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Old 09-19-2017, 08:42 AM
Status: "Springtime!" (set 10 days ago)
 
Location: Jollyville, TX
5,851 posts, read 11,851,631 times
Reputation: 10862

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When we moved into our current house 5 years ago, we ditched the landline. My husband and I both have smart phones and we saw no reason to continue paying for a landline. It took a bit of getting used to at first, but there's no way I'd ever go back to having one.
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Old 09-19-2017, 09:24 AM
 
6,749 posts, read 5,435,554 times
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If I can avoid it, I'll never be without a landline.

1) it's much much clearer conversation than a cell.

2) doesn't rely on the cell tower having power when the power goes out. A backup battery on our cable does just fine, though we do need a new one

3) as previously mentioned, there are cordless land line phones in almost every room of the house. I DO carry my cell phone around a lot, but its guaranteed to be on the charger in a different roon when it rings.

4) both my OH and I can be reached on the 'LL, whereas only one of us can be reached on each of our cells

5) I like the feel of a 'LL phone.

6 it's cheap as part of our cable package compared to the cell bill.

7) if we're not home, we don't have to answer it!!

8) it reads out caller ID, a service we'd have to PAY for on the cell phones.

So, as long as I can have a 'LL, by any means, we'll have one.

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Old 09-19-2017, 09:39 AM
 
Location: WA
5,640 posts, read 24,867,462 times
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I use a landline as our primary phone for most contacts. I really hate getting calls on my cell and use it primarily as an outgoing device when not home.
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Old 09-19-2017, 09:41 AM
 
1,959 posts, read 3,089,123 times
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Yes. Recently, a friend who works with the Marshall's Service mentioned there were 12,000 land lines still in use in the county. Right away, I recognized that law enforcement, homeland security, etc. keeps this info in event all cell towers go down and they need to communicate.


I'll never give up my land line due to alarm system and because I believe there is less chance of anyone listening in on my conversations.
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Old 09-19-2017, 09:59 AM
 
Location: MMU->ABE->ATL->ASH
9,317 posts, read 20,914,161 times
Reputation: 10443
Quote:
Originally Posted by LivingDeadGirl View Post

I'll never give up my land line due to alarm system and because I believe there is less chance of anyone listening in on my conversations.
Just a FYI, Alarm system can be setup to go a traffic over your Internet Connection, or as a cell call.

It much "easier" to tap a landline - (POTS - Plain old telephone service ) then a cell call, Your cell call is all digital traffic that is encrypted from the time it leaves your phone until the Cell Carrier delivers the call into the Public Switched Network (PSN) , (at that point the PSN carrier encrypts the call on their end as it goes their copper/fiber), A phone call can be Encrypted / Decrypted a few times on it path from you to the called party.

A landine call (POTS) - Copper line to your home, The call is analog based, the call unencrypted that anyone can tap into using a cheap phone tap kit on the line. The call does not get encrypted until it reaches the point where the phone company converts the call from a analog call to a digital call to move it thru the network.
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Old 09-19-2017, 10:03 AM
 
Location: C.R. K-T
6,202 posts, read 11,391,493 times
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I ditched the mobiles mostly due to cost. I couldn't imagine paying $100/month for two smartphones! I might as well share with all the cordless handsets scattered around the house (that I bought at Costco) and spend only $30/month with the Double Play bundle.

Cinco Ranch (near Katy/west Houston, TX) has very poor cell service since it used to be farms and ranches and no easements were allotted for cell towers during development due to aesthetics. There are a lot of holdouts attempting to use their mobiles and live off the fumes of a weak signal. The only time mobiles become useful around here is when leaving the neighborhood.
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Old 09-19-2017, 10:04 AM
 
Location: Sierra Nevada Land, CA
9,455 posts, read 12,477,246 times
Reputation: 16449
Quote:
Originally Posted by galaxyhi View Post
If I can avoid it, I'll never be without a landline.

1) it's much much clearer conversation than a cell.

2) doesn't rely on the cell tower having power when the power goes out. A backup battery on our cable does just fine, though we do need a new one

3) as previously mentioned, there are cordless land line phones in almost every room of the house. I DO carry my cell phone around a lot, but its guaranteed to be on the charger in a different roon when it rings.

4) both my OH and I can be reached on the 'LL, whereas only one of us can be reached on each of our cells

5) I like the feel of a 'LL phone.

6 it's cheap as part of our cable package compared to the cell bill.

7) if we're not home, we don't have to answer it!!

8) it reads out caller ID, a service we'd have to PAY for on the cell phones.

So, as long as I can have a 'LL, by any means, we'll have one.

Haven't had a LL in over five years and it's never been an issue.

Your point #2 is interesting as those back up batteries are good for up to 6 hours, whereas our local cell towers have fuel cell back ups that are good for a week. No power at home happens where we live a couple times a year, but our phones still work

#3. Must be tough for you to travel to a different room to answer a phone

#4 we use the speakerphone feature on our smartphone

#5 that's possibly your strongest point

#6 that is true and one reason people keep that line of service, but you have to realize that is not a copper wire land line and when the power goes out the only thing keeping you LL on is that little back up battery

#7 you always have the option of not answering a phone

#8 you need to update your plan, Modern cell plans include caller ID in the basic plan cost. We were paying $7 a month to have caller ID on our ATT land line.

But to each their own. We were paying $50 a month for our LL, not including long distance charges. We were using our cell phones for (free) long distance calls and it seemed stupid to be paying $600 a year for something we didn't need. We pay a total of $87 a month for our two smartphones-unlimited text talk and 4gigs of data. So by dropping the landline we pay a net cost of $37 for our phones.

Last edited by Mr5150; 09-19-2017 at 10:22 AM..
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Old 09-19-2017, 10:05 AM
 
Location: Raleigh
8,168 posts, read 8,465,011 times
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Only for the SO's pacemaker to call home every night.
We neevr answer calls unless we know the person on caller ID.
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Old 09-19-2017, 10:08 AM
 
Location: C.R. K-T
6,202 posts, read 11,391,493 times
Reputation: 3804
Quote:
Originally Posted by flyonpa View Post
Just a FYI, Alarm system can be setup to go a traffic over your Internet Connection, or as a cell call.

It much "easier" to tap a landline - (POTS - Plain old telephone service ) then a cell call, Your cell call is all digital traffic that is encrypted from the time it leaves your phone until the Cell Carrier delivers the call into the Public Switched Network (PSN) , (at that point the PSN carrier encrypts the call on their end as it goes their copper/fiber), A phone call can be Encrypted / Decrypted a few times on it path from you to the called party.

A landine call (POTS) - Copper line to your home, The call is analog based, the call unencrypted that anyone can tap into using a cheap phone tap kit on the line. The call does not get encrypted until it reaches the point where the phone company converts the call from a analog call to a digital call to move it thru the network.
Legal taps. Cops would have to get a search warrant to tap a landline due to court decisions. No such things exist on the mobile networks.

Also, these mobile networks are essentially unregulated by the state utility regulator. Good luck if you need help with a billing complaint or other problem!

Surprisingly now with GPS, mobiles are essentially the tracking devices that spies in the movies would plant on the muffler in the past. Now it's just a matter of hacking in and looking at the location history from Google Maps. That's not even mentioning the part about the microphone on the phone being activated remotely.

But I got an alarm cell transmitter to get rid of the last modem on the phone line. That modem would activate if the other person tried to ring rapid-fire a couple of times.
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Old 09-19-2017, 10:21 AM
 
496 posts, read 566,310 times
Reputation: 2930
We still have a landline - but it is not copperwire thru telephone company. Guess it is VoiP which may not really be an advantage when power goes. Never had that happen for the five years I have lived here. Husband has dementia and at the present time can still dial 911 on the landline phone. I have a cell phone but I do not like the sound quality and I hate having to carry it in my pocket.
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