Land Line Phone

[LizzieMaine]

The only junk calls I ever get, between the Do Not Call registry and having an unlisted number, are from my insurance company. And I just hang up on them. I don't even bother to say "Not Interested." If somebody walked up to me on the street and tried to sell me something I'd just walk away. Same with the phone, I see no obligation to be courteous or tolerant.

The only calls that bug me are from my mother. And god help me if I hang up on her.

 

[Gingerella72]

That's why I love caller ID.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I agree entirely. But even the noise of the ringer gets on my nerves, especially when I know it's just another junk call.

Don't even get me started on chuggers. Another group of wasters hiding behind the "just doing my job" BS.

The only junk calls I ever get, between the Do Not Call registry and having an unlisted number, are from my insurance company. And I just hang up on them. I don't even bother to say "Not Interested." If somebody walked up to me on the street and tried to sell me something I'd just walk away. Same with the phone, I see no obligation to be courteous or tolerant.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A piece of paper stuffed in between the bell gongs works wonders.

It helps that I can usually guess who's calling from when they call. If the phone rings at 3AM, I know it's the security company to tell me the burglar alarm's gone off at work. If the phone rings on my day off, I know it's work telling me I need to come in to deal with an electrical/mechanical emergency. If the phone rings as I'm stepping into or out of the shower, I know it's Ma. Who needs caller ID?

 

[p51]

Where we live, a land line is worth its weight in gold and I don't understand why anyone would solely rely on cells.
We live just south of the Olympic Mountains in WA state. We get some pretty harsh windstorms every few years or so (In 1006, we had over a half dozen of them). And our specific electrical grid is particularly weak so I pretty much assume that if the winds are going to get above 35-40, we're going to lose power because we almost always do. And when that happens, if the towers just don't blow over, they get overloaded with calls to the electric company and such.
Last January, we had a snow/ice storm that cut out power everywhere in the county. We were lucky (sort of) in that we live where the extreme southern edge of the ice was, so we could go to the town south of us where life was normal. But the cell towers all iced over. No signal at all. Besides, the cells don't last long on the charge anyway and we couldn't drive anywhere for a couple of days (no road clearing trucks come near where we live even though it snows at least once a year here and it's snowed over two feet before the ice came) to plug them into a car charger.
In either of these cases, if you didn't have land lines, you didn't get talk with anyone, period. It's a little unnerving to not be able to call an ambulance or the fire department if you need to. My wife had in the past talked about how much we'd save without the land line and I've made it painfully clear to her that cutting out the land line is not a topic for discussion, we keep it and that it that (I never put my foot down on anything normally). Once I even went so far as saying the moment she calls to cut the land line, I'm calling second later to cancel it. That's how serious I am on the topic. After that ice storm, she quit mentioning it, and I think she finally got the point that land lines are a good thing where we are.

 

[sheeplady]

We have a landline phone. Our local phone company (Verizon) has a plan for local calling that is $20 a month with 10 cent local calls (it used to be $10 a month, including taxes, but it went up). It's an old plan and what my family had years ago under Ma Bell for their local calling. We only have local calling. This allows us to have a phone line which people can call into (from anyplace) but we can only make local calls out. So we use our cell phones to call out and people can call us on the home phone.

If you have previously had landline service in your home, you should still have landline 911 service. I believe that you can call your phone company and get it returned as well.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I can't stand land lines, because of the endless junk calls from call centres flogging crap; and junk calls from fax machines; and junk calls from utility companies that I stopped using, trying to tempt me back; junk fishing calls "I'm calling about your recent accident …" fish fish fish; junk calls from charities with whose practices I don't necessarily agree. And this is on a "no-call" list! These scum hide behind the "we're just trying to do our job/drum up business" line.

I've never had a junk call on my cell phone. It costs me about £5 every 2 months, as I only use it for text messaging (one of the greatest advances of the late C20th, IMO). If I don't want to take calls, I just turn it off. Give me a cell phone any day, with a qwerty keyboard. Were it not for internet requiring a land line (I don't have satellite or cable, or any kind of TV since they forced us onto digital for which my TV is not configured), I don't think I would have a land line, tbh.

I don't ascribe to the modern obsession with "connectivity" so I never feel lost without methods of contact. I'd certainly never use the London Underground if I worried about being out of contact for a couple hours.:eusa_doh:

I have had one or two actual "crooks" calling my cell numbers, but recently a flood of texting from a gang of thugs wanting to steal your identity by saying you have a gift card from a retail store and just enter your date of birth to obtain it...you know if they really had you winning anything you don't need to pay or give any date information so you know it is a crook...... I also have an old metal whistle (police/coach style) and was giving this tip many years ago....use the whistle when someone calls you that you do not want calling, blow it real hard into your phone....the person on the other end may just well get the idea you don't want them calling you again.....(ear explosion at it's finest)......lol!

 

[MisterCairo]

We have a land line, bundled with our internet service. We have two small children and my elderly mother lives with us. 911 service is worth it alone, but if there were a service where the ONLY thing we had to pay for was 911, I'd switch in a heartbeat! We have cells too, of course.
I won't touch Magic Jack, as there have been 911 issues with it. My brother swears by it however.

 

[Pompidou]

One of my former business partners only had Magic Jack, and his service was always down. Odds are, I'll never get a landline, but my cafe has two- one for people to call and one for the credit card terminal to call out of. Never once got an incoming call that I wanted to take. I make outgoing calls on my cell. Sometimes I question why I bother.

 

[MisterCairo]

Regarding telemarketers, Canada implemented a "do not call" registry. You went online, registered your phone number, and voila - the number of unwanted calls actually INCREASED. There were so many exemptions (polling companies, anyone you do business with already, etc.) that putting your number on the list, which wasn't supposed to be shared, indicated to all the exemptions that you WANTED them to call you!
Call display is our best friend. Anything 1-800, 866, etc. gets ignored, but it's still irritating to have to listen to the ringer going off a dozen times a day.

 

[LocktownDog]

Haven't had a land line in a few years ... not sure I want a cell line either. I'm completely annoyed by the one or two calls a week I get as it it. If I didn't have teenage sons who may need to get a hold of me (usually to say they need money), I might not have a phone at all.

 

[Tango Yankee]

We have a landline and I wouldn't be without one for the same reasons others have listed: poor cell phone reception at the house (we're rural), 911, power failures, etcetera. We have cordless phones but we also have corded phones that work during power outages. All that, plus for some reason I really do not like talking on a cell phone. Not sure why.

In the end, it boils down to one thing: safety. It doesn't take much for the cell phone network to be disrupted and the old equipment is still the most reliable.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Edward]

I have no cable TV, no landline. Just a fairly fat DSL line to keep an eye on this joint, and my cell. If I had extra jack, I'd get the landline just to use my WE 302 now and then.

You're lucky. I lived in my flat without a landline for two years. Never missed it at all. No option for the internet at home without it, though. Finally gave in after working from home for a week, but still having to go into the office for an hour every other day to pick up email.

I can't stand land lines, because of the endless junk calls from call centres flogging crap; and junk calls from fax machines; and junk calls from utility companies that I stopped using, trying to tempt me back; junk fishing calls "I'm calling about your recent accident …" fish fish fish; junk calls from charities with whose practices I don't necessarily agree. And this is on a "no-call" list! These scum hide behind the "we're just trying to do our job/drum up business" line.

I've never had a junk call on my cell phone. It costs me about £5 every 2 months, as I only use it for text messaging (one of the greatest advances of the late C20th, IMO). If I don't want to take calls, I just turn it off. Give me a cell phone any day, with a qwerty keyboard. Were it not for internet requiring a land line (I don't have satellite or cable, or any kind of TV since they forced us onto digital for which my TV is not configured), I don't think I would have a land line, tbh.

I don't ascribe to the modern obsession with "connectivity" so I never feel lost without methods of contact. I'd certainly never use the London Underground if I worried about being out of contact for a couple hours.:eusa_doh:

Never did get the hostility. Usually (but hey - not always) when you scratch the surface, the problem is other people being rude with theirs (they'll find some other, equally invasive way to be rude anyhow), suspicion of technology, a sense of superiority for not buying in to the "new" technology, or a lack of comprehension that they have an off-switch. Fair enough, if that's your thing, I just don't get the sheer level of hostility. I remember a time when a mobile was a real poseur toy; now it's almost much more of a pose to not have one at all rather than the latest model. Funny how things go like that. I already find the notion of calling a building to see if a person is in it rather odd. [huh]

I agree, one gets fewer (but not no) junk calls on a mobile. I often don't answer a number I don't recognise, then google it. I've also set my handset to block all "withheld" numbers after getting one too many of those. It's great to have these options the landline doesn't offer. In fact, I think I use the landline less than once a month for incoming calls, and I can't remember the last time I used it to dial anything other than the %^&*ing mobile when I've $%^&ing lost it a $%^&ing gain. Which is almost worth the line rental, to be fair....

 

[LizzieMaine]

Never did get the hostility. Usually (but hey - not always) when you scratch the surface, the problem is other people being rude with theirs (they'll find some other, equally invasive way to be rude anyhow), suspicion of technology, a sense of superiority for not buying in to the "new" technology, or a lack of comprehension that they have an off-switch. Fair enough, if that's your thing, I just don't get the sheer level of hostility. I remember a time when a mobile was a real poseur toy; now it's almost much more of a pose to not have one at all rather than the latest model. Funny how things go like that. I already find the notion of calling a building to see if a person is in it rather odd. [huh]

As far as I'm concerned the hostility is based on the impact the technology has had on society -- it's turned a superficial sort of "connectivity" into some kind of warped social fetish. If it wasn't for the constant trumpeting of CONNECT CONNECT CONNECT YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO TALK ON THE PHONE WHILE SITTING ON THE TOILET CONNECT CONNECT CONNECT, it wouldn't bother me one way or another.

 

[Lady Day]

To get a brake from being connected I leave my phone and music in the house when Im out walking my dog. I just don't like people on the phone when they are with their pooch, you miss stuff.

Also, I live in a 20s building and have had chronic problems with the phone line, not the building's wiring, AT&T. The hard line infrastructure around here is horrid with just patch work fixes all over the place. My phone service had been degrading for months, and after the third attempt from them to fix it failed, I just gave up and switched my internet (the only reason I had a land line) to cable.

I haven't used a land line for phone service in about 6 years. What's the point? A person's cell phone is their their new ID.

 

[DJH]

We have a landline and I wouldn't be without one for the same reasons others have listed: poor cell phone reception at the house (we're rural), 911, power failures, etcetera. We have cordless phones but we also have corded phones that work during power outages. All that, plus for some reason I really do not like talking on a cell phone. Not sure why.

In the end, it boils down to one thing: safety. It doesn't take much for the cell phone network to be disrupted and the old equipment is still the most reliable.

Cheers,
Tom

In our area it is the complete opposite, Tom.

It doesn't take much wind, snow or ice for us to lose power for a while which usually means losing the phone and cable Internet too (not that we have a landline) as they are all hanging on the same poles. Since the cell sites have backup generators, the mobile networks are more robust for us, not gone down for more than a few minutes that I can remember, even when we've had outages of all the other services lasting up to a week.

Of course, it does mean finding somewhere (like the cars) to charge the bloody things.

 

[tonyb]

... Of course, it does mean finding somewhere (like the cars) to charge the bloody things.

Think I'll look into one of those little photovoltaic gizmos that allegedly put out enough juice to easily charge a cell phone or iPad or whatever.

Power has been pretty darned reliable in the "new" house. But at the place we had lived for the nearly five years prior, we could pretty well plan on losing power (and cable) if the wind blew more than about 30 mph. That little settlement was built in what amounted to a clearing in a thick forest, with trees that fell over with great regularity. And what they too often fell on was the power lines.

 

[TomS]

I have a land-line, and its great.

 

[CONELRAD]

We still have a land line, and we're not getting rid of unless they come and pry it from our cold, dead hands.

 

[kyboots]

I agree with the land line lovers. We live in the city of Louisville, but lots of trees and lose power for 7-8 days at a time with a yearly storm. At first the cell phones would not stay charged unless you took a long drive with a car charger. Then switched to cable phone, but that goes out in any storm and stays out. Finally back to land line with same phone number for 30 years that has moved with us. Even though we now have home generators we won't give up the land line. Only problem I have my wife has these D... portable phones all over the house and I can never find them when it rings. I think the cats must use them and hide them from me.