In thinking the landline is obsolete

[opalinski]

Does anyone need one anymore? We only have a connection for the internet and never ever actually use the phone?

I have a landline so i can ring my mobile phone when I lose it

I much prefer tp talk on the landline. If I'm out people can leave a message. I don't want them ringing me while i'm out. I don't want to stand chatting in the supermarket looking like an arse and letting everyone know my business. I think it is rude to ake a call when I am with someone.

Mobiles are responsible for a lot of rudeness, IMO.

And they are a distraction when you're driving, even on hands free.

Problem number 1- You can only get reliable signal in one room of our house which happens to be my bedroom. This is only with one mobile provider.

Problem number 2- I have to pay for a landline anyway for internet access.

Problem number 3- What I pay fo rmy landline includes all calls, it isn't all that much. I might be able to get one mobile contract for the price but I doubt it would have enough minutes (dh can spend hours on the phone to various family members) plus then of course if one of us went out and took the mobile the other wouldn't have a phone so we would have to get 2 contracts thus having 2 different numbers to give to everyone and probably spending twice as much as we do on a landline. At the moment I spend around £5 a month on my mobile and dh spends less than that.

And yes, I agree that mobiles are rude. I want to settle down in the evening and have a chat to someone. Mobiles are like having someone following you round and bashing you on the shoulder going "talk to me talk to me talk to me" until you give in. It is just rude.

I never hear my mobile when I'm at home as it's got a quiet ring and is buried in my handbag.

So the landline is for people to get through to me when I don't answer my mobile. Only 5 people have the number...

(oh and mobile reception is crap in our house too. And we live in central London)

My mobile is pay as you go and hardly ever used. Very few people have the number-I don't want to be phoned when out. By the the time I have found it in my handbag it has gone to voice mail.

We use only our landline as a) we have no mobile phone signal here b) it's much cheaper.

family abroad landline indispensable

I have two landlines. A home one where we get free calls though SKy and a business one.

I wouldn;t want to have to carry two mobiles around withme and prefer to know that the call I am answering is a business one so I can ignore it if chaos is reigning.

I have only just gone ont a mobile contract and mostly use my mobile to text dh when he is working away from home.

I got a new phone about 4 months ago. It rang today and I didn't recognise the sound! I stood in the hall with my head slightly to one side, wondering WTF it was! :o

"people get annoyed at me though when I say I dont have one."

possibly because of the higher cost (not everyone is on a contract with 100+ minutes to mobiles)

i once had an 07050 number (37.5p off-peak to 50p peak, per minute) just to give to sales people who 'demanded' a number. They could not send me any text messages and it diverted to my landline so I could decide whether to answer to let the answerphone take the call. Looks similar to a mobile number but it is a "follow me" number which could be diverted to a landline or mobile as required. That was before the days of Skype and Voice over IP numbers.

I love it for my sunday night catch up calls with friends on the sofa with a glass of wine A mobile just isn't the same!

The health risks of mobiles have now been extensively covered in the press.

And the mobile instruction booklets say not to use them in pregnancy.

Really solar!? Never heard that!

I have been thinking the same thing, but enjoy talking through a landline, my mobile gets too hot if I talk too long.

Landlines are essential around here. Very patchy mobile signals,rarely good in houses, no cable network, and regular power cuts. Though to be fair power cuts haven't been as bad as they used to be.

I challenge you to find your mobile instruction booklet, though, and then to find the very small print which warns you of the health risks and stops you suing successfully in the future.

We only use the landline for the Internet. Where are all you people with such bad reception? I'm surrounded by mountains and valleys and have few problems with signal.

I love my mobile. I can MN on it tucked up in bed at night, I can't do that on my landline.

We don't have a landline, haven't for about 1 year or more.

I will not buy from a company that only has a mobile number not a landline.

BuckBuck - re bad reception - my Orange PAYG switches from Orange to T-Mobile twice walking from the kitchen through the lounge and into the hall. Before the merger, it would drop calls. Vodafone (I have an Asda PAYG) isn't any better, as it fails in the lounge. Virgin (T-Mobile, not working on Orange yet) fails in the kitchen so cannot get a text or make calls if I am down there.

Mobile coverage is very variable across the country, and the maps are aimed at people not indoors, because initially the people who could most afford them were sales staff who were sat in their cars and had a better signal as a result...

Do have Three dongle (15 GB a month for under a tenner) which I use a lot from upstairs, but downstairs it doesn't work all the time, and I'm about 10 miles south of Chester before you get to any 'real' Welsh mountains. So I am semi-rural (field behind the house) but only an hour's walk to centre of Wrexham.

Three is OK for something like BBC Radio, and downloading TV, but too slow for video from YouTube or watching snooker. Many modern mobiles (and even not-so-modern) also have wi-fi built in, so I can be down in the lounge viewing web pages on a Nokia using the router's wi-fi, and some people on MNet use an iPad when they are tucked up in bed, because the wi-fi from a landline might give them a higher speed internet connection (up to 20 Mbps where the very fastest mobile networks are unlikely to give even 4 Mbps unless you are in some big city)

I need my landline for my internet

I do still use it because I get free calls after 6 and at the weekends

Landline still my main line.
Mobile still works out as much more expensive per call. I loathe Skype, I cannot just sit down and have a consistent conversation without moving around, and the feedback (from microphone at other end) is horrible.

Oh yes, and I download about 100 GB a month on the landline (about half of that is during the night, grabbing episodes of TV with BBC iPlayer).

Some landline ISPs charge under 4 pounds/month (but limit you to 10 GB of data) which is great value.

Some people with smartphones seem to have limits of 1 or maybe 2 GB a month and some mobile broadband contracts seem to charge from 5 pounds per GB, so 100 GB a month would be unaffordable.

On PAYG, there are charges of up to 4 pounds per MB (Orange) unless you buy a 'extra'.

I live in a "big city" (London!) but still my (Vodafone) signal cuts out alot inside the home. I rely on my BT landline and use it for wi-fi and broadband connection. But I only receive calls from automated services/salespeople (even though I've registered with TPS) and from older family members and overseas people on my landline.