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We still have a landline. Probably the biggest reason is because it's "traditional" ... I've had one all my life. Another reason is specific 911 location that as far as I know cell phones don't do. Another decent reason is that I get 300/20 internet and the phone for $80/month. That's pretty cheap. The biggest reason for getting rid of the landline is the robo calls. My Dish receiver is also hooked into my telephone line.
I have a landline and will not part with it until ATT auits furnishing them. I am sitting here watching person after person saying they pay #1,000 a year for a landline. Surley you use it for more than simple phone calls? My landline costs $492 a year. And it always works.
Crank calls? Yes but I pretty well know when those characters are active. Evenings, I don't even answer the phone. I know people with family can't do that but I can. Daytimes, I'll usually answer because friends might be calling. They know I don't answer after dinner.
Someone mentioned it going dead if the battery dies. I allowed myself a cordless phone in one room and put an old princess phone in the kitchen. Why? Its ring is far louder and I have a hearing problem. That said, I bought this last cordless phone ten years ago and the battery died just this month. Ten years that battery lasted. No problem. My cell phone battery didn't last half that long.
The loud, hard-wired one, of course, does not use a battery. It goes straight to the phone line. No problem there either. It's an old princess phone. I've had two of them so long that I can't even count how long.
Cell phone? I can leave home without a phone. However, with no public phone boxes around here, I needed a way to call a cab to go back home when I'm out. I got a simple TracFone for $20 and pay right at $100 once a year to "re-register", meaning buy more minutes. I don't begin to use those minutes. I started out about nine or ten years ago with $1,000 minutes and now have just short of 5,000 minutes.
Smart phones? Forget it. If you "have to" watch tv or check CVS's price on candy bars while standing in Walgreen's saving gas, fine. I'll stick with TracPhone and a land line. From what I saw in a Sprint store window last week, I still get service cheaper with two types of phones than people do with smart phones.
All that said, what it boils down to is what do you need and what do you enjoy? If you enjoy watching your smart phone while walking from car to building - and continuing inside the building, that's your right. Go for it. To each his own. I'll stick with landline for real talking.
Surley you use it for more than simple phone calls? My landline costs $492 a year. And it always works.
My friend pays for Verizon landline with unlimited phone calls
$65.99 Freedom Essentials +$24.33 taxes fees and surcharges =$90.32 per month or $1083.84 per year (more than double the amount you cite). She only uses the line for simple phone calls.
(1) Do you not have long distance included?
(2) Do you in fact have VOIP from a local cable company and not a Plain Old Telephone ?
The local cable company charges ~ $40 with taxes and fees for phone service and 10 Mbps internet for the first 12 months and includes unlimited domestic long distance.
One of the differences between a VOIP system and Plain Old Telephone System is that your battery backup in the event of a storm must be done to a device in your home instead of in the central office. Some cable companies provide a battery for a few hours, but you have to purchase your own batteries if you want to keep talking if the power is gone for 48 hours.
I have no objection to land lines per se, it is the high cost of a plain old telephone system (POTS). You can get internet and telephone for the same price and it is much more useful. And the only reason I think people people stay with POTS is the unreasonable fear of power outages when all you need to do is to purchase batteries.
My friend pays for Verizon landline with unlimited phone calls
$65.99 Freedom Essentials +$24.33 taxes fees and surcharges =$90.32 per month or $1083.84 per year (more than double the amount you cite). She only uses the line for simple phone calls.
(1) Do you not have long distance included?
(2) Do you in fact have VOIP from a local cable company and not a Plain Old Telephone ?
The local cable company charges ~ $40 with taxes and fees for phone service and 10 Mbps internet for the first 12 months and includes unlimited domestic long distance.
One of the differences between a VOIP system and Plain Old Telephone System is that your battery backup in the event of a storm must be done to a device in your home instead of in the central office. Some cable companies provide a battery for a few hours, but you have to purchase your own batteries if you want to keep talking if the power is gone for 48 hours.
I have no objection to land lines per se, it is the high cost of a plain old telephone system (POTS). You can get internet and telephone for the same price and it is much more useful. And the only reason I think people people stay with POTS is the unreasonable fear of power outages when all you need to do is to purchase batteries.
And, if I hear correctly, Verizon makes you sign a contract. Right? AT&T does not. But that is neither here nor there. I suppose I can call it a "plain old fashioned telephone". At least the service is. I make local phone calls and receive calls from anywhere. I do not have long distance on it. We have suburbs around here where we have to pay a toll charge. When I need to make a long distance call - which is very, very seldom - I get out my cell phone as there is no charge for those in USA, Canada and a limited list of foreign countries.
That's my landline. The only thing modern about it is that it is cordless. I do not know what VOIP is. Is it like UVerse? I do not have UVerse for two reasons. One, I want it separate from the computer and, two, I do not qualify as I do not have a television. A smile for you: Whenever an AT&T person starts trying to sell me UVerse, I end that with "I do not have a television". One time the AT&T woman reacted with "No television? Whatever do you do with your time?" Bless her heart. :-)
Back to landline, yes, I could get all those extras you ask about but I have no need for them and they do cost extra. My phone service is completely separate from my computer service. Two different companies. And I like it that way.
The basic telephone charge is $28. All the rest is taxes, heaven help us. To be exact (as it varies monthly by a few pennies) last month was $41.55.
Hazel was a popular name prior to WWII and dropped in popularity until 1999 when it suddenly surged again in popularity. I am guessing you were not born after 1999.
Frank was in the top 10 from 1900-1922 (Frank Sinatra born in 1915) but was already dropping in 1957 when I was born. Now it is not even in the top 300 names.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazel W
That's my landline. The only thing modern about it is that it is cordless. I do not know what VOIP is. Is it like UVerse? I do not have UVerse for two reasons. One, I want it separate from the computer and, two, I do not qualify as I do not have a television.
The phrase "plain old fashioned telephone service" (POTS) is a widely used industry term. It is not something I made up, nor is it meant as an insult. But one feature is that battery backup in the event of power failure is done at the telephone office level, not at the home.
A cordless phone does not really change the system, so you can still have POTS with cordless phones, but obviously you should have at least one wired phone if you lose power.
The telephone was patented by Bell in 1876. Edison provided electric light bulb light to 85 homes in lower Manhattan in 1882. It lost money and the plant burned in 1890. So obviously for many decades a reliable telephone in the event of a power outage was very important. When my mother was a little girl their home had a single plug. They would plug in a lightbulb at night, possibly a radio during the day, and then one of those two pronged water heaters so they could warm up the bathwater without having to put buckets on the coal stove and fill the tub by carrying over buckets from the stove. Even the clothes iron was heated on the coal stove (although I think that was one of the earliest electrical appliances).
UVerse is television. VOIP means Voice over Internet Protocol. Normally people get VOIP as it is much cheaper to have it once they have paid for Internet. You can get it from the cable company, or you can buy your own system (Magic Jack, Vonage, etc). The power outage backup at the office level does not exist, so you have to buy your own batteries (or switch to your cellular phone).
The cheapest VOIP system is free (Google Voice). You must spend $50 upfront to get your older telephones to work with it, or you end up talking to the computer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazel W
A smile for you: Whenever an AT&T person starts trying to sell me UVerse, I end that with "I do not have a television". One time the AT&T woman reacted with "No television? Whatever do you do with your time?" Bless her heart. :-)
There was a famous review of the newly introduced television at the 1939 World's Fair. The journalist stated that unlike radio the viewer was required to sit still and stare at a screen. He predicted that television would never catch on with the general public because people didn't have that kind of time to sit motionless and not engage in some other activity.
Last edited by PacoMartin; 08-29-2018 at 06:53 AM..
Paco, I did not mention POTS - not as an abbreviation, I mean. IT was VOIP that I mentioned as I did not know what it meant. And, yes, I do have one hard-wired phone. Not only for the reason you give but because of its very loud ring (which I suspect even the neighbors can hear).
Thank you for explanation of VOIP. As for UVerse, I'll have to look into that. It was my understand that it involves television, internet and telephone. I thought you had to have all three. Whatever, I am happy with what I have.
I suppose I can call it a "plain old fashioned telephone". At least the service is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazel W
Paco, I did not mention POTS - not as an abbreviation, I mean.
From the phrasing of your response, you seem puzzled. I was just clarifying that I was using a standard industry term,
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazel W
As for UVerse, I'll have to look into that. It was my understand that it involves television, internet and telephone. I thought you had to have all three. Whatever, I am happy with what I have.
AT&T uses U-Verse vaguely, a it refers primarily to fiber delivered services, instead of on copper. It doesn't necessarily imply all three, but phone service is usually a minor cost today, and they like people to get it because they are less likely to jump to a competitor if they are afraid of losing a phone number.
When triple play was first installed on Jul 19, 2005
$47.25 Television
$38.00 Phone
$45.00 Internet 10 Mbps
$5.00 Modem Rental
$22.83 Taxes and Fees
$158.08
The Cable company switched from analog to digital TV in 2009 and we had to get cable boxes, and they switched the phone to VOIP in 2011.Today, the internet is much cheapr, and VOIP phone is just taxes and fees, but the television is much more expensive.
$59.99 Television
$29.95 Television Surcharges
$22.00 Television Equipment
$20.00 Internet 50 Mbps
$2.00 Modem Rentsl
$20.56 Taxes and fees ($13.76 phone taxes and fees)
$154.50
Television has become a big waste of money. If you want to know the news, than just go to a website.My family won't give it up.
Last edited by PacoMartin; 08-29-2018 at 04:09 PM..
From the phrasing of your response, you seem puzzled. I was just clarifying that I was using a standard industry term,
AT&T uses U-Verse vaguely, a it refers primarily to fiber delivered services, instead of on copper. It doesn't necessarily imply all three, but phone service is usually a minor cost today, and they like people to get it because they are less likely to jump to a competitor if they are afraid of losing a phone number.
When triple play was first installed on Jul 19, 2005
$47.25 Television
$38.00 Phone
$45.00 Internet 10 Mbps
$5.00 Modem Rental
$22.83 Taxes and Fees
$158.08
The Cable company switched from analog to digital TV in 2009 and we had to get cable boxes, and they switched the phone to VOIP in 2011.Today, the internet is much cheapr, and VOIP phone is just taxes and fees, but the television is much more expensive.
$59.99 Television
$29.95 Television Surcharges
$22.00 Television Equipment
$20.00 Internet 50 Mbps
$2.00 Modem Rentsl
$20.56 Taxes and fees ($13.76 phone taxes and fees)
$154.50
Television has become a big waste of money. If you want to know the news, than just go to a website.My family won't give it up.
Wow! We pay $85 for two lines of service with Verizon and we stream tv stuff. our internet and basic tv. $75. 25.mps. VoIP is useless in the car.
As a side note when we got rid of our landline I ported that number to my cell phone. I get a kick when people say isn’t 586 a landline prefix?
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