Landline phones?

L

Lashann

Senior Member
Location
Ontario Canada
We have both a home phone and cell phone. Hubby still wants to have a landline phone but I'm not convinced that we really need one anymore at all.

Our cell phone has filled our needs and works well whereas we have had increasing issues with regard to the home phone despite changing service providers recently. Also many of our family and friends don't bother at all with a home phone either as they see it as an unnecessary expense.
 

Lashann said:
We have both a home phone and cell phone. Hubby still wants to have a landline phone but I'm not convinced that we really need one anymore at all.

Our cell phone has filled our needs and works well whereas we have had increasing issues with regard to the home phone despite changing service providers recently. Also many of our family and friends don't bother at all with a home phone either as they see it as an unnecessary expense.
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We got rid of ours years ago. It had gotten to the point where everyone was calling us with every latest scam conceived where we became like prisoners of our own phone service which we were paying for so we got rid of it.

We now both have our own individual phones and I donā€™t answer mine unless I know exactly who it is. My husband always answers his since itā€™s a company phone but he gets all kinds of bogus calls because of it.

Now scammers have found a way to make it look like a call is coming from your local area yet is half way across the world in places like Nigeria. The scammers capital of the world.
 

My wife and I have cell phones and a landline phone tied in with our internet. The purpose of the landline is to receive calls and messages from people and some telemarketers who retrieve our phone number from the phone directly and don't have access to our cell phones
 
It depends in part on where you spend most of your time. Since retiring we're at home more than we are away so our land line system works well. It's the number most people call and it screens all of our incoming calls for us so it's easy to ignore junk calls. Only a very select group of people have our cell numbers.

We have handsets conveniently located throughout the house. Personally, I wouldn't care to be lugging a cell phone around with me all the time at home.
 
Spend a lot of time at home, no landline phone here.Phone service here knows it is about to go down the tubes with the internet getting good enough up here to be used as a phone and whatever. They have stopped putting new lines here decades ago. The world is changing fast.
Have to admit, some I like and some I don't, we just have to get along in it best we can.
 
The old reason to keep a ā€œlandlineā€ is no longer valid. In the past, there was a direct copper wire connection between the phone companyā€™s central office and the phone in your home. Granted, this ā€œconnectionā€ had several junction points, but the connection was still there. If you lost power, that copper line was still powered by the central office and you could still make a call. That has not been true for 20+ years. Now the copper wire is usually only the ā€œlast mileā€, as it is referred to, between you and the nearest connection pedestal. All the major connection points are fiber and that equipment needs power. Most of these connection backhauls have backup battery power to survive short term outages but nothing of an extended nature. Once the backup power at these backhaul points die, so does your phone service.
 
Thanks very much for all your responses as they have been both interesting and helpful!

We will need to upgrade our cell phone sooner rather than later and I believe that is the way we should go. It doesn't make sense IMO to also invest in another set of cordless home phones, especially when landline service isn't always reliable.
 
Our cell service is spotty, so we've kept the landline to get clear calls. The telemarketers and scammers call constantly, even though I block their calls. I wish there was a way to drop the landline altogether.
 
We have a landline and will continue to have a landline.

Dear husband uses a cell phone courtesy of his job, and he said when he retires in 2 years he'll be leaving the cell phone on his desk, and as far as him being interested in obtaining another after retirement (in his words)... "not in this lifetime".
 
I dropped my landline several years ago and have not regretted the decision.

For years I relied on a basic pay as you go flip-phone with good results.

Recently I switched to a more complicated iPhone.

I'm still learning/exploring the various apps that are available to do anything from ordering a pizza to managing investments.
 
We live in the boondocks, and have to drive a half mile up to the highway to get a cell phone signal. We have a fiber phone, TV and internet bundle, with excellent service on all 3, for about $135/Mo. and I keep a basic Tracfone service active for about $7 a month. The Only reason I waste $7 a month on a cell phone, is so that we have communications when away from the house...in case of car trouble, or the kids need to contact us. We have so many minutes built up on the cell phone that we could probably talk for about 3 days.
 
We have cell phones and a landline. The landline is a pittance as an add on to our internet/tv plan.

In the event of an emergency, often only landlines will work. Some security systems require a landline.

Having said this, Iā€™d rather have our landline as a decorative item and just use the cells. Once your home phone number is in files or friendā€™s memories, itā€™s hard to get them to change. I now only give my cell number.
 
Mr. Ed said:
My wife and I have cell phones and a landline phone tied in with our internet. The purpose of the landline is to receive calls and messages from people and some telemarketers who retrieve our phone number from the phone directly and don't have access to our cell phones
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Same here. I'm very circumspect about who gets my cell number. Like Jules, we also need a landline for our security system. We keep the ringer turned off.

It's less than $10 a month in the bundling and the sound is less prone to static.
 
I suppose I'm old-fashioned but I still feel more comfortable using a landline....plus the battery never runs down....and I have children living abroad and phoning them is cheaper on the landline.
 
Our landline is our main phone, most all of our calling is done through it. Mrs. Hazy and I both carry low end flip phones when we're out n' about. Although we usually don't have them turned on unless needed.
 

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