The more communications mechanisms unconnected from satellite and cellular based systems available the better.
I have been without a land line for about 3 years now. Don’t miss it at all.
Reasons to keep wireline:
Over against cellular:
Far better full-duplex sound processing when hosting conference calls in my home office.
Better, cheaper, wireline speaker phones.
Better voice quality.
Uniformity of sound/signal quality.
Over against VoIP:
Mitigating the risk impact of losing either power or internet connectivity.
QoS (Quality of Service) issue:
Using the same residential internet pipe for voice and data while handling conference calls and hosting web-based meetings may degrade voice quality.
Bandwidth upgrade would eat into supposed cost savings.
Overall Risk Management:
Why have”all eggs in one basket” if the phone is used for more than ordering a pizza and the daily chit-chat with my buddies?
So it becomes a QoS and Service Disruption risk-based cost/benefit calculation.
Just my thoughts.
Im in a dead zone, no cell service at my home. I have internet phone service when the power goes out its out never had that happen using land line.
Got rid of mine in November, free at last!
A bigger consideration is the base device which has the answering machine in it. The land line connects to that base unit, not the wireless phones. So we can have three hand held phones throughout the house. With a cell phone there is no base unit so only one phone is available. If we happen to be upstairs and the phone is downstairs we have to run to get the call. With the land line we have a phone upstairs, one back in the office, and one in the kitchen. Again convenience.
To offset the convenience, as I said we live in a rural area. The land line does go out occasionally and so we have intermittent service, outages about once a week for several hours. Then we have to drive about four miles to where we can get cell service if we have to make a call.
I have my cell phone and I use Google Phone (absolutely free) on my laptop. No more landline.
My landline got to be $25/month + $5 minimum for any long distance. I make very few phone calls and the nearest relative was in another ‘long distance’ exchange.
I finally ditched it 3 years ago and went with a pre-paid cellular. I have built up about 600 prepaid minutes with periodic renewal service. My last renewal got me 15 months of service plus an additional 60 minutes (pre-paid & don’t expire) for $77.
The prepaid cellular runs about 1/3 of what the landline was — and it is portable.
Pull the plug. Even with no service, the phone company is required to provide a dial tone for 911 and 611 calls (in case you want service back). Check with your state’s PUC to make sure.
We pulled the plug about six years ago (had three lines at the time) and went mobile only with eFax. Have not looked back.
Theoretically, we’d like to get rid of the landline, but both of us do have long calls at times, and like to do a phone at the ear, and there is lots of evidence that cell phones on the ear are not such a great idea, brain wise. Also, there is the convenience of not having to carry around your phone by having several throughout the home. Cell service can be spotty, where you need to repeat yourself, or the call drops. This does not happen with landlines. If we need to make an important call at home, both of us reach for the landline as first priority.
Not that we don’t love everything our smart phones can do.
Another reason — some of our kids are too little for cell phones and we need a way for them to call 911 in an emergency.
WE will keep our landline over any other phone for the siple reason that if there is an emergecy tusually the first things that go are the cell towers. Just look at what happen on 9/11 and every other emergegency ther eis never any cell service.
We dumped ours 4 years ago. I have a cell phone, and my husband has 2 (1 for work, 1 personal). We’ve never needed a landline yet. I keep a spare, charged battery in my purse just in case it’s needed.
If the power goes out, the land-line will still work.
We also need it for our Dish Network receiver.
Couldn’t ditch the land line because of our security system.
I got rid of my land line in Nov last year and have not looked back. I saved 45 a month. Unless you really need it I would get rid of it.
In town, though, where I work, I haven't had a land line in over two years. Don't really miss it. In either case, you aren't just buying the unit, you're buying the infrastructure. Thirty bucks a month is not bad for a secondary infrastructure when I'm 15 miles from town. When I'm a couple blocks off Main street, it's too much. YMMV.
When the power goes out around me, my cell still works. I'm not certain if cell towers have a mandate for alternate power sources, but I've not lost a cell signal yet.
A small solar cell can charge your cell phone, but won't do squat for your cordless unit, unless you can set the base unit where the sun shines.
We've been land-line free for more than five-and-a-half years (we had a land-line for alarm purposes, but not phone). Got rid of the alarm and bought a shotgun. The alarm won't keep determined folks out, regardless of whether I'm home or not, so the best deal is protecting my family while we're home. Things can be replaced. My family can't.
With the limited amount of calls I make/receive my pay-as-you-go Tracfone + Skype is adequate enough for my needs.