Do you still have a landline phone in your house?

[forjustnow]

Just renewing my broadband contract and my provider asked if I wanted to keep my landline number. I've not had a landline phone for at least 15, maybe 20 years.

So I'm conducting a highly scientific study by asking the Mumsnet universe-
Do you still have an actual physical landline phone which you still use?

Yes - a landline is crucial here. My mobile only works if I stand on a table in a specific room. I have been known to do it, but as a full-time wheelchair user, it's not the most sensible (or easiest) option.😁

Same as many others, only use it for aged parents who struggle to understand mobile phones and other new fangled technologies.

Yes the stepsons usually ring it rather than mobile.

Yes, part of my broadband contract. Family members call it mainly.

Yes and it's a rotary phone.

Well that’s just fucky.

No - no one ever used it and it was just one more set of wires cluttering up the hall!

@midgetastic

For full fibre you can get a battery pack for your hub which will power the line in a phone cut for voice calls

That doesn't solve the problem of the cabinet or exchange power supply failing.

I am contemplating going full fibre and losing the landline, but also have the elderly parent abroad thing, where it's just easier to chat at home, landline to landline.
Plus, that's the number I give to people that I don't want to call me, or I don't want calling me when I am out and about.

Is it possible to have a full fibre contract and then a separate landline? I want to ditch the landline but worried I'll regret it.

We do, living rurally with poor mobile signal we need it for emergencies. Day to day I use my mobile on Internet calling but if the power or WiFi goes down I'd be unable to get help without the landline.

Once they insist on moving it to digital I'll be getting rid though as it won't be any use without power and WiFi

Yes. Look for VOIP phones. You need to port your home phone number to the VOIP provider.

No. Bastards at BT even though our internet is fibre and nothing to do with the phone line made us pay for the phone line. Which has never been connected

I have a landline because the mobile signal isn't great. It annoys me when I have to get a text message one time code for ordering stuff as by the time it eventually comes through, my window for ordering has gone.

Yes. DHs mobile phone signal drops out in the middle of phone calls all the time so a landline is needed.

I don’t have a mobile at all so use it all the time.

No

yes, because it came with the cheapest broadband package.
Its never plugged in though coz I only ever get scam calls on it!

Whenever one of those clips come up on a timeline somewhere showing a 3 year old calling 999 for their pregnant mum who’s unconscious at the bottom of the stairs (or something) I always worry about people not having landlines now 😅 Do toddlers know about Face ID?!

Yes but we hardly ever use it. We have awful patchy mobile phone reception here so I wouldn't want to have to reply on mobile in an emergency.

Yes, i don't know why though would say for elderly parents but it's not like they know the number so just as easy for them to look in their address book and ring the mobile . Get about three calls a week, usually from "the tax office".

You can make emergency calls on a locked mobile phone without signing in and it will also use any available network.

Still not as easy or as intuitive as ringing 999 on an old fashioned telephone though.

My elderly mother wouldn’t have a chance!

We still have the old two tone grey rotary plugged in, mainly for its loud ring, alas super fast fibre can't use the old pulse dialling so its incoming line only.

Yes- never use it but it's there as a reliable backup for safety purposes.

Just worry if one day there was an emergency ie; having to call 999, and had mislaid our mobiles, losing valuable time.
Our 8yo also knows how to call 999 on the landline.And its easier as a back up for my 74yo mum too if she is caring for our girls.

I have a landline but no phone. Went to cancel the landline as the phone had broken and only one elderly relative called me on it anyway and the phone company told me it was cheaper to keep the landline with my broadband than to get rid of it even if I have no landline phone, sounds nuts to me, but going along with it as £10 cheaper a month.