<p>We let ours go over 2 years ago and haven’t missed it at all. We have a phone connected and are able to call 911 in emergencies. I think that is standard in most states. I use my cell number for everything and only occasionally receive marketing calls. Just not an issue. My college kids know I sleep with my cell and can reach me in the middle of the night. </p>
<p>Also there are many online fax services such as eFax that replace a fax line. </p>
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<p>I’ve found that for many if not most potential fax recipients, I can scan the document and send it as an email attachment. </p>
<p>But have you checked out something like efax, which assigns you a virtual phone number that can be used as a to and from fax number? Any doc on your computer can be faxed. There are a variety of free and paid options that may be cheaper than maintaining a land line. And efax is not the same only service to do this. </p>
<p>Privacy is compromised when you send documents via email. The documents may stay on the web forever.</p>
<p>I replaced ATT landline ($45/month) with Ooma internet phone. You can keep your phone number and can have your home address registered for 911 service. I pay only $3.98/month required by the FCC now.</p>
<p>You can have a dedicated second line for fax too.</p>
<p><a href=“http://ooma.com/[/url]”>http://ooma.com/</a></p>
<p>We keep planning to replace the home phone with Ooma or Magic Jack but every time our internet service provider contract is up, bundling the phone always works out cheaper. Though I guess technically we don’t have a landline anymore since it is via the ISP. That makes it less reliable than the old Landline, we lose the home phone if the internet goes out or if the power is out for more than 12hours.</p>
<p>We still have a landline. During that October 29 snowstorm and the October 29 hurricane Sandy, we were the only ones on our street of 14 houses with phone service. Everyone else had either cells (cell towers were OUT) or phones hooked into internet or VOIP (no power, no phone).</p>
<p>We have a hardwired regular wall phone in our kitchen that worked just fine. We were the only ones who could make calls…and the whole neighborhood used our phone for several days until power and cell service was restored. </p>
<p>Ours is part of a bundle with our internet. I think the phone is $10 a month. </p>
<p>I guess we’ll also keep ours for when the power is out, which usually happens several times a year. But 90% of the incoming calls are junk.</p>
<p>My dad still keeps the landline with just a local plan. That way he can use it for 911 (hopefully not necessary!) and for 800 calls, since we don’t have an unlimited plan on our cell phones. (It still seems weird that 800 numbers are supposed to be toll-free but still count for your minutes.) When he wants to call relatives overseas, he uses a phone card on the land line and doesn’t have to worry about eating up cell phone minutes as well. Plus, he can receive international calls on the landline at no cost, unlike the ridiculousness of cell phones that charge you for the incoming calls!</p>
<p>I too struggle with letting go of the landline. I just made a huge move and cut our bill down to $17 month by dropping caller ID and only allowing local calls from the phone.( now I am going to have to be better about listening to the answering machine)</p>
<p>For those with only a cell phone, do you have to give out your cell number for online ordering, etc? </p>
<p>While one generation older has trouble giving up the landline, people my age (20s) just never get one in the first place and never feel like we’re missing anything!</p>
<p>I have had the same argument with my wife, our landline is not cheap, and quite frankly, I wonder if it is worth it. Among other things, local phone companies have basically switched a lot of users to IP based phone whether they know it or not. When you have a copper based land line, it doesn’t need power to operate, if you have a non powered phone (ie basic touch tone phone), and in an emergency it would mean having phone service, assuming the lines did not go down. They recently converted our phone line to digital (it is basically using the FIOS interface, we have the FIOS interface unit in the basement, our phone lines plug into it) and if power goes, it will go (it does have a batter backup). </p>
<p>Since power is now an issue with my regular line, it would be cheaper to go IP over my cable connection (or get FIOS) then keep the landline, just debating which way to go. Since I am planning to get a full time backup generator as soon as I can afford it, power wouldn’t be an issue anyway. </p>
<p>Yes, I think it’s a good idea to have UPS in the house.</p>
<p>I found these, not sure how good they are yet:
<a href=“http://lifehacker.com/five-best-battery-backups-ups-units-1465536280[/url]”>http://lifehacker.com/five-best-battery-backups-ups-units-1465536280</a></p>
<p>A UPS only works for a limited time (I have one on my pc and router and cable modem), it generally will last about 40 minutes depending on the unit and what you have on it. I don’t know how much power the FIOS thing would use, but it probably only would last as long as the battery you can get for the unit. </p>
<p>You only need to connect your cable/DSL modem and IP phone device (Ooma in my case) to the UPS to have long battery operation time. Don’t connect computers and other devices to it.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.practicallynetworked.com/networking/082307ups.htm[/url]”>http://www.practicallynetworked.com/networking/082307ups.htm</a></p>
<p>Although you want to keep the land line, the phone companies will disappoint you.</p>
<p>“AT&T’s Plan For the Future: No Landlines, Less Regulation”</p>
<p><a href=“http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304834704579403090132882148[/url]”>http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304834704579403090132882148</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.salon.com/2013/07/09/telephone_companies_abandon_copper_phone_lines_ap/[/url]”>http://www.salon.com/2013/07/09/telephone_companies_abandon_copper_phone_lines_ap/</a></p>
<p>Now I understand why my basic land line fee ramped from $10 to $45.</p>
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<p>Privacy can also be compromised when a fax is lying around on the fax machine in an office. Pick your poison. </p>
<p>I assume no privacy and hope for the best. </p>
<p>Just today JP Morgan Chase revealed that 76 million accounts were compromised in this summer’s cyber attack. </p>
<p>A couple of years ago when the power went out for most of Southern California due to a problem in an Arizona power station, the only thing that worked was our land line (with an older phone). All of the cellular system voice lines went down. Text was working but everything else was gone. Keeping the land line.</p>
<p>Got rid of the landline (which was not really a landline anyway, since it was supplied by Comcast over their cable lines) two years ago and haven’t missed it. </p>
<p>Well it is true that I am almost 60, I got the idea from a younger friend and both D’s have only cells. The way I look at it is, we have come a long way from the early 80s when there was a phone call message when you got home on your answering machine. You get used to having the cell around the level of the house you are in and you can usually hear it. I think what makes a difference is that we were empty nesters when we did it and did not have as much worry.</p>
<p>Our landline phone stopped working 2 days ago, ATT said it’s inside but no one can find issue so I am taking it as a sign to move on (Frontier is taking over ATT landlines soon) My sister has Magic Jack, (so-so quality) and a cell and my neighbor had her landline number put on a Go-phone (she is using old samsung impression) and paid 9.99 for sym card. She uses it like her landline for 25.00 a month, down from her 70 bill. She likes it, still has caller-id, can text if needed and never comes close to 250 hours a month.
Still debating what we will do. We never lost cell service in storm, can only hope that continues.</p>
<p>We just dropped our land line last month. I liked the idea of having a family number, but in reality we never used it. The only calls we got were sales and political calls and robocalls from the school district (which they also send by email). Dinnertime is much more peaceful now!</p>