Do you still have a landline?

[TheyNicknamedHerTheBolter]

Mindless Saturday wonderings.

So last night I spent about an hour on the phone to an elderly relative.

She mentioned that she was sat in her chair and could see out of the window, while I was on my mobile using one hand to hold the phone and the other to clear the absolute hurricane of toys that my DC has spread throughout the house, load the dishwasher and wipe the kitchen sides.

I tend to do lots while I'm on the phone because I like to walk and talk, but remember (when I was a teen at home) having only a landline when it was a case of stand still, talk, do nothing else. Ours wasn't even near a chair so we would be stood, twirling the cord around, chatting.

Me and DH had a landline in our first home 15 years ago but has the ringer turned off.

I'm just being nosey.... so you still have one? And if you do, can you sit down by it?! I suppose the aibu is 'to only have a mobile' 🤣

That's debatable.

It is true that old fashioned copper landlines are powered from the exchange not the house BUT if there is a storm overhead copper telephone cables are just as vulnerable as overhead power cables, also most people these days have cordless phones that need power to work.

If you are dependent on your landline in a powercut you can get a free battery pack from your telecoms provider.

Yes, still use our landline as our main phone as I get virtually no mobile signal where I live, use mobile only when out.
My landline has a main dock and a subsidiary one for recharging and have two handsets that you can keep by your side. One by my bed and one downstairs.
getting OTPs/passcodes used to be a nightmare, texts never arrived on my mobile, now sorted (took a bit of time and effort), use a device from my bank to generate the code and everyone else uses a voice message that comes to my landline.
all seems to work OK.

Yes, but only because it's part of my TV/BB package. I think we only ever get unsolicited / spam calls on it.

Mobile coverage isn't great in our house but O2 switches mobile calls to wifi if the signal is poor, so we don't even need it for that now.

If I could save money by getting rid of it, I would.

It’s already happening. All we had to do was unplug the home phone from the BT socket and plug it into the back of the internet router. Other than that it works exactly the same as before, except we can’t use it during a power cut.

No, I haven't had one for 8 years

We got rid of ours about 6 months ago when BT put the charges up. It prompted us to consider if we needed it, We decided we didn't and cancelled it

So the decision of BT to try and make more money out of us rather backfired.Now they make none.

I still have one technically as it connected to the broadband but no phone plugged in.
Unplugged it about 4 years ago as I was getting so many spam calls in the middle of the night.

No, gave it up on about 2002.

current home doesn’t even have phone jacks.

Yes. Part of my broadband package.

Yes because the mobile signal can be unreliable and slow it’s useful to have two ways to call ; receive

That's the main use for my Apple Watch - it pings my phone when I can't find it.

As for landlines - I'd like to have one, but when we moved here and got fibre broadband - they no longer offer one unless you pay for a VOIP one which we didn't see the point of doing.

Yes, it's used for at least an hour a day, chatting to various friends and relations. Mobile signal for speech is absolutely useless as we are in a valley.

Yes because my mobile signal at home is rubbish !

No I haven't had one for about 8 years

Yes,we still have ours as part of the broadband package.The phone is unplugged and never,ever used because there is no need for it;mobile call allowances are sufficient to cover any calls we make.
However,the handset is still on a shelf near to the socket and could still be connected up quickly in an emergency

Yes, because I don’t have a mobile phone!

DH has a mobile but often uses the landline as the signal is poor here and the call drops often.

Yes - I have a landline. The only people who phone me on it are my elderly aunt, but I do phone out on it occasionally as I'm freelance and one of my contracts involves a lot of phone calls, and my mobile signal is a bit erratic. So, basically, it's a back-up. It's quite an expensive option with my current provider, so I suspect I'll probably drop it in a couple of years.

Technically yes but I don't have a phone plugged into it.

No, got rid of it last year.

Fortunately I have a work mobile too so I use that to call my personal pone when I lose it

No landline for several years as the 5G signal is excellent and we use a MIFI router for the internet, which gives us 300mbs download speed!

Yes with the broadband package. I used to call it the auntyphone as the only people who ever rang it were our aunties. But DH’s aunty has dementia now, and my aunty phones me on WhatsApp nowadays.

Remember when your get sales calls and scam calls on the landline? Not even those anymore.

Had one until about a year ago as it was a condition of my DH going full remote working, although it added quite a bit ro the broadband package. The only people who phoned on it were my elderly Dad and double glazing salesmen!

Everybody has a landline for their broadband, but I think OP is asking if people have an actual phone connected to it.

We do have one (2 handsets, so each in different parts of the house) because it was part of the internet package already set up in the house (new build). I give my mobile number as my contact number without exception but if I'm the one making the call and I'm settling down for a good long chat, I find the house phone handset easier to hold than I do my mobile. I also often take it down to the seat at the end of the garden. I don't know why you think you have to be tied to the wall, OP.