Any one still use a land (fixed) telephone line?

We had one for business in our home office. After going around and around with ATT trying to get a simple change done we ditched it.

Replaced it with a Verizon wireless "home phone" line that uses a little black box to convert cellular to POTS so all our handsets work with it. Added to our plan it was $15/month and the box was free. Compared to $85/month for ATT "business" line. Works great, sounds great. Can't fax with it, though.
 
I have an old grandfathered cell phone plan with a small amount of minutes. We keep the land line for incoming calls and use the cells when it is free at night or weekends.
 
I'm curios, is anybody left around here that still use a land (fixed) telephone line?
I still use, but if they going to have the bad ideea of puting me on V.o.I.P., I might quit it... for me the Copper wire is the only true landline.
I haven't had one since 1998.
 
I do have 2 cell (mobile) phones, but they are not smart. I hate smartphones! I think of one app for them: sledgehammer.
My wife and I very much like our smart phones. I use the GPS traffic feature for my commute every single day. And we use Life365 to track each other. I have a 75 mile, one way commute home every night and when I walk in the door my wife places dinner in front of me - she's been tracking me.

We don't need thermometers or weathermen. We simply check the phone at the beginning of the day to see if I'll drive the sports car or the "winter car" to work. I get all my email correspondence on my phone. It is a high resolution camera that I use a great deal, and the Snapseed photo software allows me to get incredibly good final photos in a matter of minutes, or even seconds. . It's a high resolution video recorder that takes the place of my old 8MM camcorder back in the day. It has a couple of simple card games I can play when I'm waiting in a line. It has youtube and stitcher (podcasts), which I listen to on my way home from work. It has amazon music, which allows me to listen to my favorite complete albums. It has Pandora if I want to listen to a musical style "station" in my car or on my home stereo. And speaking of that, It's bluetooth (as is my car and my home stereo) so I can make wireless phone calls with it.

It's the most useful thing I own. Nothing else even comes close.
 
We had a "landline", but it's now bundled with cable & internet, so technically that's now VOIP, right?

Anyway, we want to cut the cord, but because I don't like the voice quality of smartphones (the family has a variety; both android and iphone and they all still sound like tin boxes) and because we have so many family & friends & services that contact us by the 'old' number, I want to port our number over to something like Ooma and keep the handsets around the house.
 
We still have our old landline # on one of the Verizon boxes, I should go ahead and drop it because it won't work without power or if the cell phones go down. All of our family and friends know to contact us via the cell phones or e-mail. I get messages from the pharmacy and sometimes the vet or doctors, other wise it's near useless.
 
They are useful, but it's very anyoing to see a lot of people acting like zombies.
Yeah. I disabled facebook. And I don't text much. I keep it in my pocket as much as possible.

BTW, one of its best uses is, after a meeting where we did a lot of white board flow's, I take pictures of the white board and this becomes the beginning of the visio drawings I create for project documentation.
 
It's my brother's place and he's seriously old school (ie: no cell phones),so yeah he has a landline (via cable).
I have a tracfone,but it's NEVER turned on,that's unless I'm calling out (ie: an emergency -or- ordering take-out > LOL).

For those with phones via cable,note that there are modems with a battery back-up so they'll still work when the power goes out.
I mention that as they're required by law in some areas,I know we got "upgraded" to ones like that when I lived in ATX (Austin Tx.).
The alternative is to get a small UPS for the cable and/or phone modem(s) and know your GTG in that respect.

FWIW

Bret P.
 
well yes and no, I have what I call the landline and its the same # as it has been for the last 47 years, but it is packet switched....(VOIP)

and let me clue you in...any and all phone service in the US is VOIP once it leaves the central switch. for those that insist on paying frontier or whatever for copper, it is at most copper to the first switch. there literally are no more routes for circuit switched vs packet switched and lets be honest, in the telecom world...copper is to phone service what coal fired steam was to train locos.
 
Cable with high speed internet = $150*
VoIP from Vonage, long distance = $10
At&t land line = $25

Total after taxes, fees, and other "charges" about $200 a month. Now I have OTA broadcast antenna, and unlimited on my cell phone, $45 total each month.


*Very limited channel selection, no premium channels.
 
I have a fine old Western Electric dial phone that I would love to have in service, just for the physical link to my childhood, but I'd have to go to too much expense and trouble (extra for a VOIP number, and whatever magic box would be needed between it and the phone line from the modem). Time has marched on, progress has happened!
 
Always hated land lines, always with the infernal ringing until I unplug the damn thing. Now that I have a cell phone and it’s always turned off unless I have to use Mapquest because I live in the land of too many damn people.
 
well yes and no, I have what I call the landline and its the same # as it has been for the last 47 years, but it is packet switched....(VOIP)

and let me clue you in...any and all phone service in the US is VOIP once it leaves the central switch. for those that insist on paying frontier or whatever for copper, it is at most copper to the first switch. there literally are no more routes for circuit switched vs packet switched and lets be honest, in the telecom world...copper is to phone service what coal fired steam was to train locos.

I can't agree with that. Copper is more expensive, but does haves some advantages. Steam locomotives did needed a lot of mentinance, but an wire built in good condition will last for years with no problems.
 
Always had a wired line, and will, until AT&T pulls the plug, which they can`t, by a recent congress mandate.

I happily have a phone in every room(wired, or a wireless), except the bathrooms.

My B-I-L, and long time friend, feel same way.

Here in NE. FL. when we get hammered by a hurricane, and lose power for days, my neighbors with VoIPs, with battery backup and no generator, or other means of recharging the VoIP backup battery, are dead in the water after a period of time, and that`s assuming the ISP`s system is still functional !
My land line is the first to come back on line, if it goes out at all, where internet, may, or may not return, for a few days more.

I have a flip phone, as backup, + I`m partially paralyzed("I`ve fallen down, and can`t get up" !), but the cell system, has in the past, been overwhelmed during hurricanes, by all the very high density of calls, with everybody checking in with each other !!

I`ll stay with what I have.

If my long time friend(also a land line/smart phone guy), who recently retired after 40 years working for a nearby town from being a cop, dispatcher, systems administrator, etc. is not comfortable with E911, then, I think I shouldn`t be either.

But, that`s just me..
Go with whatever you`re comfortable with.

Kind regards, Billy Ferris
 
Back
Top Bottom