Home Phone

[admin]

I have to sort out a few financial items to try and keep my mother in laws bills down as she is now widowed and of course now gets a single aged pension.

She has no internet and wont be getting it. I am wondering what phone deals are out there that members are using that are NOT with Telstra ? I have been on VOIP for a long time ( and now VOIP with NBN) and havent taken much notice for a long time.

Obviously no internet rules out VOIP. I am not sure what deal she is on with Telstra, but its no doubt expensive. She is one of those people who thinks your phone has to be with Telstra, your car has to be with RACV insurance etc, all the most expensive deals which she simply cant afford on the money she now gets.

[LeroyPatrol]

Telstra home phone is only $30/month. I think if you shop around you can get low 20's. But why not consider a mobile? Plans as cheap as $10/month with Jeenie.

[admin]

Telstra home phone is only $30/month. I think if you shop around you can get low 20's. But why not consider a mobile? Plans as cheap as $10/month with Jeenie.

$30 a month, what does it include ? Not calls I presume ?

Shes got a mobile.....with Telstra Prepaid 365 which is horrendously expensive. That's another I have to work on.

Ditch the home phone ? She wouldnt do it.

[fandtm666]

unfortunately for the home phone its about $30pm with most companies and thats
only if nbn isnt lit up in her street.

if nbn is on you could look at the tpg basic 12/1 with the unlimited calls is $40pm

[Johnno]

I have a $17 pm deal with telstra for my land line.. mainly used for incoming calls as outgoing calls cost heaps.
I use the mobile for outgoing calls.

[mandc]

When nbn comes her way she will be forced into change after about 18 months anyway. There are some phone only deals out there on nbn but some of them look expensive.




So it looks like anyone who just wants a simple landline now will have to pay more AND get to lose their phone during any blackouts. What progress!

[Skepticist]

Southern Phone (Optus network) has the 'standard small' option for a home phone at $25 but you pay for your calls on top of that. Cheapest plan with unlimited local/national calls is $40 so a look at your call history would determine which is the best option but 'sim only' mobile plans make more more sense IMHO.

[gordon_s1942]

Because I make all my calls on the mobiles I have made no outgoing calls on the Landline so after 2 months of a minimum Bills, Telstra rings and offers me a deal of about $30 a month, 20 cents a call I think BUT all calls would be timed !!!
To save less than $5 than what I am paying now in line rental but to pay more per call I said 'No Thanks'.
Also Telstra does have a $4 pensioner rebate on the line rental but I dont know if that applies to all plans or only some.

You say she has a Mobile so now maybe time to consider an Aldi $15 SIM in it and as she likes Telstra, you can tell her its 'Part of Telstra' which it is and then she can keep the Landline to receive calls but not make them.
$30 for the landline and $15 for Aldi on auto recharge = $45 a month.

[admin]

When nbn comes her way she will be forced into change after about 18 months anyway. There are some phone only deals out there on nbn but some of them look expensive.




So it looks like anyone who just wants a simple landline now will have to pay more AND get to lose their phone during any blackouts. What progress!

She lives remote, the only NBN is via satellite and she doesnt have any interest in the internet or getting it. I presume they will be leaving people in these areas on the old (PSTN) system ?
I might just get her on to a cheap mobile plan like Boost (she is rural and I would rather stick to full Telstra coverage) and tell her to make her outgoings on that.

[Guiseppe]

Ditch the home phone ? She wouldnt do it.

She and probably a few hundred thousand others will ultimately be forced to do something that they don't like when the copper is "cut off".

A big opportunity for a "provider" to supply a phone only plan at a reasonable rate.

[gordon_s1942]

As best as I can make out, those like me who are served by SkyMuster Satellite for the Internet will be left with our existing copper network operating the way it has for the last 100 years so if she's in a similar designated area, nothing should change in relation to her landline.
If they closed the copper network down, then its either go Wireless which isnt bad here or VoiP which I dont trust as its too unreliable for a 24/7 connection.

[LeroyPatrol]

[So it looks like anyone who just wants a simple landline now will have to pay more AND get to lose their phone during any blackouts. What progress!

Whatever happened with that gaurantee that a phone will always be able to be used even in a blackout or emergency situation?

[gordon_s1942]

Not if you go NBN or via Voip via Skymuster.
With the NBN they tell you that you need a battery to maintain service for those Aged Care alarm/Back to Base alarm systems but with VoiP, no power, no Modem no satellite (unless you have a UPS)

Where I mentioned 'Wireless' before I should have said Mobile Phone Wireless, NOT the NBN Internet Wireless system.

[gordon_s1942]

I have just got my bill for the Home Phone and its $38.95 after a $4 pensioner rebate and NO calls made.

The 'plan' I am on is called Telstra Voice Plus local calls at 22 cents per call, STD is capped at $2 for the first 20 minutes between 7am and 7pm, then $2 for three hours at other times.
I was wrong before when I said I would save $5 on the monthly rental to $30 if I changed to a timed local call cost.
I am not sure but maybe 1800 and 13, 1300 numbers might be charged at a different rate too so I decided to leave things stand for the time being.

ADMIN, I wondered if your Mother's Mobile and Landline are 'Bundled' to give a cheaper monthly rental which if you cancelled the Mobile, would increase its cost perhaps?

[peteramjet]

Ditch the home phone ? She wouldnt do it.

Home phone, or land line number?

If the issue is the phone only, you can get home phones that take a SIM card and operate off the mobile network, or alternatively get a little 3G gateway that you plug your current home phone into.

She will have a mobile number, but will be using a home phone

Whatever happened with that gaurantee that a phone will always be able to be used even in a blackout or emergency situation?

Never been such a guarantee Leroy.

It’s a common misconception that the copper network operated without power. While this may be true at the users end, power is still required at the exchange and beyond. No exchange power, no phone.

[gordon_s1942]

Peteramjet is right but with the NBN, power is needed at the Customer end to make it work unlike the current copper line system that is powered at the 'exchange' end.
So to guarantee an NBN system would be usable during a home 'Power Outage', you would need a UPS there.
In all my years of having a landline, I doubt our exchange has lost its Power more than once in a 3 three year period.....
We have lost the Mains at least 3 times in 12/18 months but it was either caused by a storm or during programed maintenance work.

[aa23]

if I read the post right, you said no telstra. Is all she wants calls? Mobile phone. Belong mobile. $10 per month unlimited, (But on telstra wholesale, not retail so that may be out) or Amaysim with Optus for the same price.

[gordon_s1942]

aa23, I think Admin said his Mother doesnt want to loose her Home Phone (Landline) and wants to stay with Telstra as a Carrier.
Being of her generation, I totaly understand her as I too dont want to give up the Landline and having 'Grown Up' with Telstra (origonaly PMG) for over 70 years, you tend to stick with what you got.
To be honest I dont feel I will have the same 'security' with using the Mobiles at Home as I do keeping the Landline, stupid isnt it???

I have used Optus for both Landline and Mobile at one time here and the service was exactly the same.
I cant remember now why I swapped back to Telstra for the Land line but it would have been because of the cost.
The landline was installed and run by Telstra so all that changed was I got a bill from Optus instead of Telstra.
I closed off the Mobile when I had the landline connected but at the time there was no OPTUS mobile service here, only Telstra and it was the same call cost with Telstra when On Roam back then.

[LeroyPatrol]

Never been such a guarantee Leroy.

It’s a common misconception that the copper network operated without power. While this may be true at the users end, power is still required at the exchange and beyond. No exchange power, no phone.

I realise you need power. There is 48V on the line and a 90V for ring but yes coming from the exchange. Very unlikely the exchange looses power. They all have nice big battery banks to keep them going in case of an outage. Hence I thought there was some kind of guarantee.

Leroy

[lsemmens]

Hence I thought there was some kind of guarantee.

Leroy

IIRC it was more than a guarantee but a requirement. The govt, when it established the telecommunications network back in the dark ages decreed that service would be uninterrupted. Exchanges all had battery backup which took over until the diesel gensets could start up. We had one scary time in Darwin back in the 80s when the power went down and the genset did not fire up. The batteries were only good for an hour or two. Fortunately, back then, we had our own sparkies and mechanics who were there in pretty short order. Had the Darwin Exchange gone down then, there would have been no communication with the rest of Aust then as it was the main trunk switching centre.