# Have you given up your landline? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 23, 2008, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-given-up-your-landline/474133 "2008-11-23T19:49:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-given-up-your-landline/474133/61 "2008-11-24T15:27:25Z")
In my flat, no landline. The internet options are radio-based or DSL; DSL requires a landline, which can only be provided by Telefónica. Telefónica is evil and someone painted over the phone jack, so if I got the DSL I’d have to pay Telefónica to install a new jack. If you get the landline from them but the DSL from someone else, any maintenance problem involving the landline will take longer than if you get both with Telefónica. Went radio instead: it’s reliable enough so long as it doesn’t rain. At Mom’s, she has fiberoptic and got the trifecta, so it’s a landline but it’s cable and carries her phone, 'net and TV and doesn’t involve Telefónica. In Glasgow I have a landline to be able to get DSL, but I’ve also ended up getting a dongle (a USB modem which uses cellphone technology), as BT took over a month to move my line from the old flat to the new one. The dongle means I also have 'net access outside the house (for example in Edinburgh’s airport, where the “free net” isn’t free at all if you use what the airport provides). I’ve seen dongles in Spain as well, but so far the company with which I have the British one doesn’t have a Spanish correspondent (so I can use that dongle in some other EU countries but not in Spain - yet). I’ve got both Spanish and Brit cellphones. ---
**Author:** ![rhythmonly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee59a6/32.png) [@rhythmonly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhythmonly)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-given-up-your-landline/474133/62 "2008-11-24T16:53:56Z")
Still using a rotary dial phone for local stuff. I cancelled my long distance feature; using a Tracfone for that now. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-given-up-your-landline/474133/63 "2008-11-24T18:31:59Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > If it’s a big enough outtage, like the one that was in New York City a few years ago, the cell towers are out. Even if your cell is charged, it won’t work. The land lines will always work unless they’re cut, they run on phone company power and they have back-up generators - they never go out. > > I still have a corded land-line phone. Service-only is less than $10 a month. Lots of people don’t know they can ask for it and think they have to get the packages that start at over $20 a month or something silly like that. Why would a land line phone company have back-up generators, but a cell phone company wouldn’t? I realize there’s a lot more power in a tower, but there’s also a lot of combined power in all the lines. You may be right, but I’m skeptical. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-given-up-your-landline/474133/64 "2008-11-24T18:39:12Z")
Even though everyone living in the house has a cell phone, we’re not willing to give up the land line. 1. Lousy signal some time. Yep, middle of the suburbs and all 3 of the carriers we have looked at have bad signal in parts of the house. I don’t want to make all my phone calls while standing in the bay window. 2. House guests. We frequently have house guests, and I want them to be able to make/recieve calls 3. Not carrying the darn cellphone. My cell lives in my purse, which is by the back door when I’m home. I don’t want to have to carry it from room to room. 4. The biggest/main reason. I refuse to give out a cellphone number to places like my doctor, the insurance company, the repairman and the airlines. I can send them to my landline. They can call all they want during the day, and leave a message and I’ll get back to them tomorrow. I’ve got co-workers who have dumped their landlines, and it’s rather annoying to listen to their phone rings every time the pharmacy calls to say their prescription is ready, or the library to tell them their kid’s books are overdue. My cellphone is for friends and family. The rest of you can call the landline. The peace and quiet is worth $30/month. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-given-up-your-landline/474133/65 "2008-11-24T18:56:26Z")
> [@Santo\_Rugger](#): > > Why would a land line phone company have back-up generators, but a cell phone company wouldn’t? Historical reasons. The original landline telephones were very simple, and they were often the first electrical services of any sort to be extended into an area, predating electric utilities even. So the phone company had to provide everything, including the power. The original customers’ telephones used 48V DC supplied by huge battery banks in the switching centres, and the telephones were unpowered otherwise. Diesel generators kicked in when the outside utility power was lost, but they charged the batteries and maintained the power to the switching equipment; the service was not interrupted. Each switching centre had what we would now call an enormous UPS. This is also why Original Landline services often keep working when the power fails; they’re separately-powered. IMHO this remains a very good idea. Yes, there are many landline phones that you also plug into the wall for power, but that’s for additional features like displays. You can still plug an original TouchTone phone into the Bell line and it will work. (I think that some lines no longer have the capability to handle a rotary-dial phone, but I’m not sure about that.) ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-given-up-your-landline/474133/66 "2008-11-24T19:11:31Z")
I have ATT & T internet. I have to have a landline. I have dish for cable . I do not want to go to Comcast they are horrible and I hate them. ---
**Author:** ![Jelymag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jelymag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelymag)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-given-up-your-landline/474133/67 "2008-11-24T19:26:37Z")
Yep. Moved two years ago and had trouble getting Verizon to hook it up, so we just said forget it. No one important was calling it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-given-up-your-landline/474133/68 "2008-11-24T21:00:25Z")
Not here. We both have cell phones, but the kids don’t - and I’d hate for them to be at home, and have to call for help, and not be able to find their phones. Maybe when they’re both 18. Or at least cut it down to the bare minimum of service (I _think_ the phone company still has a plan that has limited outgoing calls before extra costs kick in). ---
**Author:** ![Kyrie\_Eleison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kyrie_eleison/32/7682_2.png) [@Kyrie\_Eleison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyrie_Eleison)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-given-up-your-landline/474133/69 "2008-11-24T22:37:11Z")
Still have a landline. The 75% of the residents of my somewhat hilly town that have service at home won’t give any cell phone carrier permission to install a taller tower, one that could cover the entire town, nominally because it would detract from the character of the town. So it’s a landline, or no service at the house. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-given-up-your-landline/474133/70 "2008-11-24T23:12:01Z")
Nope, just switched it to Vonage. I won’t give up a landline, cellphone location technology is no where NEAR where it needs to be to locate a 911 caller with even similar accuracy. In densely populated areas, for instance, a 911 caller may be located at an address, but the mobile phone doesn’t tell you how high up they are, whereas a landline can be identified by a suite or unit number. In rural areas, you may lose and not regain coverage in the time you need the phone because of a lack of tower proliferation as opposed to urban environments. The suburbs/exurbs are the middle ground with regards to coverage, but in truth, a radius of 300 meters is all that’s guaranteed with respect to location. Getting rid of your landline in favor of cell phones for cost is like dropping your health insurance because you never get sick. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-given-up-your-landline/474133/71 "2008-11-24T23:31:47Z")
Speaking of 911, I thought that as long as you had phone lines and phone service at some point, you could plug in a phone, get a dial tone and call 911. Any other number would get you an “out of service” recording, but you could get 911. Is that not the case? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-given-up-your-landline/474133.md?page=3)