andrewducker

Landline calls are still significantly cheaper than mobile. So until that changes (ie, 1 hour UK for free!) I'll be sticking with the landline.

Also, it just feels more stable/secure. It's my number, it's where I live. It's not tied to a phone I could lose / have stolen.

I agree with you for the former.

For the latter, I've had my current mobile number for over 10 years now, through at least seven phones (well, seven phone models - more physical phones than that, as I had a couple replaced due to loss/failure). My landline number has changed four times in the same period, when I moved flat :->

As part of my Internet package we get a landline that we can use to make free phone calls to anywhere - including to mobile phones.

Since it costs money to use our cell phones, when we are at home we only use the landline.

Is it offshore phone-spam? I don't think we get any UK-based phone-spam since we signed up to the TPS. Dunno if Julie gets offshore phone-spam during the day, but we certainly don't get any in the evenings.

I mostly phone my parents at the weekend which is free on my landline so I use that in preference to my mobile. The rest of the week, I use my mobile free minutes but mostly don't make many calls.

I do have a slight preference for using the landline for official stuff because I always worry the sound quality isn't as good on my mobile. I'm not sure that is actually true these days though, the signal in my flat is pretty good.

I use the city wireless for internet.

There's POTS for three lines coming into the house, but none are active.

As an aside, my Dad tried to get my Mum to use Skype to call me instead but the computer scares her and he gave up very quickly. Although he may have more success if the landline wasn't free, I note he's managed to convince her for international calls!

It was more expensive to get a Virgin package with just TV and internet than to get the internet/TV/phone combo. My housemate bought a phone and plugged it in, otherwise it wouldn't get used - I don't actually know what the number is.

This.

But even though we get free evening/weekend calls, using a physical phone is so restrictive (inconvenient phone placement that puts it exactly one foot too far away from the couch to sit down) that I often fall back on my free mobile minutes instead. About the only thing I use it for is 0800 numbers, which I don't get for free with my mobile.

My mum does call me on it though, presumably because it's cheaper than calling my mobile.

I use the landline quite a bit because it's there and because we get free calls from BT. However, I also have zillions of free minutes on my mobile so if we didn't need the landline to get on the internet I would get rid of it.

I get 250 minutes per month as part of my contract, which is what I come in under 95% of the time (In December I apparently used 124 minutes, 83 texts, 756.35 MB). So I mostly phone my parents while walking home for 20 minutes. Julie phones her family an awful lot more though, so that's worth doing on the land line.

As soon as virgin sort out the landline I'll use it when I'm at home. But I've procrastinated on that, because using a mobile is normally at least as easy.

Ideally, everyone would do what some (?) people do and have a gadget which functioned as a mobile outside and a handset inside, and separate "do I want two physical devices" from "is mobile/landline/skype cheapest"...

Yes, this seems like a very natural piece of functionality for a piece of technology to have. I think it's probably an accident of divergent evolution that means it's somewhat tricky to do. (Plug a Bluetooth/WiFi dongle into your phone line so that a standard smartphone can answer it, maybe?)

We have crappy mobile reception in our house. I've had the same mobile number since I lived in Edinburgh, so I still get loads of calls on that, but if I'm phoning someone else from the house I'll use the landline.

(I wrote more but then the kitten stood on my keyboard and deleted it.)

This. Mobile calls in my house will fail randomly - landline calls won't.

We have no landline by choice. Since we've had mobiles for so long, there's no reason to have a landline at all. I ticked "home phone calls mostly happen over mobile", which is what it feels like, but actually my weekly Skype+Starcraft II sessions are probably rather more frequent than occasions when I'm at home and make or take a phone call on my mobile.

The only time I miss having a landline is when I need to call an 0800 / 0845 number. I think it's absurd that mobile phone companies can get away with charging so much for calling those. I recently discovered Skype can call 0800 numbers without needing any credit card details, though, which helps there. For evil 0845 companies I'm still stuck with searching saynoto0870.com.

I couldn't answer the last question because i have no idea what kind of Internet we have.

It's this:

http://www.free.fr/adsl/?bloc_mast

That's ADSL, so coming in over the copper wires that your phone company provides.

I don't know whether we have a landline connected or not. I think the previous owners had one, so there's probably a line physically connected, but not active. We don't use it. I have a smallish number of free minutes on my mobile and they're enough for calls to my family, and I tend to keep in touch with friends by email rather than voice.

(1) We have a land line but it is only used by cold callers, coughingbear's mother and my mother.

(3) I have no idea. hano takes care of that sort of thing.

Jinx!

I have a home phone line with a phone plugged into it, and use it to solely to receive phone calls from my mother and mother-in-law.

We stopped using a landline some years ago because we didn't see the justification - we don't seem to finish our inclusive mobile minutes every month and the cost of BT line rental alone exceeds that of my mobile, but offers me no inclusive minutes or net access.

Our cable broadband is fast and unlimited, Skype works v well both laptop to laptop and to the newer phones with the Skype app.

Despite us being happy mobile/cable campers, I still think there is a place for public pay phones.

We have two landlines (or at least two landline numbers) - one for personal use and one for the business.

I don't think having a business with only an 07 number would look very professional, unless you were a window cleaner or something.

I should have specified "home personal", shouldn't I?

We have a landline. There is a phone attached. It is used predominantly by parents.

This. If my parents have recently phoned then I don't bother answering since they're the only people with my landline number, so any other calls are sales ones aimed at someone who had the number prior to me.

Our home phone isn't a landline, though, it's VOIP through our cable company and due to the joy of "bundling", it's cheaper to keep it than to get rid of it. But there's no phone plugged into it and there hasn't been in ages.

Like most folk, which phone I use is mostly situational. Mobile reception in my flat can be ropey, so I need the landline. I used to use Skype quite a bit, not so much now. I get the feeling that the amount of calls I make, of whatever type, has come waaay down in the last few years. Text, twitter, FB, email - these all get used far more than calls.

I have,

[X] A cable internet and cable phone line with a broken telephone attached
[X] An ADSL line that's being upgraded to FTTC with a telephone and fax machine attached
[X] Mobile broadband
[X] A VoIP box attached to a real proper phone which uses both internet lines.
[X] Effectively unlimited minutes on my mobile

For personal calls I tend to use the mobile as it's always on me, company calls the VoIP phone as it's on my desk. The fax/phone gets used to send faxes and dial my mobile to find out where I've left it. I use which ever internet connection is working at the time, falling back to 3G if they're both broken.

I am too lazy to fix the phone on the cable line but I should do as it's by the sofa which would be convenient for some family calls.

Though neither of us are typical as we make and receive very few phone calls - maybe ten a month. So a landline and pay as you go mobile do us very nicely.

My mobile phone plan is unlimited Canada-wide calling, unlimited texting, and unlimited data for $45 CAD/month.

I haven't had a landline since moving out of my parents' place in 2005. I believe they have since gotten rid of their landline.

I still use a landline mainly because the cell signal at my house isn't very strong. I generally give out my mobile number as my primary number though, so while at home incoming calls tend to be via the mobile and outgoing calls are made via the landline.