Your landline: Think twice before cutting the cord
A while ago, my wife and I did what we do from time to time — ask if there’s another cost-saving opportunity we’ve overlooked. I don’t know about you, but the quest for fiscal prudence is generally at its highest in our household after some indulgent purchase. “Hey, look! We can compensate for this luxo-foobie by slashing costs here!” (Are we the only people who do this?)
The indulgence in question was an iPhone. My trooper wife had been braving modern civilization with a dumb phone. (Someone from the ’80s would have called a slim, foldable phone which sends text messages anything but dumb, but that’s a different subject.) It worked fine and was cheap, but, well, even it began to show signs of age. Cell phones not being fine wine, I decided to surprise her with an iPhone, to heck with the cost. She did not resist.
Soon, however, guilt replaced the excitement, prompting the aforementioned introspection.
It didn’t take long to identify a monthly cost glaring obviously at us — the landline. It cost us around $80 a month, bundled with DSL. That’s a thousand bucks a year. Hey, that’s almost what we’re paying for the smartphone.
Why Did We Still Need That Dinosaur?
The arguments for its extermination are compelling, and we listed them with gusto:
1. We already have a phone each. Why do we still need yet another one? Besides, the cellphones have such convenient speed dials set up. My Blackberry (no comments, please) takes but one button-push to dial any of my friends, and hers is almost as good (not quite, but almost). We never make calls from the landline anymore.
2. The phones we have are with us wherever we go. The landline only works when we’re home.
3. Flexibility. When you get a call and there’s noise in the room, which is not uncommon in football season, you simply get up, take the phone with you and move to the patio or some other quiet place.
4. The cellphones are already expensive. Actually, let’s rephrase that:Smartphones are expensive. First, you pay more simply because it’s a smartphone, and then you pay for the data access on top of that. Of course, they can do much more than a plain old telephone. But the point is that we’re already paying so much for these gizmos, they have to, for all that money, be able to supplant the dinosaur. Right?
5. Why pay twice for Internet access? We had a DSL/landline setup, as well as a data plan for our smartphones. Cut both the DSL and landline and, presto, we’re not really such indulgent wastrels any more!
6. The landline bill keeps rising. The Big Money monopolies and their Big Government buddies keep finding innovative ways to keep that “basic” phone bill escalating by adding all manner of taxes and obscurely named fees. As a result, the final bill on a “basic” landline is about double what the actual landline is supposed to cost.
7. Join the herd. Almost 40 percent of households do without landlines, relying only on cell phones. If they can do it, so can we. No, make that: soshould we.
8. And then, of course, thepiece de resistance: those infernal robocallers. Our “servants” in the District of Columbia saw it fit to exempt themselves from the “Do Not Call” list, so every two years they love bombarding us all with countless dinnertime telemarketing calls. That’s in addition to 700 local charities bombarding us with calls to come and pick up any crap we’d like to put out for them. (Maybe that’s a sign, but that’s for another time.) We’ve been religious in renewing our Do Not Call listing, but we still get five or more unsolicited phone calls on the landline every day. On the other hand, calling cell phones is more expensive for those nasty people than dialing landlines. Why? Because by law cell phone numbers must be dialed manually, making automated calls to cell phones illegal. The difference is very noticeable.
When we got to that argument, we high-fived each other. That was it! The landline must go. We felt so much better … and immediately went out for dinner to celebrate our thriftiness. (One must never let brilliance of this magnitude go unrewarded. Coming up with unassailable reasons to eat dinner out is, as you can tell, a finely honed skill in these quarters.)
A few months later, the euphoria was gone, and the lovely dinner long forgotten, as dinners usually are. My good wife had become an Apple fangirl, complete with iPad.
But…
That was the good news. There was, unfortunately, some news not quite as good:
1. Standards. We discovered that we had different standards for Internet performance for home and elsewhere. When we’re at a WiFi spot or on the road, we’re tolerant if speeds are, shall we say, “side street.” But when we’re home, we expect the Autobahn. Side street speed doesn’t cut it at home.
Cell data technology is less than perfect. You can talk to a friend just fine from our house, but data transmission gets interrupted constantly. Several calls to Verizon resulted in different solutions, all of which went back to them after a week or so. They were very gracious in sending stuff and taking it back, but at the end of the day we were stuck with lousy Internet service.
2. Voice quality. We also discovered something we never realized before: The quality of a conversation is much, much better on a landline than a cell phone. In fact, we joke amongst ourselves that, if cell phones were all we had and someone came along with a new invention called a landline, that person would be hailed as a hero, win a Nobel prize and sell his company for several billion dollars in much the same way that television went from wireless to cable.
3. International. Being foreign-born, most of our family is in Europe and Africa. When they call us, it’s free on the landline, but now we were paying for each (long) call. The calling plans for landlines are usually cheaper than what you can find for a cell phone — and with better quality.
4. Satellite. We use a satellite TV provider, and they charge us $5 a month more if we don’t have a landline. Several hours of wrangling with numerous people of various ranks (including an insider friend) got us nowhere. I still don’t understand why that’s so, but it is. And that, of course, eats up some of the supposed savings.
Seeing it like that made me feel like a bozo for rushing into the Apple thing. Sigh.
OK, so now what?
I did what I first should have done when I was overcome by telemarketer hatred: I did some basic research. It turns out there are several other, quite important, reasons to think twice about cutting the landline cord.
5. You don’t need to keep it charged.
6. When it rings, you always know where it is. You don’t have to turn the place upside down to track down where you put it when you dropped the groceries on the counter, or went to the bathroom.
7. 911. There’s a night-and-day difference in how 911 calls are handled. A landline call goes straight to the call center and they immediately know where you are. Help is on its way within seconds. Make a 911 call with a cell phone and it’s a different story. A number of hoops suddenly appear, through which you have to jump before they’ll even think of sending someone. And you have to spell out your address. Forget O.J. Simpson. If you’re in a high-density area like a condo or apartment complex, they have no way to pinpoint your location with a cell phone.
So, if there’s an intruder in your home, you can pick up a landline phone, call 911 and set it down. Maybe whisper “burglar” or something. But you don’t need to alert the intruder as to your whereabouts or that the black-and-whites are on their way. Try doing that with a cell phone, and you end up spending several minutes trying to persuade someone (over a less than perfect connection) to please come and help and where to come, alerting the burglar where you are and what you’re doing.
8. Kids. If kids need to make an emergency call, they know exactly where the landline phone is (every time). It’s much faster and easier for them to call from a landline than a cell phone: pick it up, dial the number, done. With a cell phone, they first have to find out where it is, then push several buttons and follow prompts before they even enter the number. Oh, and once the number is dialed, there’s yet another button to click to Send.
9. General emergencies. In a general emergency, the cellular system gets clogged much quicker than the landline system, so your chances of getting through on a landline are (while not perfect) much better.
The Upshot
One of the benefits of dealing with Big Companies is the person you call to eat humble pie and ask to take you back is not the person you spoke to you when you told them (politely of course) to pound sand a few months ago.
We now have the DSL/landline back in operation. Internet speed at home is, while perhaps not the Autobahn, at least urban freeway.
And, because some of us got spoiled with the luxury of a smartphone, we have no choice but to accept that our spending has gone up. OK, stick a fork in me.
Of course, if the guilt and shame become too much to bear, we can always sell our home and look for one1,000 square feet or less…
What do you think? Can you make it work without a landline?
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There are 144 comments to "Your landline: Think twice before cutting the cord".
Did you consider going with a company like Ting for your wife’s iPhone? We switched from Verizon to Ting with our iPhones and absolutely love how low our bill is (so far < $50 every month for 2 iPhones). That savings seems a lot easier than trying to get by without DSL at home, but then again we've never had a home phone and have no plans to.
We’ve got five smart phones (not iPhones) and pay under $100/mo including texting and data. We have wifi at home, aren’t big talkers and our kids (15-21) freakishly don’t use their phones for much besides calling/texting us for rides, but still. We’re paying less with Ting than we did with ATT with talk only and dumb phones.
We don’t use a landline for phone, but we’d cut a lot of other stuff before we’d consider dropping wifi.
We took another turn. Alsi we had landline bills of $80 or so. Wie have cute phone service but kept the internet connection and turned our old phone number to magic jack. It was a great idea.Magic jack cost us $ 35 for a year w/ unlimited calls within the US. We heve our answering machine working like ever before. If the magic jack landline is ringing we can pick it up with either of our 2 iPhones. And the quality of our MJ landline is much better then the wired connection was ever before. TOM
We have a landline, but it’s VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol). We were without power for almost exactly a week after Sandy hit. The battery backup from FiOS lasted about 5 hours. My son charged his iPhone in the car. I accidentally dialed my mother-in-law’s house phone and it worked! She still had an old phone company land line that had power independent of her house. The cell phone companies got portable cell towers up pretty quickly, but they went down just like the trees that took out the power lines.
I switched my Verizon land line to Vonage – works great except when Internet provider (Comcast) has an outage (it is uncommon). Cut my bill in half. Do not know why the cost for 1 land line is over $70/month.
I still have my landline…use infrequently. Only for business purposes as the audio is better.
My question is…can I just have my cell phone & CUT out cable completely ? I don’t use a laptop…I use my cell phone for everything…
I want to forego paying the 150.00 to 180.00 cable bill…&….pay ONLY my cell phone bill I have with SPRINT….
We need to land line as well for our home security system.
i had a magic jack but it was up for renewal and they want 100 dollars for 5 years. i bought a OBi100 VoIP Telephone Adapter and Voice Service Bridge
from amazon for 38 bucks. it works with google talk and i use my cell phone number. i just plug the unit into my modem and the wireless phone jack into that the other part of the wireless phone jack i plug into my dish tv because if i dont have it pluged into a land line they will charge me 5 buck a month and wamo it works. so no more magic jack bill. and final cost forever. 38 bucks. try it with your security system.
I have a landline because wireless is pricy here in Canada. I have a smart phone through work, so it doesn’t make sense for me to pay for a second one (especially since I hardly use the first…)
A couple more advantages of a landline:
– No one is going to rob you for it. There was a rash of iPhone thefts in my area last summer. Not just pickpocketing, but muggings.
– You aren’t left without service if you lose or break your phone. (And landline phones are cheap to replace if you do.)
– You don’t have to worry about security so much. Crooks can’t hack a landline phone, unlike the recent randsomware attacks on iPhones and iPads in Australia. There is a lot of personal information on a smart phone.
Not that these advantages should be taken as reasons to avoid smart phones, but rather smart phone owners do have to be more cautious than landline users.
I do find it funny how some people think that landline = phone plugged into the wall. I have a cordless phone (as well as a phone with a cord) so it I have the some mobility around my home. I’m also good at letting the battery die or misplacing it though!
Further to Elizabeth’s comments, and from someone else in Canada:
– I still have a landline. My cell phone is for my business only. My accountant told me that Revenue Canada likes when the cell phone, rather than the landline, is the company phone — easier to track, I guess.
– I don’t need to be in contact with all my friends and family at any moment during the day. This has always been my biggest issue with cell phones and their users.
– I find that cell phones, and their batteries, aren’t lasting as long as they used to. Once upon a time, I looked at replacing my cell phone every 5-7 years, now I’m looking at every 2-3 years.
– For my next cell phone purchase, I’m looking at two things: 1) buying a used, unlocked phone; 2) doing pay-as-you-go. I don’t use my phone for internet because I know it’s slower. This gets me away from data plans. Pay-as-you-go will release me from all those unused minutes that I’m currently paying for under my plan. Buying a used unlocked phone will allow me to make use of someone’s else urge for the latest and greatest gadget for much, much less.
We cut our land-line about 5 years ago, and in the past year went to smart phones (android) for all four of us (our sons are in college). My husband’s phone is subsidized through his work, and we share the lowest-level data plan. There’s free wifi at work, on campus, and just about everywhere we go. We have cable internet at home (but no cable TV).
But the reality is that smart phones are going to be more expensive than dumb phones. We end up paying about $50 more a month than when we all had dumb phones.
I still have a landline, but it’s the VOIP-based Ooma. After the upfront cost, it’s only about $4/month. I’ve had it for nearly two years and it works great.
I have Ooma. They support 911 service. Your address is automatically given to the operator. And your right, it only costs about $3-4/month.
if i use OOMA and cancel my Century LINK landline, can I use their modem still?
I can’t stand talking on a mobile device for any significant amount of time, so I would never give up my landline. Right now we have our landline through the cable company, which means that we don’t get one of the big perks of a landline, namely access to it when the power is out.
I have a dumb and cheap flip phone, which gets giggles from my friends with fancier phones. But it does the job for me, and it only costs $10 a month. I basically treat it as an emergency phone, which means that when people ask for my phone number, I give out my landline still. The downside to this is that people assume it is a cell phone and that they can either text to it or that I am accessible at all times. I have run into difficulties when people made assumptions. But I don’t feel like I need to be available to all people at the spur of the moment.
The other problem with remaining somewhat old fashioned in a world of smart phones is that people assume you can get last minute e-mails as well. For instance, my son’s baseball coach sent an e-mail 20 minutes before a game was supposed to start telling us a change of time. We arrived at the field completely confused and weren’t able to check our e-mail to know what happened. I guess that’s just something we have to deal with in order to save money and keep our devices low tech.
I wish you would get an message “Text not sent” when you try to text a landline. Sometimes landlines get entered into the mobile field, especially if I’m quickly entering someone’s number.
Actually, I have been getting that recently! If I text a landline I will receive a text back that says ” is a landline #” and then it offers me the chance to send that text as a voice message for .25 a message.
(Of course the cell companies would wise up and let us know, if there’s money to be made!).
I still have a land line. I found this article while researching if we should still keep it.
My husband and I both have pay as you go phones we have to top up with a minimum of $10 every 2 months. I generally still have $30 of unused minutes on my phone when I top up. I use it up when on vacation with my out of state family.
My husband has an iPad which he got instead of a smart phone as we never use our cells and all the extra features he wanted on a smart phone are on an iPad. I hate typing on the iPad so until they make that work better no iPad/tablet for me.
Keeping our land line after this article because
I want to know exactly where the phone is if there is an emergency.
My cell is usually 2 rooms away in my purse and I never hear it ring.
I hate talking on the cell for long periods. I feel like I talk much louder than on my land line.
It’s always charged.
I cut the landline. In the northeast, coverage is solid just about everywhere you go, especially around Manhattan. As for international calling, I stick to skype, google plus, and facetime. I have to be connected to internet to use them, but it’s been serving me well the six months my boyfriend has been in Europe.
I understand your concerns but honestly you still don’t need the land line. Ditch it and get 50 dollar cable internet (if available) and drop your phones on a plan like Ting or Wal-Mart’s smart talk.
I have virgin mobile and can attest that while not perfect you shouldn’t have any real issues.
Also almost no one under 30 that I know pays more than 50 a month for phone service
I’ve never had a landline – since I left home in 1998 at 19. I’ve always had a cell phone. The cost was never an issue – just like paying for local and long distance wasn’t an issue for my parents.
I would not cut my ISP in the same way. I’ve never had DSL specifically because of the phone requirements. I’ve usually had some flavor of Cable or Fiber. I just don’t think LTE is ready for the load or can provide the speed of line-based connectivity.
As for Voice Quality – VoLTE is coming and is going to rock your world.
911 is the most valid reason on this list.
Oh, and as far as satellite, time to cut that cord to. Get yourself an Apple TV or a Roku and start streaming with Hulu, Netflix, iTunes, Play etc.
911 is really no longer a valid reason unless you live in a small/low population county.
Larger counties have a central dispatch office that dispatches county authorities along with any town/city police where you live. This dispatch office is usually in the same building as the 911 operators. My wife and I keep the dispatch number on are phones and the one time we needed them, the police arrive in less then 2 minutes.
Also, another plus is having the dispatch numbers of the county you live and/or work in makes reporting traffic accidents/suspect behavior easier/faster to call in then a national 911 center.
Most people I talk to have no idea that there are central dispatch numbers covering counties.
For me, 911 is totally a valid reason. I have the cheapest vonage account for that.
Do people really bring their phone to bed with them every night and make sure it is on the nightstand?
Haven’t you ever said, “oh, where did I leave my phone?”
Just to add to #9, the POTS (plain-old telephone system) has its own power system, so in most cases it will work during a significant power outage. This is not the case for cellphones, or for VOIP solutions. That’s why I keep my good ol’ copper line.
Our two cordless house phones will not work when the power is off as the base needs power, but we have a cheap princess phone with a a cord that we plug in straight to the phone jack when the power goes off. Have used it lots of times because our power goes off every few months.
Our landline is run through our modem, so even if we did have the old-fashioned corded phone, it’d go out in a power outage. Bummer 🙁
In regards to your concern about losing VOIPinternet communications, all you’d have to do is plug a standard phone directly into the phone jack
I cut the land line at my house because we never used it and don’t have kids – I see your point about 911 calls – but we kept the landline at my mother’s house because she can make international calls a lot easier. We tried those internet services to call but they were a hassle if you wanted to call a land line or cellphone internationally – they work great computer to computer though.
I also just recently switched to Ting and I’m very happy with their service and I pay about $50 for two smart phones.
I have to admit, I think your argument for why a landline might be useful is…unconvincing. I’m from the generation where none of us have landlines. Actually, that’s not true. I have one friend (amongst hundreds) who has a landline. I think I’m missing something when I hear your concerns about the internet – our internet is super fast without having a landline. Your most convincing argument is related to emergency situations, but I still am not convinced that the cost is worth the potential benefit.
My wife and I haven’t had a home phone in 10 years. We got on an ATT unlimited Family plan (Voice, Data, TxT) and cut our home phone and reduced our cable/dish monthly subscription. I rarely have quality issues and actually have good service. We both have smart phones and buy new phones every two years. We buy new phones because we sell our old phone and pay about $50-100 for the new phone. I have gotten pretty good at finding a buyer so I rarely buy a phone for more than $50. The experience has been so good that I use my mobile at work 100% of the time. All my work calls ring my cell phone, which allows me to see who is calling and provides an easy way to call them back or notify them that I’m on a call.
We keep a pay by the minute flip phone in the kitchen for the babysitter or emergencies.
Would never go back!!!
We are keeping ours for #2, #6, and #8.
This is such an #oldpeopleproblem. I’ve never had a landline and I never will. No one of my generation (35 & under) that I’ve ever met has one or has ever had one as an adult living on their own. I don’t think I’m missing out on anything significant.
The only two concerns you mention that are legitimate are 911 and kids, but even those aren’t insurmountable. The 911 thing is a minor issue, because you can still make 911 calls on a cell phone with basically no problem in the overwhelming majority of cases. GPS locating is good and getting even better, and it’s usually not a problem to give them an address. If you can’t speak aloud because of a burglar (a rare occurrence), you could always mass text some friends to call 911 for you or even post a HELP message on Facebook. Someone would see it instantly and respond.
If I had kids, I might get a “home cell phone” that has phone service only. You could even attach it to the wall if you don’t want your kids walking off with it. That’s cheaper than a landline and functions the same way. Once the kids were old enough to have phones of their own, I’d get rid of the home cell. Even elementary-aged children are old enough to carry a cellphone that can make emergency calls only (this does not even require a phone plan, just a used cell phone leftover from when you or someone else upgraded to a new phone).
Internet is a separate issue. Of course I have home internet. That doesn’t require a landline, and the savings you get for having both are misleading because you’re still paying the cable company more per month if you have both. I would cut my cable TV and even my cell phone dataplan before cutting my home internet.
Everything else sounds like a personal discomfort with change, and there are lots of other, cheaper solutions. For example, if you’re worried about keeping the phone charged: Charge your phone at night while you sleep or at work. Carry a charger if you’re really worried about it. Carry an extra battery (if you switch to Android). Another example: If you’re worried about losing your phone, get one of those phone-locator devices. Etc.
All that is good advice except for #rude #ageist.
So you think the percentage of people under 35 who have landlines is roughly the same as the percentage of people over 35 that have landlines? That’s factually false. To what else would you attribute this difference besides the fact that older generations are accustomed to landlines, viewing them as convenient and useful because they were for many years? Surely early life introduction to cell phones plays an enormous role in millenials’ lack of use of landlines.
I think what El Nerdo was referencing as rude and agist was your use of #oldpeopleproblem in your introduction.
My husband and I both fit within your age demographic and we have a land line. Our only reason is for our kids. They occasionally spend short periods of time home alone and the ability to use the phone in case of an emergency outweighs the cost ($20 per month). My son does have a cell phone, but about half the time he can’t find it or the battery is dead. Surely you realize how irresponsible kids are with keeping up with their things.
That’s all right dear. Those of us over 40 don’t mind the ageism at all. We just smile to ourselves, secure in the knowledge that one day you too will be considered ‘old people’ well before you feel it, and younger generations will laugh and roll their eyes at you. Except you might not notice because you’ll be too busy fiddling away with your iphone-34. The chickens always come home to roost.
My wife and I have gone without a land line for 9 years now. There may be a few downsides but you get used to anything quickly enough. As mentioned by other commenters, many land line users have cordless phones, so the issues of mobility and charging are then moot.
We have always paid for DSL Internet during that time, even though we’ve both had smartphones (with data) for a couple of years now.
I’m GenX, and I still have a landline. I’ve considered dropping it, but I feel more secure having it for 911 calls and storms. I have one old-fashioned non-cordless phone, and having that means I can still call someone if my power goes out for several days.
Also, I don’t want my phone service to be provided by the cable company. If the cable went out, then that would take down both my internet and my phone. Keeping my landline with Verizon and my internet with Comcast (as unseemly as that is – ick) gives me some redundancy in a good way. If one system goes down I’ll still have the other. If they both go down then it’s probably the Zombie Apocalypse, in which case I’m hosed.
As for robo-calls, I’ve noticed that my cell will get those, too, now that telemarketers and the like have wised up to the fact that many people have only cell phones. But, overall, I don’t get that many. It helps that my landline is unpublished, and I live in MA, which is not a swing state.
I can’t remember when I last had a landline, but I’ve had standalone DSL for most of the past decade–no phone required. First with Speakeasy. Then moved West and got it from a terrible company called Qwest… which was bought/changed its name to CenturyLink. Then again with Speakeasy (post Best Buy acquisition). Then got standalone internet from Comcast (no TV) and it was faster/cheaper than DSL. Then I moved to the sticks and I can’t get any of that, but there are many standalone internet options.
Exactly. There’s no technological requirement that an active home phone line is necessary for DSL, though some salespeople will try and tell you otherwise. We have had DSL for years and never had a home phone. In the past, we had Verizon DSL years ago, but for now we are using a provider that has been absorbed by CenturyLink. Neither required an active home phone line for DSL.
I’m not sure what you mean by “landline”. I don’t consider VoIP to be the same as a landline, but it addresses almost all of the problems mentioned here. We’ve used Vonage for years and it costs a few cents to call family in England. For a while we even had a local phone number in England so it was free for them (it cost us a few bucks per month). 911 is taken care of. Call quality is fine. The only issue is that it doesn’t work in a power outage or if WiFi is on the fritz, but that’s where our cell phones come in (as long as they’re charged, of course). I will not pay the hefty costs associated with a traditional phone company, but neither am I comfortable with strictly cell phones for the same reasons you mentioned. I pay $100 per year for a prepaid cell phone to use in emergencies or for quick calls, and VoIP for our “landline” is very inexpensive compared to the average cell phone plan.
I like to keep my cell phone charging next to my purse so that it’s always charged and I always have it when I leave the house. That often means I can’t even hear it if it rings when I’m home. To solve the problem before cutting the landline, we bought a set of wireless handsets that connect to our cell phones via bluetooth. So, now when I get a call on my cellphone, it rings through the house just like a landline, and if I want to call out, I can just pick up a phone and call. Sure, it was an added upfront cost, but we’ve still saved money by dropping the landline in the long run.
We haven’t had a land line since 2006. It feels a little weird now that we have a house rather than a small apartment and we’ve thought about getting one if we have kids for the central aspect of it and the emergency thing.
But then we’re also looking at bluetooth handsets that link to our mobile phone so we can have a phone by the bed while the mobile phone is still in my purse.
We have lived qute fine without a land line since 2008. Don’t miss the extra expense and all the calls that were “wrong number” calls! Our cell phones work quite nicely, thanks.
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My mother cut her landline and it has been impossible. She’s forever either leaving her cell phone in the car, forgetting she put it on mute, or letting the battery run down. Thus she is more often than not hard to reach.
I still have my landline. I prefer it. Though an extra cost, it’s something I’m not willing to do without. It gets better reception and I prefer to talk on it than on my cell.
To me, the cell phone is the convenience—being able to have it on hand, being able to look up things on the internet on the fly, texting…. But I don’t really use it at home.
We have been thinking about dropping our landline, but in a recent weather emergency, our cell phone provider dropped our access for a few hours (very politely) because they needed the bandwidth for people who were actually IN the emergency (west of us). That’s fine, but what if WE had had an emergency at the same time? Food for thought.
$30/month is a lot of money to pay for an emergency situation that may happen once every few years. And if it came to it, I’m sure I could find a neighbor’s phone to use.
(disclaimer: I still have a landline, but the comments here are making me think hard about getting rid of it).
Our landline went up in the last year by $10 to over $30. This was the cheapest offering by our phone company. I called and found out they offer an un-advertised “Measured Service” which will drop the rate by more than $10. I have an MCI phone card for long distance and overseas calls that is dirt cheap. We need reliable 911 service due to my GF’s health problems and we have poor cell coverage. My GF is always leaving her phone somewhere, so we would end up having to have a house cell anyway just to find who’s house she left her phone at, so this is not much more. I would love to get rid of the land line, but it is not currently practical.
We have a landline for a reason that’s not on the list. My MIL lives with us. When she gets stressed, she calls her other son. His number is posted near the phone. Using a cell phone is simply too difficult for her.
When we moved into our new house, we discovered that our cell coverage is terrible, so that sealed our decision to add a land line.
Just curious, do any of these cheapo workaround cell providers use the AT&T network? Seems that most of them use Sprint, which simply doesn’t work on my street.
Whoops! Forgot to mention that MIL has Alzheimer’s. Just figuring out the cordless phone is challenge enough for her. I once found it neatly balanced in my two-hole stapler after she’d used it.
Tracfone has some that work on Verizon, you just have to ensure you are getting a CDMA phone rather than a GSM. They have everything from flip phones to smart phones. I have never paid more than $100/year for service
Wow–I am really in the minority here! Like Sarah N we dropped our landline in 2006 (which I feel was pretty early in the “trend”) and have not looked back since. We use our cable service as our internet provider with no troubles.
We’ve actually watched our cable bill rise a bit over the past few years but have resisted switching to a dish/satellite provider for the “savings” because it would require us to reactivate a landline(!) and by the time that cost and fees were added we’d really eliminated any savings we’d get from switching over.
All in all, in our current living situation/lifestyle I can’t imagine an instance where we’d switch back to a landline. For reference I am 34, my husband is 33, we have no children and live in a major city in the southeast United States.
Totally OT, but I hope this site responds to a recent article in the NYTimes, “Is College Worth it? Clearly.” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/upshot/is-college-worth-it-clearly-new-data-say.html?hp&_r=0
From the article:
“The true cost of a college degree is about negative $500,000. That’s right: Over the long run, not going to college will cost you about half a million dollars.”
This site has posted numerous articles encouraging young folks to consider whether college is necessary. I’m sure you’ll come back wtih a “everyone is different!” answer, but you might consider the statistics.
Having a slight hearing impairment a land line is a necessity. It was also terrific after Hurricane Sandy and yes, September 11.
I haven’t had a landline sinceHurricane Katrina in 2005 and I haven’t had any desire to have one again. I have internet at home through my cable company and it is fast. In fact, I am not sure why anyone has a landline!
To Kiki,
Your remark…
“In fact, I am not sure why anyone has a landline!”
…leaves me rather perplexed at your assumptions as to why anyone would have any needs, wants, or reasons for a landline.
If you read any of the comments above yours, there were plenty of “why” explanations, choices, and needs.
Even though I don’t like how high my Verizon Freedom Essentials landline bill is, (over $65)I will not get rid of it. I have internet, cell phones, smartphones, but working from my home and making a lot of long distance calls, for me my landline (cordless and corded phones)calls, outshines them all.
911 emergencies are no reason to keep a landline. I’m surprise that so few people know that the FCC requires phone carriers to maintain a “soft dial tone” or “warm line” for 911 calls.
My suggestion is to get a phone that doesn’t need a power source in the case of a power outage.
I didn’t know that! Thanks!
Not true, there is no requirement. Some companies will keep the soft dial tone, some will keep it for a while after cancelling.
My parents live in a rural area. They only have one option for internet, and their cell phones barely get reception – you have to stand right next to the south-facing window to be able to have a phone conversation. My sister lives in a different rural area and has similar issues.
We live in a mid-sized community with good cable internet and cell phone service. I haven’t had a landline since 2002.
We “cut” our land line a while ago. Just switched to to VoIP solution from Ooma. We cut our land line bill from about $35 a month to about $4 a month for unlimited nationwide calling. I wrote about it:
http://divhut.com/2014/05/i-saved-372-on-my-home-phone/
Cutting the landline is a good idea and it may be too late to save your number, but think about this instead:
1. Get Cable or DSL internet (costs varies by region)
2. Get Ooma for Home Phone (aside from buying unit, cost is $4-5 a month in taxes)
3. Connect your satellite box to the internet modem ($5 fee goes away)
This is my set-up at home and I am very happy with it.
The saving won’t be as deep as you thought, but it should save you at least $30 a month.
If you want to celebrate, think Applebees 2 for $20, LOL
Wow, so you guys have corded phones in your house? Most of the advantages of having a landline that you mention involve a corded phone. But most of us who still have landlines (yes, I’m a dinosaur!) have cordless phones hooked up to our landlines. (I have one corded phone in a closet somewhere in case of a massive power outage, at which point cordless phones stop working.)
We stick to a landline primarily because cell reception in our house sucks.
Yup. Bought a corded phone after 9/11 and Katrina. Work as a doc, saw all of the problems that a week of no power and no generators could cause. Just want one to get ahold of my loved ones and call EMS if needed. $17 a month seems a small price to pay. Plus reminds me of my 80s childhood. Bought on ebay for 10 bucks, heavy enough to kill a burglar also.
I love my landline, I use it all the time and I can screen telemarketers very easily. I have a cell phone, but it is a phone, for making phone calls. It is not a camera or a laptop or a radio. I use it to make phone calls when I need to, and it can do the internet I simply choose to not do and do that when I am at home. I can also text.
My landline costs $30 per month and my cell phone does not have a monthly cost, I think I spend about $20 every 3 months for time.
I don’t do long distance on my landline, that is on the cell, but I do call 800 numbers on it because when I use my cell for that the calls seem to break up.
I do like that I can make calls when the power is out, I have one cordless phone and a “trimline”, LOL.
So many young people do it these days. We went to Ooma (internet based phone). Of course you need to have your high speed separately.
I live in earthquake country, and that is why I will always have a landline. I’ve been through several large earthquakes. The first thing I lose is power. No power=no internet, no VOIP, no ability to recharge my smartphone. Yes, I could use my car charger, but then I’m wasting precious gas. Also, cell towers have generators, but those generators may only last about 24 hours. In an extended disaster, those towers may lose power. In a major earthquake, they might even fall down!
I have never had a landline fail in an earthquake. I keep a $10 corded phone in my earthquake kit just for these occasions.
How often are you getting serious (>1 day) power outages due to earthquakes? A landline is probably costing you well over $300/ year. You could buy dozens of spare cell phone batteries for that same amount. (Or hundreds of AA batteries for use in a cellphone charger, if your phone doesn’t support replacable batteries).
Edge,
Here in certain parts of California, it happens more often than you think. Aryn explained about outages that affect cell phone towers, so having x amount of batteries does nada. Cell phones won’t work- period! We also have outages with cell phones on major holidays because of network congestion. I’ve had that happen no matter if I’m in a large city or small rural town here in Calif. where I live.
Sometimes texting won’t work due to ?? whatever faulty glitz is going on. Never happens with my good ol’ landline. Yep, I pay over $750 a year for having a landline- that’s with all the perks- unlimited long distance, voice mail & forwarding, 3-way,caller ID, call block, etc…
I’ve lived on my own since 2004 and have never had a landline. My mother and stepfather still have one, but they can’t make long distance calls from it, only receive them. I guess they save a lot of money that way without totally scrapping the landline.
VOIP home phone via VOIPo, was $185 prepaid for two years (so $8 per month). Cell service via Ting, using an iPhone 4s bought on Swappa for $160. I keep my data setting switched off at the Ting dashboard, but have wifi all over the place. My Ting bill is now about $20 per month + tax. I use a LOT of voice minutes, so this is much cheaper than Ting alone. I like Ting because I spend time in Canada and their Canada rate is reasonable, plus texts to/from Canada are free. So, I’m spending about $32 a month for home phone and cell phone. Which is a lot less than I was paying Verizon (about $70, plus occasional steep overage charges). I like the call quality of a home phone. Even though VOIP is not a good as a land line, to me it’s better than a cell phone.
One thing about the kid/emergency factor for land lines. I have a 4 and 6 year old whom are both capable of using smart phones,even with mine having a passcode. I’d be willing to bet that most kids these days are no different. They use laptops and tablets at school, so they are accustomed the type of technology we have at home. Also, I don’t know about your area, but we have the ability to text 911. In the very highly UNLIKELY event that an intruder came in, we could text for help.
If you do not have a house phone, you need to make sure that your baby-sitter has a cell phone.
I encouraged my parents to get rid of their landline, and we all regret it. Not just because they’ve lost their old ‘212’ number, either….
The quality of cell phone conversations is infuriating. Particularly for people who may have trouble hearing. It’s just ridiculous how bad they can be. (I have found this with several different carriers – cutoffs in sound, dropped calls, etc.)
They also don’t have an emergency line, in case the cell phones run out of battery, or in case they lose their phones. Both of which happen every so often. With two sick people in the house, it’s important to have an emergency line.
They’ve had to change their phone number multiple times, since we couldn’t always get our act together in transferring numbers from one company to another. It is a tedious process to make sure everyone has your new number.
Also, all our cell phone calls are being screened by the NSA. A landline is a nice way not to contribute to that nonsense.
For my smart phone (an ancient Droid 1 re-installed with CyanogenMod) I use Page Plus cellular. I admit I mostly don’t use data, and in fact I keep it turned off in general. I have wireless at home and work, where I need data most often.
I have noticed alot of people were worried about their landlines losing power, what about dropped calls on your cell phone and low battery. Nothing is perfect. But we have a land line but it is unplugged because of annoying robocalls. I have 3 lines on AT&T family plan 8 years now and they have sold my cell numbers and everyday we are being bombarded with robocalls. They said too bad no contract.
We haven’t had a landline in 10 years of marriage. We haven’t missed it AT ALL! We actively recommend family and friends spending the money on them to stop (as long as they have their cell phones). Granted, we also haven’t had (so we haven’t had to pay for) T.V. in that time either! We have internet to watch shows and we added a wi-fi router for our phones/laptops.
I am keeping my land line. Two of my grown kids do not have land lines, just cell phones. So their long lost friends call me to locate them.
The biggest reason I am keeping my land line is that I do not like the reception on a cell phone. I also do not like having to hold a cell phone up to my face. It hurts my arm.And I limit my cell usage because maybe the microwaves are not good for the body.
When I call a friend or my sister and we talk for a half hour or so I really appreciate the land line.If I was not wrapped into a package deal with Frontier (Verizon), phone with unlimited long distance, I would definitely use a magic Jack phone for $20. per YEAR with all of the local and long distance calling to include Canada. Then I would port my present number which I have had for 25 years for an extra $10. per year.I also have a cell smart phone. I am serious about my communication so I will save money in other ways and have a land line..
“I also do not like having to hold a cell phone up to my face. It hurts my arm.”
Just curious, what do you hold your landline with…your foot? 🙂
Even a relatively small landline phone is quite a bit bigger/heavier than your typical cell phone. And I would say that I’m either using a wired headset or speakerphone 90% of the time I use my cell phone.
I have noticed my arm hurts more when I use a cell phone. Part of it is that because the cell phone is smaller, I can’t just hold it between my ear and my shoulder (no hands) like I can with the land line phone. Also, my cell phone is heavier than my land line phone, and it gets really hot. One more thing, if I don’t hold it just right it tries to text people with my face when I’m talking. Or hangs up on them. Or puts them on speaker phone. For long conversations, I prefer the land line phone.
🙂 I agree Shari.
Shari,
All of what you said how uncomfortable talking on a cell phone is, are the same complaints my friends have while I’m on my comfortable landline. 😉
Eleanor L,
Right on. That’s exactly how I roll. I also have the Verizon Internet & phone bundle. It just went up to $92.00 per month- but I’ll do without something else if I have to, because I am not ditching my landline.
The only need I have for using my cellphone is when I’m away from home. I use my tablets for the internet if I’m out of town- which isn’t that often. No way would I use my cellphone when I’ve gotten used to having a 24 in. pc monitor to view the web with.
You made another valid point in mentioning “long lost” friends calling for your sons. That happens more than people think.
We have been without a landline since 2006. My phone is paid for by my company so that is “free” to us. So we only pay for one mobile phone. My husband is with tmobile which seems to be the cheapest in Florida. I see no reason at all to pay for another phone. We recently cancelled our veriZon cable and so we pay 80 for internet which our phones piggyback on when we are home. Skype gives us free long distance teleconferencing worldwide and we now pay $7.99 a month for hulu which gives us most of what we watched before. Game of thrones is the one thing we miss. I would never pay for a landline again. I find no data or phone quality issues
Landline = Ooma – $4 / month
Cell Phone = Republic Wireless – $25 / Month – Unlimited Phone/Data/Texts – Android Phone
FOR THE WIN!!! < $30 / month total
911 calls are required by law to keep working even if you don’t have paid phone service. If you have dial tone, you can make a 911 call if needed.
That is good to know. We have a lake house and I am going to plug a phone into the land line there and see if we have emergency service there. I have heard that old cell phones are good for that but never heard before that a land line has it! Thanks a lot!
I have yet to find a reliable source supporting this. There are laws that require a soft dialtone to be kept for a short time after canceling service, but no law requiring this for long. Please provide a source supporting your statement.
no dial tone or service required to call 911 on landline
I’m surprised that no one mentioned this in the comments that I read…
I’ve been to two 911 call centers, local and county. If you want to go with your cellphone as your only phone line, you can still get a land line for emergencies without buying any service. You can dial out to 911 on any land line, pay phone or old cell phone for free and the 911 call center will get your address from the land line automatically (the line is registered by the phone company as to where it was installed, service not required).
The only difference is that the 911 call center cannot call you back if you hang up.
Also, in regards to the author, ‘throttling’. You need to look that up. The data connections on cell phones have their speeds throttled down to slower rates when you exceed a certain amount of data transferred. This happens on every carrier, whether they advertise it or not. I’ve got 2GB a month at 4G, then it slows down to 3G for the rest of the month. Mobile hotspots are to be used in a pinch or for non real time applications, not as a replacement for DSL/Cable/FIOS/Satellite.
Lastly, if you’re serious about ditching your land line, but still wanting to communicate overseas with faimly, ‘VOIP’. Another term you need to look up. There are TONS of free applications that can let you talk to people all over the world for free, from mainstream apps like Skype to gaming tools like Ventrillo and Teamspeak.
See comments 32 and 61.
Really? Is this still an issue? This article is definitely not geared toward milenials because this is a mute point for anyone born after the mid 80s. I couldn’t tell you a single person I know that has a landline.
We don’t have a landline, and have no desire for one – our house is equipped for one (or maybe many), though. There’s a phone jack in the kitchen, and several *something*-type jacks around the house… the previous owner was a police officer and we think he must have been rather high up – why else would you need a phone line in the bathroom?? We get by on wi-fi and cell service. Cell service is choppy at times, but hubby has Google Voice set up on his phone so he can make calls over wi-fi. We don’t have cable, either, just Internet from RCN, who doesn’t throttle Netflix, unlike Verizon FiOS! Also our cell plan (Sprint) has unlimited, unthrottled data.
My college dorms had them, although I couldn’t have told you what my phone number was at any point (I’d just gotten my first cell phone), and we had one in our senior year off-campus apartment because it was cheaper to do the trio (cable, internet, phone) than just cable and internet (which I thought was really stupid).
My grandparents, on the other hand, prefer their landlines. One set has a cell phone that they know how to use (also Internet), but when we gave an old cell phone to my other grandmother “just in case”, it rang and rang and she had no idea what the noise was. So that ended quickly 🙂
We have been without a landline for a couple of years now in favor of a VOIP solution via Ooma. Ooma has an upfront cost of $99-150 or so, and then afterwards you only pay $4-5 in taxes every month – that’s it. It has the 911 service built in, and the system is portable so you can bring your home phone number with you wherever you go – even on vacation – and people can still call your local number. It also uses your existing phones – plugged into the unit. So it’s basically like you’re still using a landline – you’ll never notice much of a difference.
We did have one brief power outage last year where we couldn’t call out, but during that time we just usedd our cell phones. No big deal.
Ooma is the way to go!
We recently got a land line for the first time in five years these reasons:
1. We don’t have smart phones, just two phone-only ones and there was no other internet option at our new house besides DSL. We bundled the DSL with a phone line for very little price difference.
2. Our kids are old enough to talk, but not old enough to be able to find a phone in an emergency or know how to use a cell phone/unlock it/etc. We showed them where the land line is and showed them how to use it to push 9 and 1 and 1 again in case of emergency.
In two years, you can go back to a dumb phone and be happy again. 🙂
I’m one of those “millennials” that has never had a landland in my adult life. The past 10 years I have only had a cell phone, no landline since I moved out of my parents house at 18. I pretty much never make voice calls, anyway, and when I do, they’re on skype usually. It would be as silly as an expense for me as cable TV would be.
The main reasons why I’m keeping my landline are: 1. I need a reliable phone for my business with good voice quality. 2. I don’t have unlimited minutes with my cell phone, so using my cell for a conference call is not going to work. 3. My home security alarm system requires a landline to work.
I know this blog is about getting rid of your land line, but doesn’t make more sense to get rid of the expensive cell phone? I don’t have a cell phone, I work from home. If I’m not home, guess what, you can’t talk to me. I like it that way. If we traveled we would get one of those cheap emergency prepaid phones. A land line is very cheap in our area and I don’t have to worry about extra charges or where it is or people bothering me while I’m out doing something else. I’ve noticed a trend that people seem to think a cell phone is a necessity, it is not. I had one for about 6 months, hated it. It is expensive and certainly not a necessity.
Great Point! I live in a “tourist town” and on July 3rd I ran to the grocery store. You would not believe how many people were mindlessly milling around in the aisles – the place was PACKED – just yapping away, in loud voices, talking about how the drive to the beach was, or plans for the weekend, or what’s on sale at the mall, or any other kind of inane drivel you can imagine. Meanwhile, shopping carts were backing up all over the place as people were trying to maneuver around these idiots.
I have a cell phone – but I’m not a big fan. I’m tired of seeing people (mostly under 40) from out of town talking on their phones or texting while trying to drive when they don’t know where they’re going. Then, they cut across 3 lanes of traffic to get to McDonald’s – and they don’t even get off the damn phone while they’re doing it!
99% of the population does NOT need to be accessible 24/7.
Something else no one has mentioned is that a landline is good for reverse 911 calls. The city I live in recently had a 1000-year level flood with huge sections of town flooded and additional sizable parts of the city under evacuation. The city was able to notify people who were in the evacuation areas with reverse 911 calls targeting landlines in the zone. My co-worker with a cell phone only never received a call and didn’t realized that his neighborhood was in danger of flooding and was being evacuated.
If you have a landline jack in your home and a home telephone, you can make 911 calls without having paid service or a dial tone. Just keep the phone near or plugged into wall jack in case of emergency.
Did not know that!
There is 0 REASON to have a land line! THIS Article was written by a phone company PRO person! There bleeding and are going to end up like KODAK a thing of the past! LOL There is 0 REASON to pay a additional $50+ a month for a stupid hard line these days! hell where I live everytime it rained the phone line didn’t work anyway so good riddens ATT your a Museum behind the times. Still don’t even have a Unlimited wireless program. HAHA
You’re one of those people, huh? Lol.
Phone lines (and cable as well) are 100x better with regards to bandwidth and data transfer.
Unless you are an extremely LIGHT internet user that doesn’t mind slow, capped and unreliable service, get a real ISP.
We bought an OBi200 on Amazon on sale thinking we were going to get rid of our land-line we’ve had for decades and switch to VoIP with Google Voice. Well, we were smart and didn’t ditch the land line yet so we could try out this high-tech phone technology for quality and reliability. Good thing because at 2:19 AM the not-so-reliable VoIP had died and I had to unplug it for a while and plug it back in this morning when we woke up to get it to work again!
It wasn’t a Comcast internet problem this time, we think the little box just decided to go to sleep last night and never wake up until we rebooted it. Not very reliable if it can’t even function for 24 hours after it was all set up and running! And if our internet goes down, so does the phone. And if the power goes off it’s just a matter of time before the backup battery dies. And if OBi’s servers go down so does the phone. If our modem or router or switch goes down so does the phone. No, we are keeping our land-line; Ma Bell can’t be beat for reliability of the old POTS network.
Okay first your first mistake was getting an overpriced iphone wjen androids are way cheaper and can do 3 times as much. Second you need an LTE device… If you get one and go to T-Mobile you can get an unlimited lte plan along with unlimited talk and text for $70 a month… The LTE speed is blazing fast i get around 20-30MBS…easily rootable, and if you go the root rout you teather your LTE free and use it on your computer… Connect an HDMI cable to your TV and ditch your satellite, now you have not one but 2 less bills, and let me tell ypu everything ypu watch on your satellite is online for free, even if its live, and its not hard to find eaither, sometimes ill watch shows that air in canada days before the US so i see shows first too. I’m not here to provide guides but guides how to do all of this are all over google. As for battery life… Well yea that is a downfall however you have some options to at least prolong it… A. Again root an android and install a custom rom and underclock the processor with a custom kernal (google all this you’ll under) now you have way better battery life. B. Go on eBay… Get extra batteries for literally a few bucks. C. Get a portable charger for about 20 bucks on amazon. D.get a solar power portable charger. E. Get an extended battery. Let me tell you if you utilize these smartphones they end up saving ypu money, my phone is a phone, a computer, a router/modem, a gps, a tv, a movie player, a radio, a remote, a calculator, a game Council, a credit card, a credit card reader, I can go on and on it allows me to live in luxury without having to afford the luxury. Sorry if I misspelled anything I did not proofread any of this.
Dear Madame/Sir; Thank you for the information on ‘why I should keep my land line’. You falied to mention that a landline provides 48VDC continously. One might use this availble power for any number of reasons, especially in an emergency situation. You could charge a battery or start a fire with this available power. Just sayin’. I live in the Hollywood Hills,Los Angeles, California, USA,… in a High Siesmic Landslide area, according to my insurance provider, the California Earthquake Authority. I will keep my land line as long as I live here.
I love my landline and still use a phone book. I also like my smart phone, I just don’t love it.
We have a landline plus cordless phones in the house. A couple of months ago during a power outage our landline worked. Since then Comcast required us to get a new modem–free-but promised it would be better, faster, etc. It’s been over a month now and no apparent change. Today we had a power outage and our landline was dead. We called Comcast before and they had a tech come out about the new modem and we brought up problems with our phone. They have not fixed things yet and are giving us a credit on our phone bill but we still have a dead landline. Is it possible their new modem has the power to cut out our landline?
Cordless phones only work when power is on.
As my ex-husband has told me we are paying more for technology and that’s why we cannot save as our parents did back in the day. I had the Magic Jack back in the day and the power went off so I was able to use my cell. When you are cutting cost something has got to give either the cell phone for a landline. But remember when you are trying to save money then if your love ones have to wait a few hrs. because it is a disaster then so be it because we do like the technology of the phone being able to go where we are located. As we age we have to ask our selves where can we cut and now days the Internet is not one of them because its vital to getting information. Out of all things when it comes to Cable or the Internet people choose the internet. So in order for me not to pay AT&T $89 to $98 a month with the landline and Internet which they were like using there U-Verse just like the other companies I went to Cricket for cell phone $30 a month and Magic Jack Plus (landline – free long distance, call waiting and caller I.D.) for $35.00 a year and $30 for the Internet thru Comcast (total is about $64 a month). I feel its better to spread the wealth around because most of the companies try and do what AT&T does get you in a bundle package then Jack up the price after a year. So if something is not going right I can just dump one company and move on to another. I will tell you though Comcast is known for going down on those phone lines. Maybe in-directly we need to disconnect for a little piece and relaxation. And I just have Netflix or use You-Tube for movies which is free compared to Netflix. Also when people had to switch to getting the black box which you can pick up for about $50 but it was less than when you could get 2 per household I decided I’m a movie person an opt out of not getting cable which is a great savings but instead the Internet has replaced cable that’s why AT&T and Comcast are trying to keep up on the money making of the Internet.
Every now and then I think we need to see what we have is a NEED or a WANT especially when you are trying to save more than a buck and go for a no frills package it will save you money.
I believe everyone should still have landlines, they are an important necessity in life that most people think is obsolete since they have fancy cell phones that can do everything but wipe there rear end. Smart phones have there down falls and allot of people do not realize that they have. I have lived in Southern California for 18 years (born and raised) and when a earthquake hit and shook hard enough the cell sites go out for a while and then once they are restored they get jammed cause everyone and there mother is trying to make a call at the same time. So for number 1 in the event of an emergency such as an earthquake or natural disaster or some kind of storm cell phones are not as reliable as intended or advertised. Second cell phones have not that great quality specially if the tower gets over loaded cause then the tower has to try and make the bandwidth equal enough for everyone on it and towers now handle more transmissions then voice. I’ll admit I was a cell phone only person in California but after an earthquake hit and my cell went out I said that was not acceptable and went with a landline service for family and other emergencies. I don’t care if people say that it’s silly or expensive to maintain both phones. Landlines are just out dated sources of communication. There lifelines and are superior in emergency situations. So in my opinion it’s worth having a landline, and those VOIP phones are just as bad, if your internet has an issue or goes out your SOL (shit out of luck) on making or receiving calls or even calling 911 if necessary. So me being 19 in this day in era I strongly encourage people to keep or get a landline and maintain them because it’s worth it!
I totally agree. I prefer the old fashioned landline to WIFI phone, because, if/when in-home WiFi drops all (internet, tv, and phone) are lost. Which truly sucks especially if you need to make a service or emergency call. If possible, I will most definitely move back to -as AT&T puts it – a POT (plain old telephone) hook-up.
To Anon post # 99- you are wiser than most of your peers. I too live in Calif. – born and raised. Some of the commenters scoffed at the need for landline service in case of the rare occurrence of an earthquake.
Well, I’m here to say that I’ve lived through many earthquakes and they occur often enough.
When peeps from out of state are here and an earthquake hits- they freak out, while I’m not even phased. LOL
I was cut off from sky did I have to pay the bill or cud I have gone to another supplier the bill was run up by someone who got in the house.
I am without a landline nd here at my home I hav no cell service but I have internet hmm where’s the irony in that one. Idk I guess I have a wonder wut should I do because I always had cell service so didn’t think I needed to get a landline but now don’t work
See what happens when people use only their smart phones to communicate? A typographical nightmare occurs.
About landline vs. cell 911. It isn’t about whether you can call 911, it’s about how easily responders will be able to find you if you do. If you’re choking, having a heart attack, you’re a small kid, someone’s breaking into your home and you can’t speak, etc., as long as your home address is in your carrier’s 911 database (you can periodically verify this and should), the call will be automatically switch routed to the appropriate public safety answering point (dispatch) and responders will find you whether you’re able to verify your address or not. When calling from cell, if you cannot speak and verify your location, 911 routing will need to triangulate your location and may be only able to narrow it down to 50-100 meters from your actual location, which will be a problem unless you live in the middle of nowhere. If you live in an apartment building, they’ll be knocking on every door trying to find you. VOIP is not a static location, so you could experience a similar problem, and actually, they might have an even more difficult time trying to find you with VOIP. I’m a Gen-Xer with a smartphone, but also worked several years in 911 telecom for POTS, cable, VOIP, and cell carriers. Until the others can be as exact with 911 response as POTS landlines, I always recommend people who have a higher likelihood of needing 911 (elderly, ill, children, frequent power outage area, dangerous neighborhood [though you probably have bigger problems] etc.) keep at least a basic landline plan.
About landline vs. cell 911. It isn’t about whether YOU can call 911, it’s about how easily responders will be able to find you if you do. If you’re choking, having a heart attack, you’re a small kid, experiencing a break-in and can’t speak, etc., as long as your home address is in your carrier’s 911 database (you can periodically verify this and should), the call will be automatically switch routed to the appropriate public safety answering point (dispatch) and responders will find you whether you’re able to verify your address or not. When calling from cell, if you cannot speak and verify your location, 911 routing may be only able to find you within 50-150 meters of your actual location, which will be a problem unless you live in the middle of nowhere. If you live in even a moderately densely populated place, they may have a helluva time trying to locate you when you need quick response. VOIP is not a static location, so you can experience a similar problem. For those questioning whether I’m an ancient cave-dweller, I’m a Gen-Xer with a smart phone, but I also worked several years in 911 telecom for most of the POTS, cell, VOIP and cable carriers, big and small, in the US. Until cell and VOIP can match the 911 accuracy of POTS and cable (cable still has the power outage issue, though), I always recommend people who have a higher likelihood of needing 911 (elderly, ill, children at home, frequent power outage area, etc.) to keep at least a basic landline plan with one cheapie plug-in-the-wall phone (for power outages).
They often show on the news stories about kids home when a prowler breaks. Kids call 911 from they smartphone in a closet. 911 operator asks questions. Push 1 for yes. Push 2 for no. Could drag a landline into the closet.
On reading these 114 articles on cutting your landline, I saw none referring to, how to continue using your fax machine to send & recieve faxes when you cut your home provider landline ?
No one faxes anymore. We email documents.
My company does. Sometimes it’s much simpler to grab a form and FAX it.. Some our clients ask for FAX too. Not always, but sometimes..
Re having a land line for a home security system, a friend in the security business once told me that cables and wire can be cut, so wireless is better for a home security system. He also said that if someone wants to break in, they will find a way, even if it means cutting through the side of a building or cutting through the floor. Lastly, for insurance to pay, there has to be physical signs of a break in, so you want locks on your doors that can’t be picked, that will force someone to break a window or kick your door in. BTW, he doesn’t do any of the above. He keeps two dogs inside when he’s not home.
It drives me nuts when I open my land line bill and I see it has creeped up a few cents more from month to month when the usage remains the same. I have only one recommendation..keep the land line for all the reasons mentioned but if you really do need a cell phone (most people don’t when you get right down to it) buy a burner. I have one from T-Mobile and I buy 1000 minutes for $100 and never use them all up. I can put as little as $10 on the balance at the end of the year and all my minutes carry over and start another year.
I figure I pay as little as $8/mo for my crappy little flip phone and still have my land line, DSL and unlimited long distance on the land line. If the phone rings at home and I am not there, leave a message and will return your call. I find the perceived necessity to answer all phone calls immediately just plain fallacious.
When both my mate and I were hurt and unable to work, we found our income drop to below the current US poverty rate, so cutting cost became a survival quest. We cut our landline and cable TV. We did not wish to completely disconnect so we use basic Xfinity for our wireless connection, we watch for bargains and will shut off service and change one to the other to take advantage og special year prices. We use the internet for all news and movies, etc, Amazon tv stick with Prime that covers books, music and movie. Cheap ole Netflix adds to the selection and at home a tablet, (I use Kindle Fire) with free Skype calls anyone, anywhere in the world who has internet and makes calling fun, since we see the person we are talking to, we call England a lot from the technologically challenged state of Florida, and we’ve never had a bad connection or voice. MagicJack is our home phone, there has been no 911 problem. By doing this we saved about $400 monthly, oh ,being on the older side of vision and hearing we found Jitterbug for our cell, at less than $30 monthly and easy for Parkisons challenges its perfect and this service offers great health related perks for that $30 monthly fee.
What I have found is that its how our brains have been wired, trained (brainwashed) to believe we must have the biggest baddest toys and that without them we are stigmatized as backwards and illerate cretins, most of the time its our own egos doing the judging. It was hard at first, we both felt that having to do without was a personal failure, however, over time, we saw our savings grow, utilities, mortgage, and taxes were paid and our life quality, organic real food, fit our budget now, and more importantly, quality social time became more common. We disconnected and found we’d forgotten to stop and smell the roses. There is an old song that applies here. “Inch worm, inch worm, measuring the marigolds. You’d think he’d stop and see how beautiful they are”.
I’m not agaisnt communications technology, but we are just at the beginning of this amazing new paradigm, and I believe eventually the world will connect in a way unimaginable now and it will be either free or affordable for everyone. It’s not a matter of doing without, it how one percieves what is a “without” and how one handles assumed peer and media propaganda. Our perception of what is really necessary and what is a luxury, is individual, however when taking the time to critically observe ones actual needs versus wants can be freeing on many levels.
My landline is the one bill I hate each month. I have a phone line that is abused daily by all the people who won’t comply with the DO NOT CALL LIST. I receive at least 6 calls every day that waste my time answering. I try to be civil but they are sure testing my patience with all the unsolicited calls. I also resent the fact the bill is different every month for some unexplained reason. Next, I hate my DSL with all the lag time and buffering. It reminds me of the dial up connections of the past it is getting so bad. US Qwest should rename themselves to US THEFT.
Hi Paul, I have been a customer of Qwest; now called: CenturyLink in my area, for almost 24 years now. I too am having the exact same issues with them. May I ask you what you did about this? because I can’t deal with my bills rising each and every month, them charging me for late fees that never existed, as I have always paid my bills weeks before they’re due date. They charge me a $10.00 rental fee each month to use their modem/router in my home. However, at my brother’s home; he was also issued the same; but has never been charged the $10.00 monthly rental fee. I have been seriously thinking and tempted on calling the Consumer Protection Agency in my State and filing a complaint report to which they would then open a case and begin investigating the issue/problem.
I agree that landlines still have certain advantages over VoIP, there some great plans for both but the fact that landlines have being around longer perhaps makes it more reliable since they had more time to set up correctly in order to be able to provide wide coverage where VoIP may not be able to reach those that have limited access to the internet, overall I prefer VoIP if I have internet access other wise I would go with a landline.
I also noticed, and have read, that certain cell phones can cause users to get ear aches. I have been getting slight ear aches ever since I purchase an iPhone in December. When I googled my concern, several sites pointed out that the use of cell phones could be the cause.
I love my landline for all the reasons listed and dislike it for all the reasons listed. I would love to keep it but not for the current cost. It just isn’t practical. There should be a better way.
There is also the serious consideration of growing knowledge of adverse health effects of the radiation emitting from phones and their proximity to the human brain.
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/cell-phones-fact-sheet
We are in the process of going back to a real landline. I’ll pay the extra for voice quality and being able to communicate when the power is out.
I have Verizon landline and would never want to give it up. It is reliable when the power is out and we have a security system that is wired.
However – We have paperless bills and they get paid without checking everything on the bill. I know prices will go up a little bit frequently. Well our last bill went up more than I thought it should so I looked it up and found out I was charged for long distance. I had voice mail and long distance discontinued in August of 2008! I got magicjack! Obviously somewhere along the line long distance has be put back on and for 8 years I have never used the landline for a long distance call (except 800). They said they would refund 8 dollars! I think 8 years was more than 8 dollars and they won’t or can’t look up 2008 records.
Needless to say, DON’T get paperless bills unless you read them on line! I wish I could find another co. for my landline that I could count on.
I would keep the landline, no matter what it is just nice to have
Ultimately I think it depends on your data needs…
Mobile data sucks all across the board, even if you have an “unlimited” plan.
Coaxial cable or phone lines still offer the best internet speed and bandwidth.
Great article. I’m a uni student and I want a landline. The first reason was that all job apps ask for both home phone and cell phone. I also want an answering machine and more peace of mind when i leave the house.
“Why pay twice for Internet access?” Because you get it on a screen that isn’t five inches wide. I’d dump the cell phone completely if that would still possible these days.
As I already told “JD” in the comments section, I don’t have a cell phone. I have a landline at home with an extension (one phone in the kitchen, one phone in the master bedroom), and Internet service associated with that landline. I don’t call people from the grocery store asking if they think I should buy broccoli for $1.97 because the price could go down in a few days, or bother friends with, “So… what are doing?” twenty times per day, or call people in the middle of the night when it’s so much easier to just email and allow them to reply when it’s convenient for them. I have NEVER owned a cell phone and I manage to make it through every single day unscathed.
P.S. One problem though… is that big companies like AT&T want to do away with landline phone service. It costs them too much to maintain the infrastructure and since they’re all about making money, not providing top notch service, they may just get their way. They have to ask permission from the Public Utilities Commission, but they’ve already set a target date of 2020 to not provide landline service anymore. I have no idea what I’m going to do at that point. It puts people in danger when 911 can’t be called easily and quickly, and if you forget to charge your call phone it doesn’t matter how many buttons have to be pushed in order to get 911 on the line and answer all their questions about where the hell you are. You’re just shlt ouf of luck. Intruders are a tiny issue (statically) compared to having to call 911 for a medical emergency.
The government will never allow them to “do away with it.” It’s their raison d’etre. They wouldn’t have any money to begin with if it weren’t for it. I personally HATE cell phones. My family got rid of the landline and now I’m scrambling every time I need to use to phone. I refuse to pay for expensive unlimited cell service so am severely limited if I have to use the phone, especially if I’m going to be placed on hold. When I run out of minutes it’s a COMPLETE PAIN just to make a simple call and stresses one out in a way that no person in 2017 should have to go through. I miss the landline and specifically my rotary phone which being a direct line always sounded the best for me and the person I was talking to and had no interference whatsoever, ever. For me it’s tempting to cancel the cell phone and just get a landline again. I don’t know why people think they need to be able to be contacted every waking second of their lives. Most of us simply aren’t that important. What ever happened to “me time?”
Great point, PDuncan. The telephone system is a national safety system and should be treated as such. Unfortunately, the major carriers are merely reducing costs at our expense and peril. Apparently, many of the new fiber systems won’t work at all once the battery backup inside the home dies. And many have no battery back up at all. What a lousy system. Within the next decade, we may have a system that becomes completely useless during disasters or severe weather. Hardly good policy for our country.
Great article and great points. Yes, the “latest and greatest” is not always best. We keep a landline because of its simplicity. Telephone still works during extended power outages and direct 9-1-1 access for an elderly parent. While fiber may be the “new thing” it is also a solution for a problem many don’t have. Thank you, but I’ll hold onto my “old” technology landline on the “old” copper network for as long as I can. Oh, and one last point, I have reduced my usage of my cell phone tremendously. Most of my calls can wait or aren’t necessary. Since reducing my cellphone usage, I have regained some of my sanity. Try it; you may find that you too like it :)….
SO, IF CELL PHONES ARE PRETTY USELESS WHILE YOUR OUT AND NEED THE POLICE….WHAT SHOULD WE DO WHILE WE’RE OUT AND UNFORTUNATELY NEED HELP??????????????