I don’t have a landline - what would I do in an emergency?

[Ozgirl75]

I live in the countryside, not very rural but no phone signal at all, literally zero bars. I have wifi calling and also a phone line via my broadband.
This is all fine, it works and is no problem.
But the other day we had a short powercut and I had obviously no internet and no phone and it made me think, if there was ever a fire or something like a real emergency with no power, how would I call for help?
Im young and healthy (and drive) but when all landlines are gone, how will people deal with these scenarios?

Im lucky that even though im remote, i have 5g.
I sacked the landline years ago, my broadband speeds were often below 1Mbs, now I get annoyed when they drop below 100, usualy around mid 250.
Rural NW england - im shocked tbh at poor signal "down south", I thought it was just us who got the shitty end of the stick 😆

Not all masts are battery backed but many are, some with generators. Batteries will last from an hour to 6+ depending on how hard they are working, if your network is down chances are theres still one working that will allow for emergency calls, if not and Voip is needed i'd look at starlink. Being without contact with the outside world is NOT a good feeling.

I'm dreading this and can't believe the position people in very rural areas are potentially being put in.

We live on a farm 4 miles from the nearest village. We have no mobile phone signal and it seems currently no hope of getting fibre broadband. We will probably be in the 1% of properties 'unreachable' by the fibre switchover because there's no benefit to any of the companies to install fibre to us over several miles of common land.

We share a decrepit copper line with 2 other properties in the same position.

Our electricity goes off frequently and our telephone line drops out for days several times a year. When this happens I have to drive a few miles out of the valley to find a mobile signal.

The only solution anyone seems to be able to offer us when we query how exactly a copper phoneline that is already struggling will cope with VoIP (we already know its patchy as we use it for wifi calling) is a 4g/5g booster. When we remind them there IS.NO.DATA signal they basically hang up.

I've looked into starlink and we are completely surrounded by a mature shelter belt of trees so it sounds like it would be barely useable when they are in full leaf in summer.

Why is this country so shit!!

I can imagine many problems with electricity reliant digital only phones I. Future emergency scenarios.

In cases of war, even a digital war, the UK is not best placed to protect its internet based services. Massive hacking or DDOS attacks could render digital systems useless. While satellites could be knocked out easily rendering mobile phones redundant, the faithful landline would always have been available (even if it meant using a neighbours). I wonder what plans they have in such situations - letter writing? Smoke signals? Pigeons?

We live rurally, we have a landline. If they change the landline to digital I’ll worry about it then.
Why don’t you get a landline in the meantime?

Because BT is in the process of getting rid of landlines as we speak.

Exact reason I keep my landline. For emergencies.

I have it in a packet of internet, tv, Netflix, local internet videos, mobile etc. (Not UK).

And Mumsnet of course! 😅

Bring back the good old phone box!

YANBU, it's why I think going digital for all landlines is such a stupid idea. I'd be fine (we live less than five minutes from all emergency services) but others may not be able to summon help.

It's completely barmy and illogical to get rid of landlines completely. Why would you ditch a system that has proved a reliable and efficient way of communication for over a 100 years. It doesn't feel like progress, it feels like the opposite. Patchy or no phone signal, prolonged power cuts, cyber attack or major glitch in our digital systems would leave many of us completely isolated and vulnerable.

At this rate we will need a back up in the form of a walkie-talkie or two way radio. 10-4 Rubber Duck.

Perhaps there should be phones in the street available for anyone to use. They could be in some sort of box so you stay dry if using it in the rain. To make it easy to spot the box could be painted red?

Those still wouldn't work in a power cut.

I have been worried about this and I don't even live a rural area. It's making too many people vulnerable and the government is allowing it.

The only reason we still have a landline is for professional "long distance" calls.

I'd be buying flare guns and stocking up on flares!!

This is going to be a huge problem in whole swathes of Scotland no quick jaunt up the hill to get a mobile signal either. Miles to travel in some cases for maybe elderly folk or someone injured that’s if the roads aren’t blocked by snow or some of the major landslides we’ve had in the last few days. not to mention if it’s a prolonged power outage ( we’ve had outages lasting for 5 or 6 days). Imagine a time in the future living remotely in an area with no mobile signal power cut means no landline and you can’t charge your electric vehicle and you are stuck for days.

We have a similar problem or no mobile signal at home.

You need to buy an old fashioned home phone (not hands free) which you can plug into your wall when the electricity goes out.

It works!

Mine is cordless, it won't work in a power cut and there is no option for a corded one now (not in the UK).

We had our landline taken away. We also have poor mobile coverage, so we lose all contact with emergency services in a powercut, and we had a powercut last week.

Its hideous. And I was so annoyed when we lost our landline, having had to have paid to have it installed again, in our third new build home.

I will enquire about some backup battery option, but it’s really hopeless. We are semi rural apparently ( quite rural really ) and have a terrible mobile signal.

Won’t work for us, we were one of the first areas to have our landline capability removed. So plugging in the old phone does nothing

I remember having this conversation with my Mum (she passed away a few years ago), we have great reception here, all 3 of the adults in the house (me, partner and 19 year old DD) are all on dif networks so if a network went down chances are there's still the other 2, so I said I was thinking of getting rid of the landlines to save the 20 quid a month or whatever it was.

"Bloody hell Seryse, that's a bit 3 sheets to the wind... maybe get some pigeons to keep and train them as back up!?" Was her response 🤣

Thank you for making me remember that memory. And in the words of my lovely, missed Mum....maybe get some pigeons as a back up?

I’m in this position too, zero signal in our entire valley village. I had planned to use a phone box in an emergency but I’m guessing that they are being digitalised and also wouldn’t work in a power cut? Quite concerned about calling emergency services now with a choking child etc…

I was very thankful for my ancient landline plug in phone during the storms a couple of years ago when we had no power for days on end.

You have probably already done this... but have you checked other mobile phone providers to see whether reception is any better with one of those?

I only ask because where we are, which is not rural, there is only one provider that gives us a consistent service. We are at the base of a steep hill which blocks the signal for most of them.

I work for them the equipment that makes the pstn ( normal dail tone )is technological that is over 50 years old it’s failing
Quite simply the cost of maintaining ,upgrading the current infrastructure to support pstn services isn financially viable as the majority of customers wouldn’t pay for it
as a massive chunk of customer don’t want or need it

That's fine, but are they accepting that large swathes of the country have no reliable signal?