Land line versus mobile - advice

[profitxchange]

Am looking at going totally mobile from BT landline. It looks as though it would halve our cost.
Anyone have experience of using mobile exclusively for phone and broadband etc?
I am not a techie but I understand one can turn one's mobile into a wifi hotspot for broadband.

Thanks

 

[Dave Tidwell]

It depends what frame of reference your move is driven from? Is this to RECEIVE business calls? If so you may find it beneficial to keep a landline number as calls to and from them are cheaper for your customers in most cases than calls to mobile phone numbers. You may miss opportunities by creating the concern about the price of reaching you.

If this is just about minimising cost and 'telephony' is not a large part of your business communications shadow then going mobile only can be a good option.

If safety and 999 or other emergency services are mandatory for any reason then keeping a landline is often recommended as 999 levels of service via VoIP/Mobile are not assured- but they are by statute for landlines.

I have worked in businesses that even with 60+ employees went purely mobile and had zero landlines in the offices. It worked just fine; but was more challenging to move calls around if necessary on the odd occasion that someone called the 0800 number for the 'fictitious front-office'

 

[profitxchange]

Hi Thanks for your feedback
I was just seeking input for a small internet business home based. So low incoming land line activity but internet access important.

 

[arnydnxluk]

I am not a techie but I understand one can turn one's mobile into a wifi hotspot for broadband.

It's probably best to use a dedicated device for permanent access:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-E5577C-Ultra-Fast-Unlocked-Portable/dp/B011YM0OXU/ref=sr_1_3

Hi Thanks for your feedback
I was just seeking input for a small internet business home based. So low incoming land line activity but internet access important.

How much data do you plan on using? Assuming your area has quality 4G access, the next biggest issue with 4G is the (small) data allowance, versus unrestricted options available from broadband providers.

If internet access is truly important, I would personally stick with a wired connection of some form and have your mobile on standby as an emergency hotspot when required.

 

[Mike_Cartwright]

When it comes to calling functions, going mobile would be just fine, especially if you're just starting off with your business and don't expect a lot of calls, the downside about this that I could think of would be the cost of that your customers have to shoulder if they wish to reach you and the hassle if there'd be a need to transfer calls within the company. The web connectivity part of it may rely on how much connection and speed you'd need to run your business. I believe that hotspots are intended for personal use than business needs, it would be best to get a wired connection instead.

 

[profitxchange]

Hi Thanks for the very useful feedback
My data usage has never exceeded 30gb/m and is nearer 20 on average. It looks as though EE sim only deal may fit as they cover our area and have a 25gb sim only deal that works out about 2/3rds BT cost. I may take an ee contract early and run in parallel with bt for a couple of months and see how it goes.
Thanks again everyone.

 

[Prosperity]

Im with Bt mobile. The signal is hit and miss to say the least. Last thing you want is the call disconnecting half way through a potential sale. Stick with landline at least for incoming. Im actually going to buy out of my contract its that bad..

 

[Dave Tidwell]

The issue with Mobile Broadband is its inherent lack of reliability. It can be lightning fast on occasions and then struggle; simply due to local demand. ADSL or other connections from BT and others may be slower but they tend to be far more reliable.

It is not easy to share a single mobile broadband connection across multiple users or devices especially if some of them are ethernet rather than wifi based so growing your business connectivity could be challenging. You can get mobile basestations but they aren't supported by the UK mobile operators. EE used to have a 'tower' one from Hauwei but they pulled it from service quickly. You'll still see them advertised and sold on eBay. Why would EE pull them from their offer even though they made a huge stink about using 4G for home based internet? Your guess is as good as mine; but you can be pretty sure they simply didn't work as advertised.

Mobile tethering to a good 4G connection is okay if you only use WIFI on all devices. But it is still terrible for anything like a decent office setup with mixed wired and unwired devices connecting.

But, broadband mobile as an alternative is getting close to being useful. But, be careful of the rate limits and the lack of quality of service. If you go over your allowance then it can get very expensive; very quickly.

As video is such a focused area of any modern digital business you will be surprised just how fast you'll gobble up 25gig a month just uploading and manipulating a video channel on YouTube! Don't think you'll be watching netflix over it either as you'll swallow up all your bandwidth in a week or so.

I live in the countryside and have a really bad BT ADSL line at home. There are zero other options that aren't simply LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) where a BT competitor drapes its kit over theirs in the exchange. They cannot be better than BT as it all sits on the same damn kit anyway! You may get a better price but zero difference in service. Weak ADSL is good enough for checking email and just about good enough to allow a single member of the household to watch a low definition netflix movie. It's best speed is less than 1mbit/s - upload is snailpaced at a quarter of this speed; but it will keep chugging away day and night all month long and is typically very stable and reliable. For a business reliability is more important than sheer speed.

I gave up trying to find decent broadband as the UK has some of the worst connectivity of any developed nation. I rent an office in a local town based business park and do all the important stuff there.

I think on the whole you're safer sticking with slow and reliable versus lower quality of service. That suggests stick with fixed landline and do what you can to get a better deal on it. For now anyway.

[I have zero affiliation with BT. Their network stinks; but that's not their fault. Competition was introduced that effectively prevented BT from investing in their network as they had no cash to do so. That's another story though for another thread!. The worst thing that ever happened in the UK is opening up base telecoms to competition because it stifled investment.....now look what's happening? BT is buying its way back in!] The same thing happened in the USA when AT&T was broken up into 7 baby-bell operating companies. AT&T is back these days having bought it all back again.

 

[cjd]

One point not so far covered is that unless you're a business that can be expected to be mobile - plumber, electrician etc an 07X number on your website just shrieks one-man-band and fly-by-night.

Customers need reassurance if they don't know you and one of the ways they get it is by seeing an 01 or 02 number and a real address on the contact page.

Given other considerations too, I'd say it's an unnecessary risk to save not a lot of money.

 

[GraemeL]

I agree with @cjd . A landline number is essential. However a landline phone is not. I use Voipfone, which is CJD's business. I could choose my landline number but have all calls divert to my mobile phone if I wish.

G

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

I also use Voipfone as above, and that's useful for getting a landline number and having all my calls diverted to my mobile.
However, I would never use tethering as my sole internet source. It is far too unreliable in my opinion. Home broadband is generally faster and more consistently so than mobile data, and allows me to connect multiple devices all at the same time without missing a beat. I have BT fibre which has been great for me so far, and I have my TV going through it, all my home office equipment, and multiple phones. Couldn't do all of that reliably connecting to a hotspot on my iPhone.