# Survival of the land-line



## flashheatingand (May 3, 2008)

More and more people are getting rid of their land-line. Being a fan of land-lines, I think they have several advantages. Question is how to regain a foothold in the average house hold.

I propose that they come up with a regular phone that is coupled with a tablet, so that one could readily surf the net, while at the phone base.

Also, it would be nice to have an ignore button on the phone.


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## RobertCDF (Aug 18, 2005)

If they cut the cord and made it portable and beyond just the standard house cordless phones, one you could take shopping, or on vacation with you... oh wait...


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## VinylHanger (Jul 14, 2011)

RobertCDF said:


> If they cut the cord and made it portable and beyond just the standard house cordless phones, one you could take shopping, or on vacation with you... oh wait...


:laughing::laughing:


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

Handy for an alarm system...I really don't use mine for anything but alarm and faxes.


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## Chad McDade (Oct 14, 2012)

I'm one if the holdouts who not only still has a landline but also a rotary phone. Power outages are common and cell service can be spotty where I am....sometimes a phone that doesn't require electricity is pretty handy.


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## 480sparky (Feb 1, 2009)

The NEC now requires homes be hardwired for at least one land line outlet.


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

Chad McDade said:


> I'm one if the holdouts who not only still has a landline but also a rotary phone. Power outages are common and cell service can be spotty where I am....sometimes a phone that doesn't require electricity is pretty handy.


You could upgrade to touch tone...


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## Chad McDade (Oct 14, 2012)

Yeah, but the rotary is a great conversation starter....


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## Chad McDade (Oct 14, 2012)

That, and it is almost a family heirloom..... My grandfather bought it in the late 1950's. That phone made the calls when Kennedy was shot, when we landed on the moon, when my dad was drafted into Vietnam, when I was born, I received the news of my brothers first born on that phone and I received the news of my mothers heart attack on that phone. It's kind of corny but that phone had played a role in the lives of four generations if my family, I want to see how long I can keep it in use by the family.


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## Big Shoe (Jun 16, 2008)

We finally threw in the towel......:sad:........No more land line. 

Everybody e-mails now...........Have not had a customer in over a yr that did'nt accept them.

The last big remodel I did alarm system is through Comcast on the internet.................... You can now use cell phones at gated communities to gain access now.

But it was the only way to let families know we were ok after those Hurricanes hit us a few yrs back. Cell phones were useless. Maybe they fixed that.


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## Sir Mixalot (Jan 6, 2008)

Chad McDade said:


> That, and it is almost a family heirloom..... My grandfather bought it in the late 1950's. That phone made the calls when Kennedy was shot, when we landed on the moon, when my dad was drafted into Vietnam, when I was born, I received the news of my brothers first born on that phone and I received the news of my mothers heart attack on that phone. It's kind of corny but that phone had played a role in the lives of four generations if my family, I want to see how long I can keep it in use by the family.


That's cool! :thumbup:



Big Shoe said:


> We finally threw in the towel......:sad:........No more land line.
> 
> Everybody e-mails now...........Have not had a customer in over a yr that did'nt accept them.
> 
> ...


Boy what a pain that was.


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## flashheatingand (May 3, 2008)

The public has made it clear that the land line is going the way of the doe-doe. Still, there are many advantages, and, it really wouldn't take that much for Century Link, Qwest...etc for them to get close to where they were yesteryear. 

As I mentioned before, why can't they create a land-line based smart phone?


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## thom (Nov 3, 2006)

I'm a holdout. For the last few days, 9 out of 10 calls were robo-calls from politicians.


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## HARRY304E (Jan 18, 2011)

flashheatingand said:


> More and more people are getting rid of their land-line. Being a fan of land-lines, I think they have several advantages. Question is how to regain a foothold in the average house hold.
> 
> I propose that they come up with a regular phone that is coupled with a tablet, so that one could readily surf the net, while at the phone base.
> 
> Also, it would be nice to have an ignore button on the phone.


Go to an Apple store and you will see that the land line will not cut it..


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

flashheatingand said:


> The public has made it clear that the land line is going the way of the doe-doe. Still, there are many advantages, and, it really wouldn't take that much for Century Link, Qwest...etc for them to get close to where they were yesteryear.
> 
> As I mentioned before, why can't they create a land-line based smart phone?


Because you don't need the land line part....you have cellular and internet.

Notice how in underdeveloped countries they are not running twisted pair everywhere they are just putting up cell towers.


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## 480sparky (Feb 1, 2009)

flashheatingand said:


> ...............As I mentioned before, why can't they create a land-line based smart phone?


DSL + wireless router + smartphone. Bada-boom bada-bing.


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## Rent A Painter (May 29, 2010)

flashheatingand said:


> More and more people are getting rid of their land-line. Being a fan of land-lines, I think they have several advantages. Question is how to regain a foothold in the average house hold.
> 
> I propose that they come up with a regular phone that is coupled with a tablet, so that one could readily surf the net, while at the phone base.
> 
> Also, it would be nice to have an ignore button on the phone.


It's called Ring Central


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## jmplogin (Nov 3, 2011)

I use Ring Central and it works well, not perfect but pretty good. You can set it up to "find you" on a cell phone (or anyone in your business). Answer calls if your at your computer or IPad. It also emails you messages and faxes so you can get them on any of your devices, does a lot more check it out.


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## Greg from K/W (Jan 28, 2010)

We havn't had a land line for 6 years or more. We have voip and cable internet. Ma bell shot herself in the foot when they called up and decided that I needed them more than they needed me. Since then not one bell canada item in our house.


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## CarrPainting (Jun 29, 2010)

For a long time verizon didnt require land line service through them to get DSL. This all changed in April 2012. Now, Verizon requires that you have a land line, land line service through them  in order to get DSL or to change your DSL service.

In my case, I have had the same business land line since they changed from 2 letters + 4 numbers, to the 7 digit phone numbers... 50? 60? years? Thing is, I pay about $25 a month for the business line, free listing in the phone books, and its 1 cent a minute. Q-Tel LLC handles my business phone services. Verizon owns the phone line.

I also have residential DSL, on a business phone line. DSL is through verizon. And I have to pay $5 a month 'extra' because my phone service is not through verizon.

Right now, with the business line, and DSL, the total bill is like $85 a month.

If I change my DSL plan with verizon, in anyway, I will be required to have a verizon land line account... meaning either re-activate the house line (we used to have a business and personal line) or move my business line service back over to verizon. if I reactivate the personal line, that will add $30 to my bill, on top of the $85. If I move my business line service back to verizon, that will increase my bill to about $150. for business telephone, and residential DSL...

either way, it will cost me ALOT more money... This is a total sham in my opinion by verizon.

Also, for 7/2mb DSL service is $60 a month, what I pay now. To get that in FIOS, its $90. 

I keep the business number because its been associated with my family's name for 60 years.. but I also have a cell phone as well.


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## SectorSecurity (Nov 26, 2013)

Thought I read somewhere that by 2018 POTS was to be decommissioned.


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## maxwage (Nov 25, 2012)

The only people I know that still have land lines are on home detention or house arrest, ordered through the court :whistling:


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## Calidecks (Nov 19, 2011)

I have ooma, it's free


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

SectorSecurity said:


> I still perfer a voip number over a landline, still have a hard wired phone, even a wireless one, but pay 1$ a month and less than 1 cent a minute.
> 
> Works great as I can pick any number I want and change them as needed. My one phone with 3 lines has 3 different numbers routed to it.


What service do you use?


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## SectorSecurity (Nov 26, 2013)

Inner10 said:


> What service do you use?


Been using voip.ms for a long time, they have several options for pricing, such as 5$ a month with no by the minute fee, or 1$ a month and 1 cent a minute. 

Never had a problem with them and they are always helpful and friendly.


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## 66 Shelby (Jan 11, 2009)

We got rid of Ma Bell's LL 3 years ago and got a Magic Jack. $20/year and we kept our old number. It doesn't work quite as well as the old line (static, dropped calls), but about the only calls we get on it are telemarketer's anyway, so no big loss. The phone companies screwed themselves when they insisted on still charging you for long-distance calling. On a cell it's free, so why would anyone keep a LL??


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## brickhook (May 8, 2012)

I still have land lines, three of them. I've had my home# ever since I was a teen ager, we 've had the business # since before I was born, and the fax line ever since fax machines have been out.

I never plan on getting rid of them except for maybe the fax line.

Around here cell phones are about useless. I have cell phones, and love them, but there is a lot of places that have no service around here, and I live in one of them places.

At least with a LL, someone can call information and get my number.


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## TimNJ (Sep 7, 2005)

brickhook said:


> I still have land lines, three of them. I've had my home# ever since I was a teen ager, we 've had the business # since before I was born, and the fax line ever since fax machines have been out.
> 
> I never plan on getting rid of them except for maybe the fax line.
> 
> ...




Same here.
I have two land line phone numbers and 1 fax land line number.
One I have had since 1979 and that became my business line in '83.

Cell phones are crap all around. I hate the garbled voices, dropped calls, and overloaded circuit recordings.

I remember with land lines if you had a bad connection or got a wrong number that was long distance, you didn't have to pay for that call.

Cell phone companies would go bankrupt if everybody demanded that kind of service from them.


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## TimNJ (Sep 7, 2005)

I read an article, maybe in AARP magazine, in an interview with a retired Bell scientist.
He has a collection of all the different phones that were made.

He said sound quality of the best cell phones is equal to sound quality from a 1930's land line phone.


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## flashheatingand (May 3, 2008)

Sound quality us more reliable. My point was simply produce something.g that can transmit internet. They already have the wire to the house


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## tedanderson (May 19, 2010)

TimNJ said:


> I read an article, maybe in AARP magazine, in an interview with a retired Bell scientist.He said sound quality of the best cell phones is equal to sound quality from a 1930's land line phone.


That's because people generally don't know how to talk into their phones. People unknowingly talk too loud or their hand covers the microphone/mouthpiece or they use the speaker phone in environments where there are several other conversations going on. Then some of these earpiece microphones are just HORRIBLE. They work in ideal situations and quiet environments but when people use them while washing the car or walking through the mall, it's very annoying to be the guy on the other end hearing all of this noise.



SectorSecurity said:


> Thought I read somewhere that by 2018 POTS was to be decommissioned.


I know that the phone companies are petitioning congress for permission to do so but I expect it to be a hot-topic as it gets closer to whenever they decide to take action.


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

SectorSecurity said:


> Thought I read somewhere that by 2018 POTS was to be decommissioned.


Yeah just like when analog broadcast was to be discontinued in 2003.


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## avenge (Sep 25, 2008)

I still have a land line as my office phone. I live in a valley heavily wooded and cell phone service is too unreliable. Besides I don't want new customers, telemarketers, etc. calling my cell.


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## flashheatingand (May 3, 2008)

I know this is an old thread. But still amazed that Century Link, and the others still have not even tried to keep pace with cell phones. Land lines do have their advantages. 

It's still a viable device for the family, and shouldn't be that difficult to create something that sets up on the wall (touch screen and all). Probably make it text capable as well.


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## flashheatingand (May 3, 2008)

Tinstaafl said:


> Heard of FIOS? I overheard AT&T engineers discussing plans to bring internet and TV into peoples' homes via the phone line 30 years ago when I was servicing equipment in their offices (and therefore invisible).
> 
> That is now a reality, and VOIP forms a good chunk of fiber-optic traffic, with hardware from the telco. The big guys make looooong range plans. You'll see the types of devices you're talking about when they're ready. :thumbsup:


It's been a few years.


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## VinylHanger (Jul 14, 2011)

We have a satellite VoIP as our landline. Hardwire was costing us 135 bucks a month. No cell service here. VoIP sucks, it has huge lag. I do like the quiet though, as only a small handful of people have our landline number.

Sent from my QTAQZ3 using Tapatalk


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