Do you even need a fixed land line anymore? I Mean Are there Even Any Home Phones left?
Is the love affair with the home phone over?
In this new age of wonderful wireless technology that we have found ourselves in, is there any real need for fixed lines anymore?
Modern phones and computers have enabled us to do absolutely anything on the move. We can talk to anyone, anywhere in the world. We can watch that program we missed but love, when ever we like where ever we like and we can surf the super information highway at any possible location you can imagine.
I have not had a fixed line for years now and have managed just fine using only my mobile and public telephone's to communicate with people. I also recently invested in a dongle and now have the use of the Internet without any home connection what so ever and for a while it suited me just fine. This lead me to wonder if land lines were soon to become as obsolete as the VCR has become since the birth of the DVD.
This is I have to say definitely NOT the case as I soon came to discover, at least not anytime in the near future anyway. In fact the more time I spent on the net trying to access or sign up for various things I was interested in, the more I found myself unable to, purely through lack of a home phone.
You need a line for that.
If you are without access to a land line as many more people now are inclined to do, it means that you are totally excluded from a number of product's and services available. For instance you can't open a sellers account on ebay, because you need a code that you can only obtain via a land-line phone. Although oddly enough you are aloud a buyers account and freely purchase goods. You are unable to acquire a domain or host from some providers, purchase whole sale goods from some suppliers and are extremely limited to almost anything in business. If not having the use of a fixed line has left you feeling somewhat discriminated against, this is probably just some of the reasons why.
Even though T-mobile, O2, Orange, 3, Vodafone, Virgin and the might of the supermarkets offer a good deal of reasonable price plans for mobile phone users. If you operate using only a mobile phone you will also notice just how much more expensive it is, forever hearing that 'calls made from a mobile, will cost significantly more' can be a real kick in the teeth especially when In some cases it can cost up to £1.50 a minute. When you compare this to 10p a minute from a B.T. land line, the call from your mobile will cost an unbelievable 15 times more!
Whats the solution?
As yet there is only one of two thing's you can do to combat this problem. The first is to get yourself connected to a fixed home or business line. However this is the more pricey option of the two. The other would be to use someone els's number and phone, this also has it's disadvantages as it can not be used as a geographical proof of residence. However in most cases will suffice remember also that you will need their permission before hand and can still be of real bother and inconvenience.
From an unfortunate personal experience of mine, I came to realize that you can not use a public telephone box either, even if like me you do manage to sprint down the road in time to answer it! This was because when prompted to select a particular number, even after having pressed it, it just kept prompting me to press the particular button I had pressed and continued to about a hundred time's. Out of pure frustration and exhaustion only then did I realise that it was not a touch tone telephone and it would not matter if I stood there and pressed that number for all eternity, It would still continue to prompt me. Eventually hanging up the receiver in despair, I was beginning to wonder if I really should reinvest in a fixed line! Thinking better of it and managing to use my neighbours phone I decided I had lived long enough without one to justify the cost and hassle involved with getting reconnected. Yet all the while I'm still thinking it slightly unfair, that I am denied something due to what I regard as a minor detail.
Hopefully companies will wise up to what is turning out to be a real problem for me and others like me and make the systems in place accessible to all. Unfortunately until they do before you decide to cut the cable and embrace wireless technology as an exclusive alternative to a fixed line, you may want to ask a family member, friend or neighbour if you can use their phone first!
