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Yes, it would but most last for days on a single charge, can be recharged many times from a laptop via a USB cable (but that would eventually run down too), and could be recharged from a car adapter which would be enough for weeks and weeks of charges - probably years if one were willing to start the car for a bit every now and then to keep the car battery charged. It also would be no problem for people with backup generators (I don’t have one of those but again, I’m in an area with minimal severe weather).</p>
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I can hear my cell phone (iPhone) through much of my house but of course, not everywhere depending on where it’s at. However, because of work, I tend to have the cell phone near me most of the time and can almost always hear it ring including in places where the landline wouldn’t work well unless I carried the cordless phone (which btw won’t work in a power outage) with me but I don’t since it’s kind of bulky. My cell phone, which is small and light, I carry with me when I head to the back 40, into the garage, up to the mailbox, out to the store, etc.</p>
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Yes, in a major emergency, like a big earthquake or our huge brush fires or something, the cell network would likely be overwhelmed but actually, so can the landline and this has happened before (the landline phone systems is designed for a max number of concurrent calls which is a far lower number than the actual phone lines out there). I guess I’m not too concerned about that since it’s unlikely to happen very often and if I’m going to call anyone it’d likely be to contact one of my kids - both of whom only have cell phones. If you’re concerned about power outages make sure you have at least one landline that’s powered by the phone network and not dependent on house power like my cordless phones. </p>
<p>I know there are good reasons for some people to hang onto the landline but the more I think about it the more I think I don’t really need it and wouldn’t mind skipping that bill that’s loaded up with item after item of various ‘regulatory fees’ making something that I don’t use that often much more expensive than it s/b.</p>
<p>And on the health concern about the radio transmissions of a cell phone - I agree that people s/b concerned enough to take a couple of simple precautions like using a bluetooth headset or the speakerphone for the longer conversations. Even having the phone a few inches away from the head reduces the intensity of the radio waves hitting the head considerably.</p>