Whats the point of a landline phone?

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Are there any advantages?

A bit slow on the uptake but we pay an annual amount plus calller ID and unlimited calls but we already have those things on our mobile packages.

Are there any good reasons to have mobile and landline or is landline now a relic?

Unless you have Virgin fibre, if you have the internet at home you need a landline.

You don't have to have a physical handset and use the landline for calls, but you do need it for internet.

We also found it useful when the DCs were about 10-11 years old and didn't have mobiles of their own, we could go out knowing they could always call us or grandparents or 999 if they needed to.

We have one because we need it for broadband and have an old phone plugged into it that rings occasionally, but you need to whack the phone off something to use it.

I don't even know our number and anytime it rings it takes a while to click what the strange noise is 😂

You need it for broadband usually. You don't have to plug a phone in but it's potentially useful to have the facility. My DD sometimes calls from hers as mobile reception is poor in her area.

I realised the other day how little ours is used when it rang and I didn't register where the noise was coming from, but it isn't costing extra so....

I prefer the landline. People don’t sound like Norman Collier on landlines. Showing my age there!

We are rural and my husband works away a lot. I like to have the landline just in case i had no battery or signal in an emergency.

Annoying really, we have a home phone line included in our Virgin package but it's broken down as a £19.99 line rental charge per month, we don't even have a home telephone plugged into the line yet can't cancel it without changing our provider or our package

I think people are mixing up the op. She asks about a "landline phone" not "a landline"....

Last time we had one was 2003

My friends and I use our landlines almost every day. We have unlimited calls on them and have always used them to call each other. I find the sound quality much better than a mobile phone

I've not had a landline plugged in since the early 2000s either - I remember plugging on in in about 2015 out of interest (clearing out the loft and found one) and all I got was spam calls..

We pay the line rental for broadband, but don't bother with plugging in a phone and have no idea what the number is. I've got a skype-in number that I give out to places that don't want a mobile number (not often these days) which I just redirect to a mobile.

Oh and won't work in a power cut if they're digital. Not many people have phones that don't plug into the electric. Some of us who live in rural areas with frequent power cuts and crap mobile coverage have learnt the hard way, and have both. I am packing to move back to such a rural area in the UK, and to my delight found three plug into the socket phones. All my bases are thus covered.

I far prefer a landline phone. I don't have to remember where it is, I don't have to charge it (I have 4 handsets, so they don't migrate around the house), I can hear them ring, and I don't have to scrabble through my handbag looking for them. If you are ringing a mobile from a landline, it can cost more, hence why those who are used to landlines and house phones will prefer to use those to keep costs down, and those who live somewhere with crap mobile coverage will prefer them too for obvious reasons.

People complaining about elderly relatives not calling mobiles - you do realise that calling a mobile from a landline is much more expensive yes? Calling landlines in evenings and at weekends is free so thats a plus. We are very rural and cant even get texts to send in the house so landline is essential for us.

I've never dropped my landline phone and broke the screen, put it through the washing machine, left it in a taxi, or had it stolen.

I am too clumsy and careless to rely on a mobile phone only.

My not-that elderly (late 60s and early 70s) have mobiles, WhatsApp and broadband. They just don’t think of using mobile phones from inside the house, or to call them if they think we’re in.

No idea, haven't had one for years, got fed up with cold callers.

We’ve got a landline but no handsets. I hate being phoned up anyway, so I’m very happy. (And selfish)

They workin power cuts and if the mobile network goes down.

It improves your credit rating.

but you need to whack the phone off

I need brain bleach

My broadband comes through it so having it for incoming calls cost me zero, it works when the kids have forgotten to charge their phones/left them at a friends etc. It's cheaper to ring abroad

My Virgin media package costs £50 for the super fast broadband, plus an extra £7 for landline, so definitely not twice as expensive. We have chosen to have the landline, even though we don't use it, as a backup for emergencies. We have an old-fashioned handset which we can plug in use to ring 999 if necessary! Paranoid or what

They can improve your credit score depending upon who and what you are applying for as it implies you are settled at your address so less likely to move. Always seemed ridiculous to me as you can just as easily move when you have a landline as without but perhaps it is a criteria that dates back to before mobiles were so widespread. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Because mobile signal is shit where i live. Mobile masts are not in abundance.

Working in power cuts or times of high load is quite an important aspect. Might happen very rarely but if it did, you may be very thankful to have access to a landline phone.

Think how long texts take to get through on New Year's Eve for example - combine something like NYE, bad weather and any sort of unusual event - terrorism etc, and the mobile networks could easily be overloaded.

We do have a digital phone plugged into the landline and it does get used, and it's good to have, because the signal is poor in our house.

But we also have a basic cheap plug in phone somewhere in the house - I think it cost less than a tenner from somewhere like Argos. We also have torches and candles lying around, so perhaps we should collect them all up into an 'emergency box'.

I'm wondering if it does effect your credit score or appearance of respectability of a business any more?

Given that so many people no longer have a landline number that is in use.

combine something like NYE, bad weather and any sort of unusual event - terrorism etc, and the mobile networks could easily be overloaded.

Not to mention the government can take over the networks or prioritise emergency services over mobile networks.