Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all! We have been experiencing an issue on site where threads have been missing the latest postings. The platform host Vanilla are working on this issue. A workaround that has been used by some is to navigate back from 1 to 10+ pages to re-sync the thread and this will then show the latest posts. Thanks, Mike.
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

The Humble House Phone.

  • 29-07-2020 9:01am
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,662 ✭✭✭Duke of Url


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


«1

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,317 ✭✭✭Speedsie
    ¡arriba, arriba! ¡andale, andale!


    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.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,006 ✭✭✭xabi


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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,805 ✭✭✭accensi0n


    phone.jpg


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,315 ✭✭✭CoBo55


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


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Elwood_Blues


    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.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,499 ✭✭✭IamMetaldave


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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,915 ✭✭✭bittihuduga


    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 ;-)


  • Registered Users Posts: 748 ✭✭✭Vita nova


    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.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,442 ✭✭✭Hoop66


    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.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,572 ✭✭✭JeffKenna


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


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 748 ✭✭✭Vita nova


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

    sr1v4zdu49221.jpg
    Telecom Eireann used to sell (& rent) these as one of their standard sets.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,819 ✭✭✭✭peasant


    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 :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,180 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    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.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,180 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    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.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,874 ✭✭✭Edgware


    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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,427 ✭✭✭✭Marcusm


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

    sr1v4zdu49221.jpg
    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!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,245 ✭✭✭Gretas Gonna Get Ya!


    I once befriended a lonely badger...

    It did NOT have a landline! The End. :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,909 ✭✭✭Coillte_Bhoy


    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. :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,180 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    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.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,137 ✭✭✭Ger Roe


    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).


  • Advertisement
  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,245 ✭✭✭Gretas Gonna Get Ya!


    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? :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,180 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    A wild animal like a badger, by any chance? :)

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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,104 ✭✭✭Trigger Happy


    xabi wrote: »
    Still have one, my Mother is the only one that calls it.

    Same here. I wonder are we brothers?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,245 ✭✭✭Gretas Gonna Get Ya!


    jimgoose wrote: »
    What are you talking about, what is with the badger??

    Back off Jimmy...

    Badgers are superior to geese, everyone knows that! :p


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,137 ✭✭✭Ger Roe


    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.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 363 ✭✭Tig98


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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,452 ✭✭✭gogo


    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 ...


  • Registered Users Posts: 415 ✭✭og2k7


    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


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Elwood_Blues


    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.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,104 ✭✭✭✭listermint


    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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,239 ✭✭✭Jimbob1977


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 350 ✭✭Elwood_Blues


    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.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,789 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 698 ✭✭✭Tazio


    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.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,317 ✭✭✭Speedsie
    ¡arriba, arriba! ¡andale, andale!


    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.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,536 ✭✭✭✭murpho999


    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?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 548 ✭✭✭JasonStatham


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

    sr1v4zdu49221.jpg
    Telecom Eireann used to sell (& rent) these as one of their standard sets.

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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,707 ✭✭✭Bobblehats


    accensi0n wrote: »
    phone.jpg

    288808098a7d85ba27778a55315b7367.jpg


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,317 ✭✭✭Speedsie
    ¡arriba, arriba! ¡andale, andale!


    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!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,492 ✭✭✭cml387


    jimgoose wrote: »
    What are you talking about, what is with the badger??

    It's a crossed line.


  • Advertisement
  • Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 2,289 Mod ✭✭✭✭Nigel Fairservice


    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.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,559 ✭✭✭DublinWriter


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

    sr1v4zdu49221.jpg
    Telecom Eireann used to sell (& rent) these as one of their standard sets.
    Shut up and take my money!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,559 ✭✭✭DublinWriter


    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.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,087 ✭✭✭Gregor Samsa


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


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,819 ✭✭✭✭peasant


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 925 ✭✭✭angel eyes 2012


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

    sr1v4zdu49221.jpg
    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!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,315 ✭✭✭CoBo55


    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...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,087 ✭✭✭Gregor Samsa


    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.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,094 ✭✭✭.anon.


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

    MmYxYjMzNDI0ZWFhNzYzN2YwNjNiMDMxZDZhOGE4MGWKOG-vK95Xvpvnp1MrSvIcaHR0cDovL21lZGlhLmFkc2ltZy5jb20vMGU4MmU2ZjViNTRlNGU4NTZlZGRiOGQyZGQ4ZjEzMTE1MzcwODFiZjcyN2MyYWM3YWEzOWE2Y2EyZmJmOGJkNy5qcGd8fHx8fHwxNjR4MjkyfGh0dHA6Ly93d3cuYWR2ZXJ0cy5pZS9zdGF0aWMvaS93YXRlcm1hcmsucG5nfHx8.jpg

    ...to one of these:

    NDcwZGQ5ZjhjMDlkZWViYjU1ZWQxNDU0ZDcyYTg0NjlQ3FlYBN5LJ08ElZmX9gWUaHR0cDovL21lZGlhLmFkc2ltZy5jb20vMTY1MGQ3ZDZhNjNmOWFkOGIzZGZiNjJkOWZmNDkyM2E5ZmJiZjVlMmZlMDc2ZjgxYmFlNGY4NWIyNTRhN2Y1MS5qcGd8fHx8fHwxNjR4MjkyfGh0dHA6Ly93d3cuYWR2ZXJ0cy5pZS9zdGF0aWMvaS93YXRlcm1hcmsucG5nfHx8.jpg


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,180 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    ...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:


  • Advertisement
Advertisement