It’s probably cheaper to provide everybody a basic cellphone to ensure everybody can call 911 than to keep landlines going.
AT&T is garbage - signed former AT&T customers
I need a land line for an AUTOVON phone...
My internet provider gave us free VOIP -voice over internet and we kept our landline number. It works great. We do have cheap cell phones if power outage.
Don’t get me going on my land line.
There is one advantage that Verizon took away - total independence from utility power. Verizon has forced FIOS on us and now, we don’t have that advantage. You need a damn battery pack for temporary back up if power goes out.
Otherwise, though, I still prefer my land line at home.
Maybe if these idiots making phones would allow networking of cell phones, we might relinquish our land line.
Cell phones are a pain both as a receiver and a caller. I am not carrying my cell phone everywhere I go in the damn house. People call me on the cell and I have to scramble to get it opposite ends, if I can hear it.
The other side is trying to call someone. We don’t need to always get a specific person. Why should I have to call 5 phones to get SOMEONE of that household who knows the answer?
If they don’t create networking for cell phones, I will not give up a landline.
Bad idea! Cell phone communication security is non existent and the service can become unreliable, especially when power outages occur and the cellular service can easily be controlled by hackers as well as the government. Again, Bad idea!
Plus, it’ll be easy to pay your phone bill with Biden’s new digital currency. Pay it over your phone.
No landline, no cash. Life will be so simple.
I haven’t had a landline in years now. If I was really worried about cell phone reception being an issue I would simply get an iPhone 14 or 15 and utilize the SOS feature.
About 25 years ago, our ancient AT&T twisted pair copper line was squirrel chewed and corroded. Our early ADSL service would routinely collapse to under 1 MBps. It took so many calls to get the damn company to do anything about it we finally switched to Comcast to get Internet and phone service over coaxial cable.
Now Comcast has MANY outages that last up to an hour. Since mid December, I’ve logged 40 outages totaling 732 minutes occurring in 14 different days. They offered me a paltry $20 credit! They had a tech come out and he found a bad squirrel chew on the cable at the pole and a “pull” on a connector. Fixed those but no improvement.
There is old, decrepit, unmaintained outside plant everywhere.
The problem with cellphones is keeping the battery charged.
I use my cellphone plan mainly for the Internet and my cellphone is USB connected to my PC as I type. I don’t have a plugged-in charging stand for my phone.
I told my uncle to keep his landline. He lived to nearly 101 and I was afraid he would have trouble keeping a cellphone working.
Cell phones can get lost and forget to be charged. No such thing with a landlinephone secured to a wall.
I have relatives in the more rural areas of western MA, i.e. between Springfield and the NY border. Their are plenty of areas their that you need a land line as cell service is only one bar and you will drop calls. I live a mile or so from a major highway in a suburban area with neighbors all around me, no where near rural and can only get 1 bar in most of my house. I don’t have a land line, as wifi calling is the solution, and once outside it is much better, but land lines still have a place.
My Dad was a 45 year Telco worker who started out replacing old crank magenta phones with rotary ones back in the late 1940's. From there here became a central office repairman in the long distance switching office called 4A. When it went to Electronic Switching in 1980 he went back outside and maintained data circuits including 911 center until retirement in about 1993 or so.
Landlines are or rather used to be until AT&T stopped maintenance the most reliable phone service. If maintained properly it still would be. Cell service will never reach landline reliability for several reasons most of which is being done by cell companies. Cell companies will not build a true nationwide grid of towers. They put them up in more densely populated areas and along the interstate system. In states from Maine going southwestward to northern Alabama meaning the Appalachian, Cumberland, Blue Ridge etc mountain ranges and foothills is very hit and miss in service.
I guarantee you if you buy a cellphone you will see yet another generation replacing it within five years and no additional towers in outlying areas added. Meaning what you knew as 3G, 4G, 5G, and now planning for 6g and still no true national cell grid. The higher the frequency spectrum the lower the coverage area UNLESS more towers are put up closer together. My 3 G worked most of the time at my home. 4G was very hit and miss and except in dead of winter with no leaves 5G is impossible. So I use WIFI calling through my VIASAT satellite internet system. It works better than the cell towers but has its own issues.
I lost my landline for good about 4 years ago. Tree's would fall on the ariel line serving my road which is a quarter mile long and 4 houses. The first time it happened they came out and ran about 100 ft of drop wire on the ground to connect two pole spans of line. They left the cable on the ground and the splices unprotected. Each time it rained I lost service. I'd call it in and not get past the automated system who said someone would be dispatched because it saw trouble on the line. Before dispatching maybe a week later it tested it again and if the line was dry did not dispatch and ZERO human interaction. Finally after another tree fell and cut the line again they never came back. If my Dad had left a mess like what was done on my road he would have been fired. Ma Bell had it's issues and he even took his employer to the state Public Service Commission to get buried cable to replace the old rural paper insulated ariel lines. That was in 1978 when he was at South Central Bell aka Bellsouth.
When Judge Green who ordered the AT& T split that in turn destroyed AT&T reliability, they bought back all their previous Bell system companies they were split from, then more. They eventually laid off or forced retired about 90% of their entire technicians each time they bought a former asset back.
For those who don't understand AT&T used to be the parent company of most phone companies which operated as The Bell System under different regional names, as well as Western Electric. I have not seen an AT&T van nor truck in Knoxville, TN area in over a year.
The one company who has come the nearest to putting a true national grid in place is SpaceX if they also go cell but at least it can work inside the home of WIFI. The cell companies just like the Cable companies are going to continue cherry picking areas and call it coverage. COMCAST BTW wanted $15K to run service on my road. I do live in a rural area but they came up the main road and cherry picked the ones there likely while using Rural Interne=net connecting funding. As a nation we need reliable communication and up until about 15 years ago we had it. Not any longer.
The only reason I ever kept a LL so long was because of my alarm system to use to call in alarms. I finally told ADT that I wanted to cancel my service because of the high LL cost. They put me in a basic cell phone link unit that replaced the LL for free.
give them blankets and wood for smoke signals, oh cant burn wood, well give them 2 cans and a string
Lifeline was mentioned. Those are the devices seniors wear to push the button if they fall. Lifelines connect through landline services.
We use LL from Comcast: only cheap way to make all phones ring at once with immediate connection to all.
I miss my landline we had before AT&T installed fiber optic in our area. When that happened, we lost landline service when there was a power outage. Before that, you could still call when the power went out.