Showing Eircom the door

csaddict

Not sure if this is the right board for this one, but given the general feeling we all seem to have for the rat, I'm sure you'll give me good advice.

Basically ever since I've been set up with IBB, I've been thinking about getting rid of my landline completely given that the only thing it was really used for was for the web, and all the calls I make and receive are from my mobile.

So... any compelling reasons as to why I shouldn't do it? (I've a million and one reasons why I should)

I've heard vague rumors about not having a land line affecting your credit rating or stuff like that - is there any truth to that or any other info I should know about?

spongebob

Originally posted by csaddict
I've heard vague rumors about not having a land line affecting your credit rating or stuff like that - is there any truth to that or any other info I should know about?

Contract mobile is just as Good . You need 2 utility contracts in your name ESB / Mobile / Gas / Cable / Eircom for optimum creditworthiness but any 2 will do if paid on time of course.

M

vinnyfitz

When I moved house I felt like you. However I wanted to have a monitored burglar alarm. When I went looking for a mobile phone based burglar alarm the capital cost was €500 more than a land line based system (which seems wierd) so I ended up reluctantly letting Eircom in after all.

BTW burglar alarms also mean you can't get self install DSL. You have to pay an engineer more than €100 notes to make sure the wires don't overlap.

pencil

Get your alarm engineer to put a 'vocalizer' into your alarm, this cost about €60 (for the kit), these can be programmed to ring any series of numbers when the alarm is triggered. You can then monitor the alarm yourself, saving you the ongoing fees. Works great & ADSL will work over the line.

I only had ADSL for the trial - decided not to take it when it was €100 per month. I'm thinking of going the IBB route - do let me know if you have any more luck with the mobile based monitoring.

BoneCollector

ny compelling reasons as to why I shouldn't do it?

i can give you 2 good reason why you should!

1) its Ercom!! :horned:
2) you pay around 20 euro a month even when you dont use the phone (the same 20 on pay as you go mobile will get you 20 euro worth of calls)

csaddict

Thanks for the responses! Hadn't thought about the whole burglar alarm thing - but if you hear anything about the mobile side of that please post it so we can all share the knowledge!

BoneCollector - couldn't agree with you more... I'll let you guys know how I get on when I go and do it (at the very least with no phone line they won't be able to hassle me with winback calls! ... although knowing the rat I'll probably start getting calls to the mobile)

raeGten

I know this is wishfull thinking but here goes...I've seen in the states that there are companies that provied handsets and analogue telephone converters that plug into a router so you can make callls over your broadband connection using VOIP. .I guess there's not too much point if you have DSL as you need a phone line to begin with so there goes €20 a month staright away.You get a "real" phone number that other people can call you on from any other telephone too.
There was a company called Vonage and they used a Cisco ATA-186. Two other US companies were Unlimited voice.com and Earthlink.net.
There's a UK company too called BroadBand Telephony.com but they're just trialing with UK companies. Next they'll trial with UK residents, then Irish companies and eventually Irish residents. Sounds very far off.
I was wondering if there was anbody out there who might know of a service like that that's available in Ireland at the moment?

Da Man

Companies like Net2Phone have been around for quite a while and they offer pretty good rates. All you need is a headset really. Most of those companies operate out of the US so you get US international call rates and they're pretty competitive and probably don't charge VAT. I think they're about 5c a minute to most of Europe.

seamus

Just on the alarm thing......there are network-integrated alarm systems on the market at the moment. They're getting smaller, and aiming towards the SME market where newsagents and small offices would be. With IBB, a small network setup, and a dedicated IP, it could be relatively simple, and quite handy, as you can program it to do basically anything when there is a warning - send you an SMS/email over the web for example. Then you log in from wherever you are, check what's up, and take action

It wouldn't be very cheap, but not overly expensive either, and would avoid paying for both the phoneline and recurring costs of Alarm monitoring services

(Off-topic shocker! )

wexfordman

Someone mention VOIP using broadband as a way to get rid of the eircom line in the home.

I've heard that O2 are trialing something similar in the UK. Basically it works with a bluetooth enabled mobile phone. When you get home, the GSM mobile access the network over your adsl connection using bluetooth. I think the idea is that you can keep all of your voice calls with your mobile company, who will charge cheaper rate when you make calls from home on this bluetooth/adsl voip thingy

Would be great to see something like that over here, although I suspect the complete lack of any decent nationwide bb will be a minor stumbling block (and another reason for €ircon to delay bb rollout if they see this type of service threating their voice revenue).

Testing at the moment, I know in germany they have a similar offering on cheap calls using your gsm phone when at home, but I dont think it uses ADSL/VOIP, as they can "locate" you more accurately there and determine if you are at home when you make the calls.


wexfordman

sceptre

Originally posted by wexfordman
Testing at the moment, I know in germany they have a similar offering on cheap calls using your gsm phone when at home, but I dont think it uses ADSL/VOIP, as they can "locate" you more accurately there and determine if you are at home when you make the calls.

I vaguely recall Siemens making a phone that was sold on this "call with landline rates" when you're at home and with mobile rates when out of range. I can remember it being advertised some time in the past few years.

wexfordman

Just in repsonse to some of the above comments on monitored alarm systems as well. Sorry if this is getting a bit OT

I actually bought and installed a "self monitoring" burglar alarm about 3 yrs ago. Its great, very reliable, and way cheaper than having to pay for someone else monitoring it for you. It also has built in answering machine, and calls my mobile when messages are left, also, if the mains fails it rings me up and tells me. if the alarm goes off, it rings me and I can listen in to different zones, reset the alarm etc.

I can even dial in and turn on my heating before I come home. An add on is also available for remote net access for thos of you lucky enough to have adsl at home. Thats my ultimate dream, if i get it I can monitor the house form home, turn onlights, appliances, heating tv/vcr etc.

I actually had remote internet access for a while using a permanently connected GPRS phone as well, so there are ltos of options in this regard to monitored alarm systems. A prepaid gprs phone woul ddo the job relatively cheaply.

If youve got the time, dont bother with monthly payed monitored systems, do it yourself.
wexfordman

seamus

Originally posted by wexfordman
I've heard that O2 are trialing something similar in the UK. Basically it works with a bluetooth enabled mobile phone. When you get home, the GSM mobile access the network over your adsl connection using bluetooth. I think the idea is that you can keep all of your voice calls with your mobile company, who will charge cheaper rate when you make calls from home on this bluetooth/adsl voip thingy

They're advertising it at the moment on the British channels we receive. It mentions nothing about about requiring a broadband connection, and more or less touts the idea that you can throw away your existing fixed line.
I assume it's as simple as registering your address with them, then they find your nearest cell. While in that cell, you get charged 'local' rates - 2p per min the ad says - and once a handoff occurs to another cell, ie once your leave your 'home' cell, the charges increase again.
Seems a bit easier than VOIP.

But now we're getting way OT, except that if something similar was released here, O2 would have at least one new customer in me

raeGten

I kinda thought the O2 setup (2 pence or 2cents a minute from home) was based on your nearest GSM cell too. I didn't hear anything about broadband connections and bluetooth.
I'm not sure if Net2phone would do the job either. The nice thing about Vonage was that once it's setup it works just like an eircom landline except without the €20 a month line rental. if somebody calls you you pick up the reciver on the phone in the hall and talk away. Equally you can make a call from a phone too. you don't need your pc turned on. You don't need headsets. It's a great system but it's just not over here....yet....as far as I can see.

swoofer

wexfordman

Could u tell me a bit more about your system and where u got it? I have a bit of time on my hands and would like to do what u have described, if it is not too tricky.

gbcullen

wexfordman

GBCULLEN,

Check out www.automatedhome.co.uk and www.letsautomate.com. You'll find plenty of info there on "automation" and alarm systems etc. The letsautomate site sells the "comfort" alarm system (which I used), but theres also simpler wirefree automated alarms etc. For home control/heating etc they use a system called X10, which is a powerline control system, dead easy to install and integrate your heating control and your alarm system. You can PM me if you want more info, I put in a pretty big system, and it lets me control practically anythin in the house over the phone line.

Sorry, to those of you if this is way too OT.

wexfordman

swoofer

thank you

gb===

csaddict

Ding, dong, the rat is gone... sort of.

I'm actually kinda shocked at the efficiency I experienced today - almost made me think I wasn't dealing with the same company - rang up their Sales (couldn't find anything anywhere to show how you'd go about cancelling a line so tried my luck!), and as it turns out they're the ones who'll disconnect you. No questions were asked, all they wanted was my account number and then the line was disconnected 30 minutes later, no hassles. If only they were that efficient elsewhere (although it does make you think they must have a lot of practice on this!!)

I came home, rang the line from my mobile and got the "phone is out of service" message. Picked up the land line and still got a dial tone. Tried to ring my mobile (to see if they had still got it activated) and got a voice recording stating "you can only make calls to emergency numbers and eircom's sales department" and reminding me to reconnect.

Guess this answers how they're going to do the ol' winback - yup - I'll be getting them calling me on the cancelled phone line!! Oh - the insanity of it does make me chuckle...

BTW - the alarm stuff may be a bit OT (although I still think it's relevant) but it's damn interesting - keep em coming!

sceptre

Originally posted by csaddict
BTW - the alarm stuff may be a bit OT (although I still think it's relevant) but it's damn interesting - keep em coming!

Agreed. It's not really off-topic anyway - possible consequences of getting rid of your Eircom line and all that. If it gets legs (incl. the automation stuff) and becomes the only topic coming up I might spin it off but it's certainly interesting.