Old school landline telephones.

[wabbott]

We did away with our landline several years ago. It was part of our cable package, so the move saved us maybe 10 bucks a month. The deal-breaker was that the only calls were getting on that line were almost all robo-calls. It got to be tiresome.

 

[Kennywood]

We still have our landline and it's the only phone we use.

I have a work cell phone that I loathe. I'll freely admit that cell phones have their uses, but I do NOT want to be connect 24/7, 365 days a year.

Since I use my work cell phone only for work, my wife and I love the looks on people's faces when they ask for our cell phone number and we tell them we don't have one. They look like they just asked what 2 + 2 is and we answered "purple".

 

[irlandaise]

This reminds me of all the blank stares I've received when I try to explain to someone that I didn't get their text message because the phone does not get text messages. The other party often either doesn't get it or pretends that they don't get it.

Them: "You didn't answer my text!"
Me: "I have a landline, I can't receive text messages."
Them: "OK, but you didn't answer my text."
Me:

I had that happen to me once, too. I would have thought that the sending phone would say "Message not delivered." Maybe it did and the senders just didn't notice the error message. Like you said...

 

[lanejudy]

We still have an old fashioned landline, including a wired phone on the wall. We also have cordless handsets that hardly hold a charge anymore. The landline is pretty much the only phone number I give out and it's my preferred phone number incoming or outgoing.

 

[kdonnel]

My preference for using a landline goes back to the reason I got a cell phone in the first place. I worked graveyard shift for 25 years and slept 9 am to 5 pm. The cell phone was purchased so I could tell everyone they could call me on my landline while I was asleep and leave a message without worrying about waking me because the ringer was off and the volume on the answering machine turned down. My bosses knew they could call without waking me up, and that I would call them back when I got up at 5 pm if they needed to speak with me. The cell phone was the phone that was left on while I slept so my wife, kids, and elderly mother could get ahold of me in an emergency. My bosses knew where my wife worked, and if they absolutely needed to talk to me right now, they could call her and she would call me on the cell phone and wake me up. So I grew to appreciate having a public phone number, and private one and THAT is why it is worth it to keep a landline for me.

Cell phones, iPhones and Android, have a feature that very closely matches your use case.

Allow Repeated Calls

With this feature turned on, you can put your phone in focus or do not disturb mode either with a schedule or manually and then your boss could call you and leave their message without waking you up.

If someone really needed to wake you up, they just need to call a second time within 3 minutes.

 

[eticketplease]

Let's keep in mind, that most (especially home) "landlines" are NOT the good old fashioned POTS lines most of us grew up with. They are really VoIP (voice over IP) lines, especially if they are bundled with your internet. If you lose internet, you lose home phone service. Yes, they are still a secondary means of communications separate from cellular, but not as infallible as POTS lines used to be.

Yes that is true.

That is the #1 reason we didn't switch to fios as it would replace the wiring and then change from copper to voip

 

[tvguy]

Cell phones, iPhones and Android, have a feature that very closely matches your use case.

Allow Repeated Calls

With this feature turned on, you can put your phone in focus or do not disturb mode either with a schedule or manually and then your boss could call you and leave their message without waking you up.

If someone really needed to wake you up, they just need to call a second time within 3 minutes.

They do now. They did not in 1990 when I got my cell phone for the stated purpose. I no longer have that need, but it is nice to not have my cell phone ringing while I am out, and instead getting the call and message on my landline when I get home.

 

[dizneegirl]

We got rid of the home landline about 20 years ago.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

We have not had a landline for several years. We only had one here for a while because it was free bundled into our internet plan (IIRC it was cheaper to have the phone than to not have it). Didn't have a phone plugged in for most of that time because it was just constant spam type calls. Unplugged that phone and put an end to that.

 

[MillauFr]

Lumen in Washington State is letting the old landline equipment rot. They do not maintain it to keep in a good working order. The state threatens them but they ignores the regulators.

 

[MillauFr]

Yes that is true.

That is the #1 reason we didn't switch to fios as it would replace the wiring and then change from copper to voip

Are they maintaining the copper wires?

 

[eticketplease]

Are they maintaining the copper wires?

No idea but the phone still works

 

[Jasper&Bowie]

I am required to have a landline phone because the house I bought had an elevator. We never use the phone but do use the elevator when my in-laws or aunt visit.

 

[MamaMermaid]

No landlines for us!

 

[PollyannaMom]

We still have a landline, for several reasons:

I always heard it was quicker for 911 to trace in an emergency.

Especially when I first got it, I didn't like giving my cell number out to too many people. - I still use the landline when I sign up for reward programs, order online from catalogs, etc.

When DS was younger and I was substitute teaching, we weren't always at the same school, so sometimes he would get home a bit before me. I liked that he had the house phone in case of an emergency.

We have two extensions, one cordless (that doesn't work when the power is out) and one corded that does.

 

[kdonnel]

For anyone that might be holding onto the landline, and the monthly costs associated with it, because you don't want to give out your cell phone number, take a look at getting a free Google Voice number.

With it you get a phone number that can be used with or without another phone. You can place and receive calls using that number from your computer or from an app on your cell phone.

It can also send and receive texts.

You can set it up to auto forward all calls to another number or have it screen you calls, requiring the calling party to record a brief message that is then forwarded to your cell phone. You answer the call and decide if you want to send them to voicemail or connect the call and talk to them.

Get tired of that number? Get a new one!

My wife gets a new one every school year. Gives that number out to the parents that insist they must have her number. It really lets her control who she talks/texts with while not adding a bunch of tests or calls to her cell phone.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Who still has this old but pioneering piece of technology?

I do. I also have a cell phone.

 

[tvguy]

For anyone that might be holding onto the landline, and the monthly costs associated with it, because you don't want to give out your cell phone number, take a look at getting a free Google Voice number.

With it you get a phone number that can be used with or without another phone. You can place and receive calls using that number from your computer or from an app on your cell phone.

It can also send and receive texts.

You can set it up to auto forward all calls to another number or have it screen you calls, requiring the calling party to record a brief message that is then forwarded to your cell phone. You answer the call and decide if you want to send them to voicemail or connect the call and talk to them.

Get tired of that number? Get a new one!

My wife gets a new one every school year. Gives that number out to the parents that insist they must have her number. It really lets her control who she talks/texts with while not adding a bunch of tests or calls to her cell phone.

My issues would be the value I place on having had the same phone number for 43 years. And I can easily switch my landline number to VoIP or fiber or cellular, but I lose the reliability and safety my POTS gives me.

 

[cayennews]

I do not. I can't remember the last time I had a landline. Even my 80 year old mother got rid of her landline last year.

 

[disneyseniors]

The landline… it was a crucial piece of communications technology back then. Recently, Hitchcock, OK was thanos’d out of landline service by AT&T in favor of cellular.

Who still has this old but pioneering piece of technology?

We still have a landline, as my husband wants nothing to do with an iphone. So,I have an Iphone which I love and he uses the land line. Marriage is a compromise, lol.