To prevent thread spread from the very entertaining “what’s on your kitchen counter?” here’s the “ditch the land line?” thread.
Right now the only reason we keep it is to give out a number that we know telemarketers will end up using. We don’t even have the ringer on-we just check the messages via the internet (we have comcast for our landline).
I’m thinking we just ditch it, or somehow keep the landline number for some super cheap online access only thing?
Ah, intertia-it’s annoying to have the landline, a pita to get rid of it…
A land line is good for serious emergencies. A call to 911 from a land line and they know where you are in case you can’t give them an address. Also in a serious emergency that is city-wide, cell towers will be swamped with calls. The landline will still work.
I kept my original landline phone # even though it now wireless. I have the same 4 handsets. I couldnt be bothered letting the hundreds of people know that number wasn’t in service anymore and to use my cell phone #. I pay $10 extra a month on my cell phone bill.
@MotherOfDragons – do you mean land line in the true AT&T definition (as opposed to VOIP provided by cable company). I still have my cordless phones but service is provided by the cable company. Our town’s reverse 911 seems to have all phone #s programmed in. I do not think this was the case ten or maybe even five years ago, but they do now. Perhaps check with your local police and see how they handle this.
We also kept our landline number and switched to wireless. I am NOT happy with the reception. I can hear people fine, but callers frequently say, “You’re breaking up.” I’ve talked to Verizon about it, but they’re no help.
We have our home office number on cable, and it works great except when cable goes out. I would love to go back to a landline, but it’s expensive. Sometimes I miss the old days, when I knew the phone would work when I picked it up!
We still have a landline as it is critical that H be reached / be able to reach out 24/7. And sometimes we will call our kids from the landline if cell reception isn’t good. But otherwise, I’d dump it.
I prefer the sound quality and ease of talking on my landline so I use it a lot. I also can’t call my sister in Europe on my cell (although she can call my landline) and even though we can Viber, Skype, etc., the quality of those services is very spotty.
My local company is pretty good at blocking junk calls. I actually get more junk calls on my cell phone although I block all the numbers as soon as I can.
Also, I know a woman who was robbed in her house and had no way to call the police since the robber took her cell phone and laptop. She waited until the next day to go to a neighbor’s house.
Landlines less and less are true landlines, the old twisted pair copper connection that would work even when the power went out (landlines run on their own power, and the only real power is the 6 volts to run the ringer). I still have a landline with Verizon, but about a year and a half ago they basically switched it over to VOIP (voice over IP) using the FIOS digital network (I have the big FIOS box in my basement (basically a network router, like a cable modem), it is identical to cable voice over IP. If you lose power, unless you have the battery backup and/or a generator, it will be as dead as cable tv and it uses the same kind of 911 access that cable phones do.
Over time they will likely get rid of most if not all true landlines, among other things all that copper wire is expensive stuff these days, the phone company can get a pretty penny selling that off (fiber optics are plastic, dirt cheap).
If your landline is the number you used to put on your credit card applications or utility bills, you might want to contact them to change the phone number. Otherwise, they will make you enter the account number etc. when you call instead of recognizing you as calling from the number in their database.
We keep our landline because we live in a cell signal black hole (cell providers think we are not entitled to a free booster according to their map) and because we lose power several times a year. And we use it for DSL because the other option is the despicable Comcast.
Yeah, I’m thinking it’s worth keeping it just to avoid the aggravation of telling all the cc companies, etc. that it changed.
H uses it for work since the cell reception in our house for both of our companies (him Sprint through work, me t-mobile) isn’t good. It’s bundled with our internet, so it’s not a “true” landline, but we loathe AT&T so that’s not an option.
I don’t consider a phone through the internet a true landline phone. A real landline will work when the power is out and isn’t dependent on your cable company, also I thought it was safer for 911 calls. However last year we had a dryer fire and when I called 911 the operator asked for my address!! So I figured why am I spending $70/month and when adding a cell phone was only $20/month? So I switched. so far no problems.
We had Vonage Internet service for a number of years and got rid of it in April. The yearly cost kept going up and we didn’t even have an actual phone set up with it. We did have Vonage voicemail and really just used it for messages. The cost and the fact that everyone we want to talk to has our cell numbers made us drop Vonage. We just have cells now.
We have kept or true landline and have no plans to get rid of it. I use it for outgoing calls when I’m home as the reception is better. We screen incoming calls with caller ID, so no worries with nuisance calls.
I’m not sure how it works but we dropped the Comcast voip (bundled with cable tv) and got Phone.com voip for $12 / month. We don’t answer that phone unless its a relative but use it for online shopping, etc when number is required but not necessarily going to be used. Any digital voice mail messages left on that telephone number automatically sends me an email with the voice recording that I can listen to whenever, wherever I want to. Most political and solicitation calls go to the home number.
I still have a landline and it’s my main phone. I might consider ditching it after my mom dies but I’m concerned that if I dropped it now, she would get confused about how to reach me. Also, as people have said upthread, the reception is better.
I have 2 landlines! The alarm system is attached to the second line, which also functions as the fax, which I rarely use. AT&T had a GUARANTEED RATE FOR LIFE for these 2 lines. Well that “guarantee” as a joke, as the rate has doubled. They gave me some cock and bull story about how they changed all contracts (um how can they do that?) and as a “compensation” put a permanent $10 discount on my account. Then my rate went up by $10. What a joke.
I have considered switching to voyage or Magic jack (the newer offer) but I hear they then “own” your phone #. Don’t like that. I have a lot of things attached to the landline (and I forget what-- lots of accounts like rue lala, utilities, etc) and am too lazy to check them all
I’ve talked to Verizon about it, but they’re no help.