Do you maintain a landline? Is there any good reason to?

[elessar78]

I was speaking to several moms the other day and they said the love their land line because they can monitor their pre-teens' phone habits and times better than with a cell phone. They either got rid of the cell phone or they have to turn it in once they are home.

[Snodog]

Got rid of the land line back in 2006. It was painless and if you want the same phone number you can port it over into the cell.

[photo]

.If you want one because it's sentimental, fine, but otherwise no excuses.

My parents keep a landline because, even in 2011, cell reception is not very good where they live. That isn't a problem for most people, but coverage still has a ways to progress.

[disneysteve]

My parents keep a landline because, even in 2011, cell reception is not very good where they live.

Good point. At my mom's house (a row home in Philadelphia), you really only got reception if you stood by the front door. She never could have just had a cell phone there.

[JoshuaHeckathorn]

I haven't had a landline since 2005, but I often get so pissed at my iPhone reception (ATT&T) that I want to throw it out the window.

[feh]

We dropped our land line several years ago. We use Vonage for our home phone. Monthly charge is something like $15.

[Frugal]

After living without a landline for about six months plus, I tried to get one once we moved to our house last year. I started it up with a local company, and one day about two months later, the service simply stopped working, and they were going to charge me money potentially in order to come out and fix it. Since this loss of service was not my fault (the phone worked just fine, and we had not done anything to the phone line...it just did not have a dial tone one day) i refused to pay extra for having the "privelege" of them restoring service. Thus, we have relied on cell phones for about eight months or more, and it is so much better. I had trouble hearing people on my landline.

I can understand the stability or sense of stability that a landline provides. It's like psychologically, we want to feel that we "belong somewhere". I know, because i have moved so many times, and never had the same number. I grew up at the same place for 17 years with the same exact phone number, so yes, you do kind of feel a connection to that number.

The upside of a landline is you don't have to worry about the studies coming out about potential risk(s) of long-term cell-phone use. I am somewhat worried about those, but can't afford to pay twice for minutes and restore my landline.

[bennkar]

My biggest issue was the attachment to the phone number, but I finally dropped my landline this March. It was $25/mo. Previously 95% of the calls were from collection agencies for my ex-spouse, so I finally had enough. Now I use the MagicJack for $25/year with a new phone number, and I also have a tracfone cell phone which runs me $80/year. Occassionally the MagicJack has bad service (like last night), but that's maybe 5% of the time.

[Kelli-Saving Money]

Landline Usage

The only reason we maintain a landline is because we have a security system that requires one, otherwise we would have abandoned the landline years ago.

[josetann]

I have a landline, but only because it costs virtually the same to have a landline as it would to NOT have it (I can have DSL without a landline, but it costs about $60/mo...I'm paying about $60/mo to have a landline AND DSL). Back at our house in TN, we can't have DSL without a landline.

I too have an Obi110 (connects directly to Google Voice...so I can make/receive calls over the internet, but use a regular cordless house phone). Vast majority of calls go through over that, cellphones are more for urgent calls (such as, wife is on call but wants to go out of the house for a bit).

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I have obi110 with google, but we dropped cable 6 months ago and only have internet now. Very sweet deal. So we have an VOIP which is worth it because I save on our cell phone minutes instead.

[breathemusic]

I've never had a landline since moving out of my mom's house. Only a cell. My mother has both (actually a landline, a personal cell, and a work cell) but only because she lives in an area where cell reception isn't that great. The landline is super cheap though since she has a really basic package with no long distance since she can use a cell for that.

[JoeP]

We have a land line, and also have nettalk duo installed on one outlet. I am in the process of trying to document all the people and businesses that have our land line number, so we can give them the nettalk number. It is a long and painful process, but will end up saving us $31/mo annually.

[asmom]

Well I finally got rid of my landline. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be especially as I never answered it anyway. Woo-hoo I'm free1

[adpiterp]

I haven't had a landline in almost 10 years.

However, my parents still have a landline. They frequently misplace their cell phones and they say long distance is cheaper (they have relatives abroad). Not sure if that is true or not though.