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[Alan Drover]

My call blocker came with the handsets too.

[Wittsend]

Nah ...

Tried all those tech boxes and the Call Preference service, none were satisfactory, cold call spam still got through from call centres outside of UK jurisdiction.


I just scrapped the lot and the land line and had no spam calls since 
Don't miss the land line.

 

[Alan Drover]

Call blocker on my landline is set to let calls through that our only on the phone's directory or authorized by me. Any other calls wherever they originate have to announce who they are and I have the choice whether to accept or no. Most don't bother.
I'm on the telephone preference service but that doesn't stop sequential dialling or foreign calls.

[The Shed]

Nah ...

Tried all those tech boxes and the Call Preference service, none were satisfactory, cold call spam still got through from call centres outside of UK jurisdiction.


I just scrapped the lot and the land line and had no spam calls since 
Don't miss the land line.

 

Yea, I have to agree the Call Preference Service did not stop many cold calls but the Call Blocker, actually named Guardian on the handset is the Domestos of call blocking !  😀

[LN11AAB498A]

This BT8600 phone incorporating TrueCall technology has, in my experience, worked brilliantly. It is a dedicated nuisance call blocker, including International calls, and it really is the    Have a look at it`s specification via this link

https://www.bt.com/content/dam/bt/help/legacy-ug/phones/BT8600%20Spec%20sheet%20v3.pdf

The Telephone Preference service merely allows business's & individuals to opt out of unsolicited live sales and marketing calls, and while legitimate business`s may well respect your choice, it doesn`t stop unscrupulous scummers scammers from calling you.

[Exile]

I don't have a call blocker. I just never answer the landline.

If they want to leave a message they can.
These days most don't.

I have to have the line as I am a long way from the green box, on an old copper cable which feeds my router.

The local mobile mast was inoperative for several days recently and I couldn't use my mobile phone (rumour had it that some scumbags had been thieving the cable) so having the landline in reserve was useful.

[Wittsend]

A bit like us ... we have BT Broadband and you get a land line - I just don't have a phone plugged in - peace and quiet 

[oilstain]

Frankly getting rid of land lines will be a big leap forward.



 

Yes but...
In parts of North Wales and I guess in other places many homes do not get a mobile signal,
I do in some parts of the house and at the top of the drive

[Wittsend]

Yes, well, the "leap forward" is getting new infrastructures into place - more satellites and mobile masts in place so there's 100% coverage.
Ain't going to happen this year or next, but it will come. Roll on 5G.

Meanwhile you are stuck with copper cable, you probably won't get fibre - they won't do it for just a few houses.

My thesis was if you have a mobile signal, why bother with a land line and all the trouble (nuisance phone call) that entails.
If I need to - I can plug an old BT phone into the socket (and one that works if there is a power cut - which we get plenty of).



 

[The Shed]

I was in the process of changing Broadband provider for what I thought was a good deal.
100Mbs with full fibre for £22/month, but they said we would lose the copper cable so no 'phone in the event of a powercut.
Not insurmountable but awkward as Wife needs to be contactable. I asked was there anyway around this. Spoke to several representatives, and no, not possible.
Current supplier calls me and offers a better deal, complete with the ability to continue with landline in event of an outage. I stayed.

[Scotty38]

Meanwhile you are stuck with copper cable, you probably won't get fibre - they won't do it for just a few houses.

 

Same here....

A few years ago I saw a BT Engineer with his head in the ground so I wittily asked if he was installing fibre, "No" he said. "Oh" I said "Then how do I get it?".... "Move houses!"

[w3526602]

Hi,

Barbara mentioned that our SKY account had be credited with one day's "rental", due to the system being "down". We were later informed that the problem was due an underground "wire" being chewed by rodents, so a very "local" problem. Fixed within 24 hours. FOC.

When we changed to SKY last year (fibre optics pipes installed in bungalow when it was built in 1984) we received a "heavy" letter telling us about all the benefits we would no longer receive. To us, the benefits of SKY TV available to Barbara, in her "24/7 sick-bed", outweighed the risks.

602

602

[crumbly65]

Our telephone exchange, which is 250 metres away, has gone digital. The Green box is 50 metres away, and feeds the telephone pole opposite the house, so it’s fibre all the way to the pole from the Exchange

But from the pole, 20 metres away, to our house is copper.  So we have the option now to go full fibre to the house (FFTH) and am being told by BT (who we have been with now for many years, with no problems) that eventually the copper cable option will no longer be available.  Being so close to the Exchange has meant we have had virtually no problems with broadband over the years, though we do have one now.

The broadband signal keeps “dropping out” for a few seconds, cutting off wifi- enabled mobile callls (and we’ve no mobile coverage at all, nothing - no 3G, let alone 4 or 5 g), causing momentary freezing on websites, or failure to connect.  Either there’s a bad connection from the exchange to the cabinet, or from the cabinet to the pole, or from the pole to the copper cable to our house, or our BT router’s faulty, or something is interfering with the signal.  Or there is a degree of incompatibility between the fibre supply to the pole and the copper cable to our house.

It’s intensely irritating. I’ve spoken directly to BT Technical bods, who carried out remote tests, but of course found nowt wrong. I don’t want to go down the route of full fibre until the fault is found, as we lose the copper- based Land line and get a digital (mobile-type) house phone - which presumably will suffer the same fault as our mobile phones.

But the other major cost issue if we go to full fibre to the house (FFTTH) is our house alarm.  An old copper- wire based system, which dials out to the monitoring company and thence to the Police, it will need to be upgraded, at a cost of several hundred pounds!

So I’m in a bit of a quandary at the moment. I need to renegotiate our broadband contract with BT, resolving the fault at the same time, but deciding about the FFTTH issue and the alarm upgrade…..