# Who has ditched their landline?



## Northerner (Jun 29, 2014)

I've had the most atrocious noise on my landline for the past couple of weeks with the result that my broadband connection is getting repeatedly dropped. When I am connected it is painfully slow. I've finally resolved to dump my landline and BB in favour of Three mobile network, using a Mifi. I have a Virgin mobile phone for the rare occasions that anyone actually calls me.

Can anyone report their success or problems after doing this? I know AlisonM does this and has suggested a good deal that will be more than adequate for me and probably save me over £200 a year (and hopefully the frustration I'm currently experiencing).  I've used a Three dongle in the past on PAYG and have found connection speeds to be fine.


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## KookyCat (Jun 29, 2014)

In my old house I never had a landline just a Vodafone dongle, mostly because the previous owner hadn't paid BT for their landline and BT couldn't sort out the mess.  It was absolutely fine for most things, but didn't stream large video files well.  That said it was a Vodafone signal issue that caused the problem rather than the technology, but other than that I was very happy and it cost less than the landline rental, call charges and ISP charges by a country mile.


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## Northerner (Jun 29, 2014)

Thanks KookyCat  I don't really do a lot of downloading of big video files. I've been monitoring my usage over the past few months and I use about 8gb a month, so the 16gb Three contract should be fine for me.


Well, the landline has finally got so bad that I can't call out at all, the noise is deafening  Earlier I could just about get a connection after dialling my mobile and letting it ring a few times, but now it won't even connect. So, having to use my dongle which is working fine. I'm now going to look up how to get out of my BT contract and close my BB with Eclipse.


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## Northerner (Jun 29, 2014)

Well, it looks like BT _should_ be fairly straightforward, but apparently Eclipse have a reputation for trying to screw a last-gasp bit of cash out of you. I don't care, since overall I'll still be saving a lot of money and when it's done, it's done. Just looked and my upload/download speeds using the dongle are 4x faster than the Eclipse connection ever is, even when it's working 'well'.


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## AlisonM (Jun 29, 2014)

Me, moi, I have. As Northe said I use my moby (EE, whose support is atrocious) and a MiFi dongle (Three, who are brill). I have excellent reception and can stream movies and music if I want to without problems. I can also take the MiFi with me when I go anywhere and connect up to five things although the most I've done is three and there were no issues there either.

The only tiny moan I have is that their online dashboard isn't great for showing exactly how much of your limit you've used up, and doesn't roll back to zero at the end of the month. Instead, it continues to add up everything you've used since the beginning of your contract, but I haven't gone over yet so it's not a major issue.


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## Northerner (Jun 30, 2014)

OK, final straw. I reported the fault, went through all their checks and they say they will need to send out an engineer. If fault is something inside my property then I will be charged £130 callout fee (which I knew they threaten anyway). I have been a BT customer for 30 years and they have never done anything for me, despite the thousands I must have paid them in all this time. I'm going to tell them just to cancel the landline and I'll manage without it - not risking that kind of charge when I am ditching them anyway


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## KookyCat (Jun 30, 2014)

Blimey, they didn't do that with my Mum, they did say that you have to pay for the repair if it's found to be a fault inside the property, but not a call out fee.  To be honest I was confused by it all, because basically it seemed the only thing in your property that could be at fault was your phone, or additional sockets because they are responsible for the master socket (which as it happens was the problem).  So if you've plugged in another phone to the master socket and it still does it it appears to be their problem.  Scare tactics if you ask me!


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## Northerner (Jun 30, 2014)

All done, BT and Eclipse cancelled. BT guy tried to persuade me it was highly unlikely I would be charged, but I explained that even so the potential charge was excessive. He tried to deflect this by saying it wasn't BT but a separate company who provides the engineers blah blah.

Eclipse just involved an automated phone call, press 1, press 3 etc.

Hurrah! Free of them at last!


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## Northerner (Jun 30, 2014)

Just discovered another con. By going mobile (or if I had gone for Virgin) I no longer need a MAC code. However, if you don't transfer your MAC code to a new BB supplier then BT charge £30  Rip off merchants


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## AlisonM (Jun 30, 2014)

Northerner said:


> Just discovered another con. By going mobile (or if I had gone for Virgin) I no longer need a MAC code. However, if you don't transfer your MAC code to a new BB supplier then BT charge £30  Rip off merchants



Don't pay them!


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## Northerner (Jun 30, 2014)

AlisonM said:


> Don't pay them!



I'm going to see if they can do it legally. I didn't sign up for it and it sounds like it breaks competition laws if they can 'fine' you for choosing a non-BT-based provider.

Ally, I've looked on the Three site and I'm very confused by the different plans and prices, could you tell me what plan you went for? PM if you'd rather not say on here  (or not if you'd rather not say at all, I won't mind! )


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## AlisonM (Jun 30, 2014)

Mine was the 15Gb per month over 24 months contract. But I see it's gone up considerably since I got mine. I pay a little over £18 per month and they now want £23.16p/m. Ouch! Still, it's a good service and I like the flexibility, I'd still consider it.


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## Northerner (Jun 30, 2014)

AlisonM said:


> Mine was the 15Gb per month over 24 months contract. But I see it's gone up considerably since I got mine. I pay a little over £18 per month and they now want £23.16p/m. Ouch! Still, it's a good service and I like the flexibility, I'd still consider it.



Ah, that's what's happened then, I had it in my mind that it was less than £20, but it appears that I procrastinated too long and paid for it! It still saves me a bundle though, so will go for it when my current dongle allowance is used up  Thanks  

I think the confusion is that, in their 'Price Guide' they give different prices for apparently the same thing, but with no details, and none that actually match the offers available!


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## KookyCat (Jun 30, 2014)

It is a con, I don't know how they get away with it!


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## Northerner (Jun 30, 2014)

KookyCat said:


> It is a con, I don't know how they get away with it!



They won't if I can help it, it's not something I have ever agreed to with either company and it wasn't in my contract when I took up either service. OfCom may have to be involved!


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## Vicsetter (Jun 30, 2014)

Northerner said:


> Just discovered another con. By going mobile (or if I had gone for Virgin) I no longer need a MAC code. However, if you don't transfer your MAC code to a new BB supplier then BT charge £30  Rip off merchants



Most ISP's pass on the BT Wholesale cessation charge (even the likes of Tiscali) and have done so since 2005/8 (can't be precise here).  However if you signed up to BT for your broadband that is not BT wholesale.  BT have cleverly split the group up, so support for phone lines/exchanges etc is a service which BT subcontract to BT Openreach (a separate company within the group).  Plusnet ( a BT company) explains it all here: http://www.plus.net/support/customer_service/billing/cessation_charges.shtml
Doesn't look like there is a way out, if you don't pay then expect the debt collectors!


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## Northerner (Jun 30, 2014)

Vicsetter said:


> Most ISP's pass on the BT Wholesale cessation charge (even the likes of Tiscali) and have done so since 2005/8 (can't be precise here).  However if you signed up to BT for your broadband that is not BT wholesale.  BT have cleverly split the group up, so support for phone lines/exchanges etc is a service which BT subcontract to BT Openreach (a separate company within the group).  Plusnet ( a BT company) explains it all here: http://www.plus.net/support/customer_service/billing/cessation_charges.shtml
> Doesn't look like there is a way out, if you don't pay then expect the debt collectors!



Cheers Vic. Yes, I've read on a few websites that there doesn't seem to be a way out of their weasly operations and obfuscation.


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## Northerner (Jun 30, 2014)

But wait a minute...!



> Many thanks for your email.
> 
> The cease charge came into effect in April 2007, the same month that you joined Eclipse. As a gesture of goodwill I have raised a credit to counteract the cease charge on your final invoice.



Hurrah!  Get in!


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## KookyCat (Jun 30, 2014)

Northerner said:


> But wait a minute...!
> 
> 
> 
> Hurrah!  Get in!



Well done!


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## Northerner (Jun 30, 2014)

Something that is still confusing me about the Three deals is this:

There is a 'Mobile Wifi' deal offering 10gb/month on a rolling 1 month contract, priced at £21.16, and with an upfront cost of £29.99 for the Huawei ES220 MiFi device.

There is a 'Mobile Broadband' Sim-only deal offering 10gb/month on a rolling 1 month contract, priced at £15.99, with no upfront cost, so approx. £5/month cheaper.

I can buy the MiFi device from amazon for about £40, so getting the Sim-only deal would cost me £10 more, but I would recoup that in two months and only pay £15.99 from then on.

What's going on?  10gb would be fine for me, is there any technical reason for not taking the cheaper option? Help!


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## Vicsetter (Jun 30, 2014)

Sounds ok to me Alan, although you still haven't got a phone.  
Had you seen that the 'all you can eat' data plans include 2GB hotspot for free, you would have to sign up for 2 yrs but £22 a month would get all you can eat data, 100 minutes phone calls and free 0800 numbers and a phone, so you can work this forum without a computer  Certain areas of Southampton can get 4G as well.
I am not sure what is included but if you have a phone then the Ultimate SIM 200 (SIM only deal) is all-you can eat data, 200 minutes and 500 texts for £12.90 on a rolling 1 month contract (£9.90 on 12 month contract), I am sure you could buy a phone cheap from Amazon or elsewhere.

It's a minefield out there, so I hope that hasn't muddied the water for you.


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## Northerner (Jun 30, 2014)

Vicsetter said:


> Sounds ok to me Alan, although you still haven't got a phone.
> Had you seen that the 'all you can eat' data plans include 2GB hotspot for free, you would have to sign up for 2 yrs but £22 a month would get all you can eat data, 100 minutes phone calls and free 0800 numbers and a phone, so you can work this forum without a computer  Certain areas of Southampton can get 4G as well.
> I am not sure what is included but if you have a phone then the Ultimate SIM 200 (SIM only deal) is all-you can eat data, 200 minutes and 500 texts for £12.90 on a rolling 1 month contract (£9.90 on 12 month contract), I am sure you could buy a phone cheap from Amazon or elsewhere.
> 
> It's a minefield out there, so I hope that hasn't muddied the water for you.



Not bothered about a phone Vic - I've got one on PAYG with Virgin and it costs me about £5 a year! I expect that will go up a bit now I don't have a landline, but not by much, I've never been much of one for phones at any level of technology, it's more so that people can phone me  

Just looking for WiFi broadband really. I can't think of any reason why the 10gb sim wouldn't work as I suggested, I can't see how it can be any different to the pre-loaded sims you can buy off google for dongles and MiFi devices, one of which I'm currently using in my dongle. The problem with a dongle is that I can't use it for my tablet or kindle.

I think I'll ask them tomorrow


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## Northerner (Jul 1, 2014)

Just went on chat with one of their advisors - yes, apparently the 10gb deal will work fine as I suggested, no need to go for the £21.16 deal! And it's £15, not £15.99, so even cheaper!


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## Northerner (Jul 2, 2014)

OK, the 10gb £15 deal has been ordered  This saves me at least £240 a year over my previous arrangement 

Still don't understand the logic behind their pricing  This deal offered me the MiFi device as an extra for a monthly cost of £5.49 with no upfront cost. Erm...why not just buy one? Even if you took this as well it works out about £1 cheaper per month than their 10gb plan including the MiFi, and you have to pay £30 upfront with that! Very odd


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## AlisonM (Jul 2, 2014)

I have to 'fess up'.  I actually found the deal I ended up with on one of the comparison websites - forget which one. It was the best offer out there (given that I particularly wanted MiFi and a good download limit at a decent price) at the time so I jumped at it, the 10Gb option was more expensive at then. It does mean I can take it with me whenever and wherever, which is handy given how much time I spent hanging around in surgery or hospital waiting rooms.  But, I too have found their website confusing. Their support when you talk to them is great though, so I can live with a slightly eccentric online experience.


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## Northerner (Jul 2, 2014)

That's good to hear  I was going to wait a few days, but became worried that they might change the deal! I've ordered the MiFi from amazon, but missed the fact that the dealer is in Hong Kong. It's been dispatched but I'll probably have to wait a week or so for it to arrive  I should be able to use the Sim in my dongle though, which is fine for a few days


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## Northerner (Jul 4, 2014)

Well, the sim has arrived and is working now in my dongle  Don't know why I didn't do this a year ago!


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## Northerner (Jul 11, 2014)

Hurrah! I have WiFi! Or should I say 'MiFi'?


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## AlisonM (Jul 11, 2014)

Welcome to the twenty-first century!


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## robert@fm (Jul 17, 2014)

Comcast are the "Hotel California" of ISPs.


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## AlisonM (Jul 17, 2014)

I was reading about that earlier. In the end I was almost sorry for the pushy rep... Almost. 

It's funny, but since I moved to 3 this week I've been inundated with texts from EE/Orange offering me all sorts of wonderful deals if I'll change my mind before the 30 days are up - fat chance of that, 3s customer care has been excellent while EE is total pants.


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## Maryanne29 (Jul 17, 2014)

I'd love to get rid of the landline but need excellent broadband as my partner sometimes works from home and is connected all day. Also, and please let me know if I've got it wrong, but I thought you had to have a landline to get Sky TV (though personally I'd get rid of that too but I won't win that battle!)


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## Vicsetter (Jul 17, 2014)

Sky say you have to have a landline, but that is really only for pay-per-view stuff.  If you've subscribed to Sky then maybe you should get your phone through them as part of one of their packages.


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## Northerner (Jul 23, 2014)

Well, BT have fired a final salvo in ripping me off! Just got my mobile phone bill through and there was a number I didn't immediately recognise with the vast proportion of the call bill alongside. Yes, it was the two calls I had to make to BT to cancel my service, using the number they specifically tell you to use for mobiles. I couldn't use my/their landline because it wasn't working. Silly gullible me thought it must be a cheaper special number for mobiles, instead it turns out to be a premium rate number which actually costs more per minute than when I called my stepmum in Holland!

I am SO well rid of them! 

On the plus side, I'd paid BT too much on my last quarterly bill so they owe me more than the calls. Also, I am really happy with the Three MiFi set up and using well within my monthly limit!


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## AlisonM (Jul 23, 2014)

So, you're not regretting the move then?


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## Northerner (Jul 23, 2014)

AlisonM said:


> So, you're not regretting the move then?



Not a bit!  Interestingly, I got a magazine insert the other day for Three offering 1gb data on MiFi for £10.97. The advert was targeted at tablet users, but obviously could be used for any wireless capable device. It's exactly the same set up as I now have but I have 10 times the data for £4 more - there must be so many gullible people out there who simply don't research these things


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## AlisonM (Jul 23, 2014)

I reckon those gullible fools are the reason the wiser among us can find these great deals, without them the providers couldn't afford to offer such bargains... Maybe?


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## Northerner (Jul 23, 2014)

AlisonM said:


> I reckon those gullible fools are the reason the wiser among us can find these great deals, without them the providers couldn't afford to offer such bargains... Maybe?



Possibly! Or perhaps Three have just fed all the price, data and device details into a database and reeled off a list of plans in every combination  I remember a few years ago someone saying that the mobile market was so complex there were in excess of 1m plans/contracts available - I think at the time it was someone explaining the need for all those high street phone shops that sprang up, Joe Public would simply never have the time to find the ideal contract so they would find it for you! Yeah, right


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## Northerner (Aug 8, 2014)

Well, I completed my first month with 6.5gb remaining from my 10gb allowance - I think that I have a big enough buffer for future needs there! Very happy and impressed with my new set up and soooooo glad to be rid of BT!


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## AlisonM (Aug 8, 2014)

I was the same in the first couple of months and usually ended up with half my allowance left, but it doesn't roll over and you get an SMS telling you when you get down to 20% so now I just go for it, I've never run out of allowance yet.


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## Northerner (Aug 8, 2014)

AlisonM said:


> I was the same in the first couple of months and usually ended up with half my allowance left, but it doesn't roll over and you get an SMS telling you when you get down to 20% so now I just go for it, I've never run out of allowance yet.



Yes, I think I was a bit cautious at first, avoiding things like Youtube and iplayer, but clearly I have lots of slack so will just go for it. Having monitored my usage over the past 6 months anyway, I've only ever come fairly close at around 8.5gb in a month, usually between 4-6 gb 

And, so far, the connection has been much faster and more reliable than my crappy landline!


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## bill hopkinson (Aug 8, 2014)

Late to the party on this one, but we have two landlines, and two broadbands one bundled with Virgin, the other BT. 
My partner and I are both self-employed and the rental goes one on each tax bill. I work online so back up when BT goes sick is vital.
I don't use a mobile much.


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## Northerner (Aug 23, 2014)

Now saving even more after reading this news about BT, now enjoying a much better service - faster broadband and only once very early one morning in the past couple of months have had a poor response


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## Pumper_Sue (Aug 23, 2014)

Mobile single is just about non existent where I live, pity as would just ditch the landline.


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