General Chat

At work we're on Virgin Media - absolutely cr**!

Sylvia, does this mean you actually read all that?
Respect! :-D <3 :-D

Rollo .........

"The phrase "cell phone", beloved of Stephen King , is rarely used in the UK.
The original technology used in North America for cell phones (AMPS sht down 2008) never had great market penetration in W Europe. Today all mobile phones use HSPA aka 3G/4G/LTE inc North America. However the characteristics of the old cellular AMPS system still tend to inform people'a perceptions."


however, cell phone is the term used in Canada, mobile means something different.

You keep to the terms you use

I will keep to the terms I use ..........

there is no need for me to denigrate you, or for you to denigrate me for the words we each use.


Nor do you have to parade the knowledge you acquire by various reasons, just to prove what you think of as your superiority over everyone else, something which is becoming more and more debatable over time.

Have had several over time and the last one
was the BT one.
Have a four digit number from BT which I use to block them
from calling back, that is used for all scams.

sounds very complicated to me

"It takes longer, sometimes much longer, to pinpoint where a cell phone call is coming from"

The phrase "cell phone", beloved of Stephen King , is rarely used in the UK.
The original technology used in North America for cell phones (AMPS sht down 2008) never had great market penetration in W Europe. Today all mobile phones use HSPA aka 3G/4G/LTE inc North America. However the characteristics of the old cellular AMPS system still tend to inform people'a perceptions.

Using 3G/4G/LTE the network knows in real time which access point / tower a device is using. In cities that is rarely more than 100m while in rural areas of England and Wales it tends to be at most 1 km. Unless the battery is removed ( not possible with most modern handsets) the network tracks the phone even when notionally switched off. Hence the populariy of burner phones with criminals.

It is certainly true that emergecy call centres have none or only rudimentary connection with mobile systems. There is ongoing work on the problem but it is beset with political problems as well as cost.

Mobile phone networks were developed for cities. In the caase of emergencies smartphones are arguably as good as landlines as they are with the user regardless and can be (and are) used to locate people unable to make calls for themselves. They can be used to make emergency calls regardless of being locked or no credit. A mobile phone not in use can stay live for several days before the battery runs flat.

An easy way to bring mobile networks to sparsley populated areas is to place a concentrator on telegraph poles at intervals of around 1km. As landline PTN dies the existing wires could handle the backhall to at least 2G speeds..

IAn oft quoted benefit pf landlines is that if the power goes down the phones stay up. True but only for a while. The landline exchanges have storage batteries which will keep the phones up for 12-48 hours. However they too depend in the end on the grid and so would eventually fail with a long power outage.

April 20, 2018 Slashdot

BT aims to move its UK customers to IP telephony by 2025.

"BT is shutting its traditional telephone network in the UK. The public switched telephone network (PSTN) closure is part of the company's plans to move in a fibre network direction in terms of its infrastructure. All phone calls will eventually be made over broadband using VoIP systems, which means the company's existing wholesale line rental products, which are reliant on the PSTN, will need to be removed. BT Openreach runs the network used by all but one (Virgin) of the telecoms providers in the UK."

We still have a landline with one fixed phone and one mobile on a base.

We bought our first cell phone last year.

We get scam calls on both the landline and the cell phone. However, I usually have the cell turned off so only find out about the scam calls after the event.

One MAJOR problem that has cropped up with those who only have cell phones (your mobiles) ...................

Emergency Services can pinpoint a 911 call within seconds if it is from a landline even if the caller collapses and cannot complete the call. In that case, the dispatcher will immediately send First Responders to the address to check out what is happening.

It takes longer, sometimes much longer, to pinpoint where a cell phone call is coming from, and someone may die (as actually happened).

Hello my mobile blocks any unknown numbers.it doesn't cost anything depends on supplier x .Or just block no yourself put no up which called you you should get top right corner delete or block. just block phone no & message from this no.hope this helps Barbara

We use VOIP.

Rollo is quite correct in that in Oz, when you connect to the National Broadband Network (NBN), you lose the landline.

However, we still get scammers calling us with the same type of messages as detailed in some of these posts.

I do have a mobile but only use it when away from home

I was forced to buy an up to date mobile about a month ago. The first calls & messages, within 24 hours of setting it up, were scams - Lloyds Bank & a debt recovery company. Both called again using different numbers.

Maddie - there are mobiles available for the visually impaired ie bigger screen & number buttons. No idea what the volume is like - you might be able to put them on 'speaker' if that makes things easier.

Rollo, some areas of the UK have poor mobile phone & internet coverage. Haven't we had this discussion before??

Oh i hope not, hate using a mobile for calls, hard to hear and difficult too see the small screen :-(

As we are with Virgin Media we have got around landline nuisance calls by the simple expedient of not using it. We have replaced it with VOIP. It is also much easier to control scammers from a smartphone.

The whole landline system is scheduled to be withdrawn by 2025 in any case. It has already happened in Australia.

BT will bar calls to your phone from a particular number but the scammers just use another number.

There is a BT scam out at the moment that appears to come from a genuine landline number. It is about broadband being cut off and asks you to press 1 for this, and 2 for that. We were a bit suspicious so put the phone down and checked with BT. I also checked the STD code and was surprised to find that it was no longer in use as a dialling code. We have now had 2 identical calls from this “not in use” area code but with a different number.

The scammers always seem to be one step ahead :-P

Apparently its the O2 network. Not sure if you can ask any provider to 'put a stop to it' although you may be able to bar them on your own phone.

https://who-called.co.uk/Number/07563251749

from 07563251749 claiming from tax office
An Asian vioce calling from a mobile, I might be old but not stupid
Called him a scammer and rang off

can you find out who the mobile supplier is and put a stop to this

maddie