My Mobile Phone is off limits during the day...

[Jerry_Atrick]

I have taken a new contract where I sit on a trading floor and personal mobile phones are off limits - we aren't allowed to have them with us on the floor. Anyone caught with one is subject to immediate termination of contract (dismissal for permie employees).

 

I won't go into the why's and wherefore's.. Suffice to say, it has been a revalation. People who want to contact me for personal business.... have to wait... Such has been the "revolution", that your suppliers (aka the supermarket, vet or even flight instructor) expect you to be on tap 24 hours a day to offer up your hard earned cash to their every whim. Of course, when one gets the urge, for example, to ask the missus to get a bottle of Tahbilk or Mitchellton (oh, if only one could get either of those here.... Grange is so... ahem, yesterday ;-)), by the time one is ready to call for the irreverrant (sp?) drop, one has thought about it and decided maybe that work problem was not so bad after all.. Not great for Numurkah-ish winery sales..but you get my drift.

 

I have taken to stop tapping and going with the debit card. That few extra seconds in the pub punching my PIN number stops and makes me question how much has been spent that eve... And it has saved me a small fortune (by my standards, which will buy me almost a large pack pf Smiths S&C Chips - whatever happened to Samboy Chips? They were much better).

 

The reality; almost all modern emergencies I have belately picked up in the form of texts or voicemails have benefited from such a delay and produced a better outcome for it.. By the time I get around to it, whatever fire has been raging has burnt itself out. My day isn't a constant "Oh.. you have to do this, NOW!!!" and the people I engage with are the people I really want to engage with.. not some farty salesman from the car yard or something (well, apart from work - I still have to engage with turkerys - albeit very smart ones, it turns out).

 

I don't think I will ever switch my phone on during the day again (I haven't on weekends for years). If my wife needs me for a real emergency, she knows my land line number and work email. And hers is the only emergency I need to respond to.

 

 

[spacesailor]

I've Never used my card, other then by putting in the password code. Makes one think about the purchase price. "That few extra seconds in the pub punching my PIN number stops and makes me question how much has been spent"

 

I only Hear the phone ring-tone, If someone tells me. Always use text, & read it at My convenience.( haveing industrial deafness helps in so many ways, No Noisy Cicadas ).

 

spacesailor

 

 

[red750]

I do not answer No Caller ID calls, or calls from numbers I don't recognise - too many scam or telemarketing calls. When I answer the landline, I don't speak until they do. More often than not, the call terminates within 30 sec. Robocalls.

 

 

[old man emu]

The trouble with picking up on Robocalls is that the reason for using the Robocaller is to find out if a random combination of numbers is an actual phone number. Then your number is sold on to "Darren" whose accent immediately tells you that his real name is Sanjiv.

 

 

[octave]

I do not have a landline but when it comes to mobile I never answer it unless the number is in my phone or I am specifically expecting a call. If the call is important they will leave a message and I can call straight back. Given that there are situations where you can not answer your mobile such as driving or whilst working etc. I think people do not necessarily expect you to answer. Also, most of my communications especially for work are texts. My phone so seldom rings that I jump when it does, perhaps I am just deeply unpopular.

 

 

[red750]

Received a call yesterday, waited the 30 seconds, and a female voice with Indian accent said "Hello?" I said "Who are you and what do you want?" She started on about solar panels, I said "Let me stop you there. This number is on the Do Not Call register and you are breaking the law. Get off the phone." Then I hung up.

 

Another recorded female voice, with an Australian accent, said "Hello, I'm Nicole from the Australian National Broadband Network." I hung up because that is a well known and recognised scam.

 

 

[octave]

As more people just stop answering calls from unknown numbers surely the business model of cold calling will become less viable. Of course, for some people there are compelling reasons to answer all calls but I find I even with a business people with a genuine need to talk to me will leave a message.

 

It may seem like a long bow to draw but for me in order have a happy life I need to feel like I am in control and choosing not to answer is a power I have. Those who need to talk to me know how to get hold of me.

 

 

[old man emu]

The next one I answer is going to get this:

 

Me: I'm glad you called

 

Caller: (stunned into silence)

 

Me: You must be calling in relation to our exclusive travel offer.

 

Caller: My name is David and I am ringing you about your telephone service.

 

Me: Great, David. But first let me ask you a question.

 

Caller: OK. What is your question, I may be able to help you.

 

Me: David, would you like to travel to exotic places for romantic encounters with beautiful women?

 

Caller: I would like to travel.

 

Me: Great, well now you can fvck off!

 

 

[spacesailor]

"I do not have a landline but when it comes to mobile I never answer it unless the number is in my phone or I am specifically expecting a call"

 

A lot of us Oldies are going to be in the same basket, as when our Landline, Broadband internet & Medical alert are cut, Compusary N B N, ( No Bludi Network ).

 

I know "for $100 a month they will put on a telephone adapter for an upgraded phone, On the N B N system". (I did check Optus, & Telstra ).

 

spacesailor

 

 

[nomadpete]

I do wonder, just how many of have reviewed the offers from NBN resellers and decided it isn't worth it?

 

It's not for me right now.

 

I have a mobile phone. Gave up on a landline.

 

I accept the crappy free to air TV.

 

I've watched 'data TV' and for me it isn't worth the cost!

 

I don't think I'm alone with all that.

 

Are such 'stick-in-the-muds' having any impact on the commercial viability of NBN?

 

 

[spacesailor]

I doubt they even consider us oldies, in their big scheme of things, to make their $millions.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[nomadpete]

But seriously, Space, we seniors are called a 'growing demographic' and although I know quite a few who love their NBN (whenever it works properly). I also know quite a few who don't want it. Including myself.

 

The whole NBN requires everyone to buy into it to spread the cost more thinly. But it seems that, at least in regional areas, the infrastructure is not coping with the present demand. It seems to me like a dog's breakfast from a technical perspective. If it had been built as designed, there would not be the congestion problems that I constantly hear about.

 

Thanks Mr Turnbull for that.

 

 

[red750]

Technically there should be no problem with speed. It's the artificial speed bumps that providers have been allowed to build in, to enable higher charges, that are the problem.

 

 

[spacesailor]

"Technically there should be no problem with speed."

 

Except we are only getting Copper to the Node,

 

No high speed internet here, Under par with Broadband.

 

BUT

 

why take out the existing phone line ?.

 

$100 p m, just for a replacement NBN phone, stinks.

 

Are Telstra & optus going to be compulsory made to remove all that obsolete equipment they installed.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Diddy Pilot]

NBN not working in regional areas !!! You whingers, it won't be available to complain about until next year here in the nation's capital.

 

Or at least in the area where I live where I could throw a rock and hit the telephone exchange.

 

 

[willedoo]

I do not have a landline but when it comes to mobile I never answer it unless the number is in my phone or I am specifically expecting a call. If the call is important they will leave a message and I can call straight back. Given that there are situations where you can not answer your mobile such as driving or whilst working etc. I think people do not necessarily expect you to answer. Also, most of my communications especially for work are texts. My phone so seldom rings that I jump when it does, perhaps I am just deeply unpopular.

Octave, without a landline & ADSL, do you connect to the net via your phone only?

 

 

[octave]

Octave, without a landline & ADSL, do you connect to the net via your phone only?

What I meant was I have naked ADSL and I do not use a landline phone.

 

 

[spacesailor]

"Octave, without a landline & ADSL, do you connect to the net via your phone only? "

 

I have a Aldi phone provider to take over when I am disconnected.

 

I know it's not as fast as ADSL broadband, but it'll have to do. I refuse to accept the $hundreds to replace my $60 for 120G's, that I have now.

 

I think if Huawei bring in the 4g network/ phones, every one will leave NBN in droves !.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[octave]

I refuse to accept the $hundreds to replace my $60 for 120G's, that I have now.

That sounds expensive, at the moment I pay $60 for 500Gb with Internode or when NBN arrives shortly they are offering 500Gb for $64.99

 

 

[spacesailor]

True expensive at the moment,

 

But

 

It will change when the chopper falls on us,

 

I asked both Telstra & Optus for a NBN phone, both say "you will have to have a bundled NBN plan", just to have the landline phone.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[octave]

True expensive at the moment,But

 

It will change when the chopper falls on us,

 

I asked both Telstra & Optus for a NBN phone, both say "you will have to have a bundled NBN plan", just to have the landline phone.

 

spacesailor

It is a matter of personal choice but I am wondering why you need a landline phone? For me at least there is no reason to have a mobile and a landline phone.

 

 

[willedoo]

That sounds expensive, at the moment I pay $60 for 500Gb with Internode or when NBN arrives shortly they are offering 500Gb for $64.99

Octave, thanks very much for that info. I wasn't clued in on naked ADSL; had to google it. I pay $30 per month for line rental and haven't made a call on the line for years, just using the line for my ADSL connection. I'm also with Internode and pay $70 per month for the plan, plus 30 for the line rental to Telstra.

 

I'll give Internode a call on Monday to see if naked ADSL is available in my area. Thanks again, very informative.

 

 

[spacesailor]

My landline phone is a multi !,

 

Phone

 

Fax.

 

Answering machine.

 

Hearing loop.

 

Emergency call badge re-sender,!.

 

Not available on the new digital phones or NBN, / skype phones, of which I've thrown a new "Skype phone" into the garbage bin.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

It is a matter of personal choice but I am wondering why you need a landline phone? For me at least there is no reason to have a mobile and a landline phone.

I got stuffed around so much with the NBN installation that they agreed we could keep the landline. (Just a few years ago Telstra spent big mobs replacing the whole line, so I guess they figure it's worth keeping it connected.) I only use it for emergencies, like when the module system is down.

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

How can you not have a landline of you are getting NBN - don't they use the land line to deliver it?

 

Not really an option here. Also, in the "sticks" (they don't really know what the sticks are), it is soemtimes difficult to get mobile receptop - are you all on Satellite phones?

 

Poor city slicker today tried to pay at the local equivalent to Coles Express with his iphone... couldn't get what he wanted... No Signal