We have one....but it's part of the package on our cable. To take off the phone, the bill went up.

I think the phone is plugged into it, but it's not turned on. We never use it.

Well... I take that back...I've used it twice last month to dial my cell phone that I couldn't locate.

LOL

Get rid of it -- it took me about 4 years to get DH to let go of ours. Only calls we got were the "something wrong with my computer" and "you don't have a problem with your credit card, but" and political surveys. Don't miss paying the $50 a month for those calls.

So.....for those without a landline, do you keep your cell on your nightstand at night? Does it ping throughout the night, waking you up?

We don’t have a land line but we have a basic family plan cell phone that has our old land line number. I give that number to anyone I don’t want calling my cell phone or anyone I think will sell it or otherwise turn it into a spam number.

I do keep my cell phone by my bed. It rarely does anything in the nignt. DH also keeps his by the bed and sometimes it dings and vibrates at night though usually not.

We fall asleep to podcasts but I’m also in the habit of keeping it by me in case of an emergency.

Main benefit of a landline as I see it is 911 can locate you in an emergency if you cannot give your address for some reason. That did happen to us when DH had a stroke and had to call 911 from his cell phone. His speech was very difficult to understand but after a few tries to got the 911 person to understand what he was saying.

We still have our landline phone number but have no phone to attach it to! We have kept it because it's part of our UVerse package. When we sell this house and move, it will die a natural death since UVerse at the retirement house doesn't include a phone line.

Even before we got rid of our last phone set, for well over 5 years the only actual human we knew who ever called that line was my MIL from assisted living when she wandered by the nurse's station and saw a phone unattended. Amazing too, she's so deep into dementia she can't remember anything more than 30 seconds, but she still knew our number.. I'd answer, she would frantically ask me when she was coming home or where her rings are, I'd reassure her then we'd hang up.

Joanie, that is the only reason why we are keeping ours. If for whatever reason I don't hear my phone or are too busy to answer it, our DD's and other close relatives know they can call the landline as a backup. Our house is small and we can hear the answering machine if someone leaves a message.

I don't charge my phone in our bedroom, but DH does. It very rarely pings during the night.

We still have a Verizon landline and DH and I each have a cell phone. Before you get rid of the landline check to see if your area does emergency alerts utilizing landlines. Some agencies call it "Reverse Calling Alert Notification" and in case of emergency alerts are sent through landlines. I'm not sure if phones lines via the computer are included - but if your internet is down wouldn't you lose your phone too? Our phone still works during a power outage because we bought an old fashioned Princess phone to use. But there are now some digital phones that can still operate during an outage.

Do you remember the recent fires in California that devastated the town of Paradise and the surrounding areas? The majority of residents didn't receive alerts because only landlines were utilized. California is now working on having cell phones added to the system.

We haven't had a landline for years. Would I like one? Well, what I'd like is, if I leave my phone in one room and go to, say, the bathroom, I wish someone would answer it for me. But they either don't hear it (volume turned down, maybe) or they just say "well, it's YOUR phone, I didn't want to answer it." Grrr. And, if I'm out, I'd like someone at home to hear a dang phone ring no matter where they are and answer, dagnabbit, so I can ask them if we need milk while I'm at the store.

I do leave my phone on the nightsstand at night but only the ringer is turned on. No other notifications.

On 9/11, my cell could not get thru but my landline did. So I keep one.

You can turn on "do not disturb" on your cell phone between certain hours so you won't get dinged. I have that on. I rarely ever sleep with my phone beside my bed, but have at times and I always keep do not disturb on between 11 PM and 7 AM unless I need to be reachable at all times (like when Molly had surgery). You can also choose to allow calls from certain people even when do not disturb is on, like always allowing calls from your kids or whatever. Or you can choose to allow repeat calls to come through so if someone calls twice within a few minutes, it rings through even when DND is on.

Residential landline is best if need to call 911 for police, fire, emergency medical services. They can immediately identify where you are calling from - even if you cannot speak. (Recently cared for elderly woman had a stroke, could not speak, called 911 - police and EMS dispatched, was able to be quickly treated, did well.)

Finding cell phone location is time consuming and not nearly as accurate. Spend some time in a dispatch center and watch it, agonizingly slow process.

Reliability of service and connection is another factor to consider, esp. during emergency (think Sept 11, weather) situations.

I have one through my internet provider at no extra cost. I’d prefer people call me on it as I hate to talk on a cell phone. My land line is the number I use when providing a phone number.

We still have one. We both have cell phones, although neither of us carry them within reach 24 hours a day. I have a landline with handsets on little discreet bases in kitchen, living room, my office.

I have an old fashioned corded hard wired phone in the master - master is at the farthest end of this sprawled out ranch. This is a coastal location. My other phones don't work when pacific storms have knocked out power. It hasn't happened recently, but one Dec we had all but a lineup of people wanting to use that corded phone, calling family members, their insurance agents - the entire community was without power for 3 days minimum, 10 for some neighborhoods. Many stopping by to charge their cell phones too with a little generator that wasn't even ours. We'd borrowed it from a BIL who couldn't deal with the inconvenience of no power and had left the area for their weekend house.

I still have mine. It seems to work during power outages when the cell towers are down. Our lines are not digitized, however, so that could be different other places.

Also, if you have small children in the house, I feel it's much safer for them to be able to use a landline to call for help, if needed. Unless you are diligent about giving them instructions in how to locate your cell, how to either enter your password or bypass it for 911. I find few people think of that with their little ones, but if you should fall and hit your head, faint, have a stroke or whatever, a small child should be able to call for help.

I also do not want to have to remember to take my cell phone upstairs to bed and downstairs in the morning. I don't want to mess with DND, so I have a landline next to my bed for emergencies. However, I am not attached at the hip to my cell phone as many seem to be these days.

Not. XH’s final working years he worked from home, so we really needed the landline for his convenience then (conference calls, speakerphone, etc.). But when that employment phased out we let the landline go. And it wasn’t really a “landline”, anyway. It was through the cable company.

I was reluctant to let it go at first, but I don’t really know why. Just because “proper people have a home phone,” I suppose. In the end, I never really missed it. My next huge step (just last year) was giving up newspaper delivery and switching to the digital version (this old journalism major held out for a long time on that one).

We both have cell phones, but we kept the land line for 911. Last year I had to call 911 for DH. Had I not been home, I doubt that he'd have been able to find his phone and figure out what to do or answer questions. He might have been able to use the land line.

Another consideration for cell phones: poor connectivity in some buildings. If you put a metal roof on the house, you may be making cell phone calls outdoors. (Happened to a friend.)

I have horrible cell phone reception at my house, so the landline stays. Of course, it’s now completely Internet-based, so no power means no phone service after the backup battery dies. I would have loved to have kept a POTS line, but they are no longer available in my area...thanks FCC for allowing that to happen.

I was told to keep my landline for reliability. I did not however. Every so often I get that little voice saying that I should have one as we get terrible reception in the basement where my son and nephew reside. So far I've ignored it.

We just replaced ours. A lightning strike took out our cable/phones two nights ago. We keep it for the 911 and speaking to our adult offspring. When they call we both like to be on the line plus cell phones seem to cut in and out and are really not great for long conversations. As said above to get rid of the service is nominal on the cable package. We do not have a phone in our bedroom and the cells are all shut off over night.

We keep our because the cell phone reception isn't very good inside of our house, very annoying!

Lousy, often non existent cell reception here so I have to keep it. I can usually get texts, but even if that were reliable, I hate texting except for quick notes with service people. And not all my friends use cellphones anyway.

But if I had the reception here, I'd ditch the land line. Or, perhaps not.

At the old home, the landline was great for finding the missing cell phone, it also worked when the electric went out. Here, I have 4 phonesets on my land line throughout the house. My cell is usually sitting in the bedroom, charging, no desire to carry the thing with me everywhere. Even if it would work - I certainly didn't even back at the old place.

I also keep mine because of terrible cell service where I live. A few points made in this thread are about to become invalid, both pro and con, though. Your cellphone is also going to be slammed with robo calls next year due to some changes in regulations that take effect then, and 911 iis getting much better at using the location data from a cell.

While I have what is supposed to be an actual landline, it really isn't anymore. When ATT put FIOS in our area they began switching the landlines from actual landlines to the FIOS cable, so they are no longer reliable after hurricanes the way they used to be. You might want to check that where you are, Joaniepoanie, before you decide. It's not VOIP, but it isn't the real deal, either.

We ditched out landline about a year ago after terrible service from AT&T. It didn’t work half the time and when it did 90% of our calls were robo calls and spam. Easy decision. AT&T wouldn’t acknowledge any problems on their lines, claimed it was working (by the time the technician finally came to fix it), and never would reimburse us for the third of the month we were without service, which happened about 5 times.

edited to add....we don’t miss it at all.

I have had only a cell phone for the last 10 years. No problems. I keep the cell phone next to the bed, but have almost all notifications turned off all the time. I get notifications for text messages and phone calls only.

Dedtired, when we gave up our landline we transferred the number to my cellphone. I wouldn't have done it otherwise. Our number was already listed in all kinds of directories and other people's phone books and speed dials, so I needed to keep it active.

runninginplace, I was looking at some old pictures with my mom, also with dementia who can't remember 30 seconds ago. I didn't recognize someone, asked her who it was, and she said "That's Dr. (X), I worked for him at IIT." Then she spelled his name and gave his phone number. Her sister was with us and said she was right. Mom worked for him in the early 1950s!

Raise your hand if you remember your childhood phone number. Yep, nearly every hand raised.

We still have ours. I do like the fact that the landline works if power is out (which actually does not happen often here). There is also the 911 factor and we receive the Reverse Calling Alert Notifications also. Our alarm service is set up through our phone. I need to call and see how that could be changed. I have also thought of just another (cheap) cell phone, using our landline number - that would probably be cheaper. But we are kind of rural, so the 911 and notifications thing factors in.

My husband's cell is always on the nightstand at night. Mine is occasionally. I do not have notifications of any kind set up on my phone. I hate that!! I turn my ringer off, but I would hear the vibration. Hubby leaves his ringer on, but it's rare that he receives a call during the night. We each have an older parent, one with health issues, so it's necessary for us.

We live in the DC area; my husband works on Capitol Hill. When 9/11 took place, the only service we could get was over our landline. So out of an abundance of caution, we keep the landline.

My "landline" relies on my internet connection, so no power, no phone. Fortunately we rarely lose power where I live. I like having three extensions in different parts of the house and I know where they are, unlike my cell phone.

i can’t get a landline like the ones from 9/11. Would the digital landlines still function in such a case?

My cell phone is starting to wear out, happens relatively soon (less than 5 yrs.) and everyone is starting to tell me my voice sounds fuzzy. Does not happen with my land-line. When I can, I use my land-line to talk to people, it is more clear. However, I'm not home that much, so I give out my cell phone as the number for people to try and get a hold of me. I'd gladly cancel the land-line if I could save a bundle of money doing that, but that's not the case so since it has some marginal utility for me, particularly with my hard-of-hearing dad who I talk to every day, plus other elderly friends and relatives, so we're keeping our land-line for now.

We get spotty cell reception in our house, and our landline is very clear. I don't talk on the phone much when I am home, but would not give up my landline.

I kept our landline number that I've had since 1976 but have been using it through Ooma for quite a while now. It's the number I give out to anyone or any business that I don't want to have my cell # which is everyone other than family or friends. The phone is in my office and I check the voicemail whenever it's blinking but 99% of the time it's garbage and not even local garbage but associated with politics or businesses in our old state.

Cell phone sits on my nightstand at night, do not disturb begins at 10:30 with breakthrough allowed for our sons, DIL and my brother.

As for the 911 issues, I guess I'm a gambler and figure if we call from home it;s because one of us is in trouble and the other can give address info - unlikely that both of us would be having medical or other issues at the same moment.

I like having three extensions in different parts of the house and I know where they are, unlike my cell phone.

Same here. We also have one in the garden shed. My cell is rarely turned on and it's always in my purse.

Catticusmockingbird...

Same here. We also have one in the garden shed. My cell is rarely turned on and it's always in my purse.

Where do you charge it?

PinkMountain: Good point.

My cell phone is starting to wear out, happens relatively soon (less than 5 yrs.) and everyone is starting to tell me my voice sounds fuzzy. Does not happen with my land-line. When I can, I use my land-line to talk to people, it is more clear.

I had my old land line from 1991 until moving now. Never had to replace a thing. I've gone through about 4, probably 5, cell phones, since getting flip/dumb phone service starting in 2001. On the second smart phone, and I got the original smart one circa 2014.

And things seem to be deteriorating more and more rapidly as the years roll in.

Where do you charge it?

Seriously? Ok, except when being charged ... which isn't often since I rarely use it.

Our landline account is bundled with our Internet and Cable TV. The cost of the landline (with call waiting, forwarding, voice mail etc.) is a small percentage of the cost of the monthly bill. I rarely give my cell phone number out. Close friends and family are the only people who have it.

We have an old fashion spare phone that plugs into wall jacks if we are without electricity for any length of time.

Thanks all....lots of good information here. I think we will keep it for now.

And I might look into having my cell changed to our old landline we had for 33 years before we moved last year. I miss that number...haha!

Now, I’m going to put on my foil beanie and really expose how crazy I am. We cancelled our landline this past fall. It was DH’s idea. I agreed only on the condition that we would always use earphones or the speaker. I truly believe that cell signals are detrimental to our health. This article from the Mayo Clinic draws no conclusion, but I choose to err on the side of caution. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/expert-answers/cell-phones-and-cancer/faq-20057798

No landline here--got rid of it in 2012 and haven't looked back. But I am glad my parents still have theirs (in addition to their cell phones) because a call to them just wouldn't be the same without my father saying "Wait, let me get mom on the other line."

I'd miss that terribly.

I will always keep my landline.

A few years ago, an older man fell in his home while walking downstairs. His cell phone was upstairs. He could not summon help. He languished for a few days before he was able to attract the attention of a landscaper by pulling himself up to a window and motioning for help. This person was a local celebrity and could well afford to keep his landline. I always think that he should not have cheaped out and gotten rid of his landline.

Speaking of falling or having some other medical problem and not being able to summon help. I actually make a point of carrying my cell phone with me all the time in my pocket (one reason I don't want a phablet size cell phone). It's not like I think I might need it at any minute but this idea came to mind when I've been home alone doing outside stuff in the winter where there's a chance of slipping on the ice, breaking something and not being able to get back in the house to call for help. Land line or not, it would be possible to have a problem somewhere out of reach of the land line phone as well.

I also have all my to do lists, grocery lists, notes, etc. on my phone so like to have it with me to make note of things as they come to mind. That of course I could live without but maybe not falling on the ice in 20 below temp and unable to summon help.

And thank you to Beagles for reminding me of the do not disturb feature. I enabled that on all of DHs devices last night.

Sorry if this was in a previous post but landlines are not really landlines if they are VOIP. If electricity goes so does the phone service provided by your cable or internet provider. In NYC during 911 and Sandy the old copper wire land lines worked, the VOIP lines did not. Unfortunately, in NYC Verizon, the old land line company will no longer install copper wire service. Anyone who has copper line service is lucky and it still works even in emergencies.

I saved my old corded phone to plug into the phone jack when the power goes out.

We got rid of our landline after our parents died because no one else ever called us. I used to talk on the phone a lot, but now I have fewer people to talk to. I turn my cell phone off at 8:00 PM every evening, to save the battery, and I don't need to receive calls then anyway.

I HATE texting and get very annoyed when anyone texts me. It is much more efficient (for me) to talk to someone, but I do use email. I just don't like "typing" on a phone, as I prefer to use all ten fingers when typing (or at least nine).

Since I get so few phone calls anymore, I see no need for a landline, and I also do not feel the need to be connected all the time either. People can leave me voicemail when my phone is turned off, and sometimes I do forget to turn it back on in the morning.

If people I wanted to talk to had called me on my landline, I would have kept it.

3Katz, yes something like you are discussing happened to a friend of mine's sister. She stepped over a baby gate (which was actually for their dog), rather than taking the time to open it. She fell so hard and sustained many injury because of the way she twisted when she fell over. Luckily, she was carrying her cell phone and could call for help. It would have been hours before her DH came home from work.

We have a VOIP land line at our lake cabin. If you want internet you are required to pay for phone whether you want one or not - some rural cooperative thing related to federal funding. I thought I wouldn’t use it but our cell phones only work with a microcell booster that runs off the internet. If power is out no cell phone. The land line does work however via battery backup. I thought it didn’t work when the power was out but since my neighbor’s did I called the phone company and they replaced the backup and now it does work.

I have a real landline, and have no intention of getting rid of it anytime soon. What I don't have is a regular cell phone. But then I don't need one nor care for the monthly bill. However, I did just post here about a problem I have with Ebay since I don't text. How does one link to a post? Anyway, I know that I will not likely be able to hold out forever joining the present....but in the meantime I appreciate not spending my money on cell phones and monthly bills, cable bills, etc.