Landline Phones?

[Luvchefmic]

I live in a rural area ...real rural..I don't care what cell service I have I can't get it in the house..outside yes but if its a thunderstorm or something , forget it I gave up the landline in 2009 ( I survived but it was difficult) put it back on this past Jan MUCH better to have it

 

[3angelsmom]

We cut the landline and regretted it. Mostly because we have small children old enough to talk on the phone, but not old enough for their own cells, and I am sometimes bad about charging mine, or turning the ringer back on. Also, one DD is almost old enough to stay home alone, but I would worry she would forget to charge her cell or not get a signal. Have you looked into Magic Jack, ooma, or similar VoIps? We paid $100 for ooma at Costco, and the only other fees are a monthly local tax, about $3/month. I understand this may not be foolproof in an emergency, but I feel better having this option along with our 3 cell phones. Best money I ever spent.

 

[SandrA9810]

I signed my aunt up for the wireless home phone. It's registered to her house for 911 calls. She had no issues with contacting them when needed.

It's $10 a month to use plan minutes or $20 for unlimited minutes. With free nights and weekends and free mobile to mobile, it's barely touched the paid minutes. She keeps it for my grandmother because she doesn't know how to use a cell. You can keep your phone number if it's with AT&T.

 

[wishesuponastar]

Be careful if you get rid of your landline. We did a few years back and I forgot I was talking on my cell phone for hours with friends and ran up the bill to $1,000

DH was very understandable and said Happy Anniversary present.

Needless to say, now he won't get rid of our landline again.

 

[HubbDave]

We still use a landline due to spotty reception. One thing I do no like is that it is through our cable, so if power goes out, so does the phone

I might drop it someday if cell reception here improves

 

[IADtoMCO304]

Switched to Ooma and we are really happy with it.

 

[sherry7]

I work for a major telecommunications company in the landline division (we provide both landlines and cellular), and here are my own personal thoughts:

If you call 911 from your landline, your address, name, etc will automatically pop up on the 911 operator's computer screen. If you call 911 and can't speak, this could save your live. If your child or babysitter calls 911 and doesn't know (or gets too excited to remember) the address, this could save your life. The department where I work does the addressing for the 911 database for most of the counties in our state, so I know exactly how much meticulous work goes into making sure that this info is automatically available to the 911 operators. I'm proud to say that there are very, very few errors in that database (and when one is found it's corrected ASAP). When you call 911 using a cell phone, your location is triangulated to the nearest cell phone towers, and it's far from exact. I personally will never risk my well being, or that of my family, by dropping my landline and giving up the exact 911 locating.

A basic bare bones landline will run you around $20-$25 (including taxes, fees, etc) in most areas. Do you need caller ID, call waiting, voice mail, etc? Yes, they're very convenient, but I'd rather have a bare bones landline than no landline at all.

How long will your cell phone keep a charge in the event of a power outage? The unfortunate people in NJ learned this the hard way during Super Storm Sandy last fall. However, a copper phone line transmits its own power from the phone company central office. (Central offices have permanent backup generator power, which seldom fails. If it does fail, it's considered urgent and portable generators are brought in quickly.) As long as you have at least one corded phone in your house, your phone will likely work through a power outage of days or weeks. (On the flip side, if your phone is through your cable company, it does need electricity. There are battery backups, but they last for various amounts of time. I can't comment further as I don't know a whole lot more about cable technology.)

Do you have an alarm system that needs a landline? A Tivo? A fax machine? Do you have DSL internet service? DSL works on the upper frequencies of a traditional copper line. Dry loop DSL (DSL without having copper phone service) is available in some areas, but it's hardly any more money to just have a bare bones landline with DSL service.

I personally do NOT give out my cell phone number to anyone but family, a couple of very close friends, and my daughter's daycare. I don't want people calling my cell phone while I'm at work. I may work for a telecommunications company, but my boss is not amused when our cell phones ring at work.

 

[sweetdana]

Switched to Ooma and we are really happy with it.

Ditto. Ooms . Cannot imagine paying more than 10$ a month again. ... Cut cable too and just as happy with Netflix and amazon prime.

Cut them both almost 2 yrs ago and save from 60-90$ a month depending on if we rent movies or not.

 

[tvguy]

Not an option for us, our satellite dish provider and alarm company require a landline connection. But it is still my primary phone, audio quality on cell phones just isn't good enough in most cases. Well, the VOIP phone system we got at work at equality poor audio quality.

But I also use my cell phone differently that many others. I never give out that number, it is a way my family can immediately get a hold of me in an emergency. Having just dealt with a year long terminal illness of an elderly parent, I was surprised how many times I was on the landline phone when my cell phone rang with some issue that needed by immediate action.

Actually, I'm looking forward to about 6 or so years down the road when I retire and I can get rid of the cellphone and go landline only, well, I think I will keep a pay as you go phone in the glove box of the car for emergencies.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

We are keeping ours after my Nieces house burnt down. She called 911 from a cell phone when her house caught fire. Her 911 call was routed to another city and she did not know she was talking to a dispatcher in another city because they all answer incoming calls, "911 do you need police, fire or ambulance" and never mention the city.

When the fire dept did no show up the called again and found out that the call went to another city. That dispatcher called the 911 dept in my nieces hometown and when the fire dept showed up the fire chief explained that what happens with cell phones calls is that the call may not always go through the cell phone tower nearest you. So whatever tower gets the call that the city that the 911 call goes to.

Shortly after that a friend of ours who is a Police Chief in PA was driving in Ohio and wanted to report an accident. His 911 call went to the 911 dispatcher in his home town - he knew this because he recognized the voice of the 911 operator . What happens is that your calls can get hung up on whatever cell tower it last used and cause future calls you make, to be routed through that same tower. For him it was a tower in his home town.

Verizon wireless suggest that occasionally you dial *228 and that will update your phone status and erase the last cell tower setting. And the next call you make it will use the nearest cell tower.

So for safety sake I am keeping my phone.

 

[plummer925]

Just a note about calling 911 - even if you do not have an active phone line, as long as you have a phone jack that is wired to the telephone wires, you are supposed to be able to plug a phone in and be able to call 911!

 

[SandrA9810]

We are keeping ours after my Nieces house burnt down. She called 911 from a cell phone when her house caught fire. Her 911 call was routed to another city and she did not know she was talking to a dispatcher in another city because they all answer incoming calls, "911 do you need police, fire or ambulance" and never mention the city.

They say you're never supposed to call from a house that is on fire. If you want to make a landline call, go to a neighbor's house and make the call from there. Fires can spread rather quickly, and she could've become a victim in an instant.

 

[CraftyMommy]

We keep our house phone just for the peace of mind knowing we can call 911 quickly if an emergency arises. I don't give out my house number to anyone. It has local calling only.

My son is getting old enough that he stays home alone for short periods of time. I want him to have immediate access to a phone in case of an emergency. Its worth the $25/month.

 

[tvguy]

I do not believe this is correct. It is true of a cell phone that is disconnected.....but a disconnected landline can never make any calls, not even 911. It's a dead line.
That's why groups like WEAVE (women escaping a violent environment) collect old deactivated cell phones, so women who can not afford a phone have a way to call 911 in an emergency

Just a note about calling 911 - even if you do not have an active phone line, as long as you have a phone jack that is wired to the telephone wires, you are supposed to be able to plug a phone in and be able to call 911!

 

[blondietink]

We live in a rural area and still have a land line because cell service is very bad. We also don't have access to cable TV, so no DSL line available to get something like Vonage. No natural gas lines. We only have electricity, oil for heat, propane for cooking and satellite service for TV and internet.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

They say you're never supposed to call from a house that is on fire. If you want to make a landline call, go to a neighbor's house and make the call from there. Fires can spread rather quickly, and she could've become a victim in an instant.

Well her only neighbor is way down the road from her so that was not an option. A close friend is the 911 supervisor in my town and she said the best thing to do is dial 911 leave the phone off the hook and run out of the house without ever talking to the 911 operator. The operator would have sent an officer to her home to investigate the call.

 

[kymom99]

Don't have one anymore and haven't missed it. We did away with it when we moved. We got an extra cell phone line for $10 a month that we left in the house for when our son was home alone. We had to get a phone line for internet but it is very cheap and doesn't take or make calls. The only problem is that sometimes the boy doesn't hear the phone ring and so I have to guess that he is okay until he decides to look at it and call me back.

 

[capegirl]

Ten years ago I was stuck in NYC during a massive city wide power failure that lasted for 2 days; all cell phones were completely useless. Whenever I think about getting rid of my landline, I remember the ginormous line of people that literally wrapped around the block, who were all waiting to use a pay phone.
I cannot stand paying my landline bill every month, but this experience left it's mark on me. There is something to be said for a phone with a wire, especially in a disaster.

 

[EagleScout]

Ten years ago I was stuck in NYC during a massive city wide power failure that lasted for 2 days; all cell phones were completely useless. Whenever I think about getting rid of my landline, I remember the ginormous line of people that literally wrapped around the block, who were all waiting to use a pay phone.
I cannot stand paying my landline bill every month, but this experience left it's mark on me. There is something to be said for a phone with a wire, especially in a disaster.

This is true, but people please remember that if your purpose is to have emergency backup (and not just clearer reception), your landline cannot also require a separate plug to serve this purpose - which many fancier phones do, to handle the "extra" features like caller id, etc. Also, if your phone runs through cable (like verizon fios), you only get a few hours of emergency service, because fios phones run through a rechargeable battery box that is part of cable box. A few hours better than nothing, but not a full solution when faced with hurricanes of past two years when ny suburbs lost power for weeks

 

[hsmamato2]

A basic bare bones landline will run you around $20-$25 (including taxes, fees, etc) in most areas. Do you need caller ID, call waiting, voice mail, etc? Yes, they're very convenient, but I'd rather have a bare bones landline than no landline at all.

How long will your cell phone keep a charge in the event of a power outage? The unfortunate people in NJ learned this the hard way during Super Storm Sandy last fall. However, a copper phone line transmits its own power from the phone company central office. (Central offices have permanent backup generator power, which seldom fails. If it does fail, it's considered urgent and portable generators are brought in quickly.) As long as you have at least one corded phone in your house, your phone will likely work through a power outage of days or weeks.

***Nope,and Nope*** My landline bill ran around 40.00 per month for NO FEATURES.No thank you. And when we had 2 major hurricanes pass through a couple of years ago, my corded phone worked for about 2 days,then it died. NO LANDLINE. It seems to me that the lines now run through giant,electrically powered boxes on the poles here,and when the generator went after 2 days,so did ALL the phones.There weren't enough generators to power them. Except my cell,which I could use to text,even after most of the generators at the towers were dead (10 days,no power) I got rid of LL after that. I charged my phone by car battery,maybe 20 minutes a day at most,and used it rarely.