Do You Still Have a Landline? - Comments Page 2

I believe that a landline telephone is very important. It is the most reliable form of communication service available. During hurricane Hugo our telephone service was uninterrupted even though a tornado tore down trees and telephone poles in our neighbor hood. The telephone facility was a combination of aerial and buried cable with plastic insulation. Even though the cable facility was on the ground the service remained intact. The telephone company had a standby power unit providing power to the local switching equipment so even though many were with out power for as much as two weeks, the local telephone switch was always working. Our cell phone service was interupted for a few days but, not the land line phone.Power at our residence was not restored for 2 weeks and a day even though we live in the city. We live in Waxhaw N.C. a small comunity 20 miles south of Charlotte N.C.

Now retired, I find that I have to explain myself almost daily as to why I still have a land line in addition to a cell phone. I have at least a phone on each floor of my condo as well as in the basement. We have experienced several power outages this year. I was able to call the appropriate utility company and report the outages--all accomplished on my copper wire phone. My cell phone (an I-phone) provides lousy service/reception). It will be changed as soon as the contract is over). Unless ATT makes it totally impossible for me to maintain my land line, I will continue to have a land line. Do I enjoy paying two phone bills? Of course not!

I dropped the landline almost 2 years ago! Only use a cell phone now. I also dropped the cable and only use OTA and streaming. I have experienced no issues so far. The expectations are simply cost reduction!

For people living on the Coast (West that is) dropping a land line is tantamount to having no communication if there is an earthquake, or hurricane. Cell phones bandwidths are taken over during emergency times and are of no use anyway when the power is out for more than a day.Young people are the ones abandoning the land lines and they have no idea the fools paradise they live in.Having been in two quakes where the cell phones were co opted by the FEMA folks I can assure you that a landline is still a very worthwhile investment in your own safety and ability to communicate during emergency situations.

Voip and many Cell Phones will not be able to in an Emergency be able to find your exact location, Unlike a Traditional Phone line that can show your whereabouts. If you are calling from a High Rise Bldg. it can not tell what floor or suite you are in. Security Systems also depend on Land Lines, so do the Emergency "I have fallen and get up". if the subscriber is talking a walk in a secluded area and.alert goes out and the Dispatcher is unable to get voice confirmation is it worth your life to ase a few Bucks?

Hi Bob,

Yes have a landline as am deaf, tried an internet connected one and was no good, tied up the connection and caused problems when uploading and
downloading so guess will have it as long as can

Mr. Rankin, I do respect you a lot, so I thank you for your vigilant articles. I want to suggest that some areas where people live consider a telephone a civilized requirement for security, and safety,
and have provided free or very inexpensive landlines. Seniors and our disability community might desire to inquire as to whether they can get free landlines or reduced, subsidized landlines. My municipality, in the USA, in the NW, subsidizes
utilities such as heat and light, and also landlines. Maybe your municipality does also? Perhaps you should look to see whether it does.

>>>> VoIP stands for "Voice over Internet Protocol" and in simpler terms, it means that your voice calls travel over the Internet instead of a traditional telephone wire.

The above statement is erroneous. Most of the Internet traffic is carried over "traditional telephone wire". Another type of carrier is the traditional coaxial cable.

The problem with VoIP, regardless of the used physical channel (telephone line, coaxial cable or radio), is that VoIP needs a suitable modem and all types of modems need power on both ends of the channel. In addition to power failures, the Internet is also prone to other problems.

Thus, there is no match for the traditional wired phone in terms of both reliability and QoS.

I strongly recommend: Do not give up on your landline!

Most telcos are strongly encouraging - sometimes to the point of forcing - customers to switch to VOIP from POTS service. VOIP is cheaper to maintain, and the old copper wires are being allowed to degrade to the point of unusability.

And of course, once you've given up your POTS ("Plain Old Telephone Service") landline, there's almost no possibility of getting it back.

In the UK, ALL broadband packages include a landline. Some because they still use the telephone line to get the signals to your equipment. But others. like Virgin Media who connect your equipment directly to their fibre optic cable STILL force you to keep a landline - by making it more expensive if you just take their broadband and TV service!!!! And I think that is despicable because I never use my landline and have to keep the phone on Do Not Disturb all the time.

HI,

I have only a cellphone now as the reason is, if voip goes down or internet is off it is basically useless. Voip in my area of Sout Dakota is not good at all and barely worth the money they charge. If I buy voip from my internet provider the modem will last 8 hours if the electric goes off, they they were charging me $48.95 a month with tax and it was just not worth it. If I have 5 calls or make 5 calls a month I am lucky at the age of 68. SO I elected to use cellphone, which can and has gone down in my area, not often but has. I have Verizon as it is the best in my area. AT&T here is horrible and Sprint is non existent here...

So a cellphone it is. Even if the electric goes off, a cell will work for quite a while in most places that is...

I had problems with my POTS line and Verizon forced me to VOIP. They said they would not fix the copper line anymore. I was told if you have 2 or more service calls in a year you get switched,or no service.

I have been using MagicJack for years. It now is much advanced over the early years. I have also turned friends to using it.
I pay 20 dollar a YEAR not per month. Don't be turned off by their terrible ads or website.

Bob,

Have had MagicJack for several years with no problems. Can't beat the cost. When we moved to rural PA, Sprint wanted $200 to run a landline from the street pole to house. Forget that! When the power used to go out for extended periods where we used to live in NoVA (up to a week in some blizzards) we would just make sure to include to cable modem/wifi router power strip in the items we plugged into the generator and the VOIP phone and Internet access would be back up and running. Never any problem calling the utility to let them know the power was out. Still have the cellphone (Republic Wireless) as backup. And yes, the reception is great where we live; lots of xfinity hotspots.

We still have a landline for emergency purposes.

Bob,

You run something like this every now and again and you always are unable to recommend Vonage. I have been a subscriber since the beginning and love it (I have never had to use their customer service, so can't comment there). The service is reliable and always clear.
Our plan includes free calls to the UK and other European countries and their phone app which allows you to make the same calls from two cell phones is just great, it means my wife can call her mother in London from anywhere.
No, I am not a Vonage employee, just a satisfied customer.

Bob,

You run something like this every now and again and you always are unable to recommend Vonage. I have been a subscriber since the beginning and love it (I have never had to use their customer service, so can't comment there). The service is reliable and always clear.
Our plan includes free calls to the UK and other European countries and their phone app which allows you to make the same calls from two cell phones is just great, it means my wife can call her mother in London from anywhere.
No, I am not a Vonage employee, just a satisfied customer.

Something you missed is the type of telephone instrument. A few years ago power was out for several days - up to three weeks in some areas. I had phone service through an old standard phone. However, those I wanted to contact had multi-station wireless phones: no power, no phone.

The main thing I don't like about phone service is that the taxes and other fees are about equal to the cost of a basic phone line. Another thing is being severely limited in landline service providers - generally one per area.

Why in the world didn't you include MagicJack Plus in this article???? We have had MagicJack Plus for three or four years with no problems. And you cannot beat the cost at $20 a year not a month!

As was already said, landlines are the most reliable in emergencies. I have been through earthquakes where my landline worked even though there was no power, no cell phones, no TV cable or cable based phone, no Internet service (thus no VOIP), etc. But the landline system is mostly backed up by battery and still worked.

Just this week, my sister-in-law in Nevada had a power outage from storms. No cell phones, no TV cable, no satellite, no Internet. But her landline worked on the one old phone she has that doesn't need power (i.e., not a wireless phone).