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[qrypt]

The lower cost makes it tempting: get rid of BT line rental, then sign up for a VOIP service e.g. voiptalk.org, 1000 minutes for £4.99 a month (including international), and get an incoming number associated with your city/region.  Start-up costs include buying a VOIP phone (plugs into router, not phone socket), but after saving at least £10 a month on BT line rental and call charges it is supposed to pay for itself pretty quickly. 

Does anyone else here do this? 

I have two concerns.  Is it really possible in the UK to have broadband service without telephone service?  And quality -- broadband isn't as reliable as landlines, and a slow internet connection would mean crappy sound if not complete interruption. 

I'd be grateful for any thoughts on this prospect. 

[science_expat]

I'm too chicken for something like this. Presumably you'd be accessing the internet through the 3G network and this is part of the £4.99 per month?

While I think that BT's quarterly charges are exhorbitant, I need my broadband and am not convinced that it can be adequately achieved without a landline. I know some folks doing the dongle 3G internet thing and it's not great.

Would be very interested to hear from those more courageous than myself...

[qrypt]

No, the point is to keep the broadband connection but ditch the landline.  I'm not proposing to do this via mobile connections.  But it's precisely because I would be giving up the landline that I'm worried about it.  For one thing, if I don't like the VOIP, it would cost a ton (tonne?) to reconnect the landline.  And I'm also worried about losing access to broadband once I've given up the landline.  (Currently: landline = BT, broadband = Virgin)

There are several companies that offer this service (including Vonage) -- so I imagine that it is indeed possible to have broadband service without landline telephone service.  But I am nervous about it. 

I do think my first post understated the cost savings though -- my BT bill is currently about £30 a month, and I can get 1000 minutes of VOIP (including international calls) for £4.99.  And again it is possible to have an incoming number with this service. 

[science_expat]

Gotcha, I think.

No idea, then, sorry. I live in the back arse of beyond and hence have no access to cable, which I presume is your broadband source.

[drbeeper]

I get my broadband through virgin media. I make my phone calls with skype. Originally, I used my blue tooth handsfree headset (from my mobile phone) to make calls from my laptop (which was wirelessly connected to my home network). This worked really well. The problem for me was not having a phone on the odd days I left my laptop at work. Recently, I splurged for a standalone skype phone that plugs directly into the router.

Skype does not require a contract for outgoing calls, you can put £10 of credit and try it out without giving up the phone. To get a local phone number costs like £60 for the year.

[babbinacara]

My uni switched over to VOIP. The sound quality is fine.

The only problem, but a potential big problem, is what happens if your broadband connection crashes (happens episodically in the office, and my home Virgin connection crashes at least once a week...). Then you not only have no internet, you don't have a phone to ring someone up to complain about it.
That's less of a problem if you have a mobile, though.

[empyrean_aisles]

I can't answer grypt's question specifically, but am interested in responses. We have both phone and broadband with Virgin (can't get the broadband without the phone) and do our best to only call out on Skype. If we call out on the phone it only takes a few calls per month to make the phone bill stupidly high; now we use Skype we are managing to keep phone + broadband charges at around £25/month for the two. Which I am pretty happy with. So far no broadband crashes. The one thing I would say is that every so often there will be a number (0870? 0845? I can't remember) which Skype cannot call, and so we have to use the landline for that. Which is annoying, & I don't know why Skype can't dial it.

[expatinuk]

I have BT line (not used for calls, just the line)... and my bill is only about 30 a quarter not a month.

We use Eclipse for broadband and we have their phone service as part of the package. I call the States nearly every day to chat with my mother and/or brothers. The bill at most has been just under 10 quid a month.

[frogfactory]

I know a few people who use VoIP instead of a landline without (reported) problems.  One problem I can think of, though, is that you can't call 999 from Skype (and I presume other VoIP services).  Worth having a mobile on hand for that purpose (unless this is no longer true in the UK).