Plug and play ISP Relish is calling time on the humble landline, saying it’ll be dead within ten years.
According to the ‘How evolving technology has changed the way we work and communicated; and what the future holds’ white paper commissioned by Relish, there’s been a 33 per cent decline in voice calls made from home landlines over the past five years.
The rise of VoIP services like Skype and increasingly sophisticated mobiles means, according to CEBR economist Colm Sheehy: “Having a wired phone in your house is completely pointless. It’s amazing how far behind we are – technology has advanced but we’re still living in the 90s in terms of infrastructure.”
Of course, Relish, being a wireless ISP has a vested interest in pushing such findings. The London-based ISP promises to get customers up and running with the next working day. Because no fixed line needs to be installed, Relish can send its 4G routers out in the post.
Relish boasts an up to 50Mbps service with unlimited downloads for just £20/month. As there’s no line rental to speak of, there’s no extra cost. With the exception of Virgin Media, none of the UK’s main ISPs currently offer a pure ‘broadband only’ package where you only pay for the Internet service and not the like rental.
While landlines might be on the way out, in more recent years we’ve seen the likes of TalkTalk and Virgin Media bringing things like Talk2Go and SmartCall to the table, which apparently save folks a lot of money.
Fixed-line broadband services are also unlikely to wither and die anytime soon, with BT and Virgin Media currently offering top speeds in excess of what Relish can offer and with faster services in the pipeline.
It remains to be seen if Relish can continue to offer a cheaper service while upgrading its current offering over the years.
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