Do you have a landline?

[Wompet]

37 minutes ago, Jenflea said:

Yes because it's part of our home internet package. I never use it and only scammers call us on it so I let it go to voice mail every time it rings

 

Same here. It only costs money if I make a call. I keep it because my mobile is on a plan with a different company so if my phone goes down I have a back up.

[Dadwasathome]

Where is the “yes, but I never use it” option?

It’s part of the internet plan we’ve been effective rolling over for the last 10 years. It won’t be part of any new internet plan. We’ve had the same landline number for 29 years - and mobiles so long that our mobile numbers include many of the characters of the landline.

[Mrs Twit]

We had one until we moved a few months ago. We still have it on our plan but we don't have a phone plugged in here. We kept it for a long time before the kids had mobile phones so if they were home alone we could contact each other.

Now I miss it because if DD19 is out over night, or driving to the station in the morning before I'm up and has an emergency she has to contact me on my mobile which means I now have to sleep with it in the bedroom which I don't like. 

[screm]

We;ve got one but we recently upgraded the NBN fibre to the house so now it's a VOIP so haven't bothered plugging the phone in. It's always been part of the internet package.

I kept for DD when she was home alone because she didn't get a mobile till year 7 and both her and DH were terrible at answering their mobiles or seeing text msgs. They couldn't ignore the home phone.

[Lesley225]

Having  your home phone be part of your internet confuses people because you can take your phone number anywhere now not just within the exchange.  So I kept it and moved it from Medowie to Newcastle and when I give it they say but that's a Port Stephens number.

[EmMelb]

A couple of my older relatives have had to go back to the landline due to their health conditions (e.g. Parkinson's, stroke) and could not handle a mobile phone anymore. 

They got landline phones with huge buttons so they could press them easily. 

Edited September 24 by EmMelb

[Kiwi Bicycle]

I hope people know you can get desk phones that take a sim card...

[BECZ]

Like others, we had it as not all of the kids had their own phones. Now that they all do, we rarely use it.

I think the only times that I’ve used it in the last year or two was when I knew that it would be a long call and my phone battery was low and some parts of our house have poor reception too (right where I charge it). The other time was when DD was asleep with her phone on silent and I was out the front with no key as I gave it to DS who was meant to be home before me. Our doorbell only rings in the toy room and on my phone and iPad (which was at the other end of the house), so I needed the home phone to wake her.

[Alta Gaudia]

When we moved in 2020 we never had one connected here.  It would occasionally be useful when out and about with DD at home.

In fact, at some point in the last house the landline actually got cut off and we never noticed for we don't know how long, because we never used it, and most people rang our mobiles anyway.  

[WaitForMe]

2 hours ago, Kiwi Bicycle said:

I hope people know you can get desk phones that take a sim card...

But why???

[WaitForMe]

We haven't had one in a very long time. I can't remember when we got rid of it exactly, some time between 2006 and 2010 I think. 

[Babetty]

We didn't have one for a while, but then we got to the stage where the kids could be home alone for short periods but didn't have mobiles - so we got a "home phone" as per of our NBN package. It definitely got used a bit then, but now both kids have mobiles it's used a lot less.

DH says it's main use now sea to be me ringing mobile to locate it . My parents ring it occasionally and DD sometimes uses it too. I do like that it's permanently in the one spot so if we ever have to ring 000 I don't need to hunt round for mobile.

We're on an old NBN package, we wouldn't save any money to get rid of it so it stays. 

[Kiwi Bicycle]

7 hours ago, WaitForMe said:

But why???

For the elderly who prefer a landline option. But soon landlines won't exist and it will all be through the internet or mobile network. So you can give the feel of a landline but using the mobile network. A phone that doesn't run out of battery, fixed in one place and has large buttons.

Mainly another option to EmbMel saying elderly people having to give up their mobiles.

It's also an option for young kids, if you don't want a landline. 

[Panda]

Nope but my parents do and I find it extremely useful. My phone is never on silent because we dont have a landline but  both mum and dad have theirs on silent so if I cant reach them I always call the landline

[klr75]

We do as it's through our internet, but don't use it - I actually think the phone is unplugged at the moment as I used the power point ages ago for something else, and the cordless landline phone never got plugged back in!  No one calls us on it, and even if it did ring, we would bother answering it, as it was always scammers.

 

[Romeo Void]

8 hours ago, WaitForMe said:

But why???

My mother is struggling with the new handset we've put in...it's cordless and that freaks her out.  She also cannot for the life of her remember to press the green phone button after she dials the number she wants to ring, on her old phone she could just pick up the handset and dial the number and it would ring.  If her phone rings  she often accidentally hangs up on them because she presses answer twice...just to be sure.  This is the level of technologically ability some of us are dealing with.

Edited September 24 by Romeo Void

[dianalynch]

No, I haven’t had one in 17 years…it was when I moved to a city apartment and the phone company technician had to actually come to the premises to fix something… they didn’t show up, and it was too hard to reschedule with work and particularly work travel. 

[Over and out]

1 hour ago, Kiwi Bicycle said:

For the elderly who prefer a landline option. But soon landlines won't exist and it will all be through the internet or mobile network. So you can give the feel of a landline but using the mobile network. A phone that doesn't run out of battery, fixed in one place and has large buttons.

Mainly another option to EmbMel saying elderly people having to give up their mobiles.

It's also an option for young kids, if you don't want a landline. 

I thank that handset would still require  the green button to talk etc

[Darryl]

Who still remembers their childhood phone number?

It's pretty much the only number I can remember these days

[Over and out]

8 minutes ago, Darryl said:

Who still remembers their childhood phone number?

It's pretty much the only number I can remember these days

Absolutely, and all my friends childhood numbers. I do struggle to remember my DS's mobile :;

[Mrs Twit]

50 minutes ago, Romeo Void said:

My mother is struggling with the new handset we've put in...it's cordless and that freaks her out.  She also cannot for the life of her remember to press the green phone button after she dials the number she wants to ring, on her old phone she could just pick up the handset and dial the number and it would ring.  If her phone rings  she often accidentally hangs up on them because she presses answer twice...just to be sure.  This is the level of technologically ability some of us are dealing with.

This was my in-laws. Also MIL would hold the red button down for too long to finish the call and accidentally turn the phone off. They also lived fairly remotely and not too close to any family so one time we had to send her a letter asking her to turn her phone back on. Was about a month before we could contact them that time. 

[Darryl]

When I was a kid two of my friends had very similar phone numbers (just one digit apart):

eg: 246808 and 246809

I used to think it was an amazing coincidence.  Probably not so much in a town that, at the time, had around 25,000 people in it.

ETA: For some reason I also remember my dad's registration plate from the late 1980's.

My head is littered with this kind of useless crap

[Two-bit]

48 minutes ago, Darryl said:

When I was a kid two of my friends had very similar phone numbers (just one digit apart):

eg: 246808 and 246809

I used to think it was an amazing coincidence.  Probably not so much in a town that, at the time, had around 25,000 people in it.

ETA: For some reason I also remember my dad's registration plate from the late 1980's.

My head is littered with this kind of useless crap

I moved house a bunch of times and can remember most of the phone numbers since I was 7. My grandparents - cheaty though because my grandfather answered the phone by listing off his telephone number so I heard that one a lot.

I remember the big change from (123) 45 1234 in the country and (0x) 123 4567 in the city to (0x) 1234 5678. I still recognise the country prefixes in WA and some interstate ones.

I do not remember anyones mobile phone number except mine and DPs. Not my mum, not my 12yo, nobody.

I do also remember most of my numberplates, and Dad changed cars a lot. We sometimes had ones for the country towns we lived in, WA-style.

[Dadwasathome]

1 hour ago, Darryl said:

Who still remembers their childhood phone number?

It's pretty much the only number I can remember these days

My mum still has the number they got when the phone was installed around 1968, updated only for the number of digits. She’s only moved once in that time. She prefers her mobile as the audio is clearer 91yo).

DP’s childhood phone number is still the same as well.

A local mechanics workshop changed hands earlier this year and somewhat surprisingly has a new landline number. This disappointing as the various businesses on the site have had the same landline number since former PM John Howard’s father had it installed.

[Kiwi Bicycle]

1 hour ago, Over and out said:

I thank that handset would still require  the green button to talk etc

Yeah, but mobiles have been around to 20 plus years now. My parents in their late 70s have had mobiles. If you need large numbers and button due to eyesight and dexterity, a phone plugged in and in one place ( so it doesn't get lost or run out of battery), this solves those issues. Stick a label next to the green button saying " press to answer" and you are set. The generation of people who have never used a mobile is getting smaller and smaller. After us Gen X, there will be no one who would of used a landline in the home.