Half of European calls to be mobile by 2008

Mobile calls are replacing fixed-line usage across Europe, according to a new report from Analysys, but people aren't talking more, they're just using fixed-lines less. The change has been most stark in Finland, where 2006 saw another 10 per cent of calls migrate onto mobile networks; bringing the total to 74.6 per cent at the …

[Ian]

So we need to rethink 0870 numbers quite urgently

I've not used a landline for years - why would I with the all-inclusive mobile packages that exist these days? - with one exception: I have to use one whenever I need to contact any sort of large organization, since these all have 0870 numbers which still, for some unknown reason, cost a lot to call from mobiles. This new evidence that the landline is a disappearing entity should be a spur to action on this issue - no longer can OFCOM and the organizations themselves sell us the fiction that we are a nation of landline users for whom the high call charges associated with 0870 numbers aren't a major issue.

I'd mind less if government (yes, I'm looking at you, Revenue and Customs) didn't use these pointless and irritating numbers too.

NEWS FLASH: Nobody minds calling an organization with a geographical dialling code. Can the person who decided we *do* mind this please make themselves known?

[Sergiu Panaite]

Hooray

Another bleedin' obvious discovery by researchers: "People prefer to make calls from wherever they are, as opposed to using fixed phones - shock horror!"

Helped along by aggressive pricing by the mobile operators, I really can't see why they wouldn't...

[Chris Elvidge]

100s of free minutes

Could it be because I get a couple of 100 free minutes per month. 5 or 10 mins a day on the phone - stupid to use a paid landline when it's free on the mobile, isn't it?

[Acidbass]

@Ian

They all use 0870 numbers because they earn call-share revenue, by which I mean your call charge is higher and the organisation running the shoddy support line at the other end of it get a proportion of that. Kind of like premium rate numbers, but without the stigma.

And then of course they stick an autoattender on it, so rather than sit listening to a ring tone (which costs you no money) until they're ready, the very fact that they have less staff than they need earns them money because you have to pay the operator to listen to the PBX' ring tone instead.

Is that not the rudest thing you've ever heard of? (cue lots of examples of ruder things).

Check out saynoto0870.com, you can often find a geographical alternative to 0870/0845 numbers (IIRC, all non-geographic numbers have to point to a geographic one which is accessible, the organisations involved just try to hide them).

[Anonymous Coward]

"free minutes"

...er, in case you hadn't noticed, the big wedge coming out of your bank account each month in mobile subscription pays for those free minutes, so they're not actually free...

Whereas on landlines you could pay 16 pounds a month to TalkTalk for line rental, unlimited landline and international calls to 30+ countries, plus broadband (OK the broadband's crap but we'll overlook that)... if it wasn't for the stupidly high termination rates to mobiles they could be included in the unlimited calls too...

I don't see any mobile operator coming close to that kind of offer. Sure you get the convenience of being able to call anywhere, but you pay dearly for that convenience.

[Michael]

Free minutes : the great myth of mobile phones

How anyone, especially the phone companies, can describe anything

as "free", especially the minutes, is beyond me. I am waiting for a similar

system in other areas. New offer: Give Tesco £120 a month in advance and then

they'll give you £100 of free food a month.

Free minutes? If you're paying anything a month in advance then **It is not free*.

Free minutes would be free if the monthly tarrif was zero. Wake up everyone, it is

a con. You're paying the tarrif than then the companies brainwash you into telling you that once they deliver what you've paid for, it is free.

And why anyone would prefer to use an expensive mobile to mobile call

instead of a very cheap landline is ... I dunno. Madness.

[Hans]

I question those stats

C'mon, who's kidding who here?

Quote: <Mobile calls are replacing fixed-line usage across Europe, . . . . but people aren't talking more >

of course they are talking more, but not usefully

[RANT]

We've all suffered from "Mobile Bores", on the train, in the restaurant, christ even in the bloody cinema the stupid things are going off.

What is it about the mobile phone that seems to bring out the moron in everyone who uses them? Its like an obsession, nay, a drug. They come pouring out of "restrained environments" like theatres and cinemas absolutely desperate to make a phone call. MUST GET MY FIX, MUST GET MY FIX, almost sweating and convulsing.

Never a day goes by where I don't see at least 6 or 7 drivers using them despite the laws. Displaying total contempt for society - (see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/6354141.stm and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6357425.stm and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/6198816.stm

and the list goes on and on (a bit like me right now eh?)

I nearly wet myself laughing the other day when, within my limited range of vision, I could see four pedestrians all talking on phones, one car driver on a phone and, to crown it all, a cyclist comes howling down the hill holding a phone to his ear.

Do you believe that these people would be making these types of calls if they had to use a phone box 200yards down the street on a cold, wet windy winter night?

[/RANT]

[Lloyd]

Yep

I make approximately no calls per month but still have to pay line rental so I can have SDSL/ADSL/XDSL, whichever version they're on at the moment. I don't need a landline apart from for the damned broadband.

[Mike]

National Rate 0870

Many people aren't aware that 0870 numbers will be disappearing soon, next year to be exact. Being replaced by the new 03 prefixes for national numbers with no where near the revenue share that currently exists on 0870.

Also, not all companies have a geographic number instead of the 0870, sure many that are big enough to have PRIs running into their companies do, but its perfectly reasonable to deliver 0870 via VoIP.

[Mark Lynch]

Resurgence in Landlines

I never used a landline when I lived in the UK but now that I'm in Spain I use it all the time. Mainly cause as part of my ADSL deal (35€~/ month) I get all national landline calls free (something very common here). Another reason they're becoming more useful is that generally speaking you can skype people to their landline for 2c /min or thereabouts. So I generally talk alot more of late but for free or very cheap. My mobile bill has plummeted.

One comment said the writing's on the wall for fixed line telcos; I would say it's telcos in general who are on the way out. No wonder they're all buying ISP left right and centre.

[Philip Marshall]

There is a simple reason for the high Finnish mobile calls

The reason for the 74% mobile calls is because if one needs to call someone in the local city, it is cheaper to call using a mobile at around 8c per minute, then the local phone company at 12c connection fee and then 1c per minute. And one only has to think why Elisa and Finnet are in OM HEX.