Broadband switching without notification / knowledge / consent

[gg30340]

@Kimberlin 

There is no doubt landlines are on decline and will become a relic of a bygone age but today there are still people that rely on them and that should be respected or at the very least managed to make sure that the can understand and use the new phone sytem that is being put in place rather than telling them to suck it up or how things were in your day!

[Kimberlin]

@gg30340 

I can literally only apologise for telling it how it is. I appreciate that might not sit well with people, but I'm a realist. If someone had told told us all in 2005 that High Street banking branches would all but disappear because technology would replace them with an App, many would have just laughed in their face. And I see reading through the many threads concerning digital voice, it's going very well.

[WSH]

I'm not arguing with either of you but I still question whether it's valid to assume the average 10 year old doesn't know what a landline phone looks like, even if they only see one at the grandparents house.  Sorry, just being picky I suppose.

I'd agree, landlines are on their last days though.  Personally, I keep one as I don't have the mobile turned on unless I intend to use it, so the landline is for incoming calls.  It's actually cheaper to use the mobile for outgoing calls with the free minutes included.

[gg30340]

@Kimberlin 

No need to apoligise to me as I am a realist as as well and I really don't give much heed to what you post but people posting on this forum mainly have a problem that they are looking for assistance with rather than being dismissed out of hand or hear about somebody elses tales which is what you seem to always post about.

Perhaps if you offered some assistance, understanding and guidance in how to mangage their perceived problem it may be of help to the OP.

[Kimberlin]

@WSH 

Bearing in mind that that 10 year old today, their grandparents will probably be someone born in 1975! I know plenty of people in their fifties who don't have a landline at all or those that do, only have it because they've had one for years and it's well, just there, they see no point in getting rid of it.

There's not doubt whatsoever, that plenty of people absolutely, 100 percent rely on landlines where there's poor cell tower cover. It's getting better though. And for those more senior that really struggle with mobiles, well of course there are now big button mobiles available. Might still not be a solution for those concerned, but they are there.

[WSH]

Yeap, as I said, I'm not arguing.  You may well be right.

(God, I must be getting old).

[Jellicle]

Yes. When I asked about help for my 93 year old neighbour, she had been abandoned by a BT engineer who left her without a phone or broadband and a pile of cardboard boxes. She hadn't asked for DV or fibre; she was happy as she was. She is a retired head of maths in a girls' grammar school, alert, capable and into astronomy, she uses an iPad very happily and if the engineer or someone had spent a few minutes checking that her new equipment worked and she understood what had changed, she would have been fine. As it was, she had to ask my husband and me to try and sort her system out. I was able to pass on the advice given on this forum to both her and her daughter and I know it was appreciated and acted on.  

I don't think anyone would argue against encouraging people to go online or to use mobile technology, but if they can't, or are apprehensive, or just don't want to, they should still be enabled to thrive in a world which is increasingly digital. They should still be able to access the services they need on a landline. Digital inclusion isn't just a matter of making a phone call, it's entering logins, using passwords, adjusting accessibility controls, finding and using a browser and so on, it's about being safe, secure and legal. However easy and natural we may find it, there are people who can't.  They aren't just the elderly. We know they're missing a lot of the benefits of being digital - the pandemic showed that. 

Being patronising about people's failure to keep up or embrace technology doesn't help or support them. If people choose to run a landline as well as, or instead of,  a mobile phone, and they pay for their choices, then it's nothing to do with anyone else. And for what it's worth, I do know parents who are so concerned about their offspring's relationship with their mobile phones that they welcome having landlines. The vintage rotary dial phones and the trimphones are not dead yet! (I have three in the loft, awaiting their revival.) 

[HHGTTG]

I think that is a damned nuisance when people do away with their landlines although i can understand that with their expensive mobile phones and associated tariffs offering free calls etc, it is tempting. But I like, still to phone a household or base and not someone's own personal phone that may ring no matter what they're doing. My cousin does not now use her landline because after a recent change to Full Fibre and loss of her call plan, she no longer wishes to pay 3p/min for her phone calls and refuses to pay for Anytime Calls add on. 

Shortly I'm being forced into FTTP Fibre Essential upgrade and DV with the loss of my 700 minute call plan and so will have to replace that no doubt with the only one left, the more expensive Anytime Calls. All a racket. I still have time to cancel this upgrade again ( about the fourth time this year) but it'ain't' going to go away is it?