Our landline numbers, we love them, don't want to lose them, but it's expensive to keep paying for the landline each month.
With the NBN rolling out, those who wish to have NBN internet services, keeping the landline is fairly easy. But if you mostly use a mobile phone and only keep the landline number so others can call you, there's a couple of alternatives and it can save you money.
I'm not a fan of Vodafone, but I do use their services. Recently we dropped the landline, increased out data allowance (which is shared across two mobiles) and moved the landline number to one of the mobiles so if someone calls the old landline number it goes to the mobile.
With Vodafone you need to be on a plan, but it only costs $5 a month to port your landline number to Vodafone and then Vodafone redirects the number to a nominated mobile on the Vodafone plan. I called Vodafone help and they didn't know about the service so expect staff not to know. Here's a link to an article on the Vodafone site and it's called the Vodafone Mobile Landline Service. If you let Vodafone staff know the name of the service they'll quickly find they do have it.
Keep in mind it takes 15 plus days for the service to be ported. In addition once ported you need to advise your old telco to cancel the service or they'll just keep charging you. Vodafone advised me I didn't need to do anything, but after the number was ported and calls were going to the mobile, I could still call out on the landline which meant I still needed to cancel the service with the old telco.
Overall apart from Vodafone staff not knowing their products, the service is working well. When people call the old landline number it simply goes to the mobile. They aren't aware and it doesn't cost them anything different from what they'd pay to call you. That is if they called your landline number for a local call that's all they pay even though the call goes through to your mobile. Also you don't pay extra for the redirection as you would if you redirect your landline number to your mobile.
The one thing callers will do is if they don't get you on the landline, they'll then try you on the mobile, which of course now the same thing.
The problem with Vodafone is you need to be on a Vodafone service. So far there's only one other service provider I've found in Australia that provides a similar service and that is Click Broadband. I've not tested their service so I have no actual experience. In theory it looks OK.
Click Broadband have a service called Landline Connect. The service enables you to redirect your landline phone number to your mobile (any Australian mobile service provider) and then disconnect your landline service. The cost is $10 a month.
As you only receive calls and can't make calls using the number there is no additional charge. Calls to the landline number are the same as calling a regular landline number. There's no additional cost for the redirect.
If you decide down the track to redirect your landline number to a difference mobile number you can put in a request with Click Broadband.
You can find details on the Click Broadband Landline Connect Service here.
Finally I just received feedback from a client using their broker that Telstra is also able to redirect the landline number to a mobile without having the landline. What the final cost will be with Telstra however, I don't know.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support
With the NBN rolling out, those who wish to have NBN internet services, keeping the landline is fairly easy. But if you mostly use a mobile phone and only keep the landline number so others can call you, there's a couple of alternatives and it can save you money.
I'm not a fan of Vodafone, but I do use their services. Recently we dropped the landline, increased out data allowance (which is shared across two mobiles) and moved the landline number to one of the mobiles so if someone calls the old landline number it goes to the mobile.
With Vodafone you need to be on a plan, but it only costs $5 a month to port your landline number to Vodafone and then Vodafone redirects the number to a nominated mobile on the Vodafone plan. I called Vodafone help and they didn't know about the service so expect staff not to know. Here's a link to an article on the Vodafone site and it's called the Vodafone Mobile Landline Service. If you let Vodafone staff know the name of the service they'll quickly find they do have it.
Keep in mind it takes 15 plus days for the service to be ported. In addition once ported you need to advise your old telco to cancel the service or they'll just keep charging you. Vodafone advised me I didn't need to do anything, but after the number was ported and calls were going to the mobile, I could still call out on the landline which meant I still needed to cancel the service with the old telco.
Overall apart from Vodafone staff not knowing their products, the service is working well. When people call the old landline number it simply goes to the mobile. They aren't aware and it doesn't cost them anything different from what they'd pay to call you. That is if they called your landline number for a local call that's all they pay even though the call goes through to your mobile. Also you don't pay extra for the redirection as you would if you redirect your landline number to your mobile.
The one thing callers will do is if they don't get you on the landline, they'll then try you on the mobile, which of course now the same thing.
The problem with Vodafone is you need to be on a Vodafone service. So far there's only one other service provider I've found in Australia that provides a similar service and that is Click Broadband. I've not tested their service so I have no actual experience. In theory it looks OK.
Click Broadband have a service called Landline Connect. The service enables you to redirect your landline phone number to your mobile (any Australian mobile service provider) and then disconnect your landline service. The cost is $10 a month.
As you only receive calls and can't make calls using the number there is no additional charge. Calls to the landline number are the same as calling a regular landline number. There's no additional cost for the redirect.
If you decide down the track to redirect your landline number to a difference mobile number you can put in a request with Click Broadband.
You can find details on the Click Broadband Landline Connect Service here.
Finally I just received feedback from a client using their broker that Telstra is also able to redirect the landline number to a mobile without having the landline. What the final cost will be with Telstra however, I don't know.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support
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