According to this article in 20Min here more and more firms are moving to employees using only mobile phones.

Always thought this was a great idea; no longer do you have to sit in your office - you are free.
Nobody knows your physical location any more

Since we have Skype at work, I barely use my fixed line phone.
I use it really only for some specific conf call numbers that don't work with Skype.

You are not free. OH has one. It's just a way to ignore actual working hours & contact your employees whenever you want.

Unless you're on call, switch it off when you're not at work. It's not difficult.

The story line actually is that everyone is moving to IP-based telephony.

This can be Microsoft Skype for Business (renamed from Microsoft Lync) - a rather fantastic enabler, in my opinion, for communication. Your laptop "is" the phone then (and much more).

That, my dear, is a pipe dream.

Microsoft Skype for Business, for instance, has technology built in which takes the IP address of the communication device ("the client"), performs a reverse mapping to a location, and then publishes that location to the "location" field associated with, and shown in, the Microsoft Skype for Business desktop client. Depending on the location sensing technologies in place, depending on the power of the reverse mapping technology employed and depending on the data protection scheme in place, you could be localized down to the meter. Anywhere on the planet.

When you're logged in to a remote desktop connection or a virtual machine, Microsoft Skype for Business disables the Set Your Location field because it can't accurately rely on the location information through a virtual host.
Microsoft Skype for Businessuses the Location Information Service (LIS) based on a network map to detect your location. Then, Microsoft Skype for Business automatically publishes your location to the organization. However, when you use a virtual machine, or you connect to a virtual machine by using a remote desktop connection, the LIS can't accurately determine your location. Therefore, the location is unavailable.

I hate the poor sound quality of Skype.

Tom

Mwah ha ha

The phone (contact) belongs to your employer, right?

Indeed, so you leave it in your desk, powered on and with call forwarding set to your private mobile phone which is with you on the beach.

Here is a top tip: Don't pick it up just because it rings...

"fixed phone lines" as a technology, and as a communication method, had its prime many years ago, and now is in decline.

You can notice that in Scandinavia the number of fixed phone lines (both for business and for domestic use) has been in the decline for over a decade.

Sweden (number of fixed phone lines per 100 people):


Finland (data is a bit old, but nevertheless):




In Switzerland, which is a society that is not adopting the technology early, this trend has been 10-15 years late. But it will happen.

I would like to revive this thread as we are just about to move and it is a good time to look at a new internet provider etc.

In addition, I am not up with the latest tech wonders.

Our requirements:
Internet for usual email, searches, information, shopping etc.
We stream sports/films: no comments please about the morality of all this - it is not illegal in Switzerland as I understand the law here. Totally frustrated by Netflix's and Sky's geographical limitations and offers.

Phone. two numbers data roaming abroad

My questions:

Is a landline (virtually included in the price) and cable internet still required? Could we use a mobile phone to stream onto a tv/computer screen and

if technically possible, is it still more convenient to have a cable connection?

Many thanks

Scandinavia as a whole, and Finland in particular has been pretty much ahead of the curve when it comes to mobile technology. I guess it helps that we're talking about vast and sparesely populated countries with an adverse climate meaning that fixed infrastructure is costly to maintain in relation to the revenue it generates.

That, and of course a population that is generally open to new technology.

It would be interesting to see up to date versions of those graphs. Have those trends continued or have they levelled off?

Nobody uses landline in Finland these days, nor have I seen or heard anyone having one in like 12 years. I was actually very surprised to see that being offered here. But now that I have actually seen that you are so much behind in technical things it's not that surprising

...and still, Switzerland is so many light years ahead of the Finns in so many other things...

You have to define landlines. Swisscom recently stopped offering traditional landlines for us anyway and we had to move to a new package that uses the internet via our router. Which is okay - until something cuts off the internet and then we have no phone to call and report the problem.

Another problem is that landlines often don't work now when there is a power cut as they also require electricity whereas previously when there was an outage the phone at least continued to work.

I've not had a landline for over 8 years now. Been using VOIP instead. In the future, mobiles will simply be an internet device. Ever since switching to VOIP, I have been able to make calls from my phone using VOIP as long as I have wireless or a data connection. I have 5 VOIP numbers which all ring at home. If I want, I can configure my phone to receive any or all of these numbers. Downside is it does drain your battery, so only use it to make calls. Confuses the hell out of people, when they know you are on Holiday in the US and you are calling them from a Zurich number :-)

Wrong.
One can register a mobile number with Swisscom in the case that the internet goes down. Its automatically is redirected to the registered mobile number if the internet goes down

Switzerland does not have power cuts