As a customer, I think the psychological difference might be that of whether one is calling a person or a place. A land-line generally means that you’re calling an office, a reception desk and so on while calling a mobile phone more often than not puts you into direct contact – if they answer – with a person. Or at least this can be the perception. I imagine many companies keep their land-lines for this reason. Land-lines also keep employees in their place. Give them a mobile and off they go down to the local pub and take their calls there between tintos while turning the pages of this morning’s Marca! When I make a call I expect to be dealt with from the professional surroundings of the workplace. I would hate to think that the chirpy voice saying ‘good morning, how can I help you?’ on the other end is coming from the pub, the staff kitchen or indeed … heaven forbid, the bathroom!

Hi all,
From my point of view, mobile phones are very useful tools for increasing our availability for working. They can also increase the quality of our work, as far as we can manage some situations faster than with fixed lines… we are almost every day connected!
However, we may learn some rules in regards to the use of mobile phones. Although they are quite basic, we do not pay much attention and it finally reduces our efficiency at work.
Maybe sometimes, we use our mobile phone because it easier or more convenient for us, without considering the other party’s needs.

Back in the late nineties, when mobiles weren’t so ubiquitous (ah, the good old days!), I was in a meeting at work when a colleague’s mobile phone rang. He took the call, but everyone was disgusted at the fact that he had let this interrupt the meeting, and that he had even brought the phone to the meeting with him. Nowadays people don’t bat an eyelid if someone leaves a meeting to answer their phone (whatever happened to common courtesy? Switch the bloody thing off!). With landlines, if you are away from your desk (and therefore your phone), it means you are probably busy, and would not appreciate an interruption. If all you have is a mobile, you can be reached anywhere, anytime, and I’m certain that when you are interrupted by a call (even if you don’t answer it, you still look at it to see who it was) you are less productive.
With a landline and an answerphone, you control when you take calls, not the caller, which is the way round it should be. If something is important they can leave a message. If not,they can call back later. How many times have you answered a call just to say “I can’t talk right now”?

I learned a long time ago that when my phone rings it means that someone wants to talk to me NOT that I have an obligation to answer it. I leave phones ringing if I am busy. I will not allow a gadget to dictate to me.
And if anyone breaks off talking with me to answer their mobile, I walk away. I queue for buses and for bread. I have better things to do than queue for a conversation.
I think we are heading for a wifi world and that landlines will be preserved for times of war or national emergencies. I don’t care whether my mobile interlocutor is on the beach or in the bar, as long as s/he does their job properly.
At the moment I am desperately trying to get something that resembles customer service from El Corte Inglés and The Hollywood Reporter. It is like getting blood out of an anaemic stone. I want results – mobile, landline or carrier pigeon. I don’t care. Although I agree with Joe, there are limits!

I’d like to add another point of view. Not all companies have to offer their services out of their offices, so, workers don’t need mobile phones. It’s my case, I work for a public centre, belonging to the Diputación, and the boss is the only one that uses his mobile phone (his own mobile phone) to be contacted out of the centre. Sometimes, some of us go out for a visit or a conference, but, in theses times, we normally don’t need to receive our phone calls, because there is somebody responsible of answering them and noting them down.
In these kind of workplaces, most of us use the mobile phone to receive our private calls, instead of bothering receptionists for that. In this way, nobody needs to know how many times and who calls us.
Then, in my workplace, the choice is clear: just landline, although we’re planning to buy wireless terminals. The point is that almost every worker has to move very often, and it’s difficult to know where s/he is when someone wants to speak with him/her.
At home, regarding mobile versus landline, I often think about it, because I hardly use the landline, despite having a flat rate for local an national calls. What about a shared landline and wireless connection for the neighborhood?