Do you think one day landlines will become obsolete?

[Lily R]

Like my friend's Dad has a theory that with present technology you could theoretically be connected to broadband and have a phone without having a landline.

Now landlines internet wise have the obvious advantage that you can get unlimited data but other than that I think mobile broadband is slowly catching up.

I mean I'm kinda proof of my mate's Dad's theory as I live on my own and like I haven't had a landline since I moved out of my Mum's, my first property didn't have a landline so I couldn't be bother with the hassle and got a mobile broadband dongle (a wifi one) and it proved capable of being decent enough to do online gaming, ran my internet on my laptop fine and never had an issue so when I got a property that had a landline I saw no point in getting it connected.

Right now my broadband has a theoretical speed of like 43Mbps and like I get between 10Mbps - 20Mbps which is more than adequate for my needs and runs circles round my Mum's landline. And like phone wise I have my mobile phone so like. The only downside to my mobile broadband is I have a data limit of 15Gb a month but I'm not big on downloading so I never really use it all so it is like very adequate for me.

Anyway do you think landlines will become obsolete eventually though?

Oh, there is actually a mobile broadband dongle with theoretical speeds of like 100Mbps, lol. I was just like WOW!!! I hope I can get that when my present contract runs out.

[Post Girl]

FTTP already supports the ability to connect a telephone to the FTTP Modem. BT has yet to adopt it fully. A suitable battery backup is required to be connected to the FTTP Modem.

Virgin Media will supply broadband without the need for a telephone.

As for becoming completely obsolete, this is unlikely. There will always be areas where the mobile phone signal will not reach. A landline is going to be required in these places.

[Mujer Alta]

Geez, I hope landlines stick around for a while. A lot of places, including where I live in the hills, either don't have cell reception or have really poor cell reception. Phone via internet has been around for years. What about people who can't afford to connect to the internet via optical fiber or not at all? The less expensive ISPs use the old copper wire phone system that isn't reliable. From experience, I can tell you that during natural disasters, landlines may overload but they still work. If my house catches fire or for some other reason I need emergency services, I like the idea of being able to call and have my address automatically show up on the dispatcher's screen. Bottom line: at the moment, landlines are less expensive and a lot more reliable than cell phones or via internet where your connection depends on both the phone or cable company often along with a third party ISP.