Landline Vs Mobile Phones

[Defiant]

Just wanted to hear what people thought about todays telephony.

For instance its my opinion that my Mobile phone works out much cheaper than having a landline. Its 14.99 a phone and 100 free minutes to any network plus 50 free txts and £6 mms.

Now I don't know how its come to this but mobile's working out cheaper than landlines. What the hell are they playing at here. Is this country the most expensive for landlines.

I think landlines should be line rental free and only be charged for connection and calls made plus no connection charge when making calls

[Chris]

Originally posted by Defiant
Just wanted to hear what people thought about todays telephony.

For instance its my opinion that my Mobile phone works out much cheaper than having a landline. Its 14.99 a phone and 100 free minutes to any network plus 50 free txts and £6 mms.

Now I don't know how its come to this but mobile's working out cheaper than landlines. What the hell are they playing at here. Is this country the most expensive for landlines.

I think landlines should be line rental free and only be charged for connection and calls made plus no connection charge when making calls

I think landline operators are probably trading on people's ignorance of the subject. Many folks still assume that mobiles are expensive while landlines are relatively cheap.

The only cautionary note to this is that mobile operators seem to be making much of their dosh by making high access charges for landline callers to access their network. If everyone did away with their landlines, and called mobile to mobile only, an important revenue stream would be cut off. I wonder how long it might be before cross-network calls remained part of the free minutes allocation?

[stamp92]

in my opinion its not possible to say as a general statement that mobiles are cheaper than a landline.

it all depends on how long you use your phone and to whom you are calling and where you calling.

for example

if you want to call a mobile on a regular basis for many hours in the evening then your best deal is to get a mobile of the same provider.... for example orange to orange you can get 50 free minutes every evening to an orange mobile and there after 5p a min. (nb the "everyday 50" contract i refer to isnt available 2 new customers anymore). similar offers available to o2 customers calling o2 customer etc. there is no way to call an orange mobile in the evening cheaper than this that i know off. from the landline you would pay at least 10p a minute.

if you want to call a uk landline then you can get pretty good deals from landline or mobile. anything from 1p a minute or pay a monthly subscription and get all ure calls free peak and off peak or just off peak.

if u want to call abroad then rates are much the same from landline and mobile for example from 1p a min to USA.

On the whole from my experience of chasing the cheapest prices on mobile, contract and pay as you go and landline prices. I would say that in terms of price the mobile can pretty much indeed do it all. ie if you have an orange mobile you can get great international rates and landline rates and mobile rates to orange mobiles. or if you have o2 the same but to o2 mobiles etc

the only reason i keep a landline is because my landline doesnt need to be charged up all the time (i spend a lot of time on phone). i dont need 2 rely on signal. although mobiles can sometimes depending on signal be as good or clearer than mobiles its not always guaranteed. ie bad weather/poor signal area. also with a landline i have no fear of pressing buttons and cutting the person off as i hold the phone.

in my opinion, and by no means do i wish to start an argument, but i hate the deals mobile phone companies offer like 100 free minutes to other networks for £15 a month etc because well for me i use a lot more than 100 minutes a month etc and i dont find much value in those types of packages and you end up paying more for the calls after the 100 minutes and if you dont use all your minutes they arent always rolled over.

my setup is the following

i have an ntl landline...9.50 a month line rental.. i pay 2.5 a min national and local calls peak... i use my mobile to make off peak calls as 50 mins free and then just 1p a min ....if i need to call orange mobiles i use my mobile in evening.... if i need to call orange mobiles in the daytime or any other network i use rosehill communications...just dial 08712081000 and then dial your destination number....costs 10p a minute....if i have friends who are on o2 etc i just ring them on weekend mainly and i get them 2 ring me or i ring them on landline etc.

i cant say that my setup is the best. it works for me and its best for me because of my usuage....but if you dont use the phone much then well these other packages and deals by mobile phone companies might be great for you.

[Jerrek]

Here in Canada:

Landlines

Line rental from Bell Canada is about £10 a month. That includes free unlimited local calls. If you want additional services such as call waiting, call display, they are £1.20 each or something like that, or 5 for £5.

My family's long distance provider is CiciLynk. All calls within North America and western Europe are £0.03 a minute. They have great rates to the rest of the world as well... Japan is like £0.04 or something. (This company focuses on international calls, something my family does a lot.)

I use Symphony... For £10 a month they have unlimited North American calling, anytime.

So £20 gets you unlimited calling in North America.



Cell phones

I have Fido. I have the 200 package. For £10 a month I get 200 anytime minutes. That is local minutes. Long distance is an additional £0.05 a minute.


Here in Canada landlines are cheaper than cell phones by far. I use my cellphone mostly for emergencies and so that people can reach me.

[Defiant]

Yep were being ripped off. I heard a few years back that big companies refered to Britain as Treasure Island and I'd go with that now

[MadGamer]

Originally posted by Defiant
Yep were being ripped off.

I think landlines are a waste of time. Use mobiles instead.

[DeadKenny]

Originally posted by Defiant
For instance its my opinion that my Mobile phone works out much cheaper than having a landline. Its 14.99 a phone and 100 free minutes to any network plus 50 free txts and £6 mms.


£14.99 a "phone"? Do you mean "month", and if so, where are you getting that kind of deal from? Is that a new-style contract or old?

Many mobile companies are trying to claw back the 3G costs by introducing new tariff systems which are on the outside cheap but in reality more expensive (e.g. Orange's "Your Plan" compared to the now defunct Everyday 50 :mad: ).

I find a lot of stuff is "exclusive" as well. e.g. non-geographical numbers including WAP are often not included, text "services" aren't included as text messages.

It would be nice though to do away with my landline as I rarely use it, but you unfortunately need a landline for certain things (some places won't let you specify a mobile number for example). I spend £10 a month (or whatever NTL charge now) for a phone I rarely use (well, except when my cable modem is "down").

[Defiant]

Originally posted by DeadKenny
£14.99 a "phone"? Do you mean "month", and if so, where are you getting that kind of deal from? Is that a new-style contract or old?

Many mobile companies are trying to claw back the 3G costs by introducing new tariff systems which are on the outside cheap but in reality more expensive (e.g. Orange's "Your Plan" compared to the now defunct Everyday 50 :mad: ).

I find a lot of stuff is "exclusive" as well. e.g. non-geographical numbers including WAP are often not included, text "services" aren't included as text messages.

It would be nice though to do away with my landline as I rarely use it, but you unfortunately need a landline for certain things (some places won't let you specify a mobile number for example). I spend £10 a month (or whatever NTL charge now) for a phone I rarely use (well, except when my cable modem is "down").

You can only get the offer from the Vodaphone website. I've tried others like Orange and O2 and they refuse to match it. Have a look here (http://www.vodaphone.co.uk)

Oh nearly forgot you get carry over minutes too ;)

I've been without the landline now for months

[Scarlett]

We use the mobile when we want to make calls out, hell we even use them to find out where we are when we're out shopping.

We're also in the middle of moving house and its dead handy because we're not always at the house with the phone in.

There is no way however that we would dump the landline.
My (nearly) In-laws live 160 miles away and my other half phones them at least 3 times a week for 15 minutes. and then theres all the uni friends that we have who also live al over the country. Mobiles are convienient but I wouldn't drop my land line.

[deysmeean]

Hi

As a family, we too do have a landline and mobile phones, but what I have noticed is that now the deals and call charges on mobile phone are very good and very low. If you consider the free inclusive minutes and text message that come with the monthly contract, I think one is better of with a mobile. I use my mobile for all calls inland and for calling abroad. There are companies that offer very cheap rates to call aboard <mod edit: Chris W> link removed.

Now hardly anyone ring us on our landline and we too never bother to use, its just sitting there. I reckon landline is going to phase out and mobiles are the future.

Regards

[Shaun]

Not unless I can get a call to landlines on my mobile for 4p per call.

www.18185.co.uk

Good bump by the way :)

[mick holt]

As a somewhat older gent who used to work for the major telephony company here in Australia, I say that overall, without cap plans and other special deal, the landline is by far the cheapest telephony system to use. I realise our landline system may differ in charges from other countries.

What we get is a reliable system that still works in major disasters and power failures. The cables are buried under the ground and survive floods and fires.

Mobile or cellphone systems can be installed very quickly and connect into this backbone system. The cost to the service providers is a fraction of what the landline system costs. Sure they offer capped plans and deals to get you to use the cellphones or mobiles more. If you are thrifty this will be cheaper but the majority of people use these wonderful fully portable phones a lot (myself included).

Even under a cap plan, the amount they take off the deal or cap is still greater than what the call would cost on a landline. When you go over the limit you are charged fully per connection fee then so many cents per 30 seconds or so. This is far more expensive.

My landline costs me $1 for as long as I want to talk to any long distance call and free for our local area. If I used the mobile/cellphone, I would use my cap very quickly.

Use mobile/cellphones within your deal/cap and they are great. Go over then use your landline. Pre pay is even much more expensive but it suits some people.

For a few minutes, use the mobile/cell. For a long call use landline. For budgeting if you are young and single, use prepay.

Make the system work for you.

[LSainsbury]

Award for oldest bumped thread??

[zoro]

Award for oldest bumped thread??

It is even more interesting topic today than it was back in 2007. Maybe discussion about it should renewed.

[roughie]

It is even more interesting topic today than it was back in 2007. Maybe discussion about it should renewed.

In fact, it will probably become less and less interesting with the expansion of mobile phones. And at some point it will be completely reasonable if mobile calls are cheaper than landline ones since the latter's user base will shrink more and more. It will be similar to the situation in the past when older (and big) floppy drives were more expensive than newer ones.

[slowcoach]

The day I have to run outside and freeze to death in winter every time the phone rings or when I want to make a call I will know that the World has finally gone mad.
Use the mobile as an expensive mp3 player I say, appears most people I see agree with me. ;)

[danielf]

In fact, it will probably become less and less interesting with the expansion of mobile phones. And at some point it will be completely reasonable if mobile calls are cheaper than landline ones since the latter's user base will shrink more and more. It will be similar to the situation in the past when older (and big) floppy drives were more expensive than newer ones.

Landlines are very well and alive. Not so much for calls maybe, but if you want decent speed on the intertubes in a location that's not serviced by cable, you need a landline.

[roughie]

Landlines are very well and alive. Not so much for calls maybe, but if you want decent speed on the intertubes in a location that's not serviced by cable, you need a landline.

I do agree with that but when it comes to prices I think it's normal for a product or a service to become more expensive when it's market share shrinks.