Landline phones

[Razor X]

Many of my co-workers do not have landline phones at home, and upon learning that I do have one, reacted as if it were an extremely unusual thing to have.  "Do you actually use it?" was the next question I got.  And I do actually use it.  Some of my friends always call me on my cell phone, but others call the landline, and if I'm at home and need to make a call, I usually use the landline. It's bundled with my cable TV and internet service, so it doesn't cost me a huge amount of money. I also wouldn't want to be solely reliant on my cell phone in the event of an emergency.

Perhaps it's a case of being on the wrong side of the generational divide and refusing to give up obsolete technology, but it never occurred to me to get rid of it.  Just wondering how the rest of you feel about this.   Do you use landlines at home or do you use your cell phones exclusively?

[TheSlyBear]

I use the landline a lot more than my mobile phone. At least for making calls. I use my mobile phone seemingly for everything but making calls.

[chgobuzzbald]

I still have my land line. Use it at home to avoid the cell which has spotty service in the house. I stripped off the premium addons like caller id and call waiting so its 20.00 a month. I need it for my security system which cant use a cell phone of course. I hear the same but it puzzles me why for $20 a month people would want to go back 50 years to when the was ONE phone in the house to use. I like the convenience of a phone in each room to use. Plus in an emergency there is a phone right where you are without running to find the ONE phone.

[Paul the Headblader]

I still use it.

[Mikekoz13]

We have one and use it all the time BUT we are behind the curve on cell phones. We have simple TracFones (pay as you go) because we rarely use them..... especially me. I refuse to be drawn into the whole "I've gotta check my cell phone evfry 5 minutes" life style.

My wife wants me to get us real cell phones but I refuse to unless she agrees to give up the land line..... why pay for both (my opinion). She can't part with that land line though.

I'm afraid I won't be able to hold her off much longer because my son just turned 15 years old and he wants a cell phone badly. The pressure is on me!!

[bennett11]

Like you we have a landline phone bundled with other services.  For personal calls we use our cell phones - mostly to family.  We use the landline mostly for other business - am retired so don't have lot of that - calls mostly about appts.  We have caller ID.  We use that to determine whether to answer an incoming call.  Most of the calls we get we do not answer - usually calls soliciting donations - firemen - police etc.  or win a cruise by completing this survey.  We get about 20 calls a day - perhaps 3-4 of those are of any interest whatsoever. 

[mrzed]

I agree with you, Mike.

I have a tracfone.  Perhaps pay the minimum $10 per month just to keep it going. I rarely answer the cell phone unless I'm expecting a call.  Do a little texting with it.

We have Vonage VOIP at home. Does that count as a land line?  

I STRONGLY DISLIKE cell phones.  The volume is LOW. The coverage is spotty.  Drops calls. The digital compression makes it hard to hear the voice.  People call from the noisiest places and that makes it hard to hear.  It's just expensive terrible service! Who would want to pay huge amount of money for terrible service?  I guess many Americans do. Not this one.

I love the VOIP line. It works. It's cheap. I can call and talk as long as I want and the bill does not change!  If you need a referral to vonage, let me know. I believe you get a discount on your first month or two if someone gives you a referral (and I get a discount too).

[D.A.L.U.I.]

We have a landline account for the one line and the DSL computer connection.  We have moved on to smartphones for our mobile service.  Rarely, if ever, do we use the landland for long distance calling since it's included in our mobile account.  We moved into cell phones when our daughters went to college and they have their phones too, but now on their own rather than part of a family plan.  We receive a number of calls on the land line from friends and unfortunately the "panhandler" set and political calls.  We considered dumping the land line, but for now we're holding it. 
Mike, your children are growing up and I assure you you will want to move up on your cell phones because it's how you keep tabs on them and they have a line to you--although it's mainly texting.  I can't tell you how much having the phone & being able to keep in touch with the kids means, especially as they start traveling and moving about.  It's an essential parent tool.  Our youngest headed off to a wedding in Lake Charles last Saturday, we knew where she was, when she decided to spend the night with friends after the reception and when she headed back home on Sunday--it takes a lot of the tension out of being a parent. 
And, last Friday when the fates placed me in an accident, the smartphone did everything, confirming my insurance, e-mailing the wife when she didn't pick up on the call, getting the mechanic out to pick up the motorcycle, etc.  It was a small issue really, but showed that when the chips are down, being in touch in multiple ways is a big, really big help.
Traveling, I keep up with the status of my flights and don't have to depend on being able to talk with an agent--who generally don't have any better information than I can get off my flight tracker app. We've made motel reservations on the road when travelling so we know where we're staying rather than looking from place to place trying to find a vacancy.  Yup, handy, convenient--and for our family a necessity.   

[buddha]

We also have land line bundled with other stuff. Up here in Northern Wisconsin there are a great many dead spots for cells. One of them is the north side of the house where I can neither send or receive with the cell. I would not go without a cell up here, though, because the roads can get so bad in winter that you really never know when you're going off-road. Nice to know that I could call or text in the event that I'm stranded.

[schro]

Still have a home phone and use it often. I work out of my house most of the time and AT&T's coverage can be spotty (very frustrating).

[tomgallagher]

Still have a bundled land line but everybody in the house has a cell phone. We wouldn't go out without one in our pockets in case of emergency's and such.

[Laser Man]

We have a landline bundled in with FIOS service and use it regularly.  The sound quality is still superior to cell service.  We find it better to give the landline number out for most things (businesses, charities, etc.) and give out the cell numbers only to people we really want to deal with. 

The landline / cell phone is generational: my daughters, nephews and neices don't have and see little / no need for landlines.

One last thing: FIOS phone service has one significant drawback - it has battery back-up that only last about 4 to 6 hours in a power interruption.  After that, the landline is dead. 

[Papa Don]

I too have a landline. I use it most of the time for local calls. AT&T is outrageous on their long distance rate in this area.  I once paid $33.00 for a $0.17 long distance call.  So, I use the cell for out of area calls, plus when I travel.

[-Doug-]

We use Vonange as our land line. It's a pretty good and reliable service. The feature I like the most is that you can set it to forward to you cell phone if you want and it automatically goes to your cell phone if your internet at home is down, which interrupts the service.

We also have pay-as-you-go cell phones. I rarely make or receive calls on it so I can't see the need of the added expense of having the latest and "greatest" cell phone with 4'000+ bells and whistles.

[mrzed]

We use Vonage as our land line. It's a pretty good and reliable service. The feature I like the most is that you can set it to forward to you cell phone if you want and it automatically goes to your cell phone if your internet at home is down, which interrupts the service.
[\quote]

And you can make the call forwarding ring MANY cell phones at once! First to pick up gets it.

I like that, too.