Thinking about cutting the land line off. Forty a month for a year is almost $500.00 which could go in the kitty for a long trip with the travel trailer. Just can't justify spending money and getting nothing in return. Question is to anybody that cut their house phone off and regretted it. We aren't rich but doing ok financially, no body calls because we owe them money.

We dropped our land line five years ago. Should have dropped it much sooner. We are retired and don’t have any business calls.

No land line for 9 years now.

shit canned mine about 6-8 years ago too.

George

I'm in the process of getting rid of mine + getting a cel. phone. I have kept my land line for years because everyone has my # + besides my fax was on the same number. But I am so tired of these $120.00 bills from AT+T. + no one uses the fax anymore. I'm pretty sure the new company can transfer my current number to my cel. phone.

We went one year without a real call (all were scam calls) on the land line. Dumped it, no regrets.

We get one cheap through our internet provider and use it for friends and family calls. The big advantage of hard-wired land lines is that they require a federal warrant to tap. Any FCC communication like cellular and internet wireless do not (according to my attorney).

well, I've got nothing to hide from the government (I don't think) so as Robert Heinlein said, "let them waste their time listening to an old man grunt." I do know that 99 % of my calls are telemarketers. I don't get it. Does ANYONE buy anything from these cretins?

Cut the cord. Found it hard to do after having it for 54 years. Don’t miss it a bit.

I cut the "land line" years ago. Went with OOMA, which is a 'voice over internet' provider. After the initial cost of the device, the taxes amount to $7-$8 a month. Works just like the 'old' land line, I even have the same number (I paid a few $$$ extra for that). ATT was killing me, but my elderly Mom was with us then and I needed something 'simple' for Her to use without the high cost. She could call anywhere in the US without long distance charges. That said, now that Mom is no longer with us, OOMA gets little use as we live off of our cell phones. There are many low cost and reliable cell plans out there. Been thinking about doing away with OOMA. But, OOMA always works, as long as you have internet and a generator for the house,,, cell has had some outages when power has been out from winter weather (ice, in this part of the world). ATT has been reliable internet.

So I have to ask those that have abandoned their 'land lines' how do you get your internet access, some 3rd party or do you use your cell provider for access?. Where I live cell coverage is very marginal at best so I would never consider doing this. Even when the power goes down (I have a backup generator) the land like works. I am not sure what happens to cell coverage in a power outage.
C.G.B.

We still theoretically have a landline. We dropped it for awhile, but "re-enabled" it because it's cheaper with the TV and internet service bundle that we swapped over to. But it's a VoIP line and we don't have it connected to a phone last 5 or 6 years. So yes, we're still paying ridiculous $ to a cable or phone company for internet. We dropped cable tv and used DirectTVNow for 6 months, but it was terrible. And the prices were going up. So we shifted back to cable.

Real POTS land lines do have their own battery independent of the power company service, provided over the line from the nearest central office. But the new services often substitute a VoIP line, which doesn't have independent battery (or like with FiOS, there's a little 2 or 4 hour battery unit inside your house where the service comes in).

quote:

Originally posted by cgbach:
So I have to ask those that have abandoned their 'land lines' how do you get your internet access, some 3rd party or do you use your cell provider for access?. Where I live cell coverage is very marginal at best so I would never consider doing this. Even when the power goes down (I have a backup generator) the land like works. I am not sure what happens to cell coverage in a power outage.
C.G.B.

One of the reasons I did not opt for a land line where I live is there was no DSL available with it so I didn't see any benefit with having a land line to just get telemarketed to death.

For internet I have to use satellite, same for TV. Cell phone coverage is also real bad out here. When 3G was dropped it got worse. I have to go outside to make a call and it is still often dropped. If I drive up to my high hay field I get a solid bar of coverage. Text messaging works well despite the lack of cell coverage.

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
I'm in the process of getting rid of mine + getting a cel. phone. I have kept my land line for years because everyone has my # + besides my fax was on the same number. But I am so tired of these $120.00 bills from AT+T. + no one uses the fax anymore. I'm pretty sure the new company can transfer my current number to my cel. phone.

That's what I always heard----FOR A GOOD TIME--CALL RANDY!

And THAT'S why I have caller ID.

I have OOMA for what was my land line number. It uses VOIP. My internet is provided by AT&T and comes in via what was my twisted pair land line.
Peter

I probably dropped my landline phone about 9 years ago. I don’t miss it.

One HUGE advantage that a kindling has over a cell phone is that a 911 call on a landline is routed to the nearest dispatcher, whereas 911 calls on cell phones are usually sent to a central dispatch that might be half way across the state.

But even if you don’t have landline service, your landline home will still function for 911 calls. You won’t hear a dial tone, but the call will still go through. So keep that landline plugged in for emergencies.

BTW, you will want to test this as my information may not be up to date.

Got rid of our land line about 5 years ago. Don't miss it at all. I live way out in the country but never used the phone for internet.

We started internet service via satellite. Now we are on a microwave system. It's very fast and reliable. Just about everything we watch on TV these days is streamed. I'll be dropping the satellite TV as soon as the contract expires.

The only reason that i kept a pots line, (plain old telephone) was that they still work in prolong power outages. The Central office provides its own -48 volts to provide service. Voice over internet does not provide the same security since it does not pass through the central office switch.

But not if you have portable landline phones that sit in the rechargeable holder. If the power goes out, so do they.

That is correct about the portable phones which relies on commercial power. That said, the -48dc voltage is still present at the home

the only reason i still have a landline is because i have DSL.. otherwise it would be history.

Its pretty much worthless anyway.. caller ID's are always faked.. all i ever get is spam calls.

the one up side is, whenever anyone asks for a phone... like a website or whatever, they get the landline number.. we never answer it EVER. but do check for legitimate messages at least once a day... and No its not worth the cost, but until I get an alternative to DSL I'm stuck with it

I think you don't need to have the landline phone with DSL.
DSL works with out the phone.

Correct, you do not need a pots line with dsl. However, and I’m only speaking about AT&T, is that in the rural areas of Michigan, if a person give up their pots line it may become difficult to ever get it back. The phone company would love to see pots go away.

quote:

Originally posted by cgbach:
So I have to ask those that have abandoned their 'land lines' how do you get your internet access, some 3rd party or do you use your cell provider for access?. Where I live cell coverage is very marginal at best so I would never consider doing this. Even when the power goes down (I have a backup generator) the land like works. I am not sure what happens to cell coverage in a power outage.
C.G.B.

Cell coverage continues uninterrupted during power outages. When Hurricane Michael roared over us 3+ years ago, we had no power for 11 days. Cell service never stopped.

I have a cell provider and a separate internet provider (cable).
I dumped my landline many years ago.

my son is a contractor and built us a house in 2019 when we had to leave the coastal area. he refused to put a landline. said we needed to get out of the 1950s. many times when we come n
back from somewhere i start looking for the phone base so i can hear the messages. it was really traumatic for awhile not having one.

House phone equals phone service and internet access.

No cable of cell service in the area.