Landlines at eth office desks at accountancy firm PwC is being removed and it is expected that by this summer, all of the employees in the company would be using only mobiles in the UK.
The switch to mobiles would be "more efficient", said the company that has about 18,000 staff working for the company in 24 offices in the UK.
The company has further stated that some landlines will continue to remain for the use of the security staff as well as in the that are rooms used for client meetings and at the office receptions.
New conferencing technology that can connect to mobiles would be used in the meeting rooms.
"We already equip all of our people with a mobile phone, and many had already moved away from using their landlines," a spokesman for PwC said.
"With landline usage falling rapidly, we believe that a more mobile-focused policy is a more efficient way of working."
In recent years, fixed-line phones have been abandoned in favour of mobiles by some small businesses. The move by PwC is however the first example of such a move being undertaken by a large company.
It comes amid a steep decline in landline use by business in the UK.
There were more than 10 million landline numbers in the businesses in the UK in 2010. According to Ofcom, by the end pf last year, that number has drastically fallen by 35 per cent to just 6.4 million.
There had been an even more dramatic drop in the amount of time that businesses used up in talking on landlines.
Almost 38 million minutes of calls were made by businesses over landlines in 2010. By 2017, that number had almost halved to about 18.8 million minutes.
Use of landline has also decreased in residences of people. More than 90 million minutes of phone calls on landlines was made by households in UK in 2010. But last year, that number was lust about 35 million minutes.
However, there has actually been an increase in the number of residential lines since 2010 because almost all homes require a landline for accessing broadband services.
"Because of the pricing structure most people have to have a landline to get broadband - but younger people often don't even plug in a handset," points out James Barford, a telecoms analyst at Enders Analysis.
BT was forced to reduce its prices by £7 a month for customers that only had a landline earlier this year.
A regulatory investigation by telecoms watchdog Ofcom was the cause of the price cut.
The investigation found that there had been a drop of more than 25 per cent in the cost of providing a landline service even though there had been an increase in the landline rental prices.
Customers, many of them elderly, who had never switched from BT were the hardest hit from the price rises, Ofcom said.
(Source:www.bbc.com)
The switch to mobiles would be "more efficient", said the company that has about 18,000 staff working for the company in 24 offices in the UK.
The company has further stated that some landlines will continue to remain for the use of the security staff as well as in the that are rooms used for client meetings and at the office receptions.
New conferencing technology that can connect to mobiles would be used in the meeting rooms.
"We already equip all of our people with a mobile phone, and many had already moved away from using their landlines," a spokesman for PwC said.
"With landline usage falling rapidly, we believe that a more mobile-focused policy is a more efficient way of working."
In recent years, fixed-line phones have been abandoned in favour of mobiles by some small businesses. The move by PwC is however the first example of such a move being undertaken by a large company.
It comes amid a steep decline in landline use by business in the UK.
There were more than 10 million landline numbers in the businesses in the UK in 2010. According to Ofcom, by the end pf last year, that number has drastically fallen by 35 per cent to just 6.4 million.
There had been an even more dramatic drop in the amount of time that businesses used up in talking on landlines.
Almost 38 million minutes of calls were made by businesses over landlines in 2010. By 2017, that number had almost halved to about 18.8 million minutes.
Use of landline has also decreased in residences of people. More than 90 million minutes of phone calls on landlines was made by households in UK in 2010. But last year, that number was lust about 35 million minutes.
However, there has actually been an increase in the number of residential lines since 2010 because almost all homes require a landline for accessing broadband services.
"Because of the pricing structure most people have to have a landline to get broadband - but younger people often don't even plug in a handset," points out James Barford, a telecoms analyst at Enders Analysis.
BT was forced to reduce its prices by £7 a month for customers that only had a landline earlier this year.
A regulatory investigation by telecoms watchdog Ofcom was the cause of the price cut.
The investigation found that there had been a drop of more than 25 per cent in the cost of providing a landline service even though there had been an increase in the landline rental prices.
Customers, many of them elderly, who had never switched from BT were the hardest hit from the price rises, Ofcom said.
(Source:www.bbc.com)
Homepage
Send to a friend
Printable version
Share
