<p>fireflyscout, We keep out landline for the same reason. </p>
<p>Also, while it is becoming less and less frequent,we do occasionally still lose cel coverage in the house for a few hours. I’m too much of a worrier to not have a landline as a backup. For me, it’s a small price to pay for the peace of mind.</p>
<p>Land line is built with “never fail,” whereas wireless is not. We also have an old fashion phone in case of power failure. I don’t think I would give up my land line any time soon.</p>
<p>The defeat of SSL by MITM attacks in certain certificate situations has me concerned about online transaction security. WiFi encryption can be broken with certain hardware devices. My son was in a lecture where a guy from RSA (I think) talked about this. I had a meeting with a guy that tested network security for companies talk about a similar device.</p>
<p>Yes, but I don’t like paying for it. Still, we have a lot of power failures, so a landline is useful because the phone doesn’t have to be recharged. Also, cell phone service within my house is not very good. If I make cell phone calls from there, I often have trouble hearing the other person.</p>
<p>My 22-year-old son has no landline, though. I think this is a trend in his generation.</p>
<p>I try to make my local calls from my landline, so that I don’t build up cell phone minutes, and my long-distance calls from my cell phone, so that I don’t get charged for long-distance calls by my landline provider.</p>
<p>I have noticed recently that people in my office are increasingly making long-distance BUSINESS calls from their personal cell phones because the procedure for getting approval for a long-distance call from the company’s landlines is so complex and annoying. As long as you have plenty of cell phone minutes, why not?</p>
<p>Marian,
I had the long distance access fees removed from my BellSouth landline several years ago. I could still make a long distance call in an emergency for something like $1+ a minute, but I make all long distance calls from my cell. Since D is on a family plan, her number is local. The only long distance number I call regularly is S and since he is far more talkative when he calls me, I only call him a few times each month. The savings for this are only $5 a month, but every little bit helps.</p>
<p>I get frustrated when I’m trying to get hold of someone who doesn’t have a landline anymore. I end up calling other people trying to find their cell phone number! I want people to be able to get hold of me, so I won’t get rid of the landline until there’s a good directory for cell phone numbers.</p>
<p>I need my landline to find my cell when misplaced. Loosing a cell is just too easy. </p>
<p>For safety reasons, storms, loss, I want a landline. I can hear better on a landline as well, and cells are not made for the many tasks I take on while talking on the phone. Too tiny, too slippery.</p>
<p>If you don’t mind calling from your computer, there are services that run a penny or two a minute for long distance.</p>
<p>I will keep a landline for those rare times when cell phones don’t work. It’s worth the price to know I can use it when really necessary. I will not have my landline go through the internet and cable provider for the same reason. Small price to pay for reassurance. There will also always be at least one phone that is corded.</p>
<p>Cell phones went down over 9/11, so I’d just as soon have a landline. We did remove long distance service from it though. I have a landline for work that I use mostly for faxes.</p>
<p>I have kept the landline and have no plans to get rid of it. Someone else mentioned not wanting “home” calls on her cell while at work and I second that. I also don’t want my phone ringing as I am driving, etc. I take my cell every time I leave the house, but at home I turn it off.</p>
<p>Well, thanks for all the opinions. I think for now we will keep the landline. We do still have our wired phone in the basement in case of storms (tornadoes in this part of the country). It might even be a rotary dial!</p>
<p>We had 2 lines (of course) in NJ but when we moved to NC 9 months ago we just didn’t bother to have a landline installed and don’t feel the need to have one. Funny, I still get the urge to “check my messages” every time I walk into the house and then remember, “oh… if someone had called me I would have gotten the call” lol.</p>
<p>We still have our landline, corded to the wall with no caller id. If cell phones don’t work, the landline will, and our plan is very cheap. Our cell plan allows for free long distance and plenty of minutes for all of our calling. We have an answering machine hooked up to the landline for our line of defense against telemarketers.</p>
<p>I was really getting frustrated with multiple, daily calls on my landline exhorting me to buy extended warranties for our 15 and 6 year-old cars. Nothing I said or did would make them stop. So I just handed the job over to the answering machine, and my blood pressure has returned to normal.</p>
<p>My D has no landline, but I like having it as back-up.</p>
<p>We have a landline and I encourage family and friends to use it rather than our various cell phones. I think it’s important to have a “community” phone; I like being able to say hi to my daughter’s best friend or my husband’s co-worker or my son’s girlfriend before I hand the phone over. And I don’t think the callers mind at all. If my parents phone, for example, they enjoy the chance to speak to one of their grandchildren or their son-in-law before they get to me. The landline allows us to be more aware of what’s going on in one another’s lives.</p>
<p>Another landline person here! My reasons for paying $25/month for it:
<p>Mary: I completely agree with you. Luckily, there were no cell phones for teens when mine were that age, but I did like the fact that people had to go through me to talk to my kids. I think that if I had kids under the age of maybe 15-16, I wouldn’t let them have a cell phone.</p>
<p>Like most of America, or at least like most of my late-baby boom generation, I’ve got both and I likely won’t give up the landline, for all the good reasons stated in this thread. Power has been out on my block three times since December (local utility company finally installed a new transformer last month), leading me to discover that even wireless phones plugged into the landline do not work without electricity. So I keep the MANY (LOL) old landline phones handy in the closet.</p>
<p>An anecdote about exclusive use of cell phones; I was frustrated to no end during a trip out-of-state to visit a relative in his new house. I called, and called and called upon my arrival. And kept calling from the hotel during my stay. Never got an answer. Knowing the sometimes spontaneous nature of this particular relative, I figured something came up so that he just wasn’t available during this 3-day weekend. Plus, I had a full agenda of other activities, as this was my first visit to that state and city. Still, I was fairly annoyed by the time I was waiting at the airport for the return trip home. Finally, at the airport my cell phone rang. Of course, it was him. He and his wife profusely apologized, explaining that they had just discovered my many messages on the landline answering machine, which most days they don’t even bother to look at because they each have cell phones which they use instead.</p>
<p>We have kept our landline also. One for the alarm system and also so that it is not a “registered” number for anyone but friends and families. Like some other posters, I do not want all those “home” calls coming into my cell phone.</p>
<p>My d. does not have a landline and it drives me crazy. I worry about if she called 911 because of a fire, break-in, or medical emergency and could not stay on line (or her battery was dead) would they be able to locate her?</p>
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<p>You only pay $16 per month for your landline? Do you have a package deal for internet, phone, and cable? Cell phone coverage in my town is limited and it’s even worse in my house (can’t get it at all), so I keep a landline and Verizon is the provider in my area. I pay about $50 per month without long distance (I pay extra for caller ID and answering service.) For those of you who pay low monthly fees (like $16 dollars) for your landline, who is your provider?</p>