Since 1999 I’ve been mostly landline free. I did have one for the three years I was in Japan, but I used it solely for my DSL.
I have a cell phone, and only because I’m a disabled senior citizen living alone, with a family scattered all over the world and a job that calls me when they need somehow to work because they are short a cashier.
I have a VOIP landline. It’s the number I give out to all businesses and people that I don’t want calling me on my cell. I don’t want to talk to the pharmacy or the vet or the landscaper when I’m not at home. They can leave a message.
I also use it for my home business and prefer the sound quality. And I can write/ type with the phone held with my shoulder.
I have a landline and one of my phones is an old fashioned bolted to the wall phone with
a chord. After Super storm Sandy it was the only phone on my block that worked. It’s ironic that people used to get Cell Phones “in case of an emergency” but that’s the reason I keep my land line.
Answering machine. Some old fart you are.
We have bad / spotty cell coverage in our house so we put in a land line.
We didn’t get phones with an answering machine. Call us again. Or use LINE, social media here in Taiwan.
I don’t think I’ve even seen a privately owned landline phone since my grandma died about 10 years ago. They are getting so rare here in Finland that there’s talk of just shutting the whole system down in near future. I’m almost 40 myself and never had a landline, got a cell phone in '97 and that was that. Funny how technology moves forward in different rate in different countries.
The last time I checked, there was no law saying you have to answer your cell phone. Indeed, this is one of my pet peeves: You’re talking to someone, their phone rings, and you might as well become invisible. “Well, it could be important.” Trust me, it ain’t.
Cell phone only. I could get a landline for free as part of my cable and internet package through my apartment building. But, unless I end up working from home more frequently, I don’t see the need. I work from only a few days a year.
Cell service is not reliable enough to be my only phone. It wasn’t horribly long ago that there was a flood where I lived. Power was out for two days, meaning no way to get gas. Cell service was out for over a week. Internet was out for over a week as well. No cable either, and too far from any transmitter to get over the air TV. If we hadn’t had a traditional land line we would have been cut off from the world for over a week.
This is generally what I see a home landline for, these days. If you have more than one person in the household, especially parents who have some kind of joint responsibilities, it’s a freakin’ pain to either call one person (always Mom’s cell phone first) only to find you should have called someone else, or otherwise to try and leave shared/household information. And no, I don’t really want every notification call from a robot to go to my cell.
I may not have a landline once I relocate, though. Won’t really be a separate “household” other than me and an adult daughter, and having all relevant calls go right to each of us makes sense, as it obviously does for a lot of singles/couples/apartment dwellers/generally not living in a full household types.
Hate to be a poll nitpicker but…this one makes people with VOIP and cell phones either answer ‘cellphone and landline’, but VOIP is not a ‘landline’, or else ‘other’. It should have had separate responses for ‘cell and VOIP’ v ‘cell and landline’.
We have VOIP and cellphones. The VOIP is Ooma which goes through our cable connection assigned to our old landline phone number. We virtually never make calls on it and seldom pick it up. We use it mainly to be able to give out that number to people and companies we don’t want to talk to rather than giving them our cell numbers, as well as receive calls from people we haven’t heard from since we got out current cell numbers. We can listen to the messages and call back (a very small % of the time in practice) and perhaps we’d use it in emergencies. For $5/month plus $125 upfront for the box a few years ago it’s worth it I think,
Our real phones are our cellphones.
Our (actual phone company traditional) landline was out for weeks after Superstorm Sandy, which was the catalyst to finally get rid of it and just have Ooma VOIP to get residual calls on that number (a situation which doesn’t qualify as ‘having a landline’ IMO). Cell service could be gotten within walking distance of our house all along (full utility power came back came back in a few days) and we have solar chargers for our cell phone batteries.
I do and I tried to get rid of my landline phone . I called Verizon and was told if I got rid of it I would lose my internet service . I was told you were about do get rid of your landline about 7 years ago but not anymore. I told the woman that b/c Verizon doesn’t want to lose any more money stopped letting people do this . I will have to find another carrier or buy a wireless laptop . I am having a real hard time finding a landline phone I can hear on and it not always easy using a cell phone with a hearing aid .
We have a landline mostly because it was part of a package when we switched to our current ISP, which was over a decade ago now. I don’t have a cell, but text on a tablet, it’s enough for me. Hubby has a smart phone.
The bill for the service was set up to be charged to one of our ccards. The card expired or was compromised and replaced, I can’t even remember now, it was so long ago. So it switched to them sending us a bill, but no landline service or long distance plan was included in our plan nor indicated as provided, on the new bills. It was months and months before either of us even noticed. We assumed they’d figure it out and it would correct itself. That was years ago. Over a decade!
So we have a landline, with a phone number we’ve had over 30 yrs, which we haven’t paid for in over a decade. I suppose one day I could pick it up to find the line dead. But that seems unlikely after so long.
I still have a landline, but only because it is necessary for our internet connection. If the landline rings I ignore it because it is almost certainly spam - anyone who knows us will call our mobiles. On the off-chance that it is a genuine call we have an answering machine, but I can’t remember the last time anyone left a message.
My wife and I and both of our daughters now have mobiles, so our landline is a relic of a bygone age.
I have a landline and a cell phone, but the landline is unplugged and I don’t know the number. I only have it because the Verizon Fios bundle was cheaper with it than without it. I use my cell phone for everything.
No landline here. When we ditched cable TV last summer, the ol’ landline went, too. It was odd - first time in my life (was born in the late 60s) without a house phone. Everyone has cell phones, so it was barely being used anyway, and like Suburban Plankton says, most of the calls on it were from telemarketers.
Cell service in my area is good and there is no loss of quality.
We ditched our landline ten years ago (we rarely used it). We then had to get it back when my wife took a job that required you to have a landline as a condition of a telecommuting arrangement. The first “roll-over” from her office line must be to a landline. Apparently some condition of the contracts they have with their (mostly public sector) customers.
So far 100% of the calls have been telemarketers/scammers. People from the office just call her cell.
I have a landline and cellphone. The landline is a requirement in this country, with this telco, in order to have an internet connection. I don’t use the landline and don’t even know the number.
Non-traditional, technically; I have a VOIP (internet) “landline” and cell phone.
I only have the VOIP landline because it came with the Comcast bundle, which was cheaper than just having internet and cable. Every so often when the price goes up I call and tell them I need to cut back because of budget, and the nice person finds me a new deal.
I use the landline when I work from home. For conference calls the landline is often a better connection when six people are calling in and two of them are in Nepal.