I heard yesterday that they had switched off all landlines here in England.
Now I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure what it means.
I assume 'they' means BT.
We personally haven't had a house phone for about a year. No one phoned us on it, only marketing firms. We rely entirely on our mobiles.
So anyone know what it means that they switched off all landlines?
My understanding is that all copper wire communication will end eventually, phonecalls will be via the Internet. This hasn't happened yet, I thought. Certainly our landline, which does now use the Internet, is still connected to the copper wiring, and it still works.
ReplyDeleteAh. Thanks.Maybe they just started the process yesterday. A bigger issue for me is the death of Windows 10 later this year. Its what I have on my laptop. I really don't want to have to shell out for a new laptop but I may just have to!
DeleteHere in NYC our land line is through Verizon the renamed original Bell System. A few years ago we lost service through a fault in the wiring. Rather than renew/repair copper we were connected to FIOS the High Speed Fibre system without being charged the conversion price as it was their choice, not ours.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why we bother with the land line as indeed 80% of the calls are unsolicited marketing. But then cell phones also receive these dumb unsolicited marketing calls.
It was the fact that very few people we knew ever really phoned us on the house phone anymore that convinced us it was redundant Terran. And the spam calls clinched it.
DeleteFor me it would be a double edge sword. The landline comes in handy when Bettina wants to call home because she just cannot get the hang of cell phones! However, I could do without the extra bill.
ReplyDeleteYes, if a family member needs it still then that's different Ed.
DeleteIm getting a pair of thse Merit Space communicators just in case! Bill
ReplyDeleteHa ha, coupla tin cans will do Bill and cans for everyone you call. It's a lot of string tho!
DeleteThe proposed landline switchoff in the UK has been postponed because a lot of vulnerable and elderly people don't have broadband. The trouble with broadband based phones is that if your electricity or broadband fails, you can't make an emergency call (unless you have a mobile, which again, a lot of elderly people don't). The landline switchoff will come eventually - it's just too expensive to maintain the copper wire system - but unless they're going to offer everyone free broadband, there's always going to be an issue over switchoff.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, thank you.
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