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Super Contributor

Getting rid of landline phone

A couple of years ago, I got rid of my classic $35 a month landline service, and went with OOMA internet phone for $4 per month. It has been quite reliable and good quality, not as reliable as landline, but I'd say 98%. No outages, but a few drop-outs.

 

Having said that, it does not support fax machines and alarm systems which rely on landlines. But, who faxes anymore, and any recent alarm systems rely on wired or Wifi internet anymore.

 

Yes, I kind of know that landline is better in a disaster like a hurricane, blah-blah-blah, but paying $370 extra a year wasn't worth it.

 

I still use my old handsets and "ole-fashun" answering machine, and still have my 22 year old phone number. Operationally, nothing has changed... on the surface.

 

If I travel, I turn off my answering machine, and voicemails go to OOMA, then I get an alert on my smartphone, I can listen to them on my Android. Also, I could theoretically move anywhere in the world and keep my Houston TX USA phone number. I would just take the OOMA box, connect it to internet, from a hotel, apartment, vacation rental house, and plug my "ole-fashun" phone into it. Bingo, dial-tone.

 

I do feel better having a home phone, and my old familiar phone number at that. I didn't just want to cut the cord by going to pure mobile phones. It's a nice feeling to have a "home" number.


Sincerely,
Peter
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Social Butterfly

I don't like change either.  I still have a dial phone.

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Contributor

There's more to this subject than cost.  I live in a townhouse with a basement, 3 floors in all.  With a landline, I can have extension phones on each floor at the ready for incoming or outgoing calls.  I would need to remember to carry my cell phone, which normally is in my handbag, all over the house with me, which makes it likely that it would not be where I needed it at least some of the time.  Fortunately, I can spend a small amount for ease and convenience.

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Honored Social Butterfly

Well, if you keep landlines just remember to keep some physical corded extensions on each floor or whatever part of the apartment or house. Took me a couple of times during the last 16 hours to recall cordless phones don't work without power. Followed by which laptop am I going to use, or battery charger to recharge my cell phone, if I don't regain power within the next 16 hours. Best I can get out of my present iphone on full charge is 3 days , you get a might clammy when your looking at 60% at 9 am and still on call. Followed by a couple choice expressions as I tried to remember where the 12V fans and my extra car battery was just in case I needed to keep the house heated by woodstove alone. And having a cellphone sound like my house phone might be easier to hear but, I think I'm going for the British ringtone on my cell, vs. old fashioned Maine ringer. For the hearing impaired if you wear hearing aids then most Samsung and Apple for a couple of brands do have hearing aid happiness, if you require texting there is an actual app for that for speech into text. Like an old fangled teletype reader. Sorry, I retired a while back and know that's not the right name for it. Try a google search, for "cell phone app voice to text for hearing impaired" there are maybe 10 excellent iphone and several other smartphone app's for Voice to ASL (American Sign Language) or ASR. And a dragon app/program for smartphones. There also is now a specific phone for hearing impaired, I think it's deaftel, but, don't know how the heck I even remember that. Haven't seen a disabilities issue out of MA in awhile.. I have power, apologies for errors typing by candlelight earlier, I think I'll get some more firewood. And vote tomorrow for gosh sakes, I know I don't need to worry about chads, just whether my #2 pencil works power or not.
And yes, after long days/nights, I'd still like to swing these hunks of glass , plastic and silicon against the nearest wall Come on retirement!
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Contributor

It's nice to read reply to articles. My comment is if seniors are like me who have a medic alert system beware of what some people say. I would like to get rid of this company. But for a free system a land line is required.

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Newbie

I would love to get rid of my landline, but I can't. Cell phones and hearing impaired people do not get along too well. They are great for texting but I can't make calls. At the present time I have a phone that captions via voice recognition so I can talk on the phone. Cells do not have relay capabilities so if, say, my car broke down I could not call roadside assistance. Until wireless providers wake up and realize that not everyone can hear they are not getting my business.

Kris

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Periodic Contributor

I like having my land line for added protection, cell phone can be unpredictable at times. I would be at lost if they take away the land line phones.
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Newbie

 

โ€œBut, who faxes anymore,โ€

 

I do occasionally, when telephoning is useless and there is no email provided. These instances are usually important or even critical in case of medical providers. My last example is only 3 days old. I really needed to speak to my doctor, the phones were either busy or the receptionists hanged up on me repeatedly. After an hour of this abuse I wrote a firmly worded fax. Twenty minutes later the office manager called me back with profuse apologies.

Try that without a faxโ€ฆ The fax is a written document and it has clout. Phone calls can be dropped or disconnected, emails can be lost but a fax cannot be dismissed so easily. Even government officials respond to that, I know because I did it. I would feel crippled without it.

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Regular Contributor

I've been just relying on mobile internet devices for seven or eight years, but the IPVideo offers looked invitng so I invested in a six party line. Only problem is, you can't get the server unless you have an organization and I am just fond of the old home phone design, not social media ventures.
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Honored Social Butterfly

Can't speak for the rest of Telco land I retired and haven't read a communication news lately.
Most cities have switched to fiber heck, even my backwater has.

Frozen
And yes, after long days/nights, I'd still like to swing these hunks of glass , plastic and silicon against the nearest wall Come on retirement!
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Honored Social Butterfly

If you're talking about physical street addresses even the very small communities are now getting house numbers.

After 20 years living in rural Maine and having my home identified By telephone pole #4s left road , or the 3rd house on right past the gazebo - even I have a E911 house number and only one Street name vs the ones used during the last 50 years.

Admit I'm having issues figuring out what you were saying in your post, land lines to 911 operators can be traced back to their physicians cal location courtesy of reverse directories. That's what police, fire, etc. use to get figure out who has that telephone number and what there name and address is including apartment number, suite, etc. is.

Frozen
And yes, after long days/nights, I'd still like to swing these hunks of glass , plastic and silicon against the nearest wall Come on retirement!
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Honored Social Butterfly

Back in the days that I needed an alarm system relatively remote location with an actual police department, our system did have cell phone backup in the system for times when the power or landlines were down.

Great idea when you live in a state that has utility poles vs underground utilities and an ice storm or blizzard puts you in the dark for awhile.

Frozen
And yes, after long days/nights, I'd still like to swing these hunks of glass , plastic and silicon against the nearest wall Come on retirement!
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Honored Social Butterfly

Actually most cellphones especially if smartphones are GPS enabled and can have their signal traced to within 10 feet of physical location.handy for when you've misplaced it or yourself.
And yes, after long days/nights, I'd still like to swing these hunks of glass , plastic and silicon against the nearest wall Come on retirement!
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Periodic Contributor

 
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Trusted Contributor

I wouldn't do so because if an emergency should come about, the police may have a hard time finding your location if you're using a cell phone vs a landline phone.

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Regular Social Butterfly


@denises2616 wrote:

I wouldn't do so because if an emergency should come about, the police may have a hard time finding your location if you're using a cell phone vs a landline phone.


911 location detection works just fine with cell phones.

~~~
Start every day with a smile and get it over with.
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Super Contributor

entex ias and they havn't required house numbers on residences in forever and so haning a land line doesn't help a whole lot in these older neighborhoods with no numbers. 

Kathleen
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Periodic Contributor

I have lived in 2 states since my husband passed. I am now 81 years old. I have not had a landline since he passed. Lost power during storms but able to recharge in other ways. EMS had no problems locating me. Had them wait 1 hour with me so they could get ambulance with backboard to transfer me to hospital after a fall. Cell phone has worked fine. Lived in Cary, NC & Tampa, FL.
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Super Contributor

When I registered for OOMA Internet phone, I registered my home address for 911 purposes. I guess it will work! Haven't made any 911 calls, though.

 

It's interesting hearing from people in this thread who don't want to lose the landline:

 

- they live in rural areas with bad mobile coverage

- they live in areas with frequent power outages in general (which takes down cell towers, Internet routers)

- they just don't want to change; maybe the older retirees, or late adopters of technology

 

These are real communications issues. The phone companies, however, want nothing more than to get rid of twisted-pair copper wire analong landline phone. It's costly for them to maintain dual infrasturcture.

 

 


Sincerely,
Peter
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Regular Social Butterfly


@3278443860 wrote:

The phone companies, however, want nothing more than to get rid of twisted-pair copper wire analong landline phone. It's costly for them to maintain dual infrasturcture.

 


There have been allegations that they stopped maintaining them in New Jersey.

~~~
Start every day with a smile and get it over with.
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Periodic Contributor

WHAT IS A OOMA INTERNET PHONE AND WHERE DO IT FIND IT?
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Super Contributor

Go to OOMA.COM

 

You have to buy the hardware, you need home Internet, and there is some installation required, pretty simple depending on your home and what you want. Read their FAQ. For me, it paid for itself in about 6 months, it's $1 per day gravy in savings ever since, and it's been a few years.


@ALEXSAARP wrote:
WHAT IS A OOMA INTERNET PHONE AND WHERE DO IT FIND IT?

 


Sincerely,
Peter
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Honored Social Butterfly

Warning I used to work for The Phone Company but, now live in a town that up until around the mid 60's still had hand cranks vs dial phones.

I use both landline and cell phones at least one is still From TPC. My reasoning when the power fails and towers fail, hardware keeps on going. Yes, cell phone towers have been encased 3 or 4 times in last several, oddly enough the only times I've lost power has been for 12 hours I seem to be on the power distribution for a international satellite station.

Cell phones are my backup for landlines or travel connection as my phone is an iPhone, it's a nationwide plan for bloke my home phone where everything is a toll of at least 8 cents per minute.

My fax is sitting atop a pair of speakers and I haven't used since 2008, if you still need a fax vs an all on one scanner to email attachment in this day and age something is wrong. The other use for hardwire would be DSL for Internet, I priced cable and Internet and phone in my rural community and discover no way Jose 200 for TWC vs 60 for dish and 40 for telco and DSL, even with the funky cellphones text and data that's only another 50 .

So yeah, I'm keeping both for now just makes more sense at this point
Frozen
And yes, after long days/nights, I'd still like to swing these hunks of glass , plastic and silicon against the nearest wall Come on retirement!
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Social Butterfly

My opinion is no.

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Contributor

You're correct, not many people fax anymore. However, if you do have a need for fax, you can get any number of reliable efax services. You can then receive faxes from anyone ( to your personal assigned fax number) and send faxes to any fax machine. Good reliable services can be had for approximately $10.00/month.
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Regular Contributor

I have had a cell phone for many years. I just upgraded to an iPhone. What a waste of money! Give me a reliable land line where you can actually understand what the other party is saying. Cell phones have not improved enough for me to even consider dumping my land line. In fact, I would consider dumping my cell phone long before my land line. I only have with me when I leave the house "just in case" and an occassional text message to/from my adult kids. I was without a land line for three months during a move and was very happy when I got my land line in my new home.
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I have used the OOMA system for over 2 years and love it.  Have very reliable Internet provider and get internet access to all incoming and outgoing calls.  Even those that do not leave a message.  Can access voice mail from anywhere.  You can even listen to emails on the website.  I cancelled AT&T when by bill went over $40 per month.  It is a better phone system and cost less than $4 per month for taxes and gov't fees like 911.

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Periodic Contributor

Reasons why we've chosen to keep a landline home phone:

1.  We don't want to be constantly, instantly "available".  If we're not home, people can leave a message..

2. If someone wants to contact us, they can find a phone number to do so... we're in the phonebook.  Until there is a (voluntary) cell phone directory available, we'll probably stay with a landline.  (You entrpreneurs out there, how about that for a project?)

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Most if not all cell phones have voice mail capability.  I'm not sure I understand, or at least apprciate your second point.  I only want people/businesses calling me that I've shared my number with.

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If you've shared your number with them, chances are they are already in your contacts list, yes? If not, very easy to do it.
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Honored Social Butterfly

i have kept a landline and forever will keep a landline for the following reasons.

 

First, my cell phone works wonderfully everywhere....... in National Forests, in the Mountains, at the Beach, in the middle of Cities, everywhere.....except.......IN MY HOUSE!!!!!!!! It doesn't matter what kind of cell phone I have or who the provider is, there is 1 bar at best in my house. The providers I have had in the past can't figure it out. They say they have 5 towers within 3 miles of the house. They blame it on the trees surrounding my house, or they blame it on someone having a shortwave radio nearby, or they blame it on the topography but the end result is still 1 bar or 0 bars.

 

Second, I experienced the fury of hurricane Hugo in 1989. Power was out for weeks but one thing worked the whole time.....my landline.

 

At one point, my wife and I were going to drop the landline because we could have saved a bunch of money but due to the above reasons; we thought it best to keep it.

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