Can you convince me to dump my landline? (See details)

I just got rid of my land line about 6 months ago. I am saving about 60.00 a month and I no longer have all those spam calls. I was worried about doing it, but I am really glad I did. I never got personal calls on it, so I didn’t even have to tell people not to call that number anymore.
It was well worth it to me. I don’t miss it at all.

@chyna I get at least as many spam calls on my cell as I do on my landline, so I would be cutting them in half, I guess!

Go to a Top Tier cellphone company . . . AT&T, Verizon Wireless or T-Mobile for fewer dropped calls and best nationwide coverage.

@Tropical_Willie I already have a cellphone and provider that I like, that’s not the issue here.

K !

I have a couple of friends that dropped their landline and found their mobile company wasn’t what they wanted for reliability. Try using only your cell for two or three weeks.

@Tropical_Willie I have been, because of this. I am slowly getting used to it, but it’s an adjustment I didn’t want to have to make.

I dumped mine 23 years ago. Never missed it.

Dump that landline and cable. You just need an internet connection.

I dumped my traditional landline about 20 years ago. I dropped the bundled VOIP landline once my daughter was old enough to have a cell phone. I cut the cable completely then as well.
There is absolutely no reason to have one if you have a cell phone.

@Forever_Free There wasn’t much available in terms of streaming services 20 years ago. Did you just do DVDs?

@janbb I am the original VHS & DVD pirateer. I however must admit that I had ways of watching things if I wanted. Interpol never knocked on my door.
I learned from my father who in the 80’s had line of site interceptors and descramblers. Miss you Dad.

Except for @chyna, there’s really no convincing going on here. The “just do it, you don’t need it” approach is not compelling.

Ok so why keep it? What could it possibly afford you that a cell phone won’t except for another bill to pay?

Let me add that voip is not secure it can be decoded with Wireshark. Like the audio can be played back.

After the ‘89 earthquake, a lot of people lost their power, gas, and water, but they still had working phones, and that’s what let them keep their sanity.

@filmfann As more and more weather stuff gets squirrelly, that’s a good point.

@Blackwater_Park Really, the point of this Q is not for me to convince you of anything.

@canidmajor yes, one reason I kept my landline besides inertia is that one of them is hardwired in so works during hurricanes. Running the car to charge a cell phone has been done but it is tiresome.

@canidmajor why would you want duplication of a service? Having cell service is a valid reason. Companies that manage the line and wire to those landline homes don’t have the same level of care any longer and are not regulated to.
I dropped the Milkman service ages ago too.

I got rid of my landline phone in 2003 or 4, I think. I’ve never missed it.

I use a Google Pixel phone with service from Google Fi as my wireless carrier. Google does a spectacular job of blocking spam calls. I get very few, and I let it go to voicemail if I don’t recognize the number. Google has an automated call screening thing that will answer a call for me and ask who’s calling. Then by text, it gives me the answer, and I can decide to pick up the call or hang up. It’s brilliant. The few times I get calls I don’t recognize, they mostly hang up when the screening thing starts.

I don’t know if that would be helpful in your present circumstances since you’re getting calls from lawyers, but I wanted to describe it. I really like it a lot.

I got rid of cable TV about 2 years ago. I watch very little, so I haven’t missed it.

All I have now is internet service. It’s very simple and less expensive.

Thanks, @Hawaii_Jake, that’s what I meant.

Rhetorical question

Actually, @janbb, the opposite works for me, as the loss of power here means loss of landline (not like old Ma Bell days!). The weather/natural disaster argument is compelling.

After the hurricane in Hilo in 2014, I think, folks were without landlines for days. We had working cell phones within a few hours when they brought in emergency towers.

I’m sorry for your troubles. I’m hanging onto my land line, though. For one thing, it doesn’t get left behind in the restroom at Target.

@canidmajor I’ve had both – sometimes in a storm the landline held and sometimes the cellphone.

Cell phones and landlines use the same backhaul now.

What’s backhaul?

The telecommunication transporting data in the background

Now ^^^ a moere compelling point. Thanks, I didn’t know that.

The“last mile” is the difference. A cell tower has a radio hop to your phone. It’s usually generator backed up too. Your landline depends on your local power at your house to stay up. The drawback to cellular is the tower can get overloaded. If you still have your network you can just switch to wifi calling.

I dumped my landline years ago. Cell and WiFi is all I have had for years. I don’t even miss landline because it seemed like it was so limited to that short little line. Obviously, cell can go anywhere.

On the plus side my landline phone is fixed and I always know where it is. On the negative side the only calls I get on it are spam. Logically, I can’t justify it but at the same time I can’t yet bear to get rid of it. Maybe in 2024.

@flutherother I get the “can’t bear to get rid of it” thing. I have been thinking of my cell as a travel accessory for so long that the shift from that perspective seems chasmic.

My landline still comes in handy. I wind up faxing for friends and family. I use it to save my very expensive cell phone from being used a lot. Plus, the reception is more reliable, but it sounds like your landline isn’t very reliable.

If you are in an older house you probably still have copper lines if you want to switch back to that service if it’s still available in your area. Copper lines are what we all had way back in the day before the internet. The phone worked even when the electricity went out. When my electricity was out for eight days after a hurricane many years ago, my landline worked. The copper line phones didn’t rely on modems and whatever else cable and fiber optics need. Your house phone will be out if electricity is down, unless you have battery back-up you might get 5–8 hours.

I would not make any decisions right now if your bundle is a great price. Possibly, there is some technical difficulty that will get sorted out within a few days or weeks.

^^You can just use wifi calling on your cellphone when at home.

@canidmajor I’m like @flutherother> Part of my not dropping the landline is just sentimental; I’ve had this phone number for 30 years.

@janbb I felt this way when I got automatic transmission because I was going to be driving in high traffic areas a lot. That was 25 years ago, and sometimes I still slap my right thigh at Stop signs…<sigh>

I am following this Q with interest. My landline costs about $45 per month.

@janbb I have had mine about that long. Friends and relatives know the number. I’m even listed in the (papyrus) phone book!

I have had the same cellular number for 20+ years

Sorry, but these landline packages from your cable company are just geezer catnip. They know older people are anxious about not having land lines and are more likely to have cable, so they came up with this garbage product and charge you only slightly more for it than you remember paying in 1994, and bundle it so it feels even cheaper, though it isn’t. Feel exploited yet? You should! Drop that landline shit and get an Apple Watch.

Oooh, mocking and insulting!! Two great persuasive. methods! :-P

It’s most likely VOIP which I would recommend never having in the first place. I would not let a true landline go. Period. It is the best service out there. People do no realize how vulnerable mobile phone transmissions are. Hackers get anything they want from the internet and/or cellular. True landlines are different.

My cell phone has the number that was given to me for my landline phone in 1995. When I was ready to pull the plug I ported my landline number to my cell phone.
The only advantage to a landline is you don’t lose it! I think sometimes I want a cheap landlines so that if the kids are here and I’m not they have a phone.

Have you checked the price of a real landline. I pay $60/month for mine; I pay $12.99/month for my mobile.

@Blackwater_Park If your electricity and internet is working your wifi will work. Not that I lose my electricity or internet a lot, but there are times when cell phones aren’t working. Like after a hurricane can be a problem.

My landline is fiber optics, my house is too new to have copper, so I would lose my landline if I lose electricity.

I pay $53 for internet and house phone combined. It’s super cheap, I’m very happy with it.

Also, if you believe cell phones are bad for you (cancer) an old fashioned landline phone might be safer.

That cell phone = cancer is pure bullshit.

I don’t think a bunch of you heard me. You don’t have to lose your life long, beloved phone number because you get a cell phone!

@Dutchess_III I heard you. I’ve had my cellphone number about 20 years as others have said but my house phone number is the house my kids grew up in.

If I move at some point, I won’t get a new landline.

Here’s my argument – if you hadn’t already made up your mind to drop the landline, you wouldn’t have asked this basically rhetorical question.

Just port your landline number to your cell phone @janbb. Won’t even hit a bump in the road.

@canidmajor – thanks! That’s what I was going for. Did it work?

@Entropy Wrong, the question isn’t rhetorical, I am weighing the pros and cons. There are a lot of things about cell-only that I don’t like, that’s why I asked.

Thanks for feedback, guys, there’s some useful info here.

My land line is not tied to my cable. It is that old! But it is virtually 100% reliable When there is an internet or power failure my line still works. Always!
Of course there are times, like when a tree falls on the telephone cable, when the land line is out for a short while. My cell phone usually works in those cases.

Is it gone yet?

@LuckyGuy “They” keep threatening that the old copper lines are being phased out. It was supposed to be this year, but now I hear 2025.

@Smashley You didn’t address my concerns, so, no.

@LuckyGuy you have to be out in the boonies to still have one of those. Legacy analog still can be found in patches out in the middle of nowhere. At some point it still gets the digital conversion and fiber optic treatment.

^^I don’t think it’s location, it’s age of the home.

The age of the home is really not a factor.

@SnipSnip New houses don’t have the lines to have the old fashioned service. I can’t get it if I want it, but the houses in the northern part of my community still can. Those houses are 30+ years old.

@Blackwater @JLeslie The house was built in 1957. When we moved here in 1979 the house had an 8 Party line! (Yes, you read that correctly – 8!) By the time we moved in, there were only two houses still connected to it and the line went to us when we asked for a “private line”! As an engineer I had lots of fun playing with the system.

The small phone company has been taking care of business forever: Ogden Telephone. It was bought out by Frontier but the same people still service the lines and wires. The writing is on the wall, but I would feel guilty cancelling.

@JLeslie the more populated an area is the more a Telco company has to invest in its infrastructure. Old phone lines get harder and harder to keep up. The old hardware working in the background is not made anymore and Telco companies really want you off of them.

Rumor has it that @canidmajor still has the rotary dial phone.

Ha! Mostly I just yell really loud. ;-p

@Blackwater_Park I know they are phasing it out. Even if the lines are there many places don’t have the service anymore. It was a better service for emergencies from my point of view. If we have our electrical grid attacked by terrorists or nature, the old phones would likely still be working.

Oh well. Doesn’t matter. This is the direction we’re going. The OP doesn’t have that service anyway, she has a cable or fiber optic phone if it’s bundled with her internet. If she is paying a lot it’s a rip off, because we know those services can be very cheap. Although, taxes on phone communication often is very high, which I don’t understand. Why are phones being taxed so much?

@JLeslie I’m trying to get you to understand that just because you have an old phone and old lines to your house you are very unlikely to have what is called a “POTS” line beyond your localized hub. We are like three generations of equipment removed from that. If the power in your house goes out that old line may still work. If it goes out in the neighborhood or city it’s in the same boat as cellular because again, they share the same backhaul infrastructure which is fiber optic. Cellular, land lines… Really the same thing in the background. The end user presentation is just different.

@Blackwater_Park Ok, I see what you are saying. I think you missed that I do not have an old line to my house. My house is too new.

Edit: but even someone with an old line, if their electricity goes out, but the service provider has electricity, their phone would work, right?

My phone won’t work if my electricity goes out.

@JLeslie That has nothing to do with the age of the house; it has to do with the telephone network where the house sits. If the local telephone company wants to serve you, they can and will, regardless of the age of your house. Some companies are now serving landline via fibre optic in new subdivisions. It is basically the same service as the old copper-run facilities but you will have to provide a battery back-up in case of a power outage. If you want landline service in a brand new house you better tell the builder to wire the house for it. I would wire the house regardless, but that’s me.

@JLeslie check your modem/router, most have an easy battery backup option now that will keep you going a short while. Not a bad thing to do.

@SnipSnip I think we aren’t understanding each other. I don’t have copper lines. My house is too new.

In older areas there are copper lines, but that doesn’t mean the copper lines are still used, it depends if there is a company that still utilizes them.

Battery back up is a few hours. Hurricanes are usually outages for 24 hours to 2 weeks. It can be more in rural areas.

And what a wildly bizarre tangent you have taken us on, @JLeslie.

@canidmajor At first I was simply pointing out to you your landline is not like the landline you had 50 years. It will go dead in a power outage if you don’t have battery back-up.

I was just trying to make you aware.

Everyone else is trying to tell me none of the lines are the same as before.

I’m not sure why you only make me the culprit for the tangent. Actually, I do know why.

Oh get over it, @JLeslie, I wasn’t making you a culprit about anything. <eyeroll> It was amusing.

@JLeslie I don’t think you want to understand. If the telephone company offers landlines to your area they don’t care if your house is wired for it or not…..that is up to you. They run the service to an outside interface and from there it’s your job.

I keep my old rotary phone with the stretched out cord on the Kitchen wall as a nostalgic reminder.

We snagged Rick’s dad’s 1950s rotary phone. I want to hook it up so my grandkids can feel the pain!

@Dutchess_III It most likely will no longer work. The Touchtone sets that came out in the next decade will.

@Dutchess_III If I remember right you can answer but not dial out!

Maybe we’ll find out!