<p>As I sit down to pay bills, I have to wonder why we still have a landline. Is there any reason to keep it? Is it important to have it for emergencies? What do you guys do?</p>
<p>My internet is DSL provided through my landline. I have considered switching it to our local cable provider and discontinuing the landline. However, I live in Ky. and after our recent ice storm, where those who use AT&T cell service lost that, their landlines, cable, etc. as part of the power outages, I have decided to stay put. I got landline back much quicker than cell service since AT&T didn’t have generators to power their towers and the cable company had outages of up to one month. I would have gone nuts with an internet outage for that long!</p>
<p>A land line is definitely important for us. There’s no cell service in this area, which is surprising considering we live on Long Island (NY).</p>
<p>We have 2 landlines-- phone and fax. Our cable/cable company is painfully inconsistent, and people who have switched to them for their phone service have been miserable. Also, I prefer to leave my cellphone on for emergencies during the day and do not always have a pocket to keep it in, so cant set it on vibrate, but I do not want to be fielding “home” calls when I am at work (this includes reminders that my pest control guy is coming, solicitations for fundraising from my, my H’s and my kids schools, etc. etc etc). Also, if I happen to accidentally leave my cellphone at work, I have a phone to use, and my H and I cant share one cellphone or phone #. Oh, and did I mention that our cellphone quality is lousy in different parts of the house? If I am onteh phone and come into my kitchen from the garage, the quality of the signal drops. Not convenient.</p>
<p>Yes, and we intend to keep it. Like jym, we have two lines, and use one for a fax (I work from home). I almost never use my cellphone anyway, and find old-fashioned corded phones much more comfortable to hold against my ear, not to mention that the sound quality is always perfect. I even bought a refurbished princess phone for our bedroom. :)</p>
<p>We have a landline and DSL with ATT, but I understand we can continue the DSL and loose the landline. However, I keep it to have a “home phone” number to give out to businesses etc as I DO NOT WANT THOSE CALLS to come to my cell. And the more you give out your cell, the more it appears in public records and the more calls you will get. If you use it as your contact number, it will begin to show up on the internet and you will get calls.</p>
<p>I have though about getting/using an internet-based phone number to give out, one that I would not use or check much ;). </p>
<p>I agree about emergencies: after the hurricanes that hit us in 2004 and 2005, cell service was out longer than landlines, and internet-based communication was tricky–when we had phone and DSL back on, we still did NOT HAVE POWER. We had limited generator power, and getting the modem, the wireless router and a computer all powered was NOT EASY. So we keep a landline…</p>
<p>I have to have a landline. My cell does not get service in my home or area. I only use the cell when I travel and leave the immediate area.</p>
<p>yes (10 characters)…and a phone with a cord (not a cordless…needed when the power goes out).</p>
<p>Oops-- typo in post# 4-- I don’t want to be fielding house related calls (or telemarketing calls) from work-- let them leave that stuff on my home answering machine. </p>
<p>Since I do use my phone/fax partly for work related things, I can take part of the expense as a tax deduction. Small consolation, I suppose.</p>
<p>As an aside, my s left his phone charger at his gf’s last week when he visited her, and his phone was dead. He didnt wasnt to have to use his roommates phone, so he was inconvenienced and without a phone til the charger arrived. Since he routinely ignores our emails (unless they are entitles “are you alive” or “we will send money if you respond” – jk), the only way I “caught” him to ask a question was on facebook! He keeps his AIM off too. Grrr. Kids.</p>
<p>onward:</p>
<p>Yes I still have one but like you, I wonder why. I really don’t need one anymore with the advent of the cell phone. If I were to move to another house I doubt I’d get a land line as long as there was reasonable cell service where I lived. Even if I don’t move I might get rid of the landline I have at some point. </p>
<p>I think the whole paradigm is changing due to cell phones. My D doesn’t have a landline and won’t get one unless she switches to DSL at some point - she now has a cablemodem for broadband access. Many of us have cell phones regarless for safety reasons (stranded in the car), convenience (“I’m at the grocery - what do you need”), and access/portability - it’s with us all the time even when we’re in another part of the country or world. On top of that most plans include no long distance charges. So, given all of this, there’s little need for a landline for people who have decent cell phone reception and aren’t forced into a landline due to having DSL.</p>
<p>We have a landline only because it’s part of a cable TV/internet/phone package. The only people who call us on it are telemarketers. We almost never get real calls on it.</p>
<p>We get our DSL through phone so keep the landline. However, we did do away with long distance service. H & I & S1 & S2 each have our own cell, but my cell # is rarely given out. I give landline for all contacts (drs., pharmacy, home services, banking). Most calls to landline are telemarketers, but answering machine picks up dr. apt reminders, etc. One thing I hate about my cell phone is that you can’t skip a message without listening to the whole thing, so I’d hate to receive non-essential messages there.</p>
<p>Yes. I prefer talking on a “real” phone. Plus cell phone reception is spotty in our house. It is not nearly as clear of a connection.
We did recently drop our 2nd line which had at one time been my H’s business line and fax. The 2nd line was pre-cell phone era when my H needed to make his work calls in the early am and in the evening. Now everyone has a cell and those calls can be made during the day.</p>
<p>I still have it. I think it’s safer to do online banking on a wire than wireless.</p>
<p>yes, we have a land line for the first time in 4-5 years. after we moved, we went ahead with a cable, phone, and internet package. it was nice to have it because when i installed a security system, we needed a landline. </p>
<p>i don’t have any idea what the number is! the ringer is actually turned off and i never check messages. the phone is located in one of the bedrooms that we never use, so i never notice if we have messages.</p>
<p>Yes, we still have one and I’d LOVE to be rid of it. But I’d love to be rid of my Cable company also, and ridding myself of both means no internet. So as unreliable as it is, we’re keeping our AT&T DSL and the accompanying land line.</p>
<p>If your home phone service is provided by your cable TV/internet provider then you DON’T have a land line.</p>
<p>If you live in a hurricane area (I do), keeping a landline is right up there with keeping a supply of batteries.</p>
<p>Getting rid of the landline associated with your Cable costs $10.</p>
<p>At home, we have a landline ($5.50 plan which costs $16 after fees and taxes). We also use the landline for local calls (150 minutes free per month) and Yahoo Voice for long-distance calls (a penny or two per minute). We also have pay-as-you-go cell phones.</p>
<p>We had ice storms this winter and power outages so I’m inclined to keep things where they are now.</p>
<p>
As long as you apply the appropriate security settings on the wireless it should be just as secure as the wired connection. In both cases it would be possible for one to eavesdrop on the packets but they’d be encrypted so they wouldn’t be able to do anything with it. The key (pun) in either case is making sure the connection is adequately encrypted. Regardless, you still have a wired connection available whether using a phone line or cablemodem line so you could just plug a lan cable straight into the router from your laptop and skip the wireless even with no phone line.</p>