I'm involved with a charity that has been under a BT broadband & phone
contract - total cost around £45/m excl VAT - and operates a single handset.

The building is now offering broadband & private wifi network within the lease
- so that's a winner. The charity has only a need to have a single telephone
number with voicemail attached - so the thought is to get the cheapest handset
and link it to either PAYG or monthly contract - just really looking for any
suggestions - smartphone isn't essential, cost is everything.

Perhaps a refurb & a sim-only contract (that's the way I'm leaning)

thx for any suggestions

--
jeremy

jeremy <jeremy0505@gmail.com> wrote in
news:kqsj34FlgckU1@mid.individual.net:

> I'm involved with a charity that has been under a BT broadband & phone
> contract - total cost around £45/m excl VAT - and operates a single
> handset.
>
> The building is now offering broadband & private wifi network within
> the lease - so that's a winner. The charity has only a need to have a
> single telephone number with voicemail attached - so the thought is to
> get the cheapest handset and link it to either PAYG or monthly
> contract - just really looking for any suggestions - smartphone isn't
> essential, cost is everything.
>
> Perhaps a refurb & a sim-only contract (that's the way I'm leaning)
>
> thx for any suggestions
>

a SIM only deal would be better for long term ownership. Check
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/sim-only/ for deals
on offer from an MVNO piggy backing on the network that is best in your
area. I have a 30 day rolling contract on Lebara that runs over Vodafone.

If the charity uses email, then it might be better to have a smartphone so
the "duty phone holder" can respond to emails if needed.

A Moto E30 is under �70

On 6 Nov 2023 at 16:49:51 GMT, "wessie" <willnotwork@tesco.net> wrote:

> jeremy <jeremy0505@gmail.com> wrote in
> news:kqsj34FlgckU1@mid.individual.net:
>
>> I'm involved with a charity that has been under a BT broadband & phone
>> contract - total cost around ֲ£45/m excl VAT - and operates a single
>> handset.
>>
>> The building is now offering broadband & private wifi network within
>> the lease - so that's a winner. The charity has only a need to have a
>> single telephone number with voicemail attached - so the thought is to
>> get the cheapest handset and link it to either PAYG or monthly
>> contract - just really looking for any suggestions - smartphone isn't
>> essential, cost is everything.
>>
>> Perhaps a refurb & a sim-only contract (that's the way I'm leaning)
>>
>> thx for any suggestions
>>
>
> a SIM only deal would be better for long term ownership. Check
> https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/sim-only/ for deals
> on offer from an MVNO piggy backing on the network that is best in your
> area. I have a 30 day rolling contract on Lebara that runs over Vodafone.
>
> If the charity uses email, then it might be better to have a smartphone so
> the "duty phone holder" can respond to emails if needed.
>
> A Moto E30 is under £70

Thanks wessie - I went to moneysupermarket when in fact moneysavingexpert was
what I had intended to visit!

Any idea if consumer vs business tariffs differ much (if the promoted deals
are typically available to "businesses")?

thanks again

--
jeremy

jeremy <jeremy0505@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm involved with a charity that has been under a BT broadband & phone
> contract - total cost around £45/m excl VAT - and operates a single handset.
>
> The building is now offering broadband & private wifi network within the lease
> - so that's a winner. The charity has only a need to have a single telephone
> number with voicemail attached - so the thought is to get the cheapest handset
> and link it to either PAYG or monthly contract - just really looking for any
> suggestions - smartphone isn't essential, cost is everything.
>
> Perhaps a refurb & a sim-only contract (that's the way I'm leaning)

It's not clear whether the existing phone service is provided as a
landline through a broadband connection, or POTS (Plain Old Telephone
Service), or if it is a mobile phone. Ignore the following if it needs
to be a mobile phone.

If you don't need a mobile phone[1], the cheapest option might be
to subscribe to a VOIP service, and install a VOIP adapter that
connects to a POTS telephone handset(s) or wireless POTS answering
machine/phone set.

I have the single line OBi200 version of this unit under the OBIHAI
name (subsequently acquired by Polycom), which interfaces to my
existing wired home phone system:

https://www.amazon.com/OBI-302-Voice-Adapter-USB/dp/B07FZYTSVL

Cheaper workalikes are available.

[1] An often overlooked method of using a VOIP service is to install a
'softphone' VOIP app on your smartphone, that hooks up to your VOIP
provider through an existing cellular data connection. If multiple
people want to be able to answer calls to the phone, it's a doddle
to do this through installing the softphone app on multiple phones.

I use a US-based VOIP provider[2] to keep my 'landline' number
active. It costs me all of $3.45/month for the service, calls are
something like 1c/minute on my plan, I'm happy to pay per minute as I
basically have the line active for any legacy callers who still have
my landline number in their contacts.

[2] https://www.callcentric.com

--
FJR1300A, GL1000, KLR650A6F, EX250J9A, DR200SE, Vespa Ciao

Mark Olson <olsonm@tiny.invalid> wrote:
> It's not clear whether the existing phone service is provided as a
> landline through a broadband connection, or POTS (Plain Old Telephone
> Service), or if it is a mobile phone. Ignore the following if it needs
> to be a mobile phone.
>
> If you don't need a mobile phone[1], the cheapest option might be
> to subscribe to a VOIP service, and install a VOIP adapter that
> connects to a POTS telephone handset(s) or wireless POTS answering
> machine/phone set.

I use Andrews and Arnold, £1.44 per month for a landline number and VOIP
service. Calls 1.5p/min to landlines, 6p/min to mobiles:
https://www.aa.net.uk/voice-and-mobile/voip-information/

Others use Voipfone: £3pm, 1p/min ll, 7p/min mob, also bundle packages:
https://www.voipfone.co.uk/PB_Telephone_Products_And_Services.php

> [1] An often overlooked method of using a VOIP service is to install a
> 'softphone' VOIP app on your smartphone, that hooks up to your VOIP
> provider through an existing cellular data connection. If multiple
> people want to be able to answer calls to the phone, it's a doddle
> to do this through installing the softphone app on multiple phones.

Note that softphones are a bit bumpy on iOS because of Apple's restrictions -
most of them can't receive incoming calls unless the app is open. There are
a couple of paid apps which supposedly work, I haven't tried them.

Theo