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Plain Old Telephone Service

  • Thread starter Thread starter clivejo
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clivejo

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Just got an email from Sky that my great-aunts telephone service is going up to £32.49 for Line Rental and Sky Anytime, which I think is an absolute joke! I have been trying to price around and seems impossible to get a telephone only service these days. My aunt is 98 years old and doesn't want internet and uses my email address because she doesn't want one of her own!

Sky are saying this is the most suitable package, but it is obsolete, so can't do any deals on contracting.

Can anyone give any advice? There are cheaper packages with internet included, maybe a switch to those and just ignore the internet side of it?
 
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If you Aunt lives to 100 - and I hope she does! - then she'll have to change to digital voice at some point: the PSTN switch-off is to be complete in Dec 2025.

Buying an Internet service and ignoring the Internet is a reasonable way to do that. It won't provide service in the event of a power cut - although all providers are required to provide at least 1 hour of battery backup to vulnerable customers. For this reason, Sky may not be willing to move her over (there have been reports of them refusing to migrate elderly people off analogue voice)

You could switch your phone service to another provider, and the obvious choice would be BT, since as you say nobody else is interested in providing voice services these days. Their "standard line rental" is £26.35 per month, but it's reduced by £14.62 per month "for BT Residential households without fixed line broadband service from any provider", which makes it quite reasonable - although if she actually makes calls on it they will be expensive unless you add a calls package on top.

Then, BT will at some point hand-hold her through the transition to digital voice.
 
@meritez Have you any suggestions as to a cheaper plan, the any-time calls is important. Well, it was important as it only costs £6.99 and meant she had bear any extra use on it. It used to be £25.98 which was pretty good value and actually saved her money.
It's a fold/sheltered accommodation, there is a central alarm/call system. She refers to it as "pulling the chain"! but her line is for her use only.

@plunet Unfortunately not, I have looking into BT Home Essentials but apparently she does not qualify for any of them, need to be on Pension Credit or other benefits. The same unlimited call plan on BT is £44.35 on 12 month contract.

@candlerb I really do not think BT will be switching off the lines here any-time soon. They haven't even got decent broadband to switch over to! I think she'll be right in thinking "it will do me my day"

@PeterDevon Really? Can't see that on the website. Put in the postcode and address and only offers "Unlimited Fibre 1 - 33-36mbps" and "Unlimited Fibre 2 - 60-73mbps" Doesn't sound like fibre speeds to me, but I digress! Apparently you can "add on" digital voice to the internet bundles for an extra £6
 
@PeterDevon Really? Can't see that on the website. Put in the postcode and address and only offers "Unlimited Fibre 1 - 33-36mbps" and "Unlimited Fibre 2 - 60-73mbps" Doesn't sound like fibre speeds to me, but I digress! Apparently you can "add on" digital voice to the internet bundles for an extra £6
I can't get the package to show either for my postcode but there is a separate page for it with a button to Call to order:

 
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@candlerb I really do not think BT will be switching off the lines here any-time soon. They haven't even got decent broadband to switch over to! I think she'll be right in thinking "it will do me my day"
*All* analogue phones lines will be turned off by December 2025. No exceptions. You will not be able to renew a contract for an analogue line from this September (2023) as it goes national stop-sell.

You don't need "decent broadband" for digital voice. Openreach now provide a 0.5Mbps up/down FTTC service specifically for migrating voice-only customers. In areas where FTTC is not available, then ADSL will be used ("SOTAP")

Voice really only requires about 0.1Mbps. If your location can't even achieve that on ADSL, then they'll most likely give you a mobile phone SIM.
 
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@meritez Have you any suggestions as to a cheaper plan, the any-time calls is important. Well, it was important as it only costs £6.99 and meant she had bear any extra use on it. It used to be £25.98 which was pretty good value and actually saved her money.
It's a fold/sheltered accommodation, there is a central alarm/call system. She refers to it as "pulling the chain"! but her line is for her use only.
Which providers are available on https://bidb.uk for the postcode?
 
llu voice copper lines will still work past end of 2025 though.
Yes, that's an interesting issue, especially to see what providers like Talktalk will do.

Presumably they don't really *want* to sell analogue voice forever (or even ADSL for that matter), but whether they decide to switch it off in the same timescale as Openreach remains to be seen.

Equally, Openreach won't want to keep maintaining E-side copper connections or exchange-hosted ADSL forever, but it will be down to Ofcom as to when OR are no longer required to provide those services.

So yes: another option would be to take an analogue voice service from Talktalk, and it might work past December 2025. I don't know if they will still sell you voice-only, or if you'll have to take broadband with voice. I certainly can't find voice-only on their website.
 
@candlerb it's the telephone exchange shut downs I'm waiting to see, as TalkTalk, Sky etc have paid roughly £40,000 per MSAN installed in each exchange.
 
A slightly different solution, does your great aunt use a wired desk type phone or dect cordless? If a desk phone there are some mobile desk phones that take a SIM coupled with a 1p mobile annual SIM for around £30 a year with unlimited calls fit the bill?

I know any change can be unwelcome though but could be workable. Obviously depends on mobile signal etc. They do usually have battery for some short term power resilience.
 
@candlerb it's the telephone exchange shut downs I'm waiting to see, as TalkTalk, Sky etc have paid roughly £40,000 per MSAN installed in each exchange.
Those MSANs have already paid for themselves over the past 20-ish years, but I think it's fair to assume they're hardly getting little revenue from them any more: the majority of users are on FTTC/FTTP, and few care about voice. But they'll still be paying OR for rental of the exchange space and power. There comes a point where it makes more sense financially to turn them off.
 
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A slightly different solution, does your great aunt use a wired desk type phone or dect cordless? If a desk phone there are some mobile desk phones that take a SIM coupled with a 1p mobile annual SIM for around £30 a year with unlimited calls fit the bill?
DECT cordless which she has been used to for years and knows where the buttons/numbers are with her failing sight. I wouldn't want to change that out on her at this stage TBH
 
£23.50 with Anytime Calls.
oh that looks better for sure and rolling month by month would suite better. I must scan her last few bills see how many mobile calls she is using. Why they insist on a 98 year old to sign a 18 or 24 month contract just for a phone line is ridiculous! She is also on a get everything sorted before I die spree, pre-paid funeral and all affairs written down. That Zen sounds like the best option TBH I'll try calling them tomorrow see what the sign up process is, so I can explain it to my Aunt.

This "deal" from BT, daylight robbery!!

Screenshot 2023-05-16 at 20-53-10 Landline Deals Home Phone Packages BT.webp
 
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