Are landlines a thing of the past?

[scottish-guy]

It seems I'm one of an increasingly small band who still has a landline telephone for personal (rather than business) use. In fact I have two.

Apart from my main job I have another which involves fielding calls from the public. The demographic of the callers is minimum 60+ and I'm noticing that even around 80% of these calls are now coming from mobiles. I also notice that 20-30% of those are very poor call quality to the extent that the call either drops out or is barely decipherable.

So my question is - how many people here have given up their landlines in favour of being exclusively mobile?

Also, there can surely be little argument that mobile call quality even today is still inferior to landline quality - is this a compromise worth accepting to gain the (dubious) benefit of being always reachable?

Note : I'm talking about personal use only - I realise that business use is a completely different matter

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[cdnmatt]

I think the last time I had a landline was back in around 2002.

So yes, thing of the past...

[scottish-guy]

I don't know if you're exclusively referring to your time resident in Thailand, Matt - but if so I'd suggest that personal landlines in Thailand have never had the penetration that they have in the West.

Of course, I could survive with just a mobile but the comparative call quality is truly shit - that's why I hesitate to dump my landline even though it costs me around £250 a yr in rental alone

[joe552]

My landline comes as part of a bundle, TV, internet and landline. I get free landline calls in ROI and UK (excl. NI as I found to my cost when I rang my nephew up there).

I only use my mobile for the occasional text.

[frequent]

I don't know if you're exclusively referring to your time resident in Thailand, Matt - but if so I'd suggest that personal landlines in Thailand have never had the penetration that they have in the West.

Mobile phone penetration is widespread - just stick it up your arse, get someone to call you and you've got an instant vibrator

[scottish-guy]

Yes, Joe - one of my landlines was included in a "bundle" but I dropped the TV because basically I was (with a few notable exceptions like Bates Motel and The Middle) paying for a bunch of third rate tat which I could do without. I was unable to drop the Internet as I have associated email addresses which I would lose if I left, and I must keep the landline to get the Internet (ridiculous I know).

So, I'm kinda in a "no option" situation with keeping that landline if I don't want to lose my email addresses.

The other landline is a legacy British Telecom one - and contractually I could easily drop it but I do still appreciate the superior call quality over mobiles.

For business use (with consumers) I would never consider going mobile only - totally unprofessional image I feel. I don't mind calling a plumber or electrician advertising a mobile number, but if it were e.g. a dentist then I'd be somewhat uneasy!!

[justaguy]

Of course it is not a thing of the past. The old plain analogue lines that were used for calls and dialup internet aren't being replaced by mobiles, but by adsl, cable and fiber. And indeed are used for dialling (voip) television and internet. And certainly fiber is light years ahead when it comes to available bandwith,

In thailand, having to go mobile is a necessity due to missing infrastructure.

[justaguy]

Yes, Joe - one of my landlines was included in a "bundle" but I dropped the TV because basically I was (with a few notable exceptions like Bates Motel and The Middle) paying for a bunch of third rate tat which I could do without. I was unable to drop the Internet as I have associated email addresses which I would lose if I left, and I must keep the landline to get the Internet (ridiculous I know).

So, I'm kinda in a "no option" situation with keeping that landline if I don't want to lose my email addresses.

The other landline is a legacy British Telecom one - and contractually I could easily drop it but I do still appreciate the superior call quality over mobiles.

For business use (with consumers) I would never consider going mobile only - totally unprofessional image I feel. I don't mind calling a plumber or electrician advertising a mobile number, but if it were e.g. a dentist then I'd be somewhat uneasy!!

In case of adsl, you need to keep the landline, because that is the medium being used. So in that case the need to keep the landline is not ridiculous but a technical requirement.

[joe552]

I negotiated a new deal with Virgin Media, saving me €20 a month. A short time later I decided to get rid of the TV and was told that as it was a new contract, it would cost around €200 to take it out of the bundle. So I still have it, but rarely use it. Except for Bargain Hunt!

[scottish-guy]

In case of adsl, you need to keep the landline, because that is the medium being used. So in that case the need to keep the landline is not ridiculous but a technical requirement.

Except that I don't have ADSL, I have a dedicated cable connection - absolutely no need for the landline which is on a completely separate cable (as was the TV) - but I still must take it to get the "bundled" price.

Having said that, following a fairly recent ruling by some regulator somewhere, some telecoms providers are gradually removing the need to buy a landline to get internet. What many are doing however is to increase the standalone broadband cost to more than the bundled cost so they're still making a mint on it