A quick self observation post today: When I initially ordered my Internet DSL fixed line at home a decade ago, it came of course with a fixed telephony line. Initially, telephony came as a separate ISDN signal that the DSL router then converted to wireless DECT, for which I bought a nice DECT phone. Time moved on, and a few years ago, the good old ISDN exchanges were decommissioned, and my fixed line was converted to SIP over IP over DSL.
While the cabling between the wall port and the DSL router changed, my DECT phone remained the same, however. At some point the battery of my DECT phone died and I bought a new one as I was still occasionally using it. About a year ago, however, that new battery also died and I haven’t bothered to actually buy a new one. Which means I haven’t used my fixed line for anything in the past year. And it’s unlikely it will ever be used again. Yes I know, never say never. However, for many years, my mobile subscriptions have included unlimited calls to fixed and mobile lines in my home country and also to lines in the EU and the US, so there’s no need for a fixed line anymore. There were people who insisted on calling me on a fixed line number in the past, but even these have since either moved on to messenger calling or they call me on my mobile number. So yes, I wonder at which point there will be fixed lines that by default no longer come with a telephony option!? Can’t be far I imagine.