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As time goes by, land lines are going to be used less and less by homeowners. That said, I think some families will still want them for years to come. So, if you think there is any chance you may cell your home in the foreseeable future, I would either keep the lines, or have them buried. Buried lines look nicer and are much less prone to damage from storms, and are thus more attractive to a prospective buyer.
If I am not mistaken, the phone company owns the cable that connects your home to the utility pole. If I am right, you might get into trouble if you cut these lines yourself. I would call the phone company or the appropriate branch of your local government to see what you can and cannot do.
Yes, but if you have VoIP and a cell phone, you are in decent enough shape. I mean, there are maybe 1-2 times every 3-5 years, when you can be happy you paid a lot more to have an old school phone.
More importantly, if people didn't feel unnecessarily attached to an old technology, we could have VoIP, Cell, and WiMax more readily available.
There are reasons why people hold on to old technology. VOIP has some problems with 911 service. With yea ole land line 911 works. With VOIP there are some complications and it isn’t always straight forward. The trouble with VOIP is that the device can be anywhere in the world and so the user must preregister it and if you move it must be regestired. Some VOIP providers don’t offer 911 service. VOIP does not work in power outs and will not work if you have no credits left on your account(where as with a regular phone 911 works till they cut the phone service completely off).
Cell phones have limits when too many people call at once in an area the cell phone system can be overwhelmed much easier than land lines.
Wimax I suspect is going to have a hard time competing with cable as most houses have had cable since the 80ies and many business have likewise since the 2000's. My experience with 4G modems is that they don’t always work well indoors esp. in basements. Where it can win is where mobility is an issuse but otherwise, I suspect not everywhere.
We have tried 4 different cell carriers. Can usually carry on a conversation out in the middle of the yard (but not always). More certain that it won't work inside the house. Not sold yet over VoIP through our cable ISP. We have already let the neighbors use our old fashioned land line to report an outage of their "cable" phone. Well, it isn't really "old-fashioned". We got rid of the crank on the side of the phone years ago.
We have tried 4 different cell carriers. Can usually carry on a conversation out in the middle of the yard (but not always). More certain that it won't work inside the house. Not sold yet over VoIP through our cable ISP. We have already let the neighbors use our old fashioned land line to report an outage of their "cable" phone. Well, it isn't really "old-fashioned". We got rid of the crank on the side of the phone years ago.
You can get signal boosters that route your cell calls through the internet connection. It's what we use in the house as the Verizon service is spotty. 4 bars even in the basement.
I have an old fashioned rotary phone on my nightstand. Not only is it cool looking but it can double as a weapon if need be...heavy as sin. I also have a cordless phone (on the same landline) for everyday use and a cell phone for when I'm out. The cell gets lousy reception in the house. No voip or digital voice since I don't want to loose the rotary (it's the phone I grew up with as a kid...50 years old and still has the old phone number un the center of the rotary) I don't know why everyone thinks newer is always better in all regards, it's not. You are told that and believe it but if you appreciate old things (ie: built to last things) you wouldn't be so anxious to throw away everything and buy new with each upgrade they dangle in front of you.
It's like those old homes that have hardwood under the layers of vinyl and carpet. Now imagine someone in the 70's just ripping it up for no good reason except it wasn't modern looking. Ugg. I'm not saying everyone needs a land line, my eldest child left home in 2005 and has never had one, but there is also no reason to NOT have one if it's all you really need. Not everyone uses cell phones (or computers for that matter) despite what everyone seems to think. I do, I like technology, but I like a mix and use the best of each. My wires are all underground already so it's not an issue but I know years back, when the cable companies first started pushing phone service, they sometimes stripped out the copper wires so people couldn't go back easily. Such a scheme.
You can buy a box to retrofit the rotary phones for VOIP. Pretty much everyone on my team uses a cell for their primary phone, we're all remote and usually have a few hrs of calls a day.
Not necessarily, you need a modem with a battery backup. In my case the modem also handles the VOIP, it has the telephone jacks on it. Assuming the cable hasn't gone out the phones still work during a power outage and I could even surf the web with any battery operated computer/device if I wanted to plug it right into the modem.
The battery doesn't last that long though, only a few hours. In my case since power outages can be long we have a generator so that's a non issue.
You can get signal boosters that route your cell calls through the internet connection. It's what we use in the house as the Verizon service is spotty. 4 bars even in the basement.
I could. Or I can keep my landline that is not dependent on the power from the Circuit Breaker panel in the house and just use the cell phone if I need to when there is a signal.
When I had a regular cellphone, it was $75+ per month for the cell and another $35 for the landline. Now the Cell is prepaid so we only pay when we use it, so we are saving at least $70 per month.
Another advantage of the landline is my wife and I can both get on and talk when we are talking with the kids. It avoids having to try to do a "conference" call to talk to the grandson on the phone.
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