I HAVE been cut off, disconnected, the plug has been pulled and the line is dead.

For the first time in my life I no longer have a home phone line and even though I have rarely used it in recent years, I feel strangely unsettled by its loss.

This is something we are all going to have to get used to. There is a plan to end the copper phone line network and move to a digital system.

It was inevitable considering the fact that so many of us now use mobile phones for everything, or make video calls online.

The roll out of ultrafast full fibre is also driving the withdrawal of copper phone lines. Although as I found out recently, it’s a bit hazy on when that will roll out to my front door; more on that later.

It’s strange to think I have been around long enough to remember when a home phone was still seen as a bit of a luxury, then gradually it became the norm and eventually most homes had numerous phones plugged in all over the house.

Now it’s rapidly becoming redundant technology.

I don’t know if we had a phone in the house when I was born, but at the time my father was running a village butchers shop, so I am pretty certain we would have had a phone.

But from the age of three, when we moved to a newly built house in Truro, I certainly remember we had a phone. It was the very latest trim phone in green. In the early 70s everything was green, unless it was orange or brown!

I can imagine younger readers now having to Google what a “trim” phone was.

I will save you the time. As the name suggests it was a slim rectangular shape with the receiver placed down the centre. Older phones were much bigger and squared shaped with the handset placed along the top.

Our trim phone lived on a corner shelf by the front door. As a small child it seemed very high up to me, giving it an elevated status.

We had no say in its position either. The old GPO, who ran the phone network back then, hardwired the phone into the socket and there it stayed, not to be touched.

We had a love/hate relationship with that phone. By then my father had died and my mum was bringing up two small children on her own. It meant she was tied to the house a great deal and therefore the phone was a vital lifeline for her to keep in touch with the outside world.

One of her sisters who was also widowed at a young age, lived in Canada. The two of them tried to support each other as much as possible despite being thousands of miles apart.

But international phone calls were very costly back then and complicated. I can remember we would have to call the operator to a book an international call. We would then get a call back when a line was available.

It’s hard to believe now. These days I can video call my sister in Canada instantly and see her as well as hear her and it doesn’t cost anything.

Also, I no longer need to dial a string of numbers to call my sister. A click of a button on the computer or my mobile and there she is.

When I was a child I was very proud of the fact that I could remember the phone numbers of everyone in my family. I can still remember many of those numbers now and the area codes.

But if you asked me to tell you the current phone number of a friend or a member of my family I wouldn’t be able to; they’re all stored in my mobile rather than my brain.

We loved the phone for enabling us to keep in touch with everyone, but also hated it because the bill caused so much anxiety for my mum.

Eventually the decision was taken to make it a phone for incoming calls only. Just as everyone else was getting used to having numerous phones all over the house, we were reduced to having one phone we couldn’t make any calls on.

When I eventually got a home of my own it naturally came with a landline and wherever I have lived since I have been connected to the world by a length of copper wire, even as mobiles became more popular.

So why have I finally decided to hang up the home phone for good?

Well, it’s because of the usual pantomime I have to go through when the broadband contract is up for renewal. My provider contacted me to say the price would double when the contract ends.

So I had to play the regular game of hunting for a lower price, then phoning my provider to say I was leaving for a cheaper rival, only for them to magically offer me a better deal.

Only this time there was another catch: it would have to be broadband only. They were no longer providing a phone service with it.

None of the other providers I researched were offering a phone either. So it’s literally the end of the line.

I was told this was part of the roll out of full fibre, so I seized my chance. When, I asked, can I expect that to reach me? Ah! Not our responsibility guv, said the man from my broadband supplier. In other words don’t hold your breath.

The upshot is I am paying slightly more for my broadband than before but with no phone or a faster speed and the cost will go up by an inexplicable and unjustified three pounds a month from March.

I am paying more for less, which sadly sums up so many aspects of life in the UK!

As for the home phone, on the day it was due to die I kept checking to see if the familiar tone was still there. Daft really, because before that I can’t remember the last time I used the landline.

It’s silent now and the phone has been unplugged and packed away. It’s the end of an era.

Thank you copper phone line, let’s hope your digital successor can live up to the service you gave.

Bye for now!