Josh Welensky: Cost a good reason to consign fixed phones to history

After more than two decades of fierce competition, subsidised handsets, squeezed margins and a cornucopia of choice, mobile phone penetration in the UK has now reached over 120 per cent, and we’re fast hurtling towards the US milestone of more mobile exclusive households than fixed landlines. It’s surely game over for Larry landline?

Even with free evening and weekend calls, I barely ever use my landline. A few nostalgic calls home and a couple of late- night takeaway orders on my bog standard £13.90 per month BT line equals £2.50 per call. That’s a tough comparison with free. And guess what, it’s getting worse – BT’s recent price hikes which will add up to an inflation busting 14.2 per cent increase in costs since October 2010.

In the six months since I got my sparkling new HTC Desire HD Smartphone, I’ve yet to once plough my way through the 250 minutes of free calls or 500 free text messages I get per month. Things have come a long way since January 1985, when the UK’s first ever mobile phone call was made by comedian Ernie Wise to Vodafone’s offices in Newbury. Back then a Motorola DynaTAC would set you back close to £3,000, and even Vodafone predicted it would only sell a million at most.

Even with the 23.7 million residential land lines struggling to cover BT’s costs, I’ve got a certain affinity to BT’s repost that “if a conversation is worth having, have it on your BT landline”.

There’s little doubt if I was my brother’s phone a friend on Who Wants to be a Millionaire my mobile or Skype headset wouldn’t get a look in. There are also those life or death situations; Verizon was castigated in January by the US regulators for dropping over 10,000 calls to the emergency services during a freak snowstorm in Washington.

Before I talk myself into Freecycling my blower, there’s the small matter of replacing my broadband internet connection. Whilst Mi-Fi wireless dongles seem like a no-brainer, they tend to come with more strings than the London Philharmonic, especially for BBC iPlayer lovers.

If there’s one thing my Dad taught me, it was the importance of a back-up plan. So whilst landlines may be a declining breed, they’re a long way from becoming extinct.

• Josh Welensky is the technology writer for The Scotsman Magazine