Almost £480 million is being wasted every year by customers paying for landlines that they do not use, according to a comparethemarket.com study.
The research found that nearly a quarter of the UK currently own a landline but never use it, equating to 6.5 million households.
Ofcom figures indicate that average spend on landline services is at £23.50 per month, with 74 per cent of these costs down to the line rental, which is also used for broadband services and bundled calls.
The figures suggest consumers are spending more than £73 per year on landline services that don’t come as part of a bundle or for line rental.
It is expected that the number of landlines will decline in the future as the smartphone market grows and deployment of 5G continues.
Currently 60 per cent of people in the UK has a landline, however this number drops to just under 35 per cent among 18 to 34 year olds.
The study found that 60 per cent of consumers don’t own a landline as they only use their mobile, while 43 per cent said they have no use for a landline. A further quarter of people said they were “fed up” of cold calls and scammers that would call their landline.
Comparethemarket.com head of utilities Peter Earl said: “The death of the landline is ‘hopefully’ upon us. Smartphones are slowly but surely making landlines obsolete.
“As mobile coverage improves across the country, the number of people who will use a fixed line will inevitably increase.”
