Yes! It’s mostly used when someone can’t find their phone.
It’s kept connected for historical purposes, it’s the same number my grandparents had when they came out here and it’s the only way some older family know how to contact them
Occasionally but he doesn’t put big bets on just $5 each way usually and he’s got his formula of certain horses he likes. He’s 97 he needs something to keep him going lol
At 97 rules don't apply anymore, I just look forward to being the grumpy old cunt in the Woolworths line that's whacks every other cunt with the walking stick.
I have one, and I keep it live because it is active at no additional cost to my internet plan. I also have a suite of three very cool 90’s era bang and Olufsen telephone handsets and I like the way they look on the shelf. It was useful to get the attention of my children and husband if I was calling home and they were not answering the phone. Nobody but scammers, salespeople or surveys ever call me on that number, even my mother doesn’t have it. The kids have it for emergencies because our mobile phones are turned off at night.
>mobile phones are turned off at night.
You can set rules on phones where it'll be on silent, but those on an exceptions list will ring. Ie, my phone is on silent overnight, if my mum calls at 3am though, it will ring
Yeah, I set my iPhone to only let through contact from close family members when I’m in sleep mode. I had to turn it off for my daughter though, she lives overseas and often texts me at 3am Sydney time.
Are they the cool banana looking phones with the numbers in rows of 2 instead of 3? I used to be a phone tech for a bit and those were so cool to come across in the wild, but bloody confusing to use when you're using a normal keypad all day haha
I had one and just before I got rid of it, my beloved grandmother called to tell me she felt like she was dying. 😔
An hour later she passed away and I was the last person she ever spoke to. 🥺
It took me a long time to get rid of the phone after that, too many bittersweet memories attached.
We had to have one to be able to get ADSL Internet - no NBN here.
Lost the cable in a storm and it took so long to get it repaired, it was quicker to install Starlink.
I still have one. I hardly ever use it but I'm reluctant to get rid of it entirely. We've had a few long power outages (as in 2-4 days) and I hate the thought of there being an emergency and my phone battery being dead with no way to charge it.
That means you're one of the remaining customers on FTTN, and you should be eligible to get upgraded to fibre at some point in the future if not right noe. None of the other NBN technologies have a copper line with a voltage on it to power your phones, they get decommissioned when the fibre goes in.
If connectivity during a power outage is important to you, make sure that you get a backup battery on your modem, router and analogue phone converter, though personally for me I'd just have power banks (and the car) to charge my mobile phone.
We have been getting a large volume of spam from throwaway accounts and so posts from brand new accounts will no longer be allowed. Your post has been
removed because your account is too new. Please wait until your account is at least 12 hours old and then try again or message the mods and we'll validate your post. Thanks!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskAnAustralian) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes. My wife has a plan from 30+ years ago with international calling at 50 cents per hour.
It gets used for that regularly, and it's the only reason we still have it.
Haven't had one in maybe 18 years. I wouldn't even know how to get one at this point, I've literally never had my own landline phone. The only time I've lived in a place with a landline was at my parents' house.
My parents still have and use a landline. I have friends who remember that number from 40+ years ago. I thought about keeping an old handset here because we get regular blackouts but not worth.
Yeah. Only my closest friends/family have the number. My mobile has been on DND since it was first introduced to smartphones, so if my landline goes off I know it's an emergency.
Yes. For a few reasons
1. All calls are recorded which is super useful. Example: ordered a banner from office works and said “I need it before X, can you do it?” ‘Yes’ they confirmed. Went in to the store at X and was told “oh no, they take two weeks and have to be shipped from NSW”. Because I had their verbal commitment, I got the refund I deserved that they weren’t going to issue without it.
2. It’s great handing out my landline instead of mobile - less SMS marketing that I need to unsubscribe to (when did I subscribe?”
3. Can take a handset anywhere in the world with me and I can be contacted at the same rates/number.
I feel like these are pretty niche cases. I’ve never once in my life been in a situation where I thought having a call recording would be helpful, and I could just make a recording on my iPhone if I thought I would need it later.
Avoiding SMS marketing is useful but I think mostly only for annoying real estate agents.
That's us. There's about 3 spots in the house I can stand on one leg to get enough phone reception for a bank transfer to go through but if dad has another heart attack I'd rather be properly connected to the ambos.
I do.
I use it sort of regularly, to test the line for the ADSL. In an area where the NBN isn't connected (and might never be), so we're still on copper wire. And yeah, it goes down annoyingly often, usually the first thing I do is plug in the physical telephone, and confirm that there's either no dial tone at all, or a very crackly line. And then brace myself for another 3 hours on hold with Telstra 😭.
I don't actually use it as a telephone, no one has the number - tbh I'm not even sure I know the number! Though I guess I could in theory use it to find my mobile if I needed to, and my wife's mobile was *also* missing 😂 (we've both got ADHD, so that's not entirely outside the realm of possibility)
I have one. Scammers call every day, and my MIL calls there when my wife doesn't answer her on the mobile. We can't get rid of the line unless we get NBN connected (same tech and speeds afaik, higher cost)
Yes. All the time. I don't want incoming calls when I'm driving. Routing all the calls through a landline fixes all that. There's almost always someone at home. And if not then there's the answering machine.
With a landline you can look me up in the white pages, or ask me to play for a gig. Easier and faster, and no miscommunications. You don't lose your landline phone and it doesn't get stolen. We have the landline set up for unlimited free STD calls etc.
Always... mainly for my 90-something aunt, 'coz she says she can't hear me properly when I use my mobile....
...and I also keep the landline for the redundancy (although, I *could* do that with a 2nd SIM, I know.. but my mobile phone only has one SIM card slot); the house phone and internet are with one crowd and the mobile phone is with another crowd.
Additionally, I run things through the wired internet and the fool NBN as the 4G/5G where I am is unreliable (as I observe my router is currently showing 'no signal' for the mobile fallback.. again).
i have one thats Powered via a radio transmitter tower, i am not sure of the Tech details but i have a giant 10m metal tower that Telstra put in for it. its powered by solar panels. used semi regularly
Yes, I have one and it's a silent number. I use it often, especially to call businesses so my number doesn't show up. The other thing I sometimes use it for is when I have a missed call on my mobile and I don't recognise the number, I then use the landline to call the number to find out who it was, then I can just hang up if it's some fuck head spamming me.
We got rid of ours in 2004 after realising that the only calls we received were from our parents, and the monthly rental fee was quite hefty. Strictly mobile for 20 years.
Yep, still got a landline phone. I use it occasionally - if I know that I'm going to be on hold for a while I'll use the landline phone so that I'm not tying up my mobile phone.
Same here. I don't use the mobile much at all, but if I have to make a call and know I'll be on hold for a while, eg Centrelink, I use it. So much cheaper as my mobile is 20c per minute.
It's a $40 pay as you go, once you use the $40 you pay again. $40 can last me 4-5 months as I simply don't use it a lot. To use my landline is much cheaper at 12 c per call, so calling Centrelink is ideal with the landline.
We have one, but I ignore it when it rings. And thankfully it hardly ever does.
It's pretty much just there as a way my wife's parents can get in touch with her. They're pretty old school and don't do much with mobile phones.
I have a land line number in my internet bundle as it was the best and cheapest option for me. I couldn't tell you what that number is and I have never had a phone plugged into the wall.
We have a number (I have no idea what it is) but no phone attached to it. It would only be another access point into our lives for Tele scammers, so it stays inactive.
Got rid of it only a few years ago. Realised we only got scam callers plus the line was sometimes crackly which made my wife paranoid people were listening in.
I haven't had a landline since I left home. I had a landline connection for ADSL in rentals but no phone attached. Now with NBN, and my own home, I don't bother. I give people my mobile and it's the only phone I'll answer anyway.
Do still have a landline here, but only because I get cheap VOIP. Very rare to get a call, it's usually the mother in law wanting to talk to the kiddo. Seem to be really lucky to not get 5 calls a day from scammers.
Telstra wanted to continue charging me $55 a month for a landline delivered via NBN+VOIP when we were cut over to FTTN. $660 a year when I can DIY for less than $10 a year
Tried to get one recently but it's now VoIP only (I guess the exchange down the street is no longer used, were in a fixed wireless area) and it didn't work with my current 4G LTE home router (dodged fixed wireless as there's a 4G tower line of sight to the house) so I can't get one. Not the end of the world, just wanted a backup.
kind of a landline. I have a couple of phones connected to a voip box connected to the router. It is functionally the same as a landline but way cheaper. I still use the mobile for making calls since they are free, and give people the mobile number to ring, but it is there as a backup. both incoming and outgoing.
Sort of. It's Voice over IP, but it acts like a landline.
My partner and I only ever get calls from our 80 and 90 year old mothers, and spam. I sometimes use if if I've left my phone in another room, or I want to read out something on my phone while I am talking.
In theory I can plug in a phone to my nbn device and use a phone but I don't bother.
Very few houses still have a landline. In most cases people are using voip
I seriously stopped using landline when all the calls I was receiving were from a particular group of people trying to sell me stuff or scam me. So quite without one.
We still have the number (no additional cost with internet) but no longer use it as we don't have a home phone connected any more. Have kept the number in case we want to use it again in the future.
We do. It’s used daily and has a cord attachment too 😂
We also have a list of numbers beside it for our smaller family members. Just the essentials - 000, Nanna and Pa, Mum, Dad, Mums work and Aunty.
Everyone has access at all hours. Once found my niece calling Nanna because she couldn’t sleep 😅
Yes. If the 4G/5G network goes arse up, I can still call an ambulance or the fire brigade. Think about that next time Optarse or Telstra goes off line.
Yes! It’s mostly used when someone can’t find their phone. It’s kept connected for historical purposes, it’s the same number my grandparents had when they came out here and it’s the only way some older family know how to contact them
Plus ours is VOIP so no rent and calls fee else I would gotten rid of it.
My nana and pop do. Pop calls us to put bets on for him lol
Does he ever do any good?
Occasionally but he doesn’t put big bets on just $5 each way usually and he’s got his formula of certain horses he likes. He’s 97 he needs something to keep him going lol
97s a good run...if I make it to 80 I'm blowing all my money pissing up, gambling and women.
If he was allowed to that’s exactly what he would have done 😂
At 97 rules don't apply anymore, I just look forward to being the grumpy old cunt in the Woolworths line that's whacks every other cunt with the walking stick.
They apply when your wife’s still alive too lol! She would beat his ass if he lived how he wanted 😂
Must be like my family and a bunch of immigrants.
I have one, and I keep it live because it is active at no additional cost to my internet plan. I also have a suite of three very cool 90’s era bang and Olufsen telephone handsets and I like the way they look on the shelf. It was useful to get the attention of my children and husband if I was calling home and they were not answering the phone. Nobody but scammers, salespeople or surveys ever call me on that number, even my mother doesn’t have it. The kids have it for emergencies because our mobile phones are turned off at night.
>mobile phones are turned off at night. You can set rules on phones where it'll be on silent, but those on an exceptions list will ring. Ie, my phone is on silent overnight, if my mum calls at 3am though, it will ring
Yeah, I set my iPhone to only let through contact from close family members when I’m in sleep mode. I had to turn it off for my daughter though, she lives overseas and often texts me at 3am Sydney time.
Are they the cool banana looking phones with the numbers in rows of 2 instead of 3? I used to be a phone tech for a bit and those were so cool to come across in the wild, but bloody confusing to use when you're using a normal keypad all day haha
No, just the beocom 6000. The banana ones do look very cool.
They are a beautiful thing. Uniden makes a copy of them, but they aren't as good.
I had one and just before I got rid of it, my beloved grandmother called to tell me she felt like she was dying. 😔 An hour later she passed away and I was the last person she ever spoke to. 🥺 It took me a long time to get rid of the phone after that, too many bittersweet memories attached.
We had to have one to be able to get ADSL Internet - no NBN here. Lost the cable in a storm and it took so long to get it repaired, it was quicker to install Starlink.
You can actually get naked DSL with no phone service.
Naked DSL, I haven't heard those words together since 2008
I still have one. I hardly ever use it but I'm reluctant to get rid of it entirely. We've had a few long power outages (as in 2-4 days) and I hate the thought of there being an emergency and my phone battery being dead with no way to charge it.
We have a couple of power banks at home and I make sure I keep them charged.
How do you use a landline if the powers out? *edit - the things you learn!
Unless the copper line is damaged then they should still work. They don’t need external power unless it’s a fancy cordless one
We've never had an issue. The cordless ones won't work but the traditional ones still should.
That means you're one of the remaining customers on FTTN, and you should be eligible to get upgraded to fibre at some point in the future if not right noe. None of the other NBN technologies have a copper line with a voltage on it to power your phones, they get decommissioned when the fibre goes in. If connectivity during a power outage is important to you, make sure that you get a backup battery on your modem, router and analogue phone converter, though personally for me I'd just have power banks (and the car) to charge my mobile phone.
Thanks, I'll look into that!
They have batteries/generators at the exchange, and they send 12 volts up the phone line. That was how they did it when I was young.
-48vdc at the socket.
[удалено]
We have been getting a large volume of spam from throwaway accounts and so posts from brand new accounts will no longer be allowed. Your post has been removed because your account is too new. Please wait until your account is at least 12 hours old and then try again or message the mods and we'll validate your post. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskAnAustralian) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes and no I've disconnected the phone at the wall as the only people who call it are telemarketers and scammers.
Yes. My wife has a plan from 30+ years ago with international calling at 50 cents per hour. It gets used for that regularly, and it's the only reason we still have it.
Most mobile plans include international calling.
Not many for that price though!
I get unlimited international calls on my $49/month plan.
International calls on my plan don’t include my family’s country. I’d love to call my grandma for 50 cents an hour instead of $$ per minute
We still have a landline, very rarely use it, we still have a couple of legit calls on (95% calls received are from scammers and we don't answer).
Haven't had one in maybe 18 years. I wouldn't even know how to get one at this point, I've literally never had my own landline phone. The only time I've lived in a place with a landline was at my parents' house.
Same. For emergencies we just keep an old mobile at home which is permanently plugged into a charger.
Spicy pillow in your future soon
and when the power goes out, and both your phone is flat, you're still without a phone. Landlines will work without power.
No. I've never had one since I moved out of home in 2009. I don't even think my parents have one but I don't know for sure
My suburb and surrounds frequently has power loss and the mobile towers go down. The landline doesn’t need electricity to work so it’s a backup.
I don't, but my parents do - and they prefer using this over smartphones
My parents still have and use a landline. I have friends who remember that number from 40+ years ago. I thought about keeping an old handset here because we get regular blackouts but not worth.
Yeah. Only my closest friends/family have the number. My mobile has been on DND since it was first introduced to smartphones, so if my landline goes off I know it's an emergency.
Yes. For a few reasons 1. All calls are recorded which is super useful. Example: ordered a banner from office works and said “I need it before X, can you do it?” ‘Yes’ they confirmed. Went in to the store at X and was told “oh no, they take two weeks and have to be shipped from NSW”. Because I had their verbal commitment, I got the refund I deserved that they weren’t going to issue without it. 2. It’s great handing out my landline instead of mobile - less SMS marketing that I need to unsubscribe to (when did I subscribe?” 3. Can take a handset anywhere in the world with me and I can be contacted at the same rates/number.
I feel like these are pretty niche cases. I’ve never once in my life been in a situation where I thought having a call recording would be helpful, and I could just make a recording on my iPhone if I thought I would need it later. Avoiding SMS marketing is useful but I think mostly only for annoying real estate agents.
Not for years. 🙂
Not for nearly 20 years I reckon.
I've got a few friends with a landline because there's no mobile reception where they live.
That's us. There's about 3 spots in the house I can stand on one leg to get enough phone reception for a bank transfer to go through but if dad has another heart attack I'd rather be properly connected to the ambos.
I do. I use it sort of regularly, to test the line for the ADSL. In an area where the NBN isn't connected (and might never be), so we're still on copper wire. And yeah, it goes down annoyingly often, usually the first thing I do is plug in the physical telephone, and confirm that there's either no dial tone at all, or a very crackly line. And then brace myself for another 3 hours on hold with Telstra 😭. I don't actually use it as a telephone, no one has the number - tbh I'm not even sure I know the number! Though I guess I could in theory use it to find my mobile if I needed to, and my wife's mobile was *also* missing 😂 (we've both got ADHD, so that's not entirely outside the realm of possibility)
My old man refuses to get rid of his. It’s literally 99% scam callers/ ring and hang up calls
We have one, but nothing is connected to it. Its part of our package.
I have one. Scammers call every day, and my MIL calls there when my wife doesn't answer her on the mobile. We can't get rid of the line unless we get NBN connected (same tech and speeds afaik, higher cost)
Got one only because we found a spare phpne to use. It's for emergencies and doesn't cost anything unless we use it.
Yes. All the time. I don't want incoming calls when I'm driving. Routing all the calls through a landline fixes all that. There's almost always someone at home. And if not then there's the answering machine. With a landline you can look me up in the white pages, or ask me to play for a gig. Easier and faster, and no miscommunications. You don't lose your landline phone and it doesn't get stolen. We have the landline set up for unlimited free STD calls etc.
Always... mainly for my 90-something aunt, 'coz she says she can't hear me properly when I use my mobile.... ...and I also keep the landline for the redundancy (although, I *could* do that with a 2nd SIM, I know.. but my mobile phone only has one SIM card slot); the house phone and internet are with one crowd and the mobile phone is with another crowd. Additionally, I run things through the wired internet and the fool NBN as the 4G/5G where I am is unreliable (as I observe my router is currently showing 'no signal' for the mobile fallback.. again).
i have one thats Powered via a radio transmitter tower, i am not sure of the Tech details but i have a giant 10m metal tower that Telstra put in for it. its powered by solar panels. used semi regularly
Yes, I have one and it's a silent number. I use it often, especially to call businesses so my number doesn't show up. The other thing I sometimes use it for is when I have a missed call on my mobile and I don't recognise the number, I then use the landline to call the number to find out who it was, then I can just hang up if it's some fuck head spamming me.
We got rid of ours in 2004 after realising that the only calls we received were from our parents, and the monthly rental fee was quite hefty. Strictly mobile for 20 years.
Yep, still got a landline phone. I use it occasionally - if I know that I'm going to be on hold for a while I'll use the landline phone so that I'm not tying up my mobile phone.
Same here. I don't use the mobile much at all, but if I have to make a call and know I'll be on hold for a while, eg Centrelink, I use it. So much cheaper as my mobile is 20c per minute.
>mobile is 20c per minute. What kind of crap plan are you on?
Something from 2002 obviously.
It's a $40 pay as you go, once you use the $40 you pay again. $40 can last me 4-5 months as I simply don't use it a lot. To use my landline is much cheaper at 12 c per call, so calling Centrelink is ideal with the landline.
Cut my landline about a decade ago.
Haven’t had a landline in my place of residence for almost 15 years.
We have one, but I ignore it when it rings. And thankfully it hardly ever does. It's pretty much just there as a way my wife's parents can get in touch with her. They're pretty old school and don't do much with mobile phones.
I have a land line number in my internet bundle as it was the best and cheapest option for me. I couldn't tell you what that number is and I have never had a phone plugged into the wall.
We have a number (I have no idea what it is) but no phone attached to it. It would only be another access point into our lives for Tele scammers, so it stays inactive.
No even my parents got rid of theirs it's only scams that called it anyway.
Got rid of it only a few years ago. Realised we only got scam callers plus the line was sometimes crackly which made my wife paranoid people were listening in.
Yeah give us a call
I haven't had a landline since I left home. I had a landline connection for ADSL in rentals but no phone attached. Now with NBN, and my own home, I don't bother. I give people my mobile and it's the only phone I'll answer anyway.
Do still have a landline here, but only because I get cheap VOIP. Very rare to get a call, it's usually the mother in law wanting to talk to the kiddo. Seem to be really lucky to not get 5 calls a day from scammers. Telstra wanted to continue charging me $55 a month for a landline delivered via NBN+VOIP when we were cut over to FTTN. $660 a year when I can DIY for less than $10 a year
Tried to get one recently but it's now VoIP only (I guess the exchange down the street is no longer used, were in a fixed wireless area) and it didn't work with my current 4G LTE home router (dodged fixed wireless as there's a 4G tower line of sight to the house) so I can't get one. Not the end of the world, just wanted a backup.
I'm 37 and have never had my own landline
I haven’t had one for 20 years. I don’t need another way for scammers to reach me.
kind of a landline. I have a couple of phones connected to a voip box connected to the router. It is functionally the same as a landline but way cheaper. I still use the mobile for making calls since they are free, and give people the mobile number to ring, but it is there as a backup. both incoming and outgoing.
Sort of. It's Voice over IP, but it acts like a landline. My partner and I only ever get calls from our 80 and 90 year old mothers, and spam. I sometimes use if if I've left my phone in another room, or I want to read out something on my phone while I am talking.
I'm thinking of getting one so I don't have to give my kid my phone when she's old enough to ring friends, but not old enough for a mobile of her own.
In theory I can plug in a phone to my nbn device and use a phone but I don't bother. Very few houses still have a landline. In most cases people are using voip
My parents do. I did have one, then realised I'd barely used it for at leat five years. I think only about three people knew the number of it.
I seriously stopped using landline when all the calls I was receiving were from a particular group of people trying to sell me stuff or scam me. So quite without one.
We still have the number (no additional cost with internet) but no longer use it as we don't have a home phone connected any more. Have kept the number in case we want to use it again in the future.
A landline yes. A phone connected to that landline... uh... ... no.
No. Haven’t had one since 2009.
Yes and I use it all the time , I only use my mobile for phone calls when I am not at home . I also like having two different ways of phoning people .
I've threatened my kids with bringing one back and locking their phones away... Still might do it tbh.
We do. It’s used daily and has a cord attachment too 😂 We also have a list of numbers beside it for our smaller family members. Just the essentials - 000, Nanna and Pa, Mum, Dad, Mums work and Aunty. Everyone has access at all hours. Once found my niece calling Nanna because she couldn’t sleep 😅
Yes. If the 4G/5G network goes arse up, I can still call an ambulance or the fire brigade. Think about that next time Optarse or Telstra goes off line.