Is a landline still a necessity?

Trumpeter · 15 January 2018 at 5:27PM

I know that in "ye olde days" a lot of places (banks etc) insisted that you had a telephone landline as it linked you to an address. I am hoping that this is no longer the case.

However, after having several months where I have neither made nor received a call (apart from cold-calling) at home, I am now thinking about doing away with the landline

My partner & I both have mobiles but only on cheap (ASDA) PAYG phones with no contract where we just buy top-ups when the credit runs low. We are v. low users, currently spending less than £20 a year!

If we became totally reliant on this method, what happens if a phone is lost or a SIM is corrupted or damaged? Would we lose the number associated with the SIM? I'm assuming that there must be some way round this but would it involve having to take out a monthly contract?

Are there any other disadvantages to going "mobile only"?

giraffe69 · 15 January 2018 at 5:39PM

How do you get your Broadband? This may determine whether you need to keep a landline or not.
I can't think of a business that insists on a landline being given these days.
If you lose your phone and replace it (is it insured?) you will not lose your number.

Trumpeter · 15 January 2018 at 5:59PM

giraffe69 wrote: »

How do you get your Broadband? This may determine whether you need to keep a landline or not.
I can't think of a business that insists on a landline being given these days.
If you lose your phone and replace it (is it insured?) you will not lose your number.

I live in a very rural area & my broadband is a wireless system provided by a company called Quickline. It uses mobile phone masts & I can get a 20Mb connection where BT could only manage about 1.5Mb.
My home phone is not a "real" landline but it uses my old landline number so as far as any companies are concerned, it seems like a landline complete with a geographical area code. For this, I am using Vonage & am paying about £9 a month (in addition to Quickline's broadband charge)
With regards to having the phones insured, I am not doing that at the moment as we are using "non-smartphones" . They are very basic handsets that cost less that a tenner each & normally have less than a tenner of credit so they're not currently worth insuring.

flashg67 · 15 January 2018 at 6:28PM

A consideration for me would be 'forcing' friends and family to ring you on a mobile. Not everyone has use of a mobile or cheap mobile calls,

If you lose your phone, you'd ring your provider, ask them to cancel the sim & send a new one with the same number,

clairec79 · 15 January 2018 at 6:47PM

We officially have one (as it's part of the broadband contract) - we don't have a phone plugged in and haven't for a few years now

kerri_gt · 15 January 2018 at 7:27PM

We have one for broadband but I unplugged the actual phone before xmas to see if we missed it - it's still in the cupboard. tbh I can't remember the last time it rang (before we unplugged it) - OH calls his elderly parents rather then them calling us and I 'speak' to DM more on email or call her if I need to speak to her. If anyone else had to get hold of us, I'd quite happily call them back on my mobile if needs be.

iniltous · 15 January 2018 at 7:57PM

The OP's situation appears to be a bit out of the ordinary , and the question 'is a landline still a necessity' ?, doesn't seem to apply to them anyway, as they appear to have already got rid of the 'landline' as they get broadband from a wireless provider and the 'landline number' is delivered over the wireless broadband via a VOIP provider....
A better question for the OP to ask ( IMHO ) would be ' do I really need a 'ordinary' landline number , or will a mobile number only be sufficient when it comes to how company's and business regard potential customers that don't have a regular 'landline' number' ?

To answer that, many households are 'mobile only' , as to if it makes any difference on credit checks etc, it could make you look a bit 'transient' at the address, but presumably other positive 'evidence' would counteract any negative 'mark' not having a landline number may have.

A reason to keep a landline number (as already stated) anyone calling you on your mobile could be paying a lot for the call, especially if they called you from a landline, so it may discourage some people from calling you, but if most people call you on your mobile from their own mobile, maybe it's a non issue.

TBH , if your broadband provider offers the option of broadband without having to have a phone service , and it's your own choice to spend £9 a month with a VOIP provider , then I would think many would just give up the landline number and pocket the £9

Ian011 · 15 January 2018 at 10:30PM

Most landline providers offer unlimited anytime calls to landline numbers, 03 numbers and mobile numbers for around £8 per month. For those people who make calls, their landline is essential. For those who hardly ever make calls, not so much.

System · 15 January 2018 at 10:37PM

We havent had a landline for a couple of years now.

Owain_Moneysaver · 15 January 2018 at 11:55PM

Geographic numbers to VoIP can be had for a lot less than £9 a month - Sipgate is basically free for incoming calls and voicemail (without inclusive outgoing calls)

boliston · 16 January 2018 at 12:26AM

the catch with sipgate seems to be you need to buy a "call package" even if you make only one short call per month - i would prefer to pay a fair rental of say a pound a month for line rental and then pay for calls for the exact amount of time i use for each call.