It’s cheaper to have a home phone that you can hear all over the house rather than rely on a cell. Plus, I don’t enjoy hanging out the window to get a signal on cold nights.
Well, since we both need cell phones, we just use those. It would cost more to ADD a home phone. Interestingly, even though we live in the sticks, we get good coverage. The only challenge is that we can drop calls in the second story sometimes because we have a sheet metal roof.
We keep our landline. It’s $50/month, but we rely on it during long power failures. Our security system is connected to it. When I need tech assistance on our cells, I use the landline so I can work on the cell. We’re very (too) close where two interstates meet and when there’s a backup, accident, or similar, cell service must be overloaded or something because we can’t connect.
I figure when the SHTF, it’ll be easier for Uncle Sugar to jam cell service than landlines. I’m probably wrong, but I like to believe that.