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Landline phones are a dying breed

beneteaubeneteau Member Posts: 8,552 ✭✭✭
edited January 2017 in General Discussion
About to get rid of ours. Too many robo calls and scams. Since I can keep DSL, the house phone is leaving. Will save about $60 a month which will pay for our cellphones.



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Comments

  • kimikimi Member Posts: 44,719 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Yep. Keeping a landline is an added expense that I have found to be unnecessary.
    What's next?
  • beneteaubeneteau Member Posts: 8,552 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by us55840

    Phone booths are near impossible to find anymore and they used to be located in stores, malls, street corners, airports, etc.

    The phone books have become smaller and thinner. No long can you find the phone number/address of an old friend that you know lives in whatever town you happen to be passing thru.

    Are cell phones really less expensive than a landline?

    $700 for a cell phone and $100 a month for service ..


    [?][?][?]


    I'm paying $48 a month (no contract) for unlimited talk and text for 2 cellphones. AT&T network.
    0M9InwN.gif[
  • beneteaubeneteau Member Posts: 8,552 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by us55840

    AT&T coverage sucks nationwide.

    Check their map.


    I did before I went with the company offering the service. I've never had a problem.
    0M9InwN.gif[
  • 1911a1-fan1911a1-fan Member Posts: 51,193 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by beneteau
    quote:Originally posted by us55840

    Phone booths are near impossible to find anymore and they used to be located in stores, malls, street corners, airports, etc.

    The phone books have become smaller and thinner. No long can you find the phone number/address of an old friend that you know lives in whatever town you happen to be passing thru.

    Are cell phones really less expensive than a landline?

    $700 for a cell phone and $100 a month for service ..


    [?][?][?]


    I'm paying $48 a month (no contract) for unlimited talk and text for 2 cellphones. AT&T network.





    do you have a link to this deal ?

    i pay 200.00 for 4 phones now
  • jerrywh818jerrywh818 Member Posts: 2,573 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Land lines are good if you need a fax machine. That's all.
  • notnownotnow Member Posts: 1,856 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Around here, Windstream will provide a line and number for emergency use only. Which means you can only call 911. Its a good idea I guess and free to the location but its paid for by a surcharge on other users.
  • beneteaubeneteau Member Posts: 8,552 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by 1911a1-fan
    quote:Originally posted by beneteau
    quote:Originally posted by us55840

    Phone booths are near impossible to find anymore and they used to be located in stores, malls, street corners, airports, etc.

    The phone books have become smaller and thinner. No long can you find the phone number/address of an old friend that you know lives in whatever town you happen to be passing thru.

    Are cell phones really less expensive than a landline?

    $700 for a cell phone and $100 a month for service ..


    [?][?][?]


    I'm paying $48 a month (no contract) for unlimited talk and text for 2 cellphones. AT&T network.





    do you have a link to this deal ?

    i pay 200.00 for 4 phones now



    Pure Talk
    0M9InwN.gif[
  • Cornflk1Cornflk1 Member Posts: 3,715 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    We live in a rural area, every big rain that would come through, or every driver that lost focus and hit the road side phone box, would take out our service for two days. Got "real" old in a short time.

    Cell phone makes so much simpler, plus we don't have to pay long distance charges.
  • William81William81 Member Posts: 25,408 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Living in the sticks will cause me to keep a landline for a while yet. Version was horrible in this area and AT&T is better but spotty at times.
  • Smitty500magSmitty500mag Member Posts: 13,623 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Our landline only cost an additional $5 bucks a month with our AT&T Internet service so we kept it. There's actually some places that still require a FAX to be sent instead of scanning and E-mailing that it comes in handy for.
  • acdoddacdodd Member Posts: 1,314 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I canceled our land line years ago.
    It was bundled with our satellite dish.
    They told me it would cost me $5 more if I didn't keep my land line.
    They didn't include all the taxes and fees that are added on every month.
    There is a lot of FAX software available if I need to send one.
    Land lines are like the telegraph, past their time.
  • droptopdroptop Member Posts: 8,363 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by jerrywh818
    Land lines are good if you need a fax machine. That's all.


    My "land line" is via internet and the phone number is FREE, forever? from Google Voice. This "main" number can be used just like a "normal" landline. Could have selected almost any "area code". Use a texas area code,, but could have been Maine or?.

    Have internet anyway, no matter where I go. Thus,, my "land line" number is good anywhere in the world if I can plug into internet. My Google landline can be "programmed' to ring any phone, anywhere in the world,, or NOT ring certain phones. Including my cell phone.

    There are services that make it easy to fax a pdf file. Use them all the time,, plus other services that convert text, word document etc, into a pdf file. No fax machine needed, someone who sends or receives lots of faxes should have one. Maybe not?

    My new Canon printer (in the US) has a fax "built in" and it's connected to my internet landline.
  • grumpygygrumpygy Member Posts: 48,464 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Only reason I keep the Land Line is I am in a Cell Phone dead zone.
  • BrookwoodBrookwood Member, Moderator Posts: 13,770 ******
    edited November -1
    droptop, You must be the guy that called me last week!

    You called me from MY phone number![:0]

    I will be the first to admit that I still maintain a land line phone.

    I do not consider myself important enough to need a 24 hour a day phone at my side everywhere I go.

    IMO, folks have become slaves to their cell phones.

    I enjoy my freedom too much to always be connected to the outside world.
  • minitruck83minitruck83 Member Posts: 5,369
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by jerrywh818
    Land lines are good if you need a fax machine. That's all.


    Or after a hurricane. Unless your phone lines are lying on the ground beside the electric. The phone lines are on a separate (DC) power source.
  • Dads3040Dads3040 Member Posts: 13,552 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by minitruck83
    quote:Originally posted by jerrywh818
    Land lines are good if you need a fax machine. That's all.


    Or after a hurricane. Unless your phone lines are lying on the ground beside the electric. The phone lines are on a separate (DC) power source.

    Yep. My friend the telecom dude says to keep a landline because in the event of a significant event cell towers are the most vulnerable link. Far more fragile than the relatively 'No-Tech' of the landline.
  • hillbillehillbille Member Posts: 14,425 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    guess that makes me a dying breed, don't own a cell, don't want one, I have a landline, you can either get me at home on it or at work on their line, if can't get me on either I don't want to be bothered...
  • pwilliepwillie Member Posts: 20,253 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    For my internet service, I still use AT&T landline...along with phone for 911....I have several Verizon cell phones which we use for the business's..WIFI is so so in my area...I don't and can't be without service of some kind...but I do see landlines going by the wayside,because AT&T doesn;'t want to spend the money on upgrades of their old copper lines...
  • popgunpopgun Member Posts: 670
    edited November -1
    I use StraightTalk from Walmart and pay about $50 a month (including taxes) for unlimited coverage. I just bought a new Samsung smart phone and it cost me about $150 including the taxes. It's not top-of-the-line, but it's very good.

    StraightTalk uses Verizon towers, which seem to be the best and most reliable - and which are the only ones available where I live in Northeastern AZ. I've never had any connection problems anywhere with StraightTalk.
  • bearman49709bearman49709 Member Posts: 503
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Cornflk1
    We live in a rural area, every big rain that would come through, or every driver that lost focus and hit the road side phone box, would take out our service for two days. Got "real" old in a short time.

    Cell phone makes so much simpler, plus we don't have to pay long distance charges.


    Can't be to RURAL if you get cell service every where you go and can drop your land line.
  • wpageabcwpageabc Member Posts: 8,760 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Landlines do provide true 911 service. When you dial even in a power outage cops know its you and where you are. No doubt.
    "What is truth?'
  • CaptplaidCaptplaid Member Posts: 20,298 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    It wouldn't be difficult to knock out cell service. That does scare me. In a national emergency all cell service would be down.
  • RobOzRobOz Member Posts: 9,523 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I still have one.

    phone_zps4943f10a.jpg
  • armilitearmilite Member Posts: 35,490 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I still have a land liner and don't plan on getting rid of it anytime soon. I give out that number to everyone that isn't a good friend or a relative. Last thing I want is robo calls on my crappy dumb phone.
  • rossowmnrossowmn Member Posts: 1,959 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by grumpygy
    Only reason I keep the Land Line is I am in a Cell Phone dead zone.


    Same here. I have a really ancient cell phone that works OK most of the time in my house, but my wife has tried three or four different cell phones and services and has yet to find one that she can use in the house. She has to go outside to make calls. We live in a wooded river valley, and the signals seem to go right over the top of us. (Same with TV signals, but that's a topic for another thread.)
  • MobuckMobuck Member Posts: 14,124 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    "Yep. Keeping a landline is an added expense that I have found to be unnecessary."
    Sounds like the same group who have no need for USPS since they do everything "online". Must be a "chitty thing" versus a "rural thing".
  • kimikimi Member Posts: 44,719 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Mobuck
    "Yep. Keeping a landline is an added expense that I have found to be unnecessary."
    Sounds like the same group who have no need for USPS since they do everything "online". Must be a "chitty thing" versus a "rural thing".


    I don't have a need for the land line, but I use the USPS a lot.
    What's next?
  • allen griggsallen griggs Member Posts: 35,665 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    If you go into an old truck stop you will see a pay phone. Just one.
    Then, next to it you will see where there used to be ten pay phones, but all the rest have been removed.

    About once a year I see a driver using the pay phone, the old land line. Mostly the old pay phone just gathers dust.

    Just imagine thirty years ago, before a driver went out on the road he got $40 worth of quarters at the bank.
    You would have had guys lined up at those pay phones at 8pm, calling dispatch, then calling their wives, then calling their girlfriends.

    In the new truck stops, no pay phones. Gone With the Wind.
  • retroxler58retroxler58 Member Posts: 32,693 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    We employ a VoIP "Land Line" for a grand sum of $3.49 /month
    Check out Ooma http://www.ooma.com/
  • Smitty500magSmitty500mag Member Posts: 13,623 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by us55840

    $700 for a cell phone and $100 a month for service ..



    When I retired 2 years ago I turned in my company Android and I paid $18.95 for my cell phone that I carry now. I don't need a smart phone any more, this flip phone does all I need which is to make a call occasionally when I need to. Anybody that pays $700 for a phone...well as they say a fool and his money are soon parted.
  • pickenuppickenup Member Posts: 22,844 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by retroxler58
    We employ a VoIP "Land Line" for a grand sum of $3.49 /month
    Check out Ooma http://www.ooma.com/
    ^^^This^^^
    Cell phones do not work at home. (mountain valley)
  • slumlord44slumlord44 Member Posts: 3,702 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    My last job with AT&T when I retired in 1993 was selling pay phones. Cell phones had prety much doomed the pay phone by then and I took an early retirement offer that was very good. Never thought at that time that land lines would go the way of the passenger pigion but they will eventually disapear. I keep my land line because as a back up because as an AT&T retiree it costs me $9 a month.
  • JamesRKJamesRK Member Posts: 25,670 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I got rid of my land line about twenty years ago. I had a Sprint landline. Service was acceptable most of the time, but when there was a problem I had a hell of a time getting them to fix it. Finally we had a lightning strike near the house that killed our phone. I called Sprint daily for two weeks trying to get them to restore my phone service. I got a daily promise it would be restored "tomorrow".

    I took the installed cell phones out of the truck and car and the landline from the house and bought two flip phones. I called Sprint and told them I was no longer a customer.

    A couple of days later I noticed a stranger lurking around the corner of my house so I wished him a good morning and asked him what he was doing. He said he would have my phone service restored shortly. I told him to take his time because I wasn't a Sprint customer.

    I guess the lady at Sprint thought I was bluffing because she called me to tell me she was billing me $50.00 for the equipment they replaced if I was serious about cancelling my service. I told her to put any number on the bill that made her happy; I'd just as soon not pay her $1,000.00 as not pay her $50.00. Next billing cycle they gave me a refund of a couple dollars.

    I haven't missed the landline.
    The road to hell is paved with COMPROMISE.
  • JamesRKJamesRK Member Posts: 25,670 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    One of the unintended and tragic consequences of the death of landlines and the telephone booth along with it is now Superman has very few places to change his clothes for crime fighting.
    The road to hell is paved with COMPROMISE.
  • remingtonoaksremingtonoaks Member Posts: 26,245 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Yep, just about the only people that need a landline are people that have a court order ankle bracelet that needs to be monitored by a landline
  • FrancFFrancF Member Posts: 35,279 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Gotta keep mine to write off my Cell phone.
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