Do I need a landline?

F

Frankie_W

Guest
Hi,

I'm trying to save some money these days to eat in to to credit card debts

I have a land line with Eircom, which I hardly ever use (my company pays my mobile bills), and broadband with BT.

I honestly haven't a clue how the billing is worked out between the two, but my Eircom bill is usually over e100, despite rarely using my landline. I'm assuming most of this is coming from my broadband bill???


Is it an option for me to get rid of my Eircom landline, or do I need it to maintain my BT broadband connection?

Sorry, I'm utterly clueless about these things, any advice for dummies like myself would be hugely appreciated.

Thank you.
 
You need a landline to maintain your BT broadband connection as the only provide DSL broadband. However, maybe other options are open to you? For example if you move to single, on-line billing with BT you can make some savings (e.g. IMB Broadband & Talk for €35) - check out the the BT Ireland website for more details. Alternatively, are there other providers in your area that could provide broadband without a land line (e.g. wireless, cable, etc) seeing as you don't use your phone much?
 
Many options available for you in this situation. The most important thing for you is to try and get a better understanding of the different choices so you know which one is right for you (reading through the many posts on broadband here on AAM would be a very good start).

Do you need your BB conection?
If you've (large) debt do you feel that BB is worth the costs.

I'm guessing the answer is yes or you wouldn't have posted this question.
To keep your current BT BB (DSL - so it connects through your phone line) you need your phone line. The bill of €100 does seem a bit high for someone with low phone usage. Have a look at some of the offers around (BT combined line rental, calls and BB, Smart line rental, calls and BB [€35], etc.) this could help reduce your bills.
[Many other offers on the market. Have a look through the key posts to see just what's available.]

You'll still be paying €25 p/month on line rental for a phone you technically don't need. If you decide that a DSL connection (through your phone line) is costing you too much then you can check out what companies offer BB in your area.

Chorus offer BB through cable, Wireless broadband (comes via an antenna not through a phone line or cable) is on offer from lots of different companies (again, check out the key posts for lots of details).

Try and figure out exactly what you need, from there it should be easy enough to figure out the cheapest way to get it.
 
Frankie_W said:
my Eircom bill is usually over e100, despite rarely using my landline. I'm assuming most of this is coming from my broadband bill???
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Surely your bill tells you what the charges are related to!? Line rental = €24 p.m. so the rest must be broadband and/or call charges.
 
ClubMan said:
Line rental = €24 p.m. so the rest must be broadband and/or call charges.
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I'm guessing (but could be wrong) bi-montly bills with €48 = line rental.
If the BT 1mb offer €20p/m..... so ~€40
That gives €88 before a call is made.


Given that phone usage is low, switching to Smart (though slow and akward [new number needed] to switch - down to Eircom) would give a fee of €70 (bi-monthly) + calls.
(Costs on calls can be further reduced using www.13434.ie or many other special rate services)
 
Good point Satanta. Another option might be UTV for free off peak national/UK calls. Of course there are oodles of options out there these days and what's most cost effective really depends on the individual's phone usage patterns. [broken link removed] might be useful when shopping around.
 
CCOVICH said:
Is Smart a good idea right now given the concerns over their future?
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Possibly not. Smart is just one example of the deals available (where I happen to know the cost).
Worth looking at all the offers available (details on most providers available on AAM - e.g. BT problems with billing etc.) and decide the one you feel is value for money.

Smart is the cheapest (at least that I am aware of) so given the need to clear debt, it might be worth going for the extra savings even given the risks with the current company situation. Given the situation the company is in, it could turn out to be a lot of work for nothing but headaches.

Purely a choice for the OP and not one I'd care to suggest going either way with.
 
Another problem with Smart is the fact that they only cover certain exchanges, and are very slow to roll out to new exchanges (not necessarily their fault). In light of their cash flow difficulties, I would be loath to depend on them if my exchange was not wired up at the moment (incidentally, this is the problem I have-Smart is not available in my area).
 
Another option is if you have NTL you can get your broadband through them - then you can get rid of your landline altogether.
 
jacobean said:
Another option is if you have NTL you can get your broadband through them - then you can get rid of your landline altogether.
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Not necessarily-NTL broadband seems to have very little coverage. I know plenty of people who have NTL Digital but cannot get NTL broadband. Ditto for Chorus.

The one thing I'll say for DSL over, say wireless, is that there appears to be far fewer reliability issues (albeit this is based on anecdotal evidence).
 
I would do the following if I was in your situation:

1) Try to get a bb connection that does not require a phone line
a) Wireless bb, like IBB, digiweb, chorus, ntl or local wireless isp's
Digiweb to a great deal with wireless bb and phone line for 20 euro or so
2) The all in one deals mentioned earlier like smart or bt inclusive are also well worth looking at.
3) Once you have gotten a bb connection that does not need a phone line, then get a voip solution like blueface or something that will give you landline fucntionality wihtout the bills, or even a Pay as you go landline solution.

Regards,
Eamon
 
Personally I would avoid Irish Broadband based on my very mixed experience with their home and business service offerings over the past few years. At the very least when considering any provider try to get an open ended or short term trial contract so that you can evaluate the service before committing to it longer term.
 
Wexfordman said:
Once you have gotten a bb connection that does not need a phone line, then get a voip solution like blueface or something that will give you landline fucntionality wihtout the bills, or even a Pay as you go landline solution.
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Anyone I know who has used Clearwire has found the VOIP to be useless.

I don't know any satisfied IBB customers (that's not to say that they don't exist).
 
VoIP over wireless broadband may result in problems. I think that some wireless broadband providers can tweak some (QoS?) settings for customers who specifically need lower latencies for VoIP and other multimedia applications.
 


I agree 100% clubman, but wireless does not mean that he cannot have a good voip service. I have a 512/256 wirelss connection from a rural wireless provider and I find voip works excellent (97of the time). The 3% of the time when it does not work is either down to voip issues with the provider or congestion probs from my provider, but it is 3% of the time only, and improving.

I would equate the reliabilty of my service with mobile phone coverage. You get the odd glitch as it is still an emerging tech (as is BB in ireland) but much improving. Well worth the odd hiccup for the 300 euros per year I am saving in rental alone (add cheaper/free call costs to this and i know I am saving close to 7 or 800 euro per year).

A good reliable BB service is the first requirement to do this though, and if you cant get one, then you are doomed to failure.

Wexfordman
 
Wexfordman said:
but wireless does not mean that he cannot have a good voip service.
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I never said that. I just pointed out that some wireless broadband setups may (by default) have latency problems which affect VoIP and multimedia applications.
 
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