Landline Phones

[Smokeahontas]

I had to renew my broadband / TV deal today & the packages all involved a landline. Asked them to take it off and all the deals ended up more expensive I don’t even own a telephone to plug into the socket.

Do many people still use them where you have a landline still available?

[FortunesFave]

We have one because my Mum doesn't have a mobile. It's been useful on occasion....when someone loses their phone and there's nobody else in the house and location is off for example. Also, I'm a bit crap with hearing my mobile and one of my friends always landlines me when I don't pick up.

[RedskyAtnight]

We have one. It's useful as just a "contact someone from the family" rather than a specific person number. Plus if the children need picking up from somewhere (when they are ever allowed to go anywhere again) it's easier for them to use the house phone number and just talk to whichever of me and DH answers, rather than having to guess which of us might be free and ringing our mobiles in turn.

We don't pay for a call package though, and hence always use our mobiles for outbound calls (it's about 40p a minute from the landline!)

[wibblewombat]

I use mine all the time. I use my mobile for most things but never liked calling from one, so don't... grew up using a landline & just more comfortable with it. Line quality is dreadful tho, think Openreach is letting the infrastructure rot.

[Fiddlersgreen]

We have one as we needed it for the broadband package. The phone itself has stopped working and we haven’t bothered replacing it tbh

[AccidentallyRunToWindsor]

We have a package with a landline included but we don't even own a phone.

[Soutiner]

I have had packages that include a landline phone for a decade at least but have not owned a landline phone.

I can’t see the point of my using one.

[Carryingon]

I have it for emergencies ie if the kids needed to call for help. But I never use it except to ring it from my mobile when I want ds to bring me a cup of tea in bed.

[FenEel]

I use landline all the time, vastly prefer it to mobile. If anyone wants to reach me they are much more likely to get me on the landline, where I have three phones that will ring and I will hear them wherever I am in the house, than on my mobile which may be out of battery, may have the volume turned down, and will almost certainly not be in the same room as I am. I talk a lot on the phone for my job (work from home) and since mobiles became popular it has become much more annoying - you can’t hear people properly, they dip in and out of reception, they put it on speaker phone and you can’t hear them - I have to quote people/ get info from them and half the time you only get half of the conversation. It’s even worse now everyone wants to do video calls!

[Wendyhause]

Yes I have a landline but have not phoned anyone from it for at least 3 years! I think I have heard it ring on average twice a year and it tends to be scam callers. I think I bought my LL phone from Tesco for a fiver several years ago. I keep it "just in case" (as you do).

[Almostslimjim]

We don't have a phone plugged in to it, but all broadband needs a phone line, unless you have a 4g dongle. Including the so called "landline free" deals - they just include the cost of the line in the package and you can't make calls.

[Cuppaand2biscuits]

We don't have one,haven't had one for years and years but am going to buy one soon.
A friend of mine had an emergency situation recently where she had to stay on the line to the ambulance service on her phone and needed a second line to call someone to come and look after her children but she couldn't do that until she ended the 999 call.
Made me think that I should have one.

[LittleBearPad]

We have one because it was more expensive not to. It is barely used.

[Aquamarine1029]

I haven't had a landline for over 10 years.

[yankeedoodledandee]

all broadband needs a phone line, unless you have a 4g dongle.

Untrue.

[BernardsarenotalwaysSaints]

We use ours. My Gran is deaf & finds it easier to hear on landline phones, I'm also her NOK so we have the landline number on all her records as our mobiles are on silent overnight. School have it & call it before trying our mobile numbers too. Also the GP. We had to buy a new LL phone in the summer as our old one died (it was 11 years old) I've now got a 'BT True Call' it's bloody amazing (& I'm back up to 3 handsets) way better than signing up to telephone preference service. I've had 0 nuisance calls since we got it in July, previously we were getting 2-3 a week even with TPS & being Ex-directory.

[DuzzyFuck]

I have one as needed for broadband, but no idea what the number is and no phone plugged into it.

[LeaveMyDamnJam]

We need it for our alarm system and the fact we don’t get mobile signal at home- rural location. Without it would would be buggered.

[TheNationsFavourite]

No mobile reception at home! Rely on our land line.

[Allgirlskidsanddogs]

Yes. Live rurally, mobiles don’t work in the house unless we use WiFi calling and even then it’s patchy - WiFi doesn’t work in all areas of the house, so a landline is needed.

[EssentiallyDelighted]

We've still got ours, gradually use it less and less but a few places still have it listed as our contact number. Mobile reception isn't great in our house either - you have to be fairly near the front or back of the house to get a really good signal. I like having an old plug in one for power cuts and other emergencies too, occasionally the local mobile transmitter goes down when there's a power cut.

[PolkadotsAndMoonbeams]

Yes, I wouldn't be without one! Signal isn't always great at home, and I think the landline is usually clearer anyway.

Plus we had a 10 hour powercut over the summer — being able to use the landline (it isn't wireless, so doesn't rely on mains to charge) meant we could make calls but save our mobile batteries.

[lynsey91]

Yes we have one and use it. My elderly mum prefers to ring our landline. I also do not like giving my mobile number to all and sundry so GP, hospital, vet etc phone the landline.

Also, like another poster, sometimes my phone has no charge and I also do not take it round the house with me. If I am upstairs and my mobile is downstairs I usually won't hear it ring. I can hear the landline easily

[PattyPan]

We have one and since WFH i've been using that instead of mobile, I'm on giffgaff so I have just stopped buying a goodybay between that and wifi.

[AvoidingNextdoorNeighbour]

We have a line that came with broadband as it was too expensive without it. We never use the damn thing and request that MIL and SIL call our mobiles instead. They'll agree verbally and then just phone the bloody thing every effing time.
It's behind the settee on a shelf in case of emergencies so we have to scramble over the settee once we realise what the odd noise we can get is and it's almost always them. Drives me mad. I wish I could unplug it.

And as it's tucked away behind a lamp and a router, it's almost always covered in dust so you have to blow it like a mystical ancient book in a movie before you pick it up.

[TroysMammy]

I have one as it would have been more expensive to get rid of it with the broadband and tv package I have. My DP uses it to locate his mobile phone he's left in some random place in the house.

My sister rang me on it today before picking up her daughter and I was disappointed it wasn't a scammer. They are the only other people who ring it.