Isn’t the landline telephone connection (an old-fashioned thing with a cord) now a thing of the past for consumers and private individuals? More and more people rightly only have a mobile phone and can no longer be reached via the landline. The question is justified whether the few very elderly people who still have a landline telephone connection in addition to their mobile phone are not selling themselves short and needlessly losing a lot of money every month. The only good reason could be that people sometimes find the sound quality of the mobile phone insufficient.
History of telephony
When, around 1955, the primary school teacher asked the 35 children in the class who had a telephone at home, only three children raised their hands. Because father was a representative or had his own business, etc. Normal average employees could not yet afford such a black Bakelite telephone machine from the PTT (stands for: Post , T elephone, T elegraph). Those few times a year when you desperately needed to make a telephone call, you did so with a neighbor who was connected to the telephone network, or you stood in line at a telephone booth where you had to insert a dime for a local call.
Roughly around 1965, when prosperity had already increased somewhat, there were many more private individuals who had a telephone subscription from the PTT and the waiting lists for a fixed telephone connection also increased considerably. The telephone company’s infrastructure was not designed to accommodate the many people who suddenly wanted a connection, which meant that you often had to wait months before the desired device was installed in your home by the telephone technician.
Pager
Not having a telephone was quite difficult in the 1950s/60s if, for example, you had just accepted a job where it was important that you were on call and available outside working hours. This was often solved temporarily by means of a pager. At the time, it was a large, heavy device that you placed on the room floor and was equipped with a number of lights. For example, if lights 1 and 3 on the pager came on, you knew that you had to go to a telephone booth to call Piet. If light 2 went off, you had to contact Ans, etc.
Everyone has a telephone connection
It must have been around the beginning of 1970 that almost every home finally had a working (landline) telephone connection. When the first mobile telephones were used on a more extensive scale, it was already around 1985. Many people still remember cars with a special telephone antenna (spriet), which meant that the lucky person had a car telephone with which he could make calls over the air. Damn, you didn’t get any rest from your boss when he was out and about outside the building.
The landline telephone connection has therefore been a familiar phenomenon for many older Dutch people since around 1970, the vast majority of whom now indeed also have a mobile phone, the number of which they often do not know by heart. So far, they have often only used their mobile phone in exceptional cases. But with the arrival of the iPod and iPhone, seniors are also rightly starting to wonder what use it is to still have a landline telephone subscription in addition to such an advanced mobile phone with all kinds of apps. To be honest, the better sound quality is an important reason for this. And anyone who already purchases internet and television from KPN or Ziggo pays relatively little or nothing for their landline.
Both partners only have a 06 number
Apart from the better sound quality indoors, there is no longer any logical reason why you should pay subscription costs for the landline telephone connection (excl. call costs), if both spouses already have modern mobile equipment with which they can call, use the internet, etc. to their heart’s content. texting, WhatsApp, etc. You can often divide it in such a way that one of the two partners takes out an extensive smartphone subscription, and the other a somewhat simpler mobile subscription. After all, you can also use your partner’s better subscription if necessary.
Canceling telephone connection
Notice period is one month. Please check that you only terminate the telephone subscription with KPN, but that the ADSL connection for internet will continue to exist if necessary. For example, because you have an internet connection via Tele-2 via the KPN telephone network. If it is an analog connection, this will not be a problem.