The Humble House Phone.

Duke of Url · 29-07-2020 9:01am #1

Is it still a a thing within Irish Households or has everyone gone mobile?

Speedsie · 29-07-2020 9:04am

Still have a landline, and both a corded and cordless handsets used daily.

House in an area with a poor enough mobile signal across all providers.

xabi · 29-07-2020 9:05am

Still have one, my Mother is the only one that calls it.

accensi0n · 29-07-2020 9:16am

CoBo55 · 29-07-2020 9:18am

Nah it's long gone. I have calls on my VM package I never even hooked a phone up to the modem.

Elwood_Blues · 29-07-2020 9:19am

Mobile all the way these days. Do have the option with Virgin to use a phone plugged into their router as they provide a home phone of sorts but have never used it.

IamMetaldave · 29-07-2020 9:20am

I know there one as part of my VM package but have never used it. I'm not even sure where it is.

bittihuduga · 29-07-2020 9:22am

have the dual set cordless connected to VM.
not sure anyone else knows the number other than me and wifey.
my 7 year old uses the handset to ring me on mobile when she has trouble with mommy ;-)

Vita nova · 29-07-2020 9:39am

Still have a house phone but these days it's hooked up to the internet modem as opposed to the telephone network. As far as I'm aware there is no fixed charge and we only pay for some calls, so there's no extra cost in having it. Lots of free calls to other international landlines that aren't available from the mobile networks.

I still use Web based free phone apps but they're not as convenient as a permanent phone (IMO) and the quality of service isn't as consistent.

Hoop66 · 29-07-2020 9:55am

Still have a home phone, the only calls I get on it are scams so I never answer it. I keep meaning to ask Virgin to take it away, but I think I get a slight discount for having it. Presumably so Virgin can sell my phone no to all those scammers.

JeffKenna · 29-07-2020 9:56am

I find it great when I have to send a fax. Only reason I have it.

Vita nova · 29-07-2020 10:04am

Also, you won't get the same feels making a call from your mobile or PC as from this beauty:

Telecom Eireann used to sell (& rent) these as one of their standard sets.

peasant · 29-07-2020 10:05am

Still have a landline and the usual type cordless phone.

A while ago I bought a corded old style phone that doesn't need external power.
Meaning I can still make phone calls when the electricity and internet have gone and the mobile battery happens to be empty.

Hashtag zombie apocalypse

jimgoose · 29-07-2020 10:07am

I got a new landline number a few months ago when I upgraded the place to Eir fibre. I then invested a twenty-spot in Panasonic's finest beige plastic, just to commission the thing and have some sort of backup should cellular ever go titsup.com. I never use it.

jimgoose · 29-07-2020 10:08am

peasant wrote: »

Still have a landline and the usual type cordless phone.

A while ago I bought a corded old style phone that doesn't need external power.
Meaning I can still make phone calls when the electricity and internet have gone and the mobile battery happens to be empty...

Nice and old-school. I see the landline plugs into the modem under the fibre setup, so my one does depend on the electrickery.

Edgware · 29-07-2020 12:42pm

jimgoose wrote: »

Nice and old-school. I see the landline plugs into the modem under the fibre setup, so my one does depend on the electrickery.

I run the electricity off the gas and the gas off the electricity. It saves around 200 a year on insulation

Marcusm · 29-07-2020 12:58pm

Vita nova wrote: »

Also, you won't get the same feels making a call from your mobile or PC as from this beauty:

Telecom Eireann used to sell (& rent) these as one of their standard sets.

Wicklow looks too far south on that map. I couldn’t look at that all day!

In 4 years we have received on call on the landline - from Sky who provide the landline!

Gretas Gonna Get Ya! · 29-07-2020 1:02pm

I once befriended a lonely badger...

It did NOT have a landline! The End.

Coillte_Bhoy · 29-07-2020 1:05pm

Locked keys in my van yesterday along with mobile and went to my parents house to use their phone (landline). I actually had to stop for a split second before i lifted it, to remember what to do. It was also a strange feeling just standing there talking and to thew person on the other end and being unable to walk around. Horrendous experience all told.

jimgoose · 29-07-2020 1:09pm

Coillte_Bhoy wrote: »

Locked keys in my van yesterday along with mobile and went to my parents house to use their phone (landline). I actually had to stop for a split second before i lifted it, to remember what to do. It was also a strange feeling just standing there talking and to thew person on the other end and being unable to walk around. Horrendous experience all told.

I know - I gave my mother a quick call on the thing the day it was installed, I felt like some sort of wild animal.

Ger Roe · 29-07-2020 1:14pm

Coillte_Bhoy wrote: »

Locked keys in my van yesterday along with mobile and went to my parents house to use their phone (landline). I actually had to stop for a split second before i lifted it, to remember what to do. It was also a strange feeling just standing there talking and to thew person on the other end and being unable to walk around. Horrendous experience all told.

I still have a landline - costs about €5 per month on a broadband package and I can talk all day and night on it, to other landlines, for that cost. Worth it for family member chats. It has also proven to be more reliable than mobile networks.

I also have a 1970's rotary dial phone, using break loop dialing, and I am amazed that it still works on modern exchanges - I thought they would have all been changed over to DTMF only. I took it to a group of teenagers recently, hooked it up to a phone line and asked them to make a call. Out of a group of twelve, none could do it. Some didn't know to lift the receiver, some didn't know what the dial tone was and none knew how to rotate the dial. Some said that they vaguely remembered their grandparents having a phone like it.

How times have changed... it made me feel very old(er).

Gretas Gonna Get Ya! · 29-07-2020 1:14pm

jimgoose wrote: »

I know - I gave my mother a quick call on the thing the day it was installed, I felt like some sort of wild animal.

A wild animal like a badger, by any chance?

jimgoose · 29-07-2020 1:17pm

Gretas Gonna Get Ya! wrote: »

A wild animal like a badger, by any chance?

What are you talking about, what is with the badger??

Trigger Happy · 29-07-2020 1:34pm

xabi wrote: »

Still have one, my Mother is the only one that calls it.

Same here. I wonder are we brothers?

Gretas Gonna Get Ya! · 29-07-2020 1:40pm

jimgoose wrote: »

What are you talking about, what is with the badger??

Back off Jimmy...

Badgers are superior to geese, everyone knows that!

Ger Roe · 29-07-2020 1:55pm

jimgoose wrote: »

Nice and old-school. I see the landline plugs into the modem under the fibre setup, so my one does depend on the electrickery.

I think the phone might still work in a power cut though. I once powered my router off a battery during a power cut and still had broadband and phone - the telephone network infrastructure was still running off it's own exchange based supply.

My broadband is supplied over a Fibre to Cabinet line with the final house connection being a copper pair - total fibre to the home probably requires mains power to transform the phone line back to electrical signals. My part of first world twenty first century Ireland hasn't got that option yet, even though we are less than an hour from Dublin and practically in the hard shoulder of the N11.

Tig98 · 29-07-2020 1:56pm

Can't bayt a good ole corded landline in a power cut

gogo · 29-07-2020 1:58pm

xabi wrote: »

Still have one, my Mother is the only one that calls it.

Have one here and my mother was the only one who ever called on it, she passed away two years ago, and it hasn’t rang since, not once...

my son pretended it was his mobile for a while and used to carry it around the house or pretend to his friends he was taking urgent calls on it, ‘yes, yes I will play dinosaurs at twelvety o clock’ ..... other than that, I’ve no idea why I still have it, think it’s practically free with the broadband, must look into it

Do you remember the phone money box, put 20p in the box when making a call, my mother tried to do the when we see young, but sure we were always robbing it ...

og2k7 · 29-07-2020 1:58pm

Used to have it as was required to have UPC/NTL/Virgin setup. Realized recently it wasn't required anymore so got rid of it. Haven't touched it in 4 years

It might be soon the case with traditional SMS. Since WFH we have even replaced traditional calls with WhatsApp calls as they are better quality in general

Elwood_Blues · 29-07-2020 2:05pm

Edgware wrote: »

I run the electricity off the gas and the gas off the electricity. It saves around 200 a year on insulation

What's your favorite humming noise? Would it be mmm-mmmmm or would it be mmmm-mm? The first one there, now that’s the sound of a fridge humming and the second one, now that’s the sound of a man humming. You never hear a woman humming. I knew a woman once, but she died soon afterwards.

listermint · 29-07-2020 2:17pm

Marcusm wrote: »

Wicklow looks too far south on that map. I couldn’t look at that all day!

In 4 years we have received on call on the landline - from Sky who provide the landline!

Thats Arklows location

Jimbob1977 · 29-07-2020 2:24pm

Remember when phoneboxes were a critical means of communication. Until around 1999.

If you were going to be late home or needed a lift, it was the only option.

The eircom £5 or £10 phone card, the "A" button and the mysterious "B" button.

Elwood_Blues · 29-07-2020 2:27pm

Jimbob1977 wrote: »

Remember when phoneboxes were a critical means of communication. Until around 1999.

If you were going to be late home or needed a lift, it was the only option.

The eircom £5 or £10 phone card, the "A" button and the mysterious "B" button.

I feel quite bad about this but when I was younger myself and my mate used to go down to the local phonebox, call the operator and pretend we were from 2FM saying they had won a competition.. I was a right little sh1t when I was younger.

Strumms · 29-07-2020 2:31pm

Still have a house phone, Siemens 7010. I have a phone / internet deal. Had been contemplating going mobile only hmmm.

Tazio · 29-07-2020 2:39pm

might be slightly biased as I like restoring old Bakelite GPO phones.. but we have a 'landline' but it's a VOiP service. The house phone right now is an old 1940's Bakelite phone, but inside has a DTMF dallier I put it. It counts the rotary dialer pulses and then sends out the correct tone for the dailed number. It does take a while to enter 10 digits; back in the day there were 4 or 5 digits in a phone number.

Speedsie · 29-07-2020 2:41pm

Jimbob1977 wrote: »

Remember when phoneboxes were a critical means of communication. Until around 1999.

If you were going to be late home or needed a lift, it was the only option.

The eircom £5 or £10 phone card, the "A" button and the mysterious "B" button.

Pressing button B ejected any unused coins. Could be quite lucrative as a youngster. I actually have one of the old Button A/B phone boxes lying about the place. And a few of the old rotary dial phones. And yes, they still work.

Basic handsets are very useful in a powercut alright, as they will continue to work.

murpho999 · 29-07-2020 3:46pm

Speedsie wrote: »

Pressing button B ejected any unused coins. Could be quite lucrative as a youngster. I actually have one of the old Button A/B phone boxes lying about the place. And a few of the old rotary dial phones. And yes, they still work.

Basic handsets are very useful in a powercut alright, as they will continue to work.

But so would a mobile so I don't see the advantage?

What use is a landline phone to you during a powercut anyway? What else can you do apart from call someone?

JasonStatham · 29-07-2020 3:54pm

Vita nova wrote: »

Also, you won't get the same feels making a call from your mobile or PC as from this beauty:

Telecom Eireann used to sell (& rent) these as one of their standard sets.

Omg....mega cringe. The state of that.

Bobblehats · 29-07-2020 4:07pm

accensi0n wrote: »

Speedsie · 29-07-2020 4:23pm

murpho999 wrote: »

But so would a mobile so I don't see the advantage?

What use is a landline phone to you during a powercut anyway? What else can you do apart from call someone?

True enough, but I've very poor mobile signal across all networks where I am, and until relatively recently power outages were also common place.
Rural Dublin can be fun!

cml387 · 29-07-2020 4:25pm

jimgoose wrote: »

What are you talking about, what is with the badger??

It's a crossed line.

Nigel Fairservice · 29-07-2020 4:26pm

I don't have one at my place. Just use my mobile.

My Dad has a landline and uses it occasionally but even he is using his mobile more these days. My mother spent 2 years on a waiting list to get the phone from Telecom Eireann in the early 80s.

DublinWriter · 29-07-2020 4:26pm

Vita nova wrote: »

Also, you won't get the same feels making a call from your mobile or PC as from this beauty:

Telecom Eireann used to sell (& rent) these as one of their standard sets.

Shut up and take my money!

DublinWriter · 29-07-2020 4:28pm

The only thing I still use it for is alerts from the house alarm.

Sure, you could probably do the same via mobile and an updated alarm system, but some criminals are clever enough to use GSM blockers.

Gregor Samsa · 29-07-2020 4:39pm

We got rid of ours after we realised that we had left all 3 cordless handsets uncharged for 3 months and didn’t notice.

peasant · 29-07-2020 4:39pm

murpho999 wrote: »

But so would a mobile so I don't see the advantage?

What use is a landline phone to you during a powercut anyway? What else can you do apart from call someone?

All correct, but if the landline socket is there anyway, a basic phone can be had for under a tenner, well worth it for peace of mind...if and when a powercut should last longer than a few hours only.
Ours lives in a drawer normally, right next to the landline socket, just in case.

angel eyes 2012 · 29-07-2020 4:40pm

Vita nova wrote: »

Also, you won't get the same feels making a call from your mobile or PC as from this beauty:

Telecom Eireann used to sell (& rent) these as one of their standard sets.

Some customers of Telecom Eireann or Eircom were still paying rent on their devices right into the 2000s when you could go into Argos and buy a better phone for £20.

Incidentally, my father still uses his landline for his calls as he hates mobile phones. He has a smartphone but finds them difficult to navigate. The frustrating thing is he is only 70 years old now, was 50 in the year 2000 so he really doesn't have a valid excuse for being such a luddite but there is no changing him now!

CoBo55 · 29-07-2020 4:51pm

DublinWriter wrote: »

The only thing I still use it for is alerts from the house alarm.

Sure, you could probably do the same via mobile and an updated alarm system, but some criminals are clever enough to use GSM blockers.

And snip the phone line...

Gregor Samsa · 29-07-2020 4:54pm

angel eyes 2012 wrote: »

Some customers of Telecom Eireann or Eircom were still paying rent on their devices right into the 2000s when you could go into Argos and buy a better phone for £20.

My mother in law was still renting her home phone up to at least 3 years ago. She was having trouble making calls one day, and I brought a spare phone from home to test if it was the phone or the line that was the problem. When I determined it was the phone, I offered for her to just keep my one, but she insisted on me taking it back and having an Eircom engineer come out and replace her phone as she was renting it “for peace of mind”. She refused to listen to us telling her what a total waste of money it was.

If Eir still do rentals (I know Eircom stopped for new customers in 2000, but they let legacy customers continue renting), then I’m sure she’s still throwing her money away, while complaining that she can’t make ends meet. I’m not opening that can of worms with her again to find out, though.

.anon. · 29-07-2020 4:55pm

I can still remember the excitement of going from one of these...

MmYxYjMzNDI0ZWFhNzYzN2YwNjNiMDMxZDZhOGE4MGWKOG-vK95Xvpvnp1MrSvIcaHR0cDovL21lZGlhLmFkc2ltZy5jb20vMGU4MmU2ZjViNTRlNGU4NTZlZGRiOGQyZGQ4ZjEzMTE1MzcwODFiZjcyN2MyYWM3YWEzOWE2Y2EyZmJmOGJkNy5qcGd8fHx8fHwxNjR4MjkyfGh0dHA6Ly93d3cuYWR2ZXJ0cy5pZS9zdGF0aWMvaS93YXRlcm1hcmsucG5nfHx8.jpg

MmYxYjMzNDI0ZWFhNzYzN2YwNjNiMDMxZDZhOGE4MGWKOG-vK95Xvpvnp1MrSvIcaHR0cDovL21lZGlhLmFkc2ltZy5jb20vMGU4MmU2ZjViNTRlNGU4NTZlZGRiOGQyZGQ4ZjEzMTE1MzcwODFiZjcyN2MyYWM3YWEzOWE2Y2EyZmJmOGJkNy5qcGd8fHx8fHwxNjR4MjkyfGh0dHA6Ly93d3cuYWR2ZXJ0cy5pZS9zdGF0aWMvaS93YXRlcm1hcmsucG5nfHx8.jpg

...to one of these:

NDcwZGQ5ZjhjMDlkZWViYjU1ZWQxNDU0ZDcyYTg0NjlQ3FlYBN5LJ08ElZmX9gWUaHR0cDovL21lZGlhLmFkc2ltZy5jb20vMTY1MGQ3ZDZhNjNmOWFkOGIzZGZiNjJkOWZmNDkyM2E5ZmJiZjVlMmZlMDc2ZjgxYmFlNGY4NWIyNTRhN2Y1MS5qcGd8fHx8fHwxNjR4MjkyfGh0dHA6Ly93d3cuYWR2ZXJ0cy5pZS9zdGF0aWMvaS93YXRlcm1hcmsucG5nfHx8.jpg

NDcwZGQ5ZjhjMDlkZWViYjU1ZWQxNDU0ZDcyYTg0NjlQ3FlYBN5LJ08ElZmX9gWUaHR0cDovL21lZGlhLmFkc2ltZy5jb20vMTY1MGQ3ZDZhNjNmOWFkOGIzZGZiNjJkOWZmNDkyM2E5ZmJiZjVlMmZlMDc2ZjgxYmFlNGY4NWIyNTRhN2Y1MS5qcGd8fHx8fHwxNjR4MjkyfGh0dHA6Ly93d3cuYWR2ZXJ0cy5pZS9zdGF0aWMvaS93YXRlcm1hcmsucG5nfHx8.jpg

jimgoose · 29-07-2020 5:03pm

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

...If Eir still do rentals (I know Eircom stopped for new customers in 2000, but they let legacy customers continue renting), then I’m sure she’s still throwing her money away, while complaining that she can’t make ends meet. I’m not opening that can of worms with her again to find out, though.

Eir don't do anything as tragically unhip as giving you a telephone anymore. Bliss was it, in that dawn! :pac:

The Humble House Phone.

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