In thinking the landline is obsolete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?

No likelihood of us getting rid of the landline either, mobile is PAYG and reception is patchy. Using the phone on Wifi on landline broadband is considerably faster than 3G here. Also, the thing about power cuts, our house phone is cordless but we keep an emergency very cheap plug in one in the hall cabinet for power cuts, our local mobile transmitter does seem to get affected by the same power cuts as us, which are several a year.

I don't like the fact that when I ring a mobile I've got no real idea how much it's going to cost me, if a family member didn't have a landline they would probably only get texts and emails from me from then on, except in emergency. Whereas at the moment I will quite happily chat away on the landline for an hour knowing that is isn't costing anything over and above the package price.

Use my landline to phone landlines (free anytime for a one- off payment each month). Use my mobile to phone mobiles (500 minutes which I manage to go over)?

I feel there should be a new line rental package for those people who just have the line for broadband and incoming calls purposes. It could have a high call cost on calls made from it, in exchange for a reduced line rental.
I once got offered Light User Scheme but when they realised I used the line for broadband I was told I could not benefit from that scheme.

BT if you are reading this, consider setting up a new calling package for those customers who use their line mostly for data.

We use our landline for all our calls and couldn't imagine not doing so. We have unlimited call package with broadband so not expensive unlike my mobile.

Like someone else said I don't often hear my mobile ring when in and use the landline to try and find it if I loose it. I don't always remember to charge it up so would be hopeless if it was completely dead and I needed to make a call.
I only use my mobile for texts really unless it is something very important.

Whether you use your landline for voice or data, the bulk of the cost is for the maintenance of the equipment and installation/replacement of it, plus investment in R+D for the future.

There are callout charges for some faults, but wherever the faults are in BT's network they get fixed (and usually in a timely manner). They don't allow the LUS for those using broadband because with Voice over IP (and Skype, an alternative to VoIP) it could have ended up with a millionaire businessman using broadband for all his voice calls and paying a fraction of the true cost of maintenance. They have to justify the cost of every service to Ofcom so the costs are fairly transparent (I complained to Ofcom about the cost of barring 'withheld' numbers being 3x the cost of most network services, but they said it was justified because it was a software development several years after the 1989 launch of System X exchanges and modifications /updating for 5000 exchanges was not cheap).

BT is putting over a billion pounds into adding fibre and while much of the cost will end up paid (back) by fibre customers, the bulk of the money will have been sourced initially from the regular monthly income for line rentals... part of the development of the network (while others like O2, Orange, Sky, CPW have installed newer, cheaper, equipment years after BT did the original installations, so others can now give 20+ Mbps, but they've only done so in a limited number of the 5000 exchanges... most have limited their network to under 1200 exchanges and mostly in cities or commuter belts/wealthy areas).

If I got rid of anything it would be the mobile.

I still use my landline more than my mobile for calls. Lots of family abroad, elderly relatives who don't have mobiles, poor mobile reception indoors...