NBN COUNTDOWN
Unless you live outside of an urban area, the existing phone lines will be discontinued in the foreseeable future, your phone will go quiet and you will loose your home phone number.The good news is that it does not matter who currently provides or charges you for your home phone service, that same company can move you to the NBN phone service. It will work exactly the same way, you will keep your existing phone number, you should be able to keep using your existing handset/s and the price should be the same or less. Easy! Just ring the phone number on your last bill.
Like most people you are probably currently with Telstra, if you wish to stay with them they offer a number of phone only plans, the cheapest is $27.95/month which is fine if you make very few calls. You can make arrangements with a simple phone call to 1800 676 442
Telstra also offer various bundles, you can have free local calls ($40.00 per month), free local and STD calls ($50.00 per month) and free local, STD and Mobile calls ($59.00 per month). Before you ring, try and work out what you want. What is your current line rental, and how much is your average bill including calls, even staying with Telstra you should save a little.
Thinking of leaving Telstra? There are plenty of choices and this may come as a bit of a shock, but mostly they are cheaper. You keep your existing phone number, the service is the same, the call quality is the same and the reliability is the same.
Optus have an entry level (you pay for all your calls) plan for $22.00 per month (call Optus on 1800 634 361 and tell them you want the Home Phone Plan), this would be perfect if you only want the phone in case of emergency, but would like people to be able to ring you.
Personally I favour the TPG plan for $39.99 with unlimited phone calls to landlines or mobiles, call them on 1300 720 016 and ask for the NBN 12 plan plus oztalk (this plan compares rather favourably with the same plan offered by Telstra at $59.00 per month).
When talking to the salesperson, don't get sucked in! You do not want or need a mobile phone or tablet as part of the deal, no matter how cheap it appears to be it will come back and bite you, there will be a cost, and it will probably haunt you for years. Remember that it is the salespersons job to try and upsell you, that is where their profit is.