Monthly landline phonebill for empty house

Amy2010

Landline phonebill for empty house (Dad passed away recently) that I'm paying for each month Eur33 approx. for Vodafone. I'd like to keep my phone line open to receive calls but not making calls when I'm back to the house. I find Eur33 approx. excessive for no phone calls for most of a year.

Is there anything out there that I can keep my phone line open and for minimal charge? Perhaps pay as you go approach or something like 'skype' but I'd like to keep a same phone number?

Nody

Standard forwarding service possibly but I don't think they will insist on having a real phone line for that.

Amy2010

Nody wrote: »

Standard forwarding service possibly but I don't think they will insist on having a real phone line for that.

What is Standard forwarding service?
Is it with Vodafone?

Nody

I'm sure Vodafone can offer it as well but it's exactly what it sounds like; a forwarding service. Someone calls number A, it automatically get redirected to phone number B.

It is listed on the Eircom page here as a business service but I'm sure it can be gotten for a normal line as well; here's the Vodafone page for it.

Mr. G

You could go with a VoiP provider. The land line would be disconnected as it works over the internet, but the phone can be used anywhere, so you wouldn't be paying €30 a month, more like €2.50 and you get voicemail, call forwarding etc included.

www.goldfish.ie

I don't work for those btw.

p15574

...except you'd be paying for broadband instead of the landline, which might be as expensive

Mr. G

p15574 wrote: »

...except you'd be paying for broadband instead of the landline, which might be as expensive

No. If the op has broadband at home, you could just port the landline over to voip and connect it to a voip phone and receive calls at home. No diversions, and that's only €2.50 a month.

Mr. G

Oh and if you don't have broadband at home you could forward the calls (at a fee of course) to your own landline or setup a voicemail.

p15574

Mr_Grumpy wrote: »

No. If the op has broadband at home, you could just port the landline over to voip and connect it to a voip phone and receive calls at home. No diversions, and that's only €2.50 a month.

Well, obviously. But - and I may be getting the wrong end of the stick here - my understanding is that the OP lives elsewhere - possibly abroad - and wants to be able to use the phone when they are AT this house, which is (unfortunately) unoccupied and there is no broadband there. I don't think the issue is to do with a requirement for forwarding calls or anything like that.

By the way, if you just want to be contactable when you're back in the country, (again I might be misunderstanding the situation here!), why not forget about a landline or broadband at all and just have a pay-as-you-go Irish SIM or purchase a phone with one, so you're contactable on that instead? You'd only need to top up by a nominal amount every 6 months or so (you'd need to check) so they don't deactivate the number.

Mr. G

p15574,

Your thinking of a different thread.

Amy,

There is no point on paying for an unused land line for €30 a month that might only be used every now and again.

What sort of broadband do you have at home (if any)?

1. Pay €2.50 a month and port land line over
2. Divert calls to your mobile so you still receive calls however you pay for the call to your mobile. In most circumstances this will still save you money, its not as if the phone will ring off the hook.

You can have an ip phone hooked up at home so you can hunt that first to avoid the mobile charge.

You could also use this ip phone to call Australia, uk and even argentina for less than 2 cent a minute. You get to choose what caller ID shows up.

Amy2010

Mr_Grumpy wrote: »

p15574,

Your thinking of a different thread.

Amy,

There is no point on paying for an unused land line for €30 a month that might only be used every now and again.

What sort of broadband do you have at home (if any)?

1. Pay €2.50 a month and port land line over
2. Divert calls to your mobile so you still receive calls however you pay for the call to your mobile. In most circumstances this will still save you money, its not as if the phone will ring off the hook.

You can have an ip phone hooked up at home so you can hunt that first to avoid the mobile charge.

You could also use this ip phone to call Australia, uk and even argentina for less than 2 cent a minute. You get to choose what caller ID shows up.

There is no broadband via landline. However, I've meteor wifi broadband with large dongle (meteor wifi).

Mr. G

That should be fine once you have it set at the right codec. What are your speeds? Can you call with skype easy enough.

You can receive calls on your laptop or get them forwarded to your mobile. You do not need any laptop or broadband turned on to have the line forwarded to your mobile.

Your better off just porting and forwarding the calls to your mobile. You can also send them to voicemail and since that's not a diversion you won't be charged.

roast

An alternative here would be to port the number to whats called a "Virtual Line" which you can get from most landline providers. Only a handful of Euro per month, and it can be set up to announce a message when dialled, or divert the calls to another number.

Amy2010

roast wrote: »

An alternative here would be to port the number to whats called a "Virtual Line" which you can get from most landline providers. Only a handful of Euro per month, and it can be set up to announce a message when dialled, or divert the calls to another number.

Interesting....how can I set this up? With who?

roast

I'd be fairly confident most Landline providers offer such a service. The only ones I know for sure do it is Eircom, Smart, Magnet and Vodafone.