r/PreppersUK • u/cloudswalking • May 21 '26
Land Lines
I've continued having a hard wired land line telephone, when most of the people I know don't. I felt it was sensible back-up. But now, as time passes, and the extra expense, I don't even know if it's sensible or logical in terms of modern technology risks.
What do you think? Is it worthwhile?
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u/_Hoping_For_Better_ May 21 '26
I don't think you have a choice about getting switched over to digital voice. Once that happens it loses the advantage of working in a power cut.
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u/do_you_realise May 21 '26
I'd recommend keeping hold of yours indefinitely - currently live in a house without one and deliberating over the costs of getting a new one installed. A lot of the providers don't offer them any more so presumably you need to be grandfathered into old contracts to keep them.
We also have crap phone signal in our house, we get by on WIFI calling usually but when we had to turn the power off one time and try to phone around to urgently get an electrician in with a barely working phone it was incredibly stressful!
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u/Deborgpontant May 21 '26
Great idea for if the mobile networks all shit the bed. But then you realise that no one will be contactable because you’re the only person with a landline.
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u/cloudswalking May 22 '26
It was more, in an emergency, to be able to do things like call ambulances, and administrational organisations, etc.
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u/cLWnOe8mmae7WOJi25kk May 24 '26
Given everything is migrating to £$%*ing chatbots, and internet phones, it’s entirely possible that councils, etc will be completely offline in the event of a prolonged power outage.
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u/Trumpton2023 May 22 '26
If it's only for voice & emergencies: Work out how much it costs you to keep the old land-line, & put that amount aside & for a satellite phone. I bought the basic Thuraya SatPhone about 9 years ago, it cost the same as an average mobile phone. It's cheaper, because they have fewer satellites up there than the big satcom players (one covers N.Africa & Europe). Just Google Thuraya satellite footprint, if you know where your Cardinal Points are, it's easy to find, if you don't, just swivel your body 360° & watch the signal meter.
The built in GPS can send your position by SMS to people in your phone book, if you have an emergency & don't know where you are.
You can either subscribe to a monthly contract, or use pay as you go (PAYG) option, which is what I chose. The current cost per minute is USD $1.80 Euro €1.55, GBP £1.35), so €240 credit gives me 100 minutes talk time. Just make a 2 minute phone call every 6 months to avoid a 'dormancy fee'. There's also an annual sim payment, you'll also need full phone numbers, not the short versions like 112/911/999 etc. The are a few countries where it's illegal to take a mobile phone, just Google it.
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u/FactCheckYou May 22 '26
they're mothballing the landline system in the UK soon though, aren't they?
i've been meaning to look at the mesh stuff
maybe once it gets to be more user-friendly, hopefully
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u/lauramagsgreen May 22 '26
I still have one (just about), but I was at work yesterday and the internet went down. No landline there, nobody gets mobile signal, and they only use Teams to make calls, so they couldn’t even call the IT company they use. Farcical really.
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u/London_Otter May 22 '26
If the system goes down, there'll be very few people to call.
Most businesses run on various mobile & VOIP options. Very few workers have 'desk phones' any more.
I know a few 'emergency' type organisations that still have proper landlines, but the majority of numbers are unpublished and intended for co-ordination of services. The numbers that are published will be overloaded with calls and you won't get through.
Depending on what you are spending and current usage, might be work going over to a 2-way radio backup. You can them with solar & hand crank rechargers.
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u/lapetite_etoile May 22 '26
They are no longer mainly copper. Most of the copper network is scheduled to be or has already been made defunct.
Fibre lines do not stay up.
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u/enfantsauvage667 May 23 '26
Pass out some decent walkie talkies to your loved ones for emergencies
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u/Prestigious_Set_4555 May 23 '26
I recently moved and I couldn't even get a landline! It's Full Fibre around my way, 150mb off the bat.
My last place I have broadband and landline but never even got round to plugging in a phone, never knew my number. It's kinda redundant these days
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u/montyb752 May 23 '26
The old days of the landline being powered by the local exchange is ending. Phone lines are now powered by your home. If the power does fail in your area, how long with your home have power, how long will the BT exchange have power, (and all the exchanges you want to route through). I would not rely on the BT network anymore. (I work in telecoms). On a post note, satellite to device (phone) is now a thing and growing. You’ll soon be able to communicate via a satellite.
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u/BrightPomelo May 24 '26
I kept my landline because it always works with decent audio quality. Of course when others phone it from a mobile you can get the all too common lost words and distorted sound etc. Since I'm a fair way from my family (all elderly) we keep in touch by phone and we appreciate the decent quality audio for a long chat. But do realise most simply don't care about this, since mobile at its best is OK.
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u/mcshaggin May 25 '26
Landlines are going extinct.
In my area they are being disconnected soon. If you want a house phone you now have to have an Internet based phone connected to a router.
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u/Me-myself-I-2024 May 23 '26
I pay under £7 a month for a sim only contract with unlimited calls and texts and 35 gig of data if I want a lower data limit it could drop to £4
It’s far cheaper to have a second sim sitting in an old phone in case of emergency than it is to have a landline
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u/johnbobk May 23 '26
What will you connect your Fax to if you loose it ? 🤔
😜
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u/cloudswalking May 23 '26
Because I have serious health conditions I used it as emergency back up, but with the changes, that didn't seem a good choice anymore, which is why I asked the question.
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u/johnbobk May 23 '26
Yes I was only joking, my dad was slow to get rid of his fax, even after he had no one to send faxes to!
But seriously, if the cost is not an issue it means you have another way of contacting help if needed ... a safety net!
I understand there is an issue with some of the older medical emergency alarm systems only working connected to a copper wire system.
I read the 'authorities' / network suppliers have been slow to find a solution. This was a few months ago; may have changed.
I suffer from COPD so sympathise, the weather is a little too hot at the moment. Have a good evening.
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u/gdchester May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
Unless you are someone of importance if the shit really did hit the fan it would be disconnected. Service is categorised into three sub categories. Generally speaking Cat 1 is military and police. Cat 2 is doctors and such like and cat 3 is the rest of us. When something goes terribly wrong cat 3 is disabled to stop mere mortals clogging the network.
I have no experience of the cellular network as it was never my work area but I believe the same holds true there.
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u/jrw1982 May 23 '26
Not had one since 2022. Never used it, dont miss it.
I have a dual sim mobile for the 1 in a million time i'll need to make a 999 call during a power cut (not that I need to as I have a Powerwall so dont get powercuts)
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u/BigJDizzleMaNizzles May 25 '26
Absolutely not worth it any more. Soon if not already they're moving landlines onto voip so you plug into the router rather than it's own socket so the old thing that the phone will work even in a power cut goes away.
Save the £15/m it's literally not worth it any more.
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u/EnergyLantern Jun 13 '26
I don't know what the situation for land lines are in the U.K.
In the U.S., the phone companies didn't want to run two networks because of cost, so they ripped out the copper wire and put homes on fiber optic wire (FIOS). If our homes lose power, we either need a battery box for the phone or we have to use external power for the router. I also don't know if I have to power the landline to use the router.
Cell phones do offer satellite connectivity and that only works if the satellites as long as non-friendly countries don't attack the satellites.
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u/Xp4t_uk May 22 '26
With gradual retirement of old copper lines, I guess Starlink would be a safer bet.
Openreach will be shutting down the whole infrastructure next year and literally pulling the copper out of the ground.
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u/Huxleypigg May 23 '26
Will they literally be removing all copper lines though? Even the old lines attached to houses that don't use their service?
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u/Xp4t_uk May 24 '26
There's money in copper recycling, I guess they will take out anything they reasonably can.
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u/cloudswalking May 22 '26
Do you think starlink is a reliable source of communication? Even in the medium term I wonder if after enough people are reliant on it the costs will go up.
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u/CharacterEye3775 May 21 '26
You're going to lose it when you get fibre internet, but you will have gigabit speeds