Home phone News

Do you know your home phone number?

Monday 17 October, 2011

By Kelvin Goodson

Straw poll asks people if they know their landline number following figures that revealed landline use is dropping

More than a third of people still know their home phone number, despite a recent survey revealing landline use has dropped over the last few years.

Three out of eight people that took part in a straw poll by The Guardian knew their landline number.

The poll was conducted following figures published by Asda Mobile last week which showed that almost half of us cannot imagine we would need a landline to make telephone calls going forward.

Charles Welling, a 67-year-old retiree, seemed to back-up the Asda Mobile findings when asked by the Guardian whether he knew his landline number: “No. I did away with mine a while ago. My daughters, who I’m visiting in Colchester, have just done away with theirs.”

However, writer Gloria MacAdam, 69, when asked the same question by the newspaper, said: “Yes. Three or four times a day. I know someone who doesn’t and I thought they were foolish.”

Despite the decline in home phone use demonstrated by the Asda Mobile digits, MacAdam’s is more typical of her age group than Welling - over 80% of those aged 55 and over still use their home phone to make calls.

However, the straw poll revealed it’s not only the older generation that still view a landline as an essential utility. Chef Callum Davies, 21, said that he knew his landline number.

“I use it often to make catering orders. Customers call me on the landline, my friends call on the mobile.”

The response of makeup artist Meghan Evely, 23, to the straw poll is more representative of another aspect of the Asda Mobile statistics - almost half of the 18-34-year-olds polled said they don’t use their home phone for calls, but over 80% of them have a landline phone at home.

Evely said: “I’ve got one but I’ve never used it. I don’t even know the number. “