is part of the lines ID at the exchange. Whether you choose to connect a telephone receiver to the line is entirely up to you. As it is at moment we still need the copper to deliver any services to our premises so the existing network will be in use for some time yet.

Maz, how do you get broadband internet into your house? Or are you considering that a landline only equates to a telephone hung on the end?

[chinatyke]

Or are you considering that a landline only equates to a telephone hung on the end?

Will telephone handsets soon become a "forgotten corner?"

[Stanley]

Consider this, we see so many times that in cases of emergency mobiles are either disconnected or overloaded and become useless. A landline is less likely to be so affected. Belt and braces, never a bad strategy.

[Whyperion]

Consider this, we see so many times that in cases of emergency mobiles are either disconnected or overloaded and become useless. A landline is less likely to be so affected. Belt and braces, never a bad strategy.

And make sure its not a digital handset requiring mains power for the base station, as it wont dial into the phone network. So a wired phone (dont know if some base stations have internal battery back-up supply)

[PanBiker]

No internet since Thursday, line failed again, completely dead. On phone and 4G to make this post.

[Tizer]

A landline scam going on at the moment is where you get a recorded voice that says `Your internet connection is about to be disconnected' and then the line appears to go dead. They're hoping you'll try to phone your internet provider but they're still holding the line and will pretend to be the internet company.

[Stanley]

There are some nasty buggers out there Tiz!
I rang Susan on my landline yesterday. She has very bad ears and says that the landline is much easier for her than using her mobile phone. For some reason she can hear it much better.

[Tizer]

I now prefer receiving calls from a landline rather than a mobile phone, but when I'm at home it's at least partly due to poor signal in our area. I find it frustrating that the government makes so many promises about giving good mobile reception to people in remote rural areas and yet we get poor reception here and we're only about a mile from the centre of Taunton.

[Whyperion]

Mum finds it easier to hear me If I phone her rather than talk to her in the room.

[PanBiker]

A landline scam going on at the moment is where you get a recorded voice that says `Your internet connection is about to be disconnected' and then the line appears to go dead. They're hoping you'll try to phone your internet provider but they're still holding the line and will pretend to be the internet company.

I'm back on and no scam involved with my problem. Chris the Open Reach guy and Hamzar who fixed it last week were both on the case. Turns out, since Hamzar switched me onto a anothe pair at the exchange. Someone else the day after decided to claim my line in the cabinet for another connection. My line was disconnected at the exchange and in the fibre cabinet! Chris reconnected me at the exchange but it still showed an error which was then traced to the disconnect in the fibre cabinet. Line test done backwards from my terminal block in the kitchen to the exchange and all is back as it should be.

I had another Open Reach team with me earlier this morning. They were installing the line at the Bosom Friends Centre. One engineer turned up early to cone off the road and stayed to guard the patch until the hoist team turned up. I saw them on site when I came back from the vets after taking our Millie on to colne for some dental work. I let them into the centre so they could check from the master socket. All well but the line will not be commissioned until Open Reach have told Talk Talk that the line is in place, probably midnight tonight.

[Tizer]

Just had a scam call from a recorded woman's voice telling me that my Amazon Prime account is about to be terminated. Press 1 to speak to a member of Amazon's staff. More likely press 1 to get all my personal details scammed!

[Big Kev]

Openreach came out to me Wednesday afternoon, very crackly phone line and broadband dropping out. The issue was 'up the pole' apparently. He swapped out the line pair and had a tidy up, all has been good so far. Fibre gets switch on on the 22nd so I should certainly notice a difference, I can see the cabinet from my house so just a short hop on the copper. My ISP has gauranteed 60mbps minimum.

My original quote of £29 a month has been updated, another discount has been added and it's now £24.50 a month

[Tizer]

At that rate it'll be free by March!

We've had more scam calls. A repeat of this mornings Amazon Prime call and two which flash up as International but show an 0203 number. A quick web search showed lots of folk are getting scam calls with London numbers but come from overseas due to spoofing UK numbers.

[Big Kev]

At that rate it'll be free by March!

I hope so

[Big Kev]

We've had more scam calls. A repeat of this mornings Amazon Prime call and two which flash up as International but show an 0203 number. A quick web search showed lots of folk are getting scam calls with London numbers but come from overseas due to spoofing UK numbers.

The call screening provided with my landline is doing a good job