MoneySaving Poll: Is the landline dead?

kkgree1

We rarely use our landline except at weekends when it is free (included in BT package).

I agree with others about poor mobile signal in areas though. My MIL lives 6 miles away and there is no signal whatsoever. She has to have a landline to have contact with the outside world! It's not particularly rural either being on the Herts/Cambs/Essex border.

Both her and my parents (all in their 70s) much prefer landlines and although they own mobiles, they rarely use them.

Anne_Meddick

I would rather use landline for my TalkTalk free anytime calls, try to avoid calling mobiles as they cost too much. Only keep a mobile with me for emergencies and on PAYGO, havent spent £2.00 in 2 months.

Ian011

Various landline networks are starting to offer unlimited calls to mobile numbers (starting 071-075 and 077-079) for just a couple of quid extra per month.

The opportunity has arisen for a large number of people to make a substantial cut to the amount they spend on their mobile phone bill, but how many will take it?

People have gotten into the habit of always using their mobile phone to call mobile numbers, even when they are at home. Now is the time to start breaking that expensive habit.

stingyscot

I live under 30 miles from central London, practically in line of sight of Canary Wharf towers, and I (and all my many hundreds of neighbours) have no mobile signal here. No phone calls, no texts, in or out. When my daughter calls my landline from anywhere in London on her mobile it's an unpleasant experience with crackling, volume issues, drop outs and many exchanges involving "Can you move or turn around, you're cutting out". Mobile phones...bah!

l33tsp33k

minislim wrote: »

its about time the link between land line and broadband was severed.
to have broadband you need a land line. to which you have to then pay line rental.

line rental has been steadily increasing year upon year and for no logical real reason. the majority of he infrastructure has been in place for years. needs little maintenance (according to my openreach engineer friend) and was heavily subsidised by government anyway. unfortunately its all managed by the !!!!! cartel known as British Telecom!

what we are all really paying for is the scandelous figures BT have been paying for its sports television rights and prime time adverts with high profile film and sports stars. they've got to pay for them somehow. and everyone with a landline is effectively a cash cow!

its about time BT's monopoly on land lines was finished.

The "land line" element of BT's service is split off into "BT Openreach", and is heavily regulated by OFCOM in terms of how much they can charge and how much profit they can make. BT's sports rights are not (really) subsidised by Openreach. Openreach wholesale prices are public - it's about 8 pounds a month for line rental (depending on the exact service).

The real scandal is how much that wholesale line rental is marked up by not only BT but almost all other telcos, so that they can peddle FREE* BROADBAND
(* with £18/month line rental)

Given that there's companies that offer retail line rental for £12/month (e.g. Direct Save Telecom) - that's including all the overhead of billing, customer service, bad debt, etc, the £6/month most operators charge on top is a hidden subsidy to their broadband offerings.

Why the Advertising Standards Authority lets telecoms companies get away with this, when as this poll shows, a landline is almost exclusively used for broadband access these days, I have no idea. The ASA should force these companies to advertise their broadband prices including line rental.

Between that and allowing BT, Virgin, Sky and others to advertise their copper services as "fibre broadband", the ASA are pretty useless...

M

missbiggles1

XRAT wrote: »

What a surprise, retired people (over 65) who are at home, use a landline. Whilst those at work all day.., don't!

I was the same when I was working - retirement isn't the reason for me.

Lwcus

I have never owned, borrowed or used any mobile phone and never will. I have no need for a mobile phone. People always ask what if I miss a call? My reasoning is the same for over 60 years; if the call is important, they'll phone back, if it isn't important, then I haven't had my time wasted. I do suffer from poor health, poor mobility and I am housebound in a remote rural location, with the closest neighbor 1/2 mile away. I am in control of my life and not controlled by my phone!

Ron
Up in the beautiful mountains of North Wales

Aliberry_2

I use my landline all the time at home - Its not an age thing, the reception is so bad that mobile conversations are very often impossible. Ours can't be the only area like this, so until network providers remedy the situation I suggest they should be left alone.
Its also very annoying when other people only have mobile access as the calls from my landline to mobiles are very expensive

Kim_13

I live with my parents and only use the landline because of the free calls we have. If they weren't free, I wouldn't use it (VM per minute charges are more expensive than both mobile networks I use, and that's without the connection charge!)

Mobiles aren't that good in our area on any network which is probably why we still have one, but if it were up to me, we wouldn't have it and would make do with mobiles. I've already covered the actual usage charges and that's not including the in my view excessive line rental charge. VM seem to get a lot of money for something that only gives us a ridiculous amount of junk calls.

thesmiffster

I only use the landline for emergencies nowadays, especially since 0800 numbers are now free on mobiles. I can't see a future for the traditional landline. In the future I think we will all be using VoIP, either with apps like Skype or Facebook Chat, or "soft phones" connected to our network routers. A lot of businesses use VoIP with these traditional looking "soft phones" but these are expensive, so I can't see these coming into the household unless the costs drop.