A bit of a rant on the off-chance others may have advice or sympathy...

My mother is coming up 82, lives alone after dad tipped over a couple of years ago, and is a technophobe of the highest order.  She has a mobile phone (dad's) that she will reluctantly use for txt messaging, but that's about it - she can't/won't even answer it if it rings.

The problem is that her copper phone connection with Vodafone is about to be retired, and it appears to be inordinately difficult to simply get it transitioned to a fibre one.  There's even fibre in the house, which was installed for free by Chorus several years ago when they were doing the rest of the street.

She absolutely won't go to a mobile as would be the solution for most of us, as she's afraid that none of her numerous old friends will call her because it'll cost them money.  Living alone, she does spend a lot of time on the phone, so this is a real concern.

Mum's tried phoning Vodafone but gets call centre people she can't understand, and who don't seem to know how to deal with her problem.  She's tried visiting the local Vodafone shop, who said it would be easy, she could keep her number, and that all she'd need to do was call Vodafone again to get it sorted.  She tried that again today and made no progress at all, and then the line went dead at the Vodafone end, and stayed dead when she tried to call it back.  Her phone is still working for the moment though.  She's getting quite distraught, so I thought I'd have a go on the phone with Vodafone today, and that was an hour of pure frustration!

After being told that I couldn't pass the security check to be allowed to even have a conversation about options and methods I finally got through to a chap who accepted some account details I do have access to from work, and so he duly started on the sales pitch.  ALL WE WANT IS THE PHONE ON FIBRE, DON'T NEED INTERNET.  After much explanation we get offered a deal that was acceptable (same price has her copper connection), until I find out it's a wireless connection, and not using the fibre that's already sitting ready to be used.  After I explained again that we want to use FIBRE, we get told that would be an additional $35/month over the wireless offer as it comes with an internet package that we don't need!

I accept that phone over fibre is effectively 'the internet", but am wondering if others have had similar experiences and what the outcomes were.  This must be a common scenario for older people?  I see Spark have a $55/month plan that will possibly be where we're headed next, and i hope they're easier to deal with.

Any thoughts or advice most welcome.