Should we dump our landline?

[The Growler]

Originally Posted by upsidedown

Depends on what the service is like in your area. We dumped our landline a few years back, but are thinking about getting it back. Too many cell phone dead spots in our house for phone calls.

My father had to do this. Cell coverage was really poor and not reliable at his home. Missed a lot of calls and couldn’t always make one.

[sayheyjeff]

We have a land line because we live at the bottom of a hill and cell service is only fair and that is only through Verizon. None of the other carriers work well in our house. The land line is also required for our security system. Unless the landline phone indicates the call is from someone we know and want to talk to, we don’t even answer it. … and I keep my cell phone on silent and call people back when I see they have called.

Jeff

[_Mike_]

We got rid of our physical landline at least 10 years ago. We were able to port the number to our cell provider, so we still use it for store cards, etc. and when we need to give a phone number. Like most it stays on silent and we check it every day or two.

[Highroller]

We had some kind of package that included the landline service with the cable TV. When I ditched the cable TV in favor of streaming, the landline went with it.

I don't much miss the landline, but I'll admit I sometimes miss the cable TV, mostly for live sporting events and news. I guess I've learned to live with it.

[Murphy Slaw]

Haven't had one for years, but I do miss the quality of a good land line.

You could tell what kind of a mood someone was in, hear background sounds, people breathing/sighing, lighting a cigarette, the neighbor's dog.

Many young people have no idea how good the audio of a phone used to be.

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by Murphy Slaw

Haven't had one for years, but I do miss the quality of a good land line.

You could tell what kind of a mood someone was in, hear background sounds, people breathing/sighing, lighting a cigarette, the neighbor's dog.

Many young people have no idea how good the audio of a phone used to be.

Good point…

[Golffishny]

Whichever number you give to everyone you do business with, that's where the spam calls go to. It doesn't matter if it's a cell or landline. I don't give out my cell or email. My landline has caller ID and voicemail. All calls get screened.

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by Murphy Slaw

Haven't had one for years, but I do miss the quality of a good land line.

You could tell what kind of a mood someone was in, hear background sounds, people breathing/sighing, lighting a cigarette, the neighbor's dog.

Many young people have no idea how good the audio of a phone used to be.

You remind that I kept an old rotary phone working for a while and my kids did experience that.

Technically, that was would be an old phone mic and handset having no smarts such as background noise cancellation. Old POTS was narrow band range of 3.4 kHz range, and I recall the newer protocols around 7 kHz. I'm glad I don't have to remember stuff like that to pass tests anymore, but moving into the age where I have to remember why I went upstairs or downstairs LOL.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Blueser100

As long as I've had a cell phone (many years) I've kept the landline (Frontier) because I figured in an emergency, 911 from a landline would be more reliable. (I'm not so sure of that, just an assumption). It's only about $30 a month for local dial tone but honestly we only get calls from scammers and solicitors, and we never use it to dial out. It seems a waste of money that could be better put toward other things.

Anyone here discontinue their landline? Any reason for keeping it?

Yes we have not had a land line for 12 years now, and I can't really think of a reason to have one. Given we have a printer that can scan documents which can be used in lieu of fax, which being retired we only do occasionally now ..

[rllink]

Even before cell phones I hated land lines. I know that it could be considered rude, but I don't answer my phone unless it is someone I want to talk to. I think it is rude just to call up and assume someone has time and wants to talk. Most of my communications are by text. I have a half dozen people programmed into my cell that will ring in on my phone, people like my kids, my wife and my in laws who might need to get hold of me right away in an emergency. Everyone else can either leave a message or text me. My land line, at least at the time, didn't lend itself to that. It demanded some sort of immediate attention.

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by imwjl

Technically, that was would be an old phone mic and handset having no smarts such as background noise cancellation. Old POTS was narrow band range of 3.4 kHz range, and I recall the newer protocols around 7 kHz. I'm glad I don't have to remember stuff like that to pass tests anymore, but moving into the age where I have to remember why I went upstairs or downstairs LOL.

Yeah, it's kind of funny--especially on this forum-to refer to old phone tech as having "good audio". Digital tech, with compression, drop-outs and whatnot can sound horrible, but phone lines weren't very hi-fidelity. A while back I had to convert an audio file to use as "on-hold" music for a phone system. It had to be in some weird, band-limited 8-bit format. There's a reason that music on the phone sounds like it's being played through a cheese grater.

[nickv6]

I still prefer landline for a chatty type call. There's some sort of very slight delay on a mobile which results in false starts when both parties talk at once. Never happens on landline. Maybe it's the delay in converting to digital signal and back?

[ewalling]

To dump or not to dump? That is the question.

Is it better to have dumped and lost than never to have dumped at all?


These conundrums are not easily answered ...

[Sdrew22]

Most "landline" phones are no longer "landlines". They are VOIP. Which means if you lose power you lose your phone. This is little help in emergency situations. Cell towers are much more secure and reliable if you are in their service area.

Very few companies still offer traditional landline "copper" phones. They do not want to maintain the lines.

[rokdog49]

We don’t use a scanner anymore.
We just take a pic with a cellphone and email it or put it in an electronic file, whatever the need.