Landlines- do you still have one?

Missedout

If your mobile phone signal in your house is poor, check your mobile phone settings to see if you have WiFi calling available. With WiFi calling enabled, you can make/receive a mobile phone call using your home WiFi - no need to go out and stand in the rain to make a mobile phone call.

Thanks Missedout, I'll try that.

Yes, we still have a landline We live in the country so mobile reception is not 100%reliable. If we get a power cut, or internet down, the landline still works. Needed it to call an ambulance a couple of years ago when my mobile was out of action.

ViceVersa

CariadAgain

Yep.....still got one and planning on keeping it.

I've bought a Chatsie phone recently - which is supposed to be idiot-proof - but it's not "up and running" yet - as I've got a phoneshop guy to tell me some of the basics and I've got to go back for him to set up Facebook and Gmail on it (just in case) and I will only be using it for phonecalls/texts. It's taken longer than anticipated to date to get that dealt with - as another customer was allowed to butt in on my visit and stole my phone!!! (To which I threw 40 fits obviously - and managed to get it back again - so thats delayed things).

I can and do have great long phonecalls on my landline with farflung friends and it doesnt cost me much extra at all to have those phonecalls chucked in - whenever I please/for however long I please (even to Southern Ireland - where I have a friend I exchange calls with at regular intervals and we spend an hour or two on the phone indulging in the craic).

The mobile I've just bought is PAYG and it's there just for an emergency phone only purposes - eg if I'm stuck somewhere in the countryside with the appalling bus service here and I decide to ring for the taxi firm I use to come and fetch me. It would be very expensive to actually use it to make calls per se on as a regular thing.

Get WhatsApp on your new Chatsie phone and your calls will be free.

Will have to check that aspect out later.

What would normally take "one and done" visit has followed the usual pace in this area. That means I've had three visits to date and anticipate one or two more to do that full "one visit worth" of setting the phone up.

It has been a right palaver - which included another customer being allowed to butt into my turn in a local phoneshop when I was in the middle of getting sorted out with it. Followed by us resuming "my turn" only to find the man who butted in had only gone and stolen my darn phone whilst he was doing so and the only differnence between myself and the shop guy on that was whether he'd done it deliberately (my verdict) or was as "thick as two short planks - estimate 60 IQ" (shop guy's verdict) and I had to spend some extra time sitting there and being very "firm" I was going nowhere until he got my phone back.....which he did eventually.

Am trying not to think just how long before my "one and done - and certainly no more than 30 minutes" visit it should have taken will actually conclude with me being fully sorted.

butterandjam

Yes we have a landline ( Only family and our GP call my mobile)

Telephone Preference Service is free and it works. We very, very rarely get spam calls.

www.tpsonline.org.uk/

Thanks very much for the link butterandjam.
I've just registered as I'm fed up with nuisance calls on my landline.

If your mobile phone signal in your house is poor, check your mobile phone settings to see if you have WiFi calling available. With WiFi calling enabled, you can make/receive a mobile phone call using your home WiFi - no need to go out and stand in the rain to make a mobile phone call.

Yes we still have a landline thank goodness. My parents prefer to use their landline so it makes it easier to phone them. Also, the mobile phone reception where I live is abysmal. We have to stand outside the house in the (sometimes) freezing cold or rain to have any hope of talking on the phone.

Have a mobile and the landline, though the landline is mostly kept for my internet connection, essential as I work from home 3 days a week. However, the mobile I have is purely used as a phone.

I would prefer to keep my landline but it will soon go digital and my broadband provider doesn’t support it, so to keep it, I would need to change to EE. Not sure how that works as my Plusnet contract still has some months to run.
My health centre, dentist and two or three business have my landline. My mobile is usually on silent, so my family know to message me or ring the landline if they need me urgently.
I am very reluctant to give up my landline, which costs only £3 per month.

I’ve just cancelled ours. Saves $30 a month. The only people ringing on it were spammers.

cant operate cell one so i have a landline ,called home phones
about 10 calls from real people docs use my email

That £3 is probably worth every penny an emergency GF, especially if you are on a pay as you go!
Can you not just get rid of the messages?

An elder sister with no mobile or WhatsApp rings me on the landline. Ditto sometimes dds, since they know I’m not glued to my phone and will very likely take a little while to find where the hell I put it.
Certain friends/family invariably use WhatsApp to phone me for free, though, and ditto I to them.

We also got rid of the landline when we had full fibre broadband installed. We haven't missed it at all.

We still have a landline, I usually forget to charge my mobile , we got the new fibre last year. I find the landline much clearer then my mobile.

We still have a landline but DH has set it up so that we can only receive calls, not make any (cheapskate). We both have mobiles but a few folk still call the landline - generally my DH calling me from the supermarket for advice on shopping as I haven't got my mobile within hearing distance! The landlines ring nice and loudly all over the house.

No, we kept the number and it works fine with fibre to the house. We have battery back up for the router and mobile phones of course.

crazyH

I am also PAYG - so I still have my landline.
I’ve asked this a couple of times but still understand how do you get an internet connection without a landline ?

CrazyH
This will explain.

www.confused.com/broadband/guides/broadband-without-landline

I did have a landline but for last few months BT/EE have switched me onto digital as to house phone .
They supplied the equipment for the changeover, once done i re did my address book ,and people I speak to including relatives have aid its a clearer voice compared to landline.
Mick

crazyH

I am also PAYG - so I still have my landline.
I’ve asked this a couple of times but still understand how do you get an internet connection without a landline ?

I don’t understand it either!

But all I know is when we had full fibre broadband installed, there was a little box put outside, then more connections inside, and a new router.

All done in a couple of hours, no mess, and all worked.

I've never been comfortable using a mobile, I much prefer a proper phone. However, since the switch-over to broadband, my landline doesn't work. I make very few calls, and most of my incoming are scams, so I don't miss it.

I have a battery bank which is essential especially as so many tickets are now online.
Ryanair went paperless in November 2025 so you have to have access to your bookings or pay for a new ticket.
Now I have to remember to keep the bank charged.

Yesterday I got a new broadband contract and I'm giving up the landline. In a few short months, it would be digital anyway, so I can't see the point of keeping it.
DD suggested I get an extra battery for the mobile in case of a power cut. But actually I could charge it in the car.

The advantage of the landline for me is I don't need to charge it
.
Also I can use it to call myself on my mobile when I've misplaced it - which is often.
There are still a few people who call me on it.

As from tomorrow it will stop working. This is something to do with fast fibre (not very fast) and being put on yet another package with BT or is it EE.
I wish things stayed the same. It was simpler back then.

Yes we have a landline ( Only family and our GP call my mobile)

Telephone Preference Service is free and it works. We very, very rarely get spam calls.

www.tpsonline.org.uk/

DH and I both wear hearing aids and calls on our mobiles now go direct to our hearing aids via Bluetooth. It’s made such a difference as our landline sometimes had very poor reception. So when we changed our broadband to Sky we got rid of the landline. All the cold calls disappeared too which was a big bonus!