How many people here have a landline?

Set up a poll, then! I have a landline but I mostly use it to find where I left my mobile (when it's handier than using 'find my device' on the laptop). 😄

I have one as it came as a part of the broadband package I initially signed up to when we moved in 10 years ago, and even bought a cordless phone to plug in and use the odd time, but that hasn't been plugged in for at least 6-7 years now.. so although technically I have a landline, it is not used.

My Mother continues to maintain a landline even though she's is fully mobile with both an iPad & iPhone..

I rang eir yesterday about my bill being €22 pm more that what I'd pay Vodafone for the same package. They tried to get me to sign up to a landline for a discount and I flat out said no cos I don't want or need one. He insisted I had to get one for a discount, made no sense except that he was probably on a commission.

I told him I'd cancel so and move providers and miraculously he was able to get me down €20pm if I tied myself into a new contract for a year, which I'd no issue with.

So no, I don't have a landline but a lot of people on the phone yesterday would probably have taken one.

Apparently I do. However there’s no phone plugged into any line. For many operators, a package with broadband + phone is cheaper.

It costs them nothing to provision a number over IP (broadband). If you use it, then it’s good for them as they’ll make money on the call.

I do but only because I cant get 500mb fibre. My parents got 500mb fibre recently which got rid of their landline. Their old house phones plug into the back of the Vodafone gigabox router. Same landline number ported over. They had a 6mb copper line before so theyre obviously very happy with it. They both have monthly bundle with their mobiles for data / calls anyway so they dont use the house phones much. They like having them as backup though.

We couldn't function without a landline, as mobile reception is terrible. We've a legacy deal with eir where the fixed charge covers all calls to Irish and UK landlines and mobiles.

I had a landline with vodafone and it seemed to be just part of the package, I am in a Siro area, but Sky asked for extra for the landline. At the time it was €30 per month for a new account.

No offence to your parents but if they are OAPs I think they get free landlines? or a discount from the Dept of Soc Protection.

Long gone - was removed in 2014. It was 9.50 a month so didn't cover costs by then anyway.

People on living alone and fuel allowance get 2.50 extra automatically to 'cover' phone, nobody else gets anything.

4724?

https://youtu.be/8oTs6Oz-OW8?si=yaTuJuMkQu4sQKKr

They do, and a contribution towards electricity, or gas - or bottled gas if they don't have electricity/mains gas!

I don't mean bulk LPG tanks there, there is a form to get a subsidy for standard Calor tanks for the ten elderly farmers left without mains power.

Long gone. Was an absolute money pit, particularly when you have someone constantly on the phone to relatives abroad. No "special package" ever really covered it.

Now use Whatsapp on Wifi and despite endless hours of chat to people across the water, no enormous phone bills.

Dont you have a landline automatically when you have broadband?

I'm on fibre for some time and with that comes a VOIP connection. Which is a virtual landline of sorts but its still what people would call a landline. And if you're not on fibre you're still on copper and while the attached voice service is still likely going to be VOIP rather than POTS its even more of a landline than fibre, no?

I have the olde copper connection that I pay eir 10 euro a month on top of internet bill. They will have to strip the copper from my cold dead hands before I give it up. It works when the electricity is gone, I have terrible phone reception so it's a treat to have such a clear connection on the landline.

Having said that, it is painful being anchored to eir given others such as Vodafone usually have good deals on internet and are far nicer to deal with.

No, but they can be to VoIP services like blueface

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.