I’m elderly, hell I’m ancient. But all three of my kids (ages 37 to 45) still have landlines. I have a cell phone that I don’t use very often. To get rid of the landline, I would have to find a cellular provider that didn’t charge $1.50 a minute in Canada (or, if Canadian, in the US). These guys need some real competition. Meantime, I pay under $20 a month for 50 minutes (same in US and Canada) for my Jitterbug. Which reminds me, with the postal strike here, I haven’t received my bill (and they don’t accept Canadian–or even US–credit cards since I can’t give a 5 digit zip code).
I’m 47 and we still have a landline bundled with the U-Verse service.
I’m 36. We won’t be getting rid of our land line anytime soon. As someone mentioned earlier, DSL internet + land line costs about the same as just internet. (Cable internet is not available where I live, and satellite is astronomical.) Also, we live in a very rural area, where cell phone reception is improving but iffy. I work from home, and I need a reliable phone. And a land line when the electric is out is handy (a basic wall can be obtained very cheaply). Where I live, you need to report a power outage, or they might not know about it for awhile.
The cable TV people can barely keep TV service running - I’m not about to trust them with data. The cell phone service can barely keep voice service at an acceptable level either. I telecommute 3 days out of 5, so I need bulletproof data and voice.
While it’s possible to get “naked” or “dry” DSL where there’s only data service on the line and no phone number or voice service on it, it’s not cost-effective. As it is, the local phone company bundles up our cell service, data and voice, so dropping anything would end up with the others costing more.
What really amuses me is now and then people will comment on how clearly they can hear us. People have gotten used to crappy sound quality on cell phones and headsets, so when they encounter someone on an actual Western Electric telephone, they get all excited.
Yeah, my parents bought my house when it was built in 1956 and now it’s mine, and we have the same phone number. We keep it so we can have a number to give people we don’t want to call our cells, like filling out obligatory forms and for those people whom we suspect will sell our information. Trouble is getting people we want to use our cells to do so, like my husband’s parents who just can’t stop dialing that number. They know we both work full time and have our phones with us practically 24/7, yet they dial the landline. I think we should have as our recording “If you know our cell numbers, you should be calling them.”
I got rid of my land line a few years ago. But, I almost got one when I switched to Verizon on my mobile, because I have a crappy signal in my home.
Now I use Google Voice and an Obi100 terminal adapter (http://www.amazon.com/OBi100-Telephone-Adapter-Service-Bridge/dp/B004LO098O) as a VOIP line.
I can’t get internet without my landline, so I had it installed two years ago when I moved here. There’s no line of sight to any towers in my valley. Also it’s cheaper landline and internet combined and very good reception. During the last hurricane I became a little hub - making phone calls for friends trying to conserve their cell phone battery power.
I probably wouldn’t have got it if I didn’t have to, but I’m so glad I did. It’s a great feeling when the power is out to have the phone still working.
I just recently got rid of my landline. I had the cheapest rate available, around $6/month without long distance, but the taxes and fees more than doubled the cost. Even though I prefer talking on a landline, there was an ongoing, seemingly unresolvable issue with static and bad transmission. I couldn’t see paying for mediocre landline service when my prepaid cell sounded just as good for only $8.33/month.
I use my cell phone for all calls, but I still have a land line because I freelance and occasionally need to receive faxes from clients who don’t have computers. I don’t know if I get calls at the number of my landline/fax machine (which is really my HP all-in-one) because I keep the ringer turned off.
Someone explain to me if I’m behind the technology. I don’t have a home network or any kind of bundled service. I connect to the internet on my laptop with an aircard, and it was my understanding (the last time I researched it) that I can’t receive faxes over a cell phone, which is basically what my air card is. Is that still true?
I’m 32 and I still have a landline.
I have a cell but I don’t like getting calls or ignoring calls while I’m out, or when I’m driving or when I’m with other people. So, all businesses and non-friends get my home phone (landline) and they can leave a message if I’m not in.
I rarely get calls on my cell, but I do a lot of texting.
I just do not like to talk on my cell phone. If nothing else, the handset of a landline phone is way more comfortable.
We have one, simply because we don’t want anyone calling our cell phones who we don’t want to talk to. It’s for businesses, etc. Friends, relatives, and work are the only people who know our cell numbers.
Joe
I do. It’s our primary phone. It’s cheaper than a cell phone and also more dependable. I carry a cell around when I travel, but I see no reason to get rid of the landline.
I have a landline which I pay £12 a month for and I don’t want it. Unfortunately there is no non-phone bundle from any ISPs I know.
I only ever use it when calling 0845 or 0870 numbers (UK) as the ‘local rate’ on the landline is much lower than on the mobile. And I don’t think anyone’s ever called it in earnest.
I’m 40 and we have a landline. It’s practically free when bundled with our TV and internet service.
That’s the number I usually give out as my phone number to businesses that need a non-urgent way to contact us (i.e., most businesses we have dealings with). We have no plans to get rid of it.
ETA: What ZipperJJ and wheresgeorge04 said.
Another person with bundled phone service. The phone modem had a battery backup in case the power goes out or else I still have my cell phone.
Frankly, I find holding a house phone more comfortable for long conversations than holding a dinky cellphone anyway and I hate headpieces and earpieces.
Another 47 year old doddery old fool checking in with a landline. No, two actually (one for the home office line).
What’s more everybody I know has a landline. I can imagine students and maybe folk housesharing a rental place only having mobile phones but if you are a homeowner then I would expect you to have a landline. What is more I suspect credit agencies would mark you down for not.
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We have one solely for burglar alarm monitoring.
Quoth aceplace57:
The new research on cell phone health dangers says the same thing as the old research: There aren’t any. There’s one recent study that purported to find a link with brain cancer, and which got a lot of press, but it was such a poorly-designed study that they might as well have concluded that eating tomatoes causes brain cancer. Unless you’re driving, of course, but you’d have the same problems if you somehow managed to drive with a landline.
Back to the OP, I got a cell phone precisely because I wanted to get rid of my landline, since I was sick and tired of what passed for customer service with Qwest. Once I did so, though, I wondered why I hadn’t earlier: Cell phone service with a lot of features (caller ID, call waiting, etc.) cost less than the bare-bones basic landline package, and that’s before even adding in long distance, plus of course there’s the obvious convenience of carrying it around with me.
I’ve not had a landline for the best part of ten years. I live in the UK, and my understanding is that mobile phone services are much cheaper and more reliable here than in the US, and I don’t really get why anyone would have a landline here.
Because land lines are better quality sound, more comfortable to hold, are cheaper to most “special” numbers and cheaper to phone international numbers to and from.
I barely use my mobile. It is for texts and travelling (hence the name) not conversation.