Landlines: How are they changing?

Local TV

As many as 52% of UK households still have a landline, though only 15% use them regularly. Those who do still use a landline, credit calls on the device being more attentive and trustworthy.

Transcript

00:00We found that 50% of people actually still have a landline and still use it. Often it's

00:08a backup for problems with mobile signal. And I think particularly, as you say, those

00:12older generations, they still want to use it to keep in touch with friends and family

00:17and in the case of an emergency, they can still make a call.

00:20Considering like vinyl players and even cassette players and stuff like that, they've all kind

00:25of been popular, then they've faded into obscurity, then they've been popular again. Do you think

00:30that the same thing could happen with landlines? Or is that kind of a little bit of wishful

00:37thinking? Do you think that might gain popularity in a couple of years to come?

00:40It's a great question. So I was actually born in the 70s. So I can remember the traditional

00:45rotary phone and like, you know, you had this cord that got tangled up and all the rest of

00:50it. So I can remember all that. And I've also got a 13 year old daughter who is glued

00:55to a mobile phone and the thought of actually ringing somebody just horrifies her. You know,

00:59she'd run much sooner and text people. So I guess my own view is that I do wonder in

01:03the future whether you might get some people who go, wait a minute, it's good to talk to

01:07people. Perhaps we should just put our phones down for a minute and just pick up a traditional

01:11phone and just have a chat and, you know, less messaging and things like that. So it'll

01:16be interesting to see what happens. But a bit like vinyl, like you say, maybe people

01:19start to look back and go, let's leave our phones in a bucket at the door and just have a chat

01:23with landlines decreasing in popularity. 66% of people surveyed reportedly fear that older

01:30relatives and neighbours might become more isolated. As many as 36% of people have said

01:36that more phone calls from loved ones would reduce loneliness. Many still rely on landlines

01:42as a backup to poor mobile reception and for better call reliability. January of 2027,

01:48about 18 months ago, they're going to turn off the traditional phone lines in the UK

01:53and everybody needs to move over to a digital phone line. And you basically just need to plug

01:57your phone line into the back of your broadband router and you can still make phone calls that way.

02:02People don't have to use mobiles, they can still use their telephone line.

02:06Obviously lots of us now use mobile phones, but you'll still have the option to make a phone call

02:10using digital in the future. We're going to provide what's called an uninterruptible power supply.

02:15It's like a little box that, if you have a power cut, it just switches over to its little box.

02:19That gives you about seven hours of power. So people can still make phone calls

02:24in the event of a power cut. And you're quite right. I think for those people,

02:27it's really important they can still make a call.

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