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In my opinion landline means copper wire and cable. VOIP requires you sit at your computer. Landline. Mobile is mobile. I can sit at a mountain top or in my car going 60mph as a passenger (to be legal) with my iPhone. That is not a landline. We dumped our sit at home telephone. Why go cable, copper or VOIP when our iPhones do the job well? They also do WiFi if needed.
Opinions are one thing but by defintion, a landline is one that uses a land based connection. VOIP does not require you to sit at a computer. There's services like Vonage and Basictalk which use a modem to which you connect a regular corded or cordless phone to just like the one you would use with an old fashioned copper line.
That's not really true. VOIP just means you are connected to the Internet, which you can do in a remote location via wi-fi.
Scratch Wireless has an ultimate cheap plan for $89 to buy the phone and $69 a year access. For that you get a mobile phone, unlimited texting from anywhere, and VOIP voice when you have Wifi (at a supermarket, fast food join, library or home).
Normally, you can send texts to people and tell them you will call them when you find wifi. It's not particularly convenient, but it as cheap as it gets.
In my opinion landline means copper wire and cable. VOIP requires you sit at your computer. Landline. Mobile is mobile. I can sit at a mountain top or in my car going 60mph as a passenger (to be legal) with my iPhone. That is not a landline. We dumped our sit at home telephone. Why go cable, copper or VOIP when our iPhones do the job well? They also do WiFi if needed.
Actually, it does not require you to sit at your computer.
If you use Magic Jack, which uses VOIP but is not considered a landline by anyone I know, you can tote your MagicJack device and plug it into any modem or computer, attach a phone to it and voilà , your supposed 'landline' will ring the phone wherever it and you are!
Neat, huh, and @$20/yr quite a deal.
Oh yeah, when I misplace my cell at home I call it on my MJack phone .. otherwise it's 'Find My Phone' time.
My parents have had "triple play" from their cable company for about 13 years now (TV, phone, internet).
2005 Monthly fees
$47.25 Television (no equipment involved)
$50.00 Internet
$38.00 Phone (unlimited calling across USA)
$22.83 Taxes and Fees
$158.08 Total
In about 2012 the cable company switched to VOIP. It's a small device built into the modem called an Embedded Multimedia Terminal Adapter which is a telephone adapter. The telephones haven't changed since 2005, and the portion of the monthly bill for phone and internet has dropped a lot. Unfortunately the price of television has grown to replace those charges.
2018 Monthly fees
$86.28 Television (includes $22 for DVR and two set top boxes)
$29.59 Internet (modem includes EMTA for VOIP phone)
$18.07 Phone (unlimited calling across USA)
$20.56 Taxes and Fees
$154.50 Total
And it won't stop working because your internet went down. That is a big difference between a landline and a VOIP connection. You can't move your landline. Another big difference.
911 even addresses VOIP separately... because it is not truly what most people consider "a landline".
If the power goes out, many landlines continue to work,. Another hallmark of a true landline which is why some people insist on keeping them.
The reason I make a big deal out of this is because I see some people getting these VOIP phones and expecting them to work like a traditional landline would: in a real emergency when power goes out, your VOIP 'landline' isn't going to work.
Even 911 has a seperate section dedicated to it:
"How can I register my Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Phone for 911?
VoIP service allows users to place and receive calls to and from traditional phone numbers using an internet connection and can be used in place of traditional phone service. Because VoIP phones can be used anywhere an internet connection is available, the 911 call center cannot locate callers unless the VoIP device is registered to a physical address through the VoIP provider. Anytime the VoIP phone is moved from one location to another, the owner should contact the provider to update the new physical location of the device. Learn more about VoIP devices from the FCC."
In my opinion landline means copper wire and cable.
This.
From Cambridge:
landline
noun [ C ] UK /ˈlændlaɪn/ US COMMUNICATIONS
a set of wires that carries phone signals and connects homes and offices to the phone system:
a phone that is not a mobile phone and that is connected to the phone system by wires:
Note they use the term 'phone system'. Not 'internet'.
From Urbandictionary:
Landline
A telephone or other telecommunication device that is stationary and connects to the network via traditional wiring. Wiring can include old telephone lines and fiber optic wiring. Device usually plugs into a wall jack.
From GG's own Meriam:
: a line of transportation or communication on land; especially : a telephone line that transmits signals from one station to another directly along a wire without the use of radio waves
A telephone line... not "an internet connection". Voip doesn't technically travel along a wire the entire time as one end to end signal. Think of landline as tin cans on a string. Think of voip as... well... not that.
And it won't stop working because your internet went down. That is a big difference between a landline and a VOIP connection. You can't move your landline. Another big difference.
911 even addresses VOIP separately... because it is not truly what most people consider "a landline".
If the power goes out, many landlines continue to work,. Another hallmark of a true landline which is why some people insist on keeping them.
The reason I make a big deal out of this is because I see some people getting these VOIP phones and expecting them to work like a traditional landline would: in a real emergency when power goes out, your VOIP 'landline' isn't going to work.
Even 911 has a seperate section dedicated to it:
"How can I register my Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Phone for 911?
VoIP service allows users to place and receive calls to and from traditional phone numbers using an internet connection and can be used in place of traditional phone service. Because VoIP phones can be used anywhere an internet connection is available, the 911 call center cannot locate callers unless the VoIP device is registered to a physical address through the VoIP provider. Anytime the VoIP phone is moved from one location to another, the owner should contact the provider to update the new physical location of the device. Learn more about VoIP devices from the FCC."
Hmm... they don't call it a landline.
Yep, there was a power outage last month for almost 12 hours, which was not fun. Luckily it was evening and thru the night, during hot weather. I could use the traditional, landline corded-phone, but saw that the extension with a cordless phone didn't work, plugged into a charged base. So, many would be unhappy with this, not to mention how it will be in certain emergencies without Internet, Cell service.
Just to say, I had a battery-powered radio, two small, battery-powered fans, besides various light sources. I always have battery-powered "candles" of different sizes, besides tap-lights, flashlights. Believe me, when entirely dark, one appreciates having guide lights set out in various spots.
As mentioned, I will not like it when I am forced to have a VoIP phone.
Yep, there was a power outage last month for almost 12 hours, which was not fun. Luckily it was evening and thru the night, during hot weather. I could use the traditional, landline corded-phone, but saw that the extension with a cordless phone didn't work, plugged into a charged base. So, many would be unhappy with this, not to mention how it will be in certain emergencies without Internet, Cell service.
Just to say, I had a battery-powered radio, two small, battery-powered fans, besides various light sources. I always have battery-powered "candles" of different sizes, besides tap-lights, flashlights. Believe me, when entirely dark, one appreciates having guide lights set out in various spots.
As mentioned, I will not like it when I am forced to have a VoIP phone.
Cell phones work during a power outage. I've yet to see them down, even during storms. That's not to say they don't but it is rare. Copper based AKA "Legacy" phone lines are going extinct and I think will be completely gone within a few years. The lines are still there, they're not digging them up.
We have one, we keep it because if we get rid of it, ATT will jack up our internet, so it would hardly save anything.
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