how many have gotten rid of the old landline and how does that work for you?

Landlines cost money and are they still necesary to have internet?

i keep mine also as at present 1300 or 131 numbers are expensive on my mobile but this seems to be changing with plans including allowances for these now.

My mobile doesnt have message bank as that is expensive on my plan and i dont want to be interupted by phone calls day and night so i dont give out my mobile to everyone when i prefer a message left on my landline. I keep my mobile for me to make calls but for me to receive only urgent calls from family or work.

I have saved money by adding a small amount extra per month which gives me unlimited texting as i do text alot.

How does it work to only have mobiles and what are the benefits and drawbacks.

Thanks

Francine
 
Francine,

Have you also looked at having Naked DSL for your internet connection (no phone line rental required) and using VOIP for a telephone line? Generally Naked DSL plans cost about $10 per month more than an equivalent ADSL plan, and you then save the line rental fee for your phone line. Also calls on the VOIP phone are a lot cheaper than a traditional phone.

We are moving soon and will be looking at doing this in our new place.

Jason
 
We looked into this but it wasnt available in our area. Need ADSL2+ to have Naked DSL? I think it's a great idea though, we hardly use our house phone aswell.
 
Mobile phones and wireless internet don't work in my apartment so I'm stuck with the fixed phone line. Apparently it's quite common in apartment buildings so a lot of people will probably have to stick with the land line until something can be done to overcome this problem. I'm also stuck with Telstra as Optus don't service my building. Telstra cost more, but I must say my telephone experiences have been FAR more pleasant with them, than I've ever had with Optus so almost makes it worth it.
 
I have a landline, but it is only used for my Naked DSL line. I use VoIP (NodePhone) for all inbound and outbound calls. My monthly mobile bill is only $11 (includes $10 worth of calls, which I rarely use) - but I work from home so I don't tend to need the mobile much.
 
i havent had one for about 3 years.

I use my mobile so much i need two batteries though (about 6 hours a day on the fone).
 
I have a landline, but it is only used for my Naked DSL line. I use VoIP (NodePhone) for all inbound and outbound calls. My monthly mobile bill is only $11 (includes $10 worth of calls, which I rarely use) - but I work from home so I don't tend to need the mobile much.

We are on the Fusion 99 plan with Optus. We get 20G (which we sometimes use up and then slow down to dial up speed ughhhh!!!) but 20G seems good for us (three heavy users).

We get free calls to landlines and mobiles and no charge for line rental with this plan.

My son is wanting me to get DSL or (naked DSL?), ditch the landline and use VOIP. His main complaint is that even broadband internet is SLOW, at least slower than naked DSL. This son knows a lot, but also knows that he can bombard me with facts that I have no way of checking.

I am happy to use VOIP if it is stable. I have one friend and I called her on her VOIP and it dropped out three times in ten minutes. I would throw it through the window so I don't need the aggravation of that happening.

Is this common? Is ADSL really SO MUCH faster than broadband?

When he bombards me with "I want this" type stuff, I tend to just say "NO" because then I can have a quiet think without the pestering.

I know the young 'uns are happy to use their mobiles all day, but I don't plan on holding that thing to my head for an hour if I want a long chat, so mobile only is not an option.
 
We have considered this but still have youngish kids - at 5 and 10, still too young for their own mobile phones (although the 10yo has started campaigning:rolleyes:). Which means we have to keep a landline for them to make and receive calls. Otherwise, I think we would go naked (tee hee:p).
Also, these days, I think only my mother and one friend (one of those rare people who doesn't have her own mobile) ring the landline with any regularity. They're certainly the only regular callers who ever leave messages on the answerphone.
 
please tell me more about voip

wow thanks for all that.

adsl is much faster than dial up if thats what you mean. and you can view you tube etc which you cant do on dial up. are you on dial up?

I never really understood the requirements advantages and disadvantages of voip and how it exactly works tell me more please.

do you have a phone that you need to stay next to or do you have a handset that you can move around the house with, as i couldnt stand to have to be near the computer and no mobile.

I use my mobile phone for all calls except 1300 13 calls which cost more .i know 3 who i am with are now bringing in plans that you can do 1300 and 13 cals with reasonably.

I do like to know i have my landline for emergencies or for poeple i dont want ot speak to personally who can leave a message but when there are good alternatives i will probably let it go despite that i also like the phone number of my home phone.

Francine
 
My son is wanting me to get DSL or (naked DSL?), ditch the landline and use VOIP. His main complaint is that even broadband internet is SLOW, at least slower than naked DSL. This son knows a lot, but also knows that he can bombard me with facts that I have no way of checking.

I am happy to use VOIP if it is stable. I have one friend and I called her on her VOIP and it dropped out three times in ten minutes. I would throw it through the window so I don't need the aggravation of that happening.

Is this common? Is ADSL really SO MUCH faster than broadband?

ADSL is a form of broadband. I think you might be referring to "cable" versus "ADSL". Cable broadband uses the same coaxial cable that PayTV uses. ADSL uses your copper phone line.

Maximum theoretical speed from a single ADSL2+ service is 24Mbps, but in reality, even if you lived right next to the exchange, you would only get just over 20Mbps due to transmission losses. I live about 1.5km from my exchange and my ADSL link syncs at just over 16Mbps.

ADSL is aggregated at the exchange - my copper line literally goes from my house to the exchange and I get exclusive use of it between those two points.

Cable generally connects at the same speed for everyone, but it is a shared network. That means you and all your neighbours who are using the same cable, share the available bandwidth on your cable run. If nobody else is using it, you will get close to the full speed available. If everyone is online and doing lots of stuff, your speeds will slow down. It can vary a lot. When it is good, it is excellent, when it is bad it is horrid.

ADSL doesn't tend to suffer from time of day variations in speed (unless the upstream network is congested, but that's a problem any form of internet connection will suffer from - and it means it is time to get a better ISP).

Whether ADSL or Cable is better for you depends on your needs and usage patterns (and for Cable, the usage patterns of all your neighbours!). Ironically, if you move off cable, your neighbours speed will improve slightly :D

Not all VoIP services are equal. You generally get what you pay for. Free services have no guaranteed quality of service, and if it breaks, bad luck. Cheap services can sometimes work - but your mileage may vary.

I have some friends who use a VoIP service here in Sydney and I have difficulty talking to them on the phone, the line is noisy and very garbled. They use a (relatively) cheap VoIP provider.

I recommend using a VoIP service that is tied to your ISP - something that is optimised for use over your internet connection. There are a couple of good ones out there.

I use Internode as my ISP and use NodePhone for my VoIP. It is not a "toy" system, Internode have built a carrier-grade VoIP service (ie it is designed to be highly reliable). I rely on it 100% for all my personal and business phone calls and it just works and the quality is excellent. It doesn't cost much at all either.

Just remember that any service that relies on your internet connection, will only be as reliable as your internet connection is. Make sure you have reliable hardware, and that your phone line and the phone cabling inside your house - is all optimised for your ADSL link.

If there is a lot of noise on your phone line, your router will likely keep losing sync and have to re-connect to the internet. That will cause phone conversations to drop out.

VoIP is great, but if you are going to rely on it, you have to do it properly.
 
Thanks Sim.

I will investigate further. I don't imagine that adsl (or naked?) will be SLOWER than cable. Is that possible?

There is a huge difference in speed when we drop back to dial up speed, and as long as I don't pay more than $99 a month for phone and internet, I would be happy to go to VOIP with a reliable service.

I will dig about a little and see what is out there.
 
Interesting.

As a broker I am finding that most clients under 30 have no home phone and only use their mobile.

Wylie, I'm on the Fusion ADSL plan too. I've often thought of ditching the home phone but my children don't have mobiles yet and I'm putting that off as long as I can.:p

The home phone is there - always with credit and always charged.


Regards JO
 
If that the case then one option is "Telstra Home Bundle – 12GB"
which cost $98/month

I think you can do much better than Telstra.

Here's another option, assuming you can get Naked Extreme ADSL2+ at your location (not available everywhere):

http://www.internode.on.net/residential/broadband/adsl/nakedextreme/pricing/

Internode Home-NakedExtreme-20 $59.95 per month, 20GB data, no phone line rental charge (saves you $30+ per month potentially!!) ... just add a VoIP capable router and sign up for NodePhone VoIP.

If you can't get Internode's Naked Extreme ADSL2+, there are other options.
 
We got rid of our land line ages ago. We moved the original land-line number to the VOIP line so callers didn't notice anything.

We have a crappy ADSL service though outside of the house and it's just the way it is here. The junction box had flooded a few years back due to some road works occuring in the street - it hasn't been 100% every since even after numerous complaints with our ISP/Telstra...

We have our mobile as backup so it's not too much of an issue, and we have good ADSL hardware. The wiring in the house is CAT-5 cabling, with a central splitter before going into the house and a re-wiring to a single external point in the house.

I guess, what that means is that our house wiring is excellent, it's Telstra and our distance from the exchange that's the issue. However, we're relativley happy with the ISP and the service.
 
We're very attached to our landline. We have adsl and a mobile. Landline redirects to the mobile when we are out or it is engaged, so all our messages end up on the mobile.

Round here people are quite phonenumberist - if your number doesn't start with the requisite 4 digits, you are discriminated against. So we do like our landline.
 
I avoiding paying for a landline in the last place we rented, but decided to go the wireless broadband + voip (Engin). I highly recommend that people DON'T DO THIS.

It was worse than a mobile call over a satellite link over a tin can in the Nullabor. Calls would drop out, echo, garble... basically because the underlying Internet connection was wireless.

The only reason I went this way was because I couldn't get Naked DSL, as the house was connected to a sub-Exchange (newer area, old exchange ran out of ports so they piggy back a new Exchange onto it).

Now, the total distance from the local exchange to whatever house I'm renting at the time is one of the top 3 criterion in selecting a place to live. ;)
 
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