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Everyone, ditch the landline phone already

The landline phone, with its non-existent internet connection, complete lack of apps and annoying habit of ringing, is not quite extinct, but soon will be.

For years, we put up with receiving mystery bring-brings from complete strangers. We span the dials with relish. We twirled the cord around our finger. Then we roamed wirelessly around the house.

Now, we are free of it. Almost.

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“Why would you need a landline phone?” asks Internet Australia CEO Laurie Patton.

“We’ve got a landline in our house for one reason only and that is because we have a back-to-base alarm. It needs a landline. But it won’t be long before WiFi or the NBN takes care of that.”

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Our love affair with the corded phone is over. And it’s not us. It’s it. Photo: Shutterstock

He believes most people, when faced with a choice between calling a fixed line or the mobile, will now call the mobile first.

“Even if you’ve got a phone at home, most people don’t ring you on your home phone. They ring you on your mobile because it just cuts out one step,” Mr Patton says.

In June this year, communications watchdog ACMA found that 5.2 million adults (29 per cent of the nation) use only their mobiles to chat. A further 2.1 million (12 per cent) have ditched their internet connections as well, opting to mobile web browse instead.

Ghosts in the cell

WhistleOut editor Joseph Hanlon believes the number of mobile-only users is higher because of the ghost landline phenomenon.

He and his partner have a home phone because their internet plan demands it, but it is unplugged, forsaken in a “drawer somewhere”.

“People have them to use the internet at home, but I’m guessing most people don’t have them plugged in, or if they do it’s an unlisted number so nobody calls.

“If you ask them, they actually don’t know what their phone number is.”

Annoying and expensive

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Want more calls from salespeople and mothers-in-law? Leave your landline plugged in. Photo: Shutterstock

For a time, Mr Hanlon did have an active landline. He soon regretted the decision.

“Only my partner’s mum knew the number, so she would call every now and then. So we then unplugged it to save us having to talk to her.

“I almost never get sales calls on my mobile phone, but we did get them from time to time on the landline.”

Aside from the nuisance, the rise of unlimited mobile plans has made the landline a poor financial deal.

“Because the unlimited calling option is now so cheap, there really is no point paying twice,” Mr Hanlon says.

Some prefer to be tied down

There must, of course, still be a large number of Australians who continue to use the home phone.

They might be older and less comfortable with new tech. For example, only nine per cent of Australians aged over 65 are mobile-only users, the ACMA report says.

They might have poor mobile reception, have a medical condition or live in a bushfire-prone area. Perhaps they just like the feel of a handle against their ear.

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network says there are clear benefits to ditching the landline: the cost savings, the convenience of an internet connection and apps, and the ability to walk freely.

But its spokesperson Luke Sutton acknowledges “there are groups in society which are still reliant on landline phones”.

“Not all consumers and businesses are moving away from having a fixed-line phone,” he says.

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