I ditched the landline in 2007, but still had the phone service Comcast thrust upon us as a part of their package deal until a year ago when they dropped that requirement. I never answered the dang thing when it rang, never gave anyone the number, and only used it to make outgoing calls where I knew I would be on hold for a lonnnnng time (utilities, warranty services, tech services).
I had it when I had DSL as it was required. I kept it around for awhile as I had poor cell reception at home. Got rid of it as it was 30 goddamn dollars a month. I could go the VOIP route but 99% of my communication is through text and email and my voice reception on cell is better now.
I charge in the car if our power goes out. Okay for a day or two (which is worst case usually)
We have a landline only because cell reception is quite bad where our house is. If the kids have an emergency (not uncommon enough) I need them to be able to reach me.
We had VOIP for a while, but that number is now my cell number and we no longer have a land line of any description. And, frankly, I don’t miss it.
I basically only have a landline so as to keep my number. I’ve had it for years.
But I have been thinking about just letting it go. I can’t remember the last time I used the landline. Definitely not in the last year.
I answered “I use a weird system involving the Internet” but I don’t consider it weird.
I use Google Voice and anObiHai device, and pay $0 a month for the service. I call my wife back home in Chicago for hours every week for free.
I have a landline and a cell phone but use the cell number at your own risk. The last time I turned it on was January. Basically its “in case of car/motorcycle emergency” and not something I use for basic communication.
I have a cell phone and Skype on my tablet.
I have landline and cell. I have landline because my online viable internet option is DSL. I rarely use the landline. I rarely use my cell phone as a phone, but it’s great for texting, browsing, email, and photos.
That is what I have as well. It works like a charm.
I keep my landline only because sucky Frontier is my only option for non-satellite internet and it barely costs any more (or is possibly cheaper) than to just have internet. I don’t pay the long distance fee though, meaning I can only make calls within my LATA.
There’s only DSL options available here. It’s quite swish though: fibre to the cabinet - and the cabinet is only about 150m from my house, so the speeds are great- and VDSL2 over the copper the rest of the way, but you still need the landline. I don’t keep a phone plugged in though. For voice, I’ve been contactable mobile-only since the late nineties.
We have a wall-mounted cordless telephone but it’s through comcast and goes down when comcast goes down, so that’s not what I would call a traditional landline.
We can only get cell service if we go to the far end of the front porch and lean out over the edge, so I guess I’ll call that a no.
At work, it’s $400+ to the department for a new physical phone (VOIP) so when mine broke down, I switched to a softphone on my laptop.
I have a landline, but only because the monopoly telephone company here refuses to provide naked DSL. This annoys me, and I can’t wait for the day when FTTH (fibre) reaches my neighbourhood - any day now, they’ve already surveyed my building for installation.
Latest U.S. statistics:
39.4% Landline with wireless
6.5% Landline without wireless
50.8% Wireless-only
3.2% Phoneless
It’s interesting the CDC didn’t try to distinguish between POTS landlines that work without electricity service vs. VOIP landlines that require grid electricity or household generators to work.
For emergency use there’s a world of difference in reliability. Which you’d assume would be the info they’re really after: what percentage of the population will be stranded without comm during a wide area disaster?
I put myself down for land line and cell phone, but I rarely use my cell phone.
Most of the time my cell phone is turned off in my car. I really only use it when I’m on travel, when I’m calling my wife from the grocery store and want to know if she wants anything, or if I’m meeting someone somewhere and want to let them know where to find me.
Its on a pay as you go plan and I have well over 100 hours of unused minutes racked up.
My voicemail basically says that unless I specifically told you to call me now you probably shouldn’t even bother to leave a message as I might not get it for 2 -3 weeks.
Back when I got my cellphone (a bit before the median time, I think, though not by very much), my primary motivation was that I wanted to get rid of my landline, because the local monopoly had terrible customer service, and I needed something to replace it with. Of course, once I had it, I quickly came to appreciate the convenience as well.
The New York Times had an article about this recently: https://nyti.ms/2p7ROhV
My impression was that the CDC was more interested in tracking this to ensure decent sampling for their health related polling and interviewing, and weren’t necessarily as interested in emergency contact (at least as the primary motivator).
From the AP story about the CDC phone survey:
“Wireless-only adults are more likely to drink heavily, more likely to smoke and be uninsured,” even after factoring for age and income, says Stephen J. Blumberg, the study’s co-author (and a landline user himself). “There certainly is something about giving up a landline that appeals to the same people who may engage in risky behavior.”
Wow, I didn’t realize that going to cellphone-only was a marker for a high-risk lifestyle.
Guess I picked the wrong week to give up smoking crack. :smack: