How many people here have a landline?

CalamariFritti

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121660795#Comment_121660795

DSL can be provisioned without, cable and real fibre don't have a phone element

Thats true but the splitter solution is after being phased out anyway. Even when I still had copper/DSL they had the voice element converted to VOIP cos it made it cheaper that way on the public switch side.

And yes fibre and cable dont have even a hint of a physical landline element but a telephone voice service is still available via VOIP and comes with most packages for free or a nominal fee AFAIK.

con747

I do and it's invaluable due to no mobile signal and the number of power cuts I get. I have a spare old phone to plug in during power cuts which works off the small current through the line AFAIK. I think the people who say you don't need one these days all live in urban areas where you probably don't. Not the same in the sticks!

Dial Hard

I think a lot of people are conflating having a landline with actually having a home phone plugged into it. Most people with non-fibre broadband technically have a landline but how many actually have a house phone that they still use to make calls? I don't know anyone with one, other than the handful of Boardsies who've said it in this thread and in TA when it came up there the other day.

CalamariFritti

I still use the landline on occasion. But mostly for elderly relatives or international calls to business numbers where landline can still be cheaper.

Private international calls are mostly WhatsApp or such.

NickNickleby

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121660159#Comment_121660159

My folks had a landline in the seventies - real novelty when it arrived. Anyway one of my sisters headed off to the US of A. One time in the early 80's my mother shows me the phone bill. It was HORRENDOUS, something like£200, when my mortgage was about 96 a month. So eventually we deduced that the bill covered Christmas. Did you by any chance ring Sis? Yes, but I was only on for about an hour 😮. Nowadays its WhatsApp, and while the calls still last as long, they cost a lot less!!

Anyway, my mother still has the landline, and so do I. MrsN won't relinquish ours.

CalamariFritti

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121661104#Comment_121661104

MrsN won't relinquish ours.

MrsC is the same. And her argument is what if we need to call someone urgently when electricity is down? I tried to explain it doesn't work that way anymore but without success so far.

But it doesn't really cost a thing, grand so

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121661153#Comment_121661153

Wish ours didn't cost a thing. Bl00dy Eir, no mobile signal, no broadband so stuck with copper :-( Fiber stopped 400m up the road.

Ubbquittious

I thought I had a landline but it's really VoiP through the fritzbox (Digiweb)

Gregor Samsa

Got rid of the landline years ago. We had 3 cordless phones. One day when tidying, I found the three of them in various places, batteries completely drained. When I fired them up, I realised they’d last been used 6 months previously, and we hadn’t even noticed that they were out of use. We were getting fibre broadband at the time, and declined the VoIP phone service when switching to that. Never missed it even once since.

_Kaiser_

Haven't had an active one since SIRO based fibre became available in the area. I don't even use the ISP's router for that matter.

hoodie6029

No point in a landline anymore. They’re VOIP so they won’t work if the power is gone. That was the only slight advantage they had.

Who’d bother ringing a landline when you’re guaranteed to get the person on their mobile?

Furze99

Yes for business purposes. When I see a business advertising and all they have is a mobile no, I raise an eyebrow.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121663713#Comment_121663713

Of course landlines work when the power's off. It's how I report a power outage for a start. Not all landlines are VOIP. And not everybody has sufficient network coverage to rely solely on mobiles. Don't judge every situation based on just your own circumstances.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121664102#Comment_121664102

Not for long - https://www.openeir.ie/copper-switch-off/

There may be battery backup when they initially move people over but it is likely to just not get maintained

hoodie6029

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121664102#Comment_121664102

In fairness, yes, there are plenty of pockets where because of geography or low population they have poor coverage and need a fixed line into the house.

The copper is going though so my point about VOIP not working when the power goes stands. They’ve encountered this in the UK already where they are ahead of us on the switch. The best solution they came up with was to provide a simple mobile and power bank to vulnerable customers and tell them to keep it charged in case the power goes. Not great and little use in an area with poor reception.

Juran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121660343#Comment_121660343

Same with us. Havent used the virgin phone in 6+ years, but its still there. Part of the monyhly tv/broadband package.

Vita nova

Have a virtual landline (VOIP) from Virgin Media with an old Telecom Eireann Avoca phone connected to a standard telephone jack (RJ11) on the modem, also have a standard landline number. In every respect it's the same as a landline except it needs mains power and an internet connection. It seems to be given internet access priority because even when the internet access is poor the phone line is usually good.

I still use it and would hate to lose it. I often use it when calling my parents who have a standard landline (POTS); they have poor hearing and landline calls are always of a consistent quality whereas mobile calls to them can vary from very good to very bad.

I also use it when calling customer service support for insurance, waste, energy suppliers etc; I just put the phone on speaker while I'm in the 'queue' and that way I'm free to make or receive calls on my mobile.

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121664143#Comment_121664143

From that it reads like Eir will be taking advantage of the Rural Broadband Scheme to get out of providing me with copper. Cnuts, they were too tight to run 400m of fibre down to me and my neighbors but will get the job done free and be rid of copper, care of the government.

yagan

I last relied on a landline 25 years ago. I had a regional rep job with my own little office with a landline and a fax, printer and desktop computer on which I'd write the letters that would be faxed.

I had a personal mobile when they were still a novelty and simply switched the office landline through to my mobile. I'd make my site visits and only drop into the office to check the physical mail and send the odd fax.

The only practical use of a landline in recent years was the mother in law having one of those panic bracelets linked to it.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121664972#Comment_121664972

Get one of these and offer to pay half your neighbours bill

https://mikrotik.com/product/wireless_wire_dish

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121665665#Comment_121665665

I already do (two ubiquiti NanoStation M5's) but can't rely on that for phone so still need the copper land line. Each of our houses is on a totally different mains supply so we can have a power cut when they don't and visa versa. Makes the copper more relevant. They were off for nearly 24 hours last week when we still had power.

Greyfox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121664972#Comment_121664972

Yeah Open Eir don't like installing copper as it costs more to install it than it costs to put in bband with voip. Copper landlines are really only for old people or people living in the middle of nowhere. If you want fibre to the home its goodbye to your copper line.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121666367#Comment_121666367

Ah cool ! Battery backup for that wouldn't be hard to install. I found though during long powercuts the exchange kicks off all the internet users after only a few hours. The copper phonelines might keep going for 12-24h but any longer and it's gone. The exchange has a changeover for a generator to be connected but if there's floods or a major storm they wouldn't have the resources to get it there. Mobile phone bases also start to go offline after a day or less.

Slightly Kwackers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121660170#Comment_121660170

I have pointed the problem out to many people, as late as this morning when after a new hard drive I had to log into Amazon and they like many others sent a text to a mobile I had in England about five years back.

I totally refuse to tramp down the field to find the signal, so don't waste money on a mobile package.

It seems a pity that in an EU that seems to promote fairness and human rights, people don't have the right to communicate with the technology available.

One UK bank used to provide codes over the landline.

I find it a constant irritation the reliance on facebook have here. I have to sign up to facebook to contact someone using parameters that are now total fiction as my real details are on file as an account with them. I then contact the dealer, which was the purpose of access, then two or three days later get asked for a mobile number to "verify the account" . So all is fine until the next search throws up a vendor with a facebook site.

In the UK I changed phones like socks. I would buy a SIM with a slightly better rate, I also had many company phones that were for personal use also, so what on earth is secure about a mobile received text anyway?

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121666879#Comment_121666879

100% agree with you! I am fed up to my unmentionables with companies needing a text message verification, where I live which has a brutal mobile network signal with all providers and I regularly need to go out in the pissing's of rain and storms to access my accounts!! Nearly every corporation do this and never think about the population that have no coverage. Any that will allow me to I have verification via landline or email but very few do that.

Duke of Schomberg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121664318#Comment_121664318

VOIP switchover seems to have been paused here in UK - we were due to change over last year but haven't heard anything for months. Landline - overhead copper from telegraph pole, as fibre stops where civilisation ends 500y down road - is essential as mobile reception can occasionally be absent.

Jellybaby_1

I have a landline since the 70’s, wouldn’t be without it. I can hear better on the landline than on my mobile.  All local calls are free on the landline, and I use the mobile/WhatsApp for international calls and messages.  I don’t think a poll would be of much benefit for this question as a lot of people who only have a landline probably are not on Boards, as they don’t have internet so their views wouldn't even be taken into account! I know quite a lot like that.

cj maxx

I have one but rarely use it except for cross border calls which are free . I do get the odd call but by the time I get to it , it’s usually finished ringing . It came with broadband

SuperBowserWorld

The dog ate my partner's mobile. Well, he smashed the screen ..

So, having the landline was handy this morning.

Dav010

Moved house in 2017 and had to get landline as part of bb installation by Eir, as soon as the year contract was up we stopped LL and haven’t had one since. Only time it rang during that year, I was incredibly lucky, I won the Nigerian lotto, a Prince from Ghana wanted to give me millions, and I won a trip of a lifetime, but I’d have to pay for them to send me the details. It was a magic phone.