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VoIP is not very reliable. I say this as someone who supports it . . .Keep in mind tho that my customers have more complex needs like multiple video conferences at once.
As others had said, we went with Verizon, ported the landline over to a wireless 'puck' that you can plug a standard phone handset into. My wife wanted the convenience of the handset over a cellphone (can hold it under her neck when writing), and it doesn't have the 'potential issue' of a 6W cellphone transmitter right next to her head. Her wireless receiver/transmitter is 3' away on a small desk, with her desk-phone plugged into it via a standard line in a RJ-11 socket (4 pin). It even receives texts, as the puck has a small LCD screen on it to show who called. I also like a traditional desk-phone to eliminate that transmitter issue, but went with a Panasonic Bluetooth version that links to my cellphone. It even has two other phones on the same line, so I can pickup calls throughout the house. Both phone systems work very well.
My mother replaced her ATT landline with a Comcast landline. Now every time we lose internet, she loses her phone service. That means not just during power outages, but random Comcast outages.
We still have our ATT landline and we have never lost phone service, not even during Katrina. Our phone still works during power outages and there are never any random outages.
Now if I can just get my cell service out from ATT and keep the landline. Last time I tried to drop a mobile line, I had to tell them someone died. That's ridiculous.
Provide an example of a cable company offering a land line that is not VOIP.
verizon or AT&t if they are still maintaining copper wires lines( the old fashion land line phone). In some places both verizon and AT&T have been given permission by the govt to stop maintaining copper wire lines. Thus all that is left is VOIP or cell. There is still much of country that does not have cell service or internet.
We finally cut the family landline last year. The prior year, it had been on the fritz, and it took AT&T something like six months to fix it. Incredible. It seems like only yesterday that we kids were all using extensions of that phone line -- upstairs, downstairs, in the cellar -- at all hours. Cell phones didn't reach universality until after the turn of the millennium. That's just 20 years ago.
Apparently, very few technicians know how to service the twisted copper pair systems, especially the station equipment and the local exchanges. Our problem two years ago was due to water incursion in the local exchange (ENdicott 2, for those who remember the old nomenclature). The serviceman said we were the last on the block to retain a landline. Wow.
Phone books -- white pages or yellow -- are telling, in their girth. My Dad always kept the old editions in the cellar. They were huge from the 1960s until around 2004 or so, then they started getting thinner and thinner. Now, they are the size of a company directory.
verizon or AT&t if they are still maintaining copper wires lines( the old fashion land line phone). In some places both verizon and AT&T have been given permission by the govt to stop maintaining copper wire lines. Thus all that is left is VOIP or cell. There is still much of country that does not have cell service or internet.
Neither Verizon nor ATT are cable TV. The assertion was that cable TV providers are offering land lines not VOIP.
I'm keeping my POTS copper wire land line because it is needed for my monitored burglar/fire alarm, and also because unlike cell phones that usually fail with a major power outage (the cell phone itself will work without mains power, but the towers won't - most have backup for a few hours but after that no mas).
Mine is not that expensive so I don't mind paying for it.
I also like supporting what's left of copper wire telephone services.
It saved us in a hurricane. Everything else died. We had no power for 13 days.
However, to get good reception on the cell phone, you have to go outside. Too many trees around us, I'm told. It's always been like that.
Like yours, our alarms go through the landline.
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Keeping our landline
