On 18/07/2019 16:49, wrote:

The Motorola NiMH batteries had a depressingly short life. Both of mine (the
phone came with 2) were done within 3 or so years. I replaced them with NiCads
which lasted longer but unfortunately were larger and heavier.

Whereas the Li-Ion (Li-Polymer to be accurate) batteries that came with
my two Nokia 6310i's are still going strong after almost 20 years. One
is known to be from December 2000, as I wrote the date on it. I still
get a week on standby.


--
Ria in Aberdeen

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MissRiaElaine wrote:
On 18/07/2019 15:18, Roland Perry wrote:

Networks have tried hard over the years to introduce their equivalent of
"standing charges" to fight back a little bit. One I'll be writing about
later (in more detail) in another subthread, is the O2 requirement that
PAYG phones wanting to use the tube Wifi are topped up at least once a
month.

A standing charge equals a contract. Making someone top up monthly is
effectively forcing them onto one in all but name.

[1] And I'll happily admit I'm one of those.

Ditto. My primary reason is I detest spending money unnecessarily (no,
I'm not Scottish, although I do live here..!) - why should I pay £xx a
month for a phone when I don't make many calls..? To me, a mobile is an
emergency device - if I break down in the middle of nowhere (not hard in
this part of the world) then I need to be able to contact someone.

If I want to ring a friend for a chat, or see how my mother is doing, it
can wait until I'm home. My landline package includes all calls to
landlines and mobiles, and is better value than any mobile contract I've
so far come across. I need the landline for broadband, so it makes sense
to use it and reserve the mobile for essential calls when away from home.

It's unusual for a land line package to include unlimited calls, 24x7, to
both land lines and mobiles. Conversely, even quite cheap mobile packages
(eg, £7pm) include generous (eg, 1500) numbers of minutes, 24x7, to both
land lines and mobiles.

Consequently, many people now only use their mobiles, with no land line
phone installed (even if they have to pay for the line as part of their
broadband). With FTTP lines, it's the VoIP land line that's the cheap
optional extra (£2pm in my case).


I really do wonder what all these people I see walking along the street
with their heads buried in their so-called "smart" phones are doing. Can
they really not survive ten minutes without checking FarceBuke or
Twitface..? How can they see what's on the screen anyway..? Whenever I
tried to use mine in daylight I couldn't see the thing at all..!

I think many of them are just playing games. Or they're in WhatsApp. If
walking along, maybe they're using it for navigation?

On 18/07/2019 13:32, Roland Perry wrote:

What kinds of drive-by malware has been known to be delivered via apps
like Facebook and Twitter?

Brexit and Trump?



--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

On 18/07/2019 19:31, MissRiaElaine wrote:

I really do wonder what all these people I see walking along the street
with their heads buried in their so-called "smart" phones are doing. Can
they really not survive ten minutes without checking FarceBuke or
Twitface..? How can they see what's on the screen anyway..? Whenever I
tried to use mine in daylight I couldn't see the thing at all..!

I often do wonder what all the people with their heads in so-called
"bukes" are doing. Can they really not survive ten minutes without
checking ppaer? How can they use them anyway..? When I tried to use one
in the rain it fell apart..!


--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

MissRiaElaine wrote:
On 18/07/2019 15:18, Roland Perry wrote:

Networks have tried hard over the years to introduce their equivalent of
"standing charges" to fight back a little bit. One I'll be writing about
later (in more detail) in another subthread, is the O2 requirement that
PAYG phones wanting to use the tube Wifi are topped up at least once a
month.

A standing charge equals a contract. Making someone top up monthly is
effectively forcing them onto one in all but name.

[1] And I'll happily admit I'm one of those.

Ditto. My primary reason is I detest spending money unnecessarily (no,
I'm not Scottish, although I do live here..!) - why should I pay £xx a
month for a phone when I don't make many calls..? To me, a mobile is an
emergency device - if I break down in the middle of nowhere (not hard in
this part of the world) then I need to be able to contact someone.

If I want to ring a friend for a chat, or see how my mother is doing, it
can wait until I'm home. My landline package includes all calls to
landlines and mobiles, and is better value than any mobile contract I've
so far come across. I need the landline for broadband, so it makes sense
to use it and reserve the mobile for essential calls when away from home.

I really do wonder what all these people I see walking along the street
with their heads buried in their so-called "smart" phones are doing. Can
they really not survive ten minutes without checking FarceBuke or
Twitface..? How can they see what's on the screen anyway..? Whenever I
tried to use mine in daylight I couldn't see the thing at all..!



I’m usually posting to uk.railway in the few minutes I have between hours
of not being able to use my phone at all


Anna Noyd-Dryver

On 18/07/2019 20:26, Recliner wrote:

It's unusual for a land line package to include unlimited calls, 24x7, to
both land lines and mobiles. Conversely, even quite cheap mobile packages
(eg, £7pm) include generous (eg, 1500) numbers of minutes, 24x7, to both
land lines and mobiles.

We're with Sky for FTTC broadband and landline (no TV). Monthly rate is
£35 all in, although I have to admit that was a 'negotiated' rate after
we threatened to leave ;-)

Who is the £7 a month with..? The cheapest mobile contract I can
immediately find just looking quickly was £10 with Three, for two of us
that's £20. Given that we *need* a landline to get broadband, it's a
no-brainer. Also, Three is a lousy signal around here anyway, so there
is little or no chance of using mobile broadband (my experience of it
even in good signal areas is patchy, so zero chance of video streaming etc.)

What do these people with no landlines *do* for their broadband..? They
haven't *all* got VM - even if we wanted that we couldn't have it, as
they don't serve this area and AFAIK have no immediate plans to. And as
I said, mobile broadband in my experience anyway isn't exactly speedy.

--
Ria in Aberdeen

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MissRiaElaine wrote:
On 18/07/2019 20:26, Recliner wrote:

It's unusual for a land line package to include unlimited calls, 24x7, to
both land lines and mobiles. Conversely, even quite cheap mobile packages
(eg, £7pm) include generous (eg, 1500) numbers of minutes, 24x7, to both
land lines and mobiles.

We're with Sky for FTTC broadband and landline (no TV). Monthly rate is
£35 all in, although I have to admit that was a 'negotiated' rate after
we threatened to leave ;-)

Who is the £7 a month with..?

Virgin (which uses the EE network):
https://www.virginmedia.com/mobile/sim-only/pay-monthly-sim



The cheapest mobile contract I can
immediately find just looking quickly was £10 with Three, for two of us
that's £20. Given that we *need* a landline to get broadband, it's a
no-brainer.

Luckily I no longer need an Openreach phone line to get broadband, and no,
I don't use VM. And my speeds are now much higher, particularly for upload:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/recliner/48256450187/in/dateposted/


Also, Three is a lousy signal around here anyway, so there
is little or no chance of using mobile broadband (my experience of it
even in good signal areas is patchy, so zero chance of video streaming etc.)

Yes, it's very location dependent.


What do these people with no landlines *do* for their broadband..? They
haven't *all* got VM - even if we wanted that we couldn't have it, as
they don't serve this area and AFAIK have no immediate plans to. And as
I said, mobile broadband in my experience anyway isn't exactly speedy.


They probably just use mobile data on their phones if out of WiFi range.

Arthur Figgis wrote:
On 18/07/2019 13:32, Roland Perry wrote:

What kinds of drive-by malware has been known to be delivered via apps
like Facebook and Twitter?

Brexit and Trump?

That’s too true to be funny...

--
Jeremy Double

MissRiaElaine wrote:
On 18/07/2019 20:26, Recliner wrote:

It's unusual for a land line package to include unlimited calls, 24x7, to
both land lines and mobiles. Conversely, even quite cheap mobile packages
(eg, £7pm) include generous (eg, 1500) numbers of minutes, 24x7, to both
land lines and mobiles.

We're with Sky for FTTC broadband and landline (no TV). Monthly rate is
£35 all in, although I have to admit that was a 'negotiated' rate after
we threatened to leave ;-)

Who is the £7 a month with..? The cheapest mobile contract I can
immediately find just looking quickly was £10 with Three, for two of us
that's £20. Given that we *need* a landline to get broadband, it's a
no-brainer. Also, Three is a lousy signal around here anyway, so there
is little or no chance of using mobile broadband (my experience of it
even in good signal areas is patchy, so zero chance of video streaming etc.)

What do these people with no landlines *do* for their broadband..? They
haven't *all* got VM - even if we wanted that we couldn't have it, as
they don't serve this area and AFAIK have no immediate plans to. And as
I said, mobile broadband in my experience anyway isn't exactly speedy.


I have a landline installed but it’s never had a telephone connected to it.
In the previous place I lived, I did have a telephone connected, and the
only calls I ever received were for previous users of that number.


Anna Noyd-Dryver

On 18/07/2019 22:32, Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:

I have a landline installed but it’s never had a telephone connected to it.
In the previous place I lived, I did have a telephone connected, and the
only calls I ever received were for previous users of that number.

If you have a landline, surely it's cheaper to use it for calls than a
mobile..? For us, it's still cheaper to use our landline than a mobile.
As I said, a mobile is an emergency device for us, 99.9% of the calls we
make can wait until we're home.

We're now on the O2 classic PAYG, no monthly top-up required, just a
call or text every 6 months. 3p/min for calls, 2p/text and 1p/MB data
(which never gets used as the 6310i doesn't do this new-fangled interweb..!)

My other half once made £20 last 4 years..! I've not quite done that,
but I've come close. Why spend money you don't have to..? We might
possibly be able to do without a landline if we didn't need broadband,
but since we do, and we get inclusive calls at a good price, it makes
sense to use it rather than spend oodles on a mobile contract.


--
Ria in Aberdeen

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