Dropping the Landline: What You Gain, What You Lose

Updated for 2026. Originally published in 2016. The arguments on both sides have changed since — including the main reason people used to keep one.

The landline is now the minority option, and for most households it is a bill for something nobody uses. But two of the traditional reasons to keep one are still real, and one of them is not the reason people usually give.

Here is what to check before cancelling.

What you actually lose

Emergency calls with automatic location. The traditional argument, and it is weaker than it was. Mobile phones now transmit location to emergency services with reasonable accuracy, and in most areas this works well. It is still not identical to a fixed address on file, and in rural areas with poor mobile coverage the difference can matter.

Working during a power cut. A traditional copper line draws power from the exchange and keeps working when the house has no electricity. This is the argument that has quietly changed: most landlines are no longer copper. If your phone service comes through a cable or fibre box, it already depends on your household power and stops in a power cut exactly as a mobile does.

Worth checking which you have. If the phone plugs into a box that has its own power supply, it is not a traditional line, and the power-cut argument does not apply to you.

Call quality in a poor signal area. Genuine, and easy to test rather than assume — see below.

A number people have had for decades. Real, and solvable. See the section on keeping it.

What you gain

The bill. Usually the largest single saving available from a household technology review, particularly where it is bundled and has been quietly increasing.

Far fewer nuisance calls. This is the underrated benefit. Landline numbers are heavily targeted by automated calling, and mobiles have much better filtering. See protecting your money and identity from phone scams.

One number, one voicemail, and no more missed messages on a machine nobody checks.

Before you cancel

Check the mobile signal in the rooms you actually use. Not on the doorstep. Stand in the kitchen, the bedroom and the back of the house and make a call.

If the signal is poor indoors, check whether wi-fi calling is available. Both iPhones and Android phones can route calls over your home internet, which solves indoor coverage entirely and costs nothing. It is usually in Settings under the phone or connections section, and most carriers support it.

Check what else is on the line. A medical alert system, a home alarm, or a fax may be connected to it. Alarm and alert providers offer mobile-based alternatives, and this needs arranging before, not after.

Check whether the landline is bundled. Cancelling one part of a package sometimes raises the price of the rest. Ask what the internet-only price would be before assuming a saving.

Check who has the number. Doctors, the pharmacy, the bank, insurers, family. A list takes ten minutes and prevents months of missed calls.

Keeping the number

You do not have to lose it.

Port it to a mobile. Carriers can transfer a landline number to a mobile line. The rules vary by area and it is frequently possible.

Or port it to an internet calling service for a few dollars a month, which keeps the number ringing on your phone or a handset without a traditional line.

Do not cancel first. A cancelled number is usually gone. Arrange the transfer while the service is still active — this is the single most common mistake and it is irreversible.

If you keep it

Entirely reasonable, and worth doing deliberately rather than by default.

Ask what you are paying, and ask for the current best price. Long-standing accounts frequently drift well above what new customers pay, and a single call often reduces it.

Turn on call blocking. Most providers now offer it free, and it removes most automated calls.

Consider an answering machine that screens, so unknown callers go to the machine and known ones ring through.

For a household with one person less comfortable with a mobile

The honest position: a landline that someone will actually answer is worth more than a mobile they find difficult.

Options in between: a mobile with large buttons and a simple interface; a cordless handset connected to an internet calling service, which looks and works like a landline while costing far less; or keeping the landline and reducing what is paid for it.

Do not remove a working arrangement to save a modest amount if the replacement is one the person will not use. See helping a parent with technology.

The short version

Check the indoor mobile signal, check what else is connected to the line, check whether the bundle price changes, and arrange the number transfer before cancelling.

For most households the landline is now a bill rather than a service. For a minority — poor rural coverage, a true copper line, an alarm system on it — it still earns its place, and it is worth knowing which you are.

Substantially rewritten in 2026. The original, published in 2016, cited household statistics from 2014 and relied on the power-cut argument, which no longer applies to most modern landline connections.

For additional public information on everyday cybersecurity, see Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.