Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

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Small Law Survivor
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Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by Small Law Survivor »

Everyone in my family has a cell phone, and we have done our best to give our cell numbers to everyone that might need them - friends, family, doctors .....

However, we still have a Verizon landline that costs $30/month, or $360/year.

The only people that seem to call it these days are calls we don't want.

I'm inclined to cancel it, but I'm wondering what I might be missing? Is there any reason to maintain this service that I may have overlooked?

Thanks for your thoughts.
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abner kravitz
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by abner kravitz »

I do a lot of outbound calling on my landline. Its nice to have great reception and no dropping, which isn't always the case with my cellphone. It's included in my cable bundle, so I don't really know how much it costs though. And I keep the ringer off.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by Jack FFR1846 »

We have our landline for one reason and one reason only. Because the choice of internet speeds and costs made it cheaper to get tripple play than to buy the much higher internet speed for internet alone. Fios purposely does this, I'm sure. I can get snail slow internet alone or blazingly fast, enough to handle the entire neighborhood. A reasonably fast speed along with tv and phone is less than the high speed internet.

Anyways.....we don't have a phone even plugged in. So yes, we have the telephone number and the ability to use it but we'd have to go out and buy a phone to do so.
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Pajamas
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by Pajamas »

I have been using a VOIP service for many years after reluctantly giving up my landline through no choice of my own and haven't found one, assuming you have good cellular service at home.

You can use Google Voice and forward calls to your cell if you want to. You can even move your landline number to a cellular service and then to Google Voice if you want to keep the landline number. You can't transfer a landline or VOIP number to Google Voice directly.

https://support.google.com/voice/answer/1065667?hl=en
onourway
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by onourway »

If you don't use it, no point in keeping it.

The ONLY thing I noticed when we dropped ours was that it is somewhat convenient with kids to have a single point of contact number for schools, doctors, etc. but that can be done for free if we really wanted it.

Land-line phones are no longer even more reliable than cell phones in power outages. Copper lines require battery backup systems that the phone companies are letting fall into disrepair as their landline business becomes increasingly less profitable. All the new battery tech goes to keeping the cell towers up.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by MI_bogle »

I don't think you're missing anything, give it the ax!
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topper1296
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by topper1296 »

I haven't had a land line for almost 10 years now and haven't missed it at all.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by bloom2708 »

If you have a long history with that number, you could replace one of your cell phone numbers and keep the land line number as your primary number.

I know that is not "easy" either. Many people have cell phone numbers. Just another idea.

We stopped using our home number, stopped using it anywhere, changed all accounts to have one of our cell numbers. After a few years, the calls dried up. That number became our youngest kids number. We had long ago transferred it to an "add a line" cell phone, so that just became the kids number when they reached cell phone age.

In general, no, you will not miss your landline phone.
Mako
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by Mako »

I last had a landline in 2003. Even then the few years before that I only had it cause it was required for DSL. :P Never missed it.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by mptfan »

Small Law Survivor wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 2:03 pm I'm inclined to cancel it, but I'm wondering what I might be missing? Is there any reason to maintain this service that I may have overlooked?
I don't think you are missing anything, I cancelled my landline phone years ago and I'm glad I did, I don't miss it at all. The only possible issue I can think of is if you can't find your cell phone or it is broken or it fell into the toilet or whatever, and you need to make a phone call you might wish you had a landline. But that is a minor issue, and if you have a VOIP based number like Google voice, you can make calls from your computer so that is a non issue now too.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by ft2010 »

I use Ooma as VoIP landline, taxes and fees comes to ∼5 per month (cost includes E911). You can also look into Obihai 2xx devices to use along with Google Voice (no ongoing cost), however if you want E911 you need subscribe to something else with a nominal fee.

The benefit of having a VoIP landline, is (1) E911 for emergencies that it instantly recognize your home location, important for household with small children and/or the eldly folks; and (2) convenience of prolonged conversions (without battery drain of your mobile phone).
soccerrules
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by soccerrules »

we realized we never used it and decided to "unbundle" our internet/cable and canceled it.

We had to train the parents/grandparents to call on the cell phones if they needed us

easy pease
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Dendritic Tree
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by Dendritic Tree »

I have never had a landline. I have somehow survived into my late 30's without one. Also, I don't personally know anyone with a landline in my circle of friends (who all have kids). I think they're a useless anachronism of a bygone era. Especially for $360/yr.
tivattom
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by tivattom »

If you really don't use it much you can port your number to google voice and then you have several options to use you old number.

1. Have any calls directed to your cell number.
2. Buy an Obi device and hook it up to your home phone system so you still have a home phone for free (and can still forward calls to your cell).

We chose the Obi route and we love it. Google voice has many spam blocking and convenience features like caller-id, voicemail transcribing, automatic call forwarding, specialized rings, forcing callers to identify themselves, and recording inbound calls. Google voice long distance is exceptionally cheap including international.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by AJS »

The landline may come in handy as a backup but that only matters if you live alone and have only one cell phone.
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Silk McCue
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by Silk McCue »

We moved our landline to a web based Voicemail that emails recordings to me. It works flawlessly. Our plan for 100 minutes a month (which we never get close to) is $55 per year. You could use this service and then update any “real” callers directly with your new contact info. You can then decide at some time in the future to simply drop the service. This is a no risk approach to the decision. I wouldn’t recommend providing your new number on the greeting. Just notify those that you want to that leave a message.

Btw - I love no longer hearing the phone ring during political season or from companies violating the Do Not Call list.

https://www.family-phone.com

Cheers
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by jerryk68 »

I need a dial tone to fax some medical claim forms to my former employer. Could have used a fax service but the forms had my DOB & SSN numbers on them so I ended up using my printer/fax to fax the forms. My Verizon TV package had a phone but the cost kept increasing plus my wife also wanted keep the number since a lot was attached to services like doctors, dentist, etc. We always gave the home number out rather than our cell numbers.

When we decided to cut the cord and I ported my Verizon number to an android cell phone and then I ported that number to google voice ($20) via T Mobile (around $25) using an Obihai 200 device (around $50). The instructions are here
http://www.obihai.com/porttutorial

The phone service is excellent but it goes down if my internet service is down and it cost around $25 a year for 911 service. All the phones (5) in the house ring and the fax works. Saved a lot cutting the cord, the cost for a phone service is almost nothing (just 911 service)and my wife is happy in that she gets to keep the phone number. Happy wife, happy life.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by neilpilot »

Silk McCue wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 3:02 pm We moved our landline to a web based Voicemail that emails recordings to me. It works flawlessly. Our plan for 100 minutes a month (which we never get close to) is $55 per year. You could use this service and then update any “real” callers directly with your new contact info.
Sounds a lot like the way I use Google Voice, for about $55/year less :D
Twood
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by Twood »

We still have ours, for a variety of reasons.
  • Spouse regularly forgets to have their cell phone on/charged
  • Small kids, want them to be able to find a phone in an emergency (yes we have the plugged in kind that can't wander away)
  • 911. Our address is messed up in many mapping apps, I don't need to offer any other excuses for them to not be able to find me.
  • Emergencies- yes we have wires that still support calling in a power outage (we check with every outage, as we are calling to report it). And having been in multi day emergencies where the cell towers were completely overwhelmed, I like being able to pick up the phone and have it connect.
  • Our cable internet semi-regularly goes out, VOIP doesn't help with that or power outages. And yes I keep paper phone books, and flashlights in known locations.
  • We live in a small cell dead zone, due to geography. It's better than it was, but still spotty and hard to hear at best. And cell-to-cell calls are definitely a no-go.
That's all I can think of off of the top of my head.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by dcabler »

We go back and forth on this all the time. We had a true land line until about 5 years ago. Dropped our local "ma bell" and went with a Ooma, when the box was on sale at Costco. Crossover point was just a little over a year, then we were ahead of the game...

But... like others, it's really seldom we get a real call on this line. But the phone rings every night multiple times until about 9 and we never pick up. Fine, we turn off the ringer on the phone and screen with the answering machine. 5 of 10 of those calls hang up at just the right time that we get about 10 seconds of annoying dial tone. Next step is to just disconnect the phone altogether and just go to Ooma voicemail and check it once a day or so.

Problem is our lane line is the official number for so many people we do business with. So far, we haven't wanted to take the time to go through everything and update accounts to only use one or the other of our mobile phones.... But I also dread getting more calls on my mobile phone, especially during the day....
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by oldzey »

The last time I had a landline was the last time I had a television set, or cable TV - in 2010.

I'd estimate I've saved myself thousands of dollars cutting the phone line and cable TV.

Tracfone and an Internet connection take care of all my needs.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by Silk McCue »

neilpilot wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 3:11 pm
Silk McCue wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 3:02 pm We moved our landline to a web based Voicemail that emails recordings to me. It works flawlessly. Our plan for 100 minutes a month (which we never get close to) is $55 per year. You could use this service and then update any “real” callers directly with your new contact info.
Sounds a lot like the way I use Google Voice, for about $55/year less :D
Duh! Thanks for the reminder.

Cheers
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by FIREchief »

I got rid of my landline almost twenty years ago (when Megacorp gave me a cell phone). My boss at the time had a requirement that those with company issued cell phones still had to provide their home phone number to his secretary. It took months before he would believe that I really didn't still have a home phone. :D
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by ChrisC »

My home security system is tied to a landline. And so is the elevator in my home. I think I need my landline.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by neilpilot »

ChrisC wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 4:00 pm My home security system is tied to a landline. And so is the elevator in my home. I think I need my landline.
I tend to agree. We lead a simple life: no landline, no CTV, no security system and no elevator. :D
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by ChrisC »

neilpilot wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 4:04 pm
ChrisC wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 4:00 pm My home security system is tied to a landline. And so is the elevator in my home. I think I need my landline.
I tend to agree. We lead a simple life: no landline, no CTV, no security system and no elevator. :D
And why not have no internet and no car, too? Just read books and walk. 8-)
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by neilpilot »

ChrisC wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 4:07 pm
neilpilot wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 4:04 pm
ChrisC wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 4:00 pm My home security system is tied to a landline. And so is the elevator in my home. I think I need my landline.
I tend to agree. We lead a simple life: no landline, no CTV, no security system and no elevator. :D
And why not have no internet and no car, too. :?: :mrgreen: Just read books and walk.
Oh, I have a few cars......and an airplane, and still have time to walk and read.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by LadyGeek »

This thread is now in the Personal Consumer Issues forum (phone).
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by motorcyclesarecool »

We have no landlines. DW had cause to call 9-1-1 once from home. She needed multiple attempts to get address info to dispatcher. Our next home will have a POTS line solely for enhanced 9-1-1. Even a hang-up will being a response from a land line. Not so with a cellphone. That’s the only thing I can think of.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by mouses »

Small Law Survivor wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 2:03 pm Everyone in my family has a cell phone, and we have done our best to give our cell numbers to everyone that might need them - friends, family, doctors .....

However, we still have a Verizon landline that costs $30/month, or $360/year.

The only people that seem to call it these days are calls we don't want.

I'm inclined to cancel it, but I'm wondering what I might be missing? Is there any reason to maintain this service that I may have overlooked?

Thanks for your thoughts.
I haven't read all the replies, but Verizon disabled landlines in my area over various people's strenuous objections. As someone has probably pointed out, landlines often stay up when all other phones are down in disasters. However, sometime before they disabled our phones they modified their system somehow to make that not work. A PUC guy, who may or may not have known what he was talking about, said Verizon had removed backup generators from its central location.

Also the quality of sound on my landline was noticeably better than my cell phone, which is from an AT&T reseller.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by mouses »

motorcyclesarecool wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 4:29 pm We have no landlines. DW had cause to call 9-1-1 once from home. She needed multiple attempts to get address info to dispatcher. Our next home will have a POTS line solely for enhanced 9-1-1. Even a hang-up will being a response from a land line. Not so with a cellphone. That’s the only thing I can think of.
I called 911 from a cell phone when I lived in California. It took about 15 minutes, with delays and transfers, to reach the pertinent dispatcher.

In another instance I called 911 from my home phone because a neighbor's alarm system had gone off for longer than they usually took to shut it off for false alarms, and hung up before 911 answered because the neighbors shut it off then. 911 called me back.

Landlines are disappearing thanks to Verizon and its ilk and PUCs that don't give a darn about safety.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by camden »

Landlines are going away, and I constantly wonder why I still pay for one; but I like to occasionally enjoy the clear excellent voice quality and lack of poor reception/call drops I seem to get all the time when using my cell. And I can't put aside the memory of my 2005 experience working in a New Orleans hospital during Katrina when everyone's cell phones were completely useless but somehow the land lines worked.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by mouses »

AJS wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 3:01 pm The landline may come in handy as a backup but that only matters if you live alone and have only one cell phone.
During Sandy in my area, cell phones, Cox, and FIOS were down. Only landlines worked.
Last edited by mouses on Thu Jun 28, 2018 10:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by Northern Flicker »

I need a dial tone to fax some medical claim forms to my former employer. Could have used a fax service but the forms had my DOB & SSN numbers on them so I ended up using my printer/fax to fax the forms.
Faxing sensitive data over a POTS line is also problematic. An opaque paper envelope and stamp is probably best if you don’t have end-to-end encryption.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by oldcomputerguy »

For some devices at home, such as satellite receivers and fax machines, you need a POTS line (the small four-wire RJ11 jack that old-fashioned home phones plug into). If you have such, and you decide to pull the plug on your old-fashioned phone service, you might lose some functionality with those devices. On the other hand, many providers have the facility to provide a "faux" POTS line for just such purposes. (The AT&T Uverse modem we have here has a POTS jack on the back as part of the service.)
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by CurlyDave »

ChrisC wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 4:00 pm My home security system is tied to a landline. And so is the elevator in my home. I think I need my landline.
My home security consists of my dogs and me. When I upgraded my cellphone, I kept the old one and added a line. I mounted the old one in the elevator. The car already had electricity (there is a light in it) I just had to get an outlet in the old phone box. This left a lot of room in the phone box for an emergency light and a few light sticks.

There is a significant cost savings and I think better phone service.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by J295 »

1. Haven't had one for years and don't need one.
2. If we had one I wouldn't answer it.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by greg24 »

I've wanted to dump ours for years. That said, my 10 year old recently started calling friends on the land line, so I guess there is some value there, at least for the next year or two. My wife works from home one day a week and prefers the landline connection when dialing into meetings.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by jabberwockOG »

Most older home security systems required a landline at one time. Most new security systems support using a cell phone card as well as a landline, and some of the older systems can accept adapters to use cell phone card also. Using a land line for a security system is very risky because cutting the outside telephone/cable connection is so easy in most homes. Even relatively simpleminded thieves take 30 seconds to cut the phone/cable lines before breaking down the back door on a house with an alarm sign out front.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by moehoward »

haven't had one for 4 years. Moved landline number to google number, still don't get any calls
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by samtex »

Got rid of ATT's $45+ monthly bill. Transferred my old number to a voip company (VOIPO) for under $7 a month. They provide nomorobo at no charge, which limits most spam calls. We just wanted to use it instead of using our cell phones. Better reception and cuts down on cell plan costs. And we wanted to keep our 30+ year old home number.

You do loose some benefits of a landline (power or internet outages) but it's been worth it. Plus I have been told not to expect the same reliability of landlines in the future. (Back up power to landline cables) Not sure of that probability but it may happen. Fewer subscribers, increase costs. We were hit by a hurricane last year lost power for a week. Almost no loss of cell coverage. Maybe just luck.

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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by TSR »

Semi-serious answers about the only places I've seen landlines become an issue lately:

1. Probation officers often require that an individual have a landline when they are on an ankle monitor.

2. Some regulatory agencies require them for compliance. Example: Friend who owns a bar had to install an elevator to go up about four feet for ADA compliance in the bar (a very reasonable requirement). So now there's this non-enclosed elevator --- no top to it, and anyone could look down into it from the landing a few steps above. The inspectors told the bar owner that she had to install a phone line in the elevator in case someone got stuck (a little odd, given the non-enclosed space that someone could easily wave or yell out of, but ok). They installed one of their phones only to be told that they couldn't use their extant VoIP network because the power could go out, so they had to get a landline from an entirely different company and then install it in the elevator.

I doubt that either of these applies to you.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by RickBoglehead »

Move the number to Google Voice.

For E911 on the Verizon network, enable HD Voice and assign an address to the number.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by AtomicCash »

If you actually use a phone to talk, for long periods, about serious things, a land line has much better quality IMO. As good as cell phones are, the sound quality, slight delay, and drop calls still don't compare favorably to a landline.

On the other hand, if you're the sort to text your mom on mother's day instead of calling, no sense paying $300 a year for a cord in your wall. :D

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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by bertilak »

ChrisC wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 4:00 pm My home security system is tied to a landline. And so is the elevator in my home. I think I need my landline.
Home security (ADT) was keeping me tied to a land line for a long time. They now support cell service. They install their own cell box. It was a pretty big and complex procedure that took two techs several hours. They didn't charge me a penny but I had to renew a three-year contract. They gave me an in-house camera which gives me live access over the internet and records activity if motion is detected while armed. A cell-phone app lets me monitor the system, arm or dis-arm it (to, for example, let a neighbor in while we are out), view the camera live and watch recorded videos.

As of September 2017 I am land-line free -- for the first time ever!
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by WhyNotUs »

I have my landline number on ooma now. Occasionally, an old client will call it. That occasional phones results in enough work to justify the small expense. My phone has a good speaker phone while the one on my cell is no great, it works much better for conference calls.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by Mike Scott »

Our unlimited use phone service is bundled with internet for a decent price. As many have said, the voice quality is better and it provides a single and historic phone # for all family business and contacts and emergency use. We also have no cell service in the house but you can connect if you hike up the hill and stand by the chicken house.
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Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by Small Law Survivor »

RickBoglehead wrote: Fri Jun 29, 2018 4:56 pm Move the number to Google Voice.

For E911 on the Verizon network, enable HD Voice and assign an address to the number.
Rick, what is HD Voice?
72 yrs. mostly-retired lawyer. Boglehead since day 1 (and M* Diehard long before that) under various names
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WestUniversity
Posts: 233
Joined: Sat Oct 07, 2017 7:27 am

Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by WestUniversity »

We got rid of our landline 6 years ago. Have not missed it one bit...
donall
Posts: 1078
Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2012 6:45 am

Re: Any Reason to Keep My "Landline" Phone?

Post by donall »

Voice quality with VOIP is much better than cell phone. Cell phone coverage is also spotty in house.
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