For those holding onto a landline

I think we are not the only ones who appreciate the convenience of having phone scattered through our house instead of remembering to carry our cell phone with us all of the time.  Let alone, ones of us with parents that never really got how to use a cell phone compared to your home phones.

Well, there are a couple of devices out there that can connect your home phone network to a cell phone via bluetooth- very much like how your car works.  One is called xlink- which is the one we got- and it works really well.  There's also a cheaper one called cell2jack.  There's a phone network that uses this, too, but that replaces all of your home phones that you already paid for.

Anyway, this saves money by changing your land line to a cell phone- if that's an option for you.

I wish I could have just a landline and no cell phone.  I'm not going to pay what they're demanding, though.

Neat idea, as long as the phone doesn't ring for text messages. I've got an old rotary phone and that bell would get annoying for those people who only communicate via text.

Why do I have a landline?

Because Comcast has a Triple Bundle Package and it will cost me $30/month (or is it $20/month) to get rid of it. 

Do I use it? Occasionally I'll call my wife's cell number from our upstairs bedroom just to annoy her.

I'm going to watch this for interest.  I ditched my landline in 2000 and I don't miss it.

Datsun240ZGuy said:

Why do I have a landline?

Because Comcast has a Triple Bundle Package and it will cost me $30/month (or is it $20/month) to get rid of it. 

Do I use it? Occasionally I'll call my wife's cell number from our upstairs bedroom just to annoy her.

My wife could use a landline daily just for locating her cell phone

Datsun240ZGuy said:

Why do I have a landline?

Because Comcast has a Triple Bundle Package and it will cost me $30/month (or is it $20/month) to get rid of it. 

Do I use it? Occasionally I'll call my wife's cell number from our upstairs bedroom just to annoy her.

Same here with AT&T. It costs more to get rid of it. Now that my mom's gone, the only calls we get on that line are spam calls.

Datsun240ZGuy said:

Why do I have a landline?

Because Comcast has a Triple Bundle Package and it will cost me $30/month (or is it $20/month) to get rid of it. 

Do I use it? Occasionally I'll call my wife's cell number from our upstairs bedroom just to annoy her.

So we didn't pull the trigger to move to mobile, but we are keeping our options open to transition the landline to mobile.  It's the phone number I have had the longest- when I got an apartment back in 1992.  So it's used a lot in a lot of places.  I'm sure we can get rid of it, but we are also looking to have some more download data as a hot spot- which we know the cost of.  So if a special comes up where the price is slightly lower to drop the land line and add a phone, we may do it.  And if that work out, it may be eventually less expensive to have three lines in one place...  Who knows.

But finding a way to use a mobile phone to run home phones was a good enabler for us.

BenB said:

Datsun240ZGuy said:

Why do I have a landline?

Because Comcast has a Triple Bundle Package and it will cost me $30/month (or is it $20/month) to get rid of it. 

Do I use it? Occasionally I'll call my wife's cell number from our upstairs bedroom just to annoy her.

Same here with AT&T. It costs more to get rid of it. Now that my mom's gone, the only calls we get on that line are spam calls.

Same with "local phone company", there is t even a phone hooked to it anymore.

We have a cordless phone system that does that.  Connects up to two phones plus the landline and each one has a distinct ring and a distinct readout on the screen.  I had to unpair my phone from it because the people that I live with were forever picking up the damn phone when it was my ring with my phone showing on the green and someone from work calling me.

I remember when my parents were holding out with dial type land line wall phones and we bought a push button phone that converted it.  A big deal at the time.

My in laws were holding on to the landline because they wanted it for emergencies. I noted that their landline was actually comcast VOIP and not a hard line with power so it doesn't work in a power outage. They went all cell.

Some seem to be wondering why we never have changed the landline to cell- well, we got cell phones back in the 90's, when they kind of sucked and keeping a land line was good insurance.  So we've had 3 lines for about 25 years.  Converting the landline to cell didn't add anything other than another cell phone.

Now it's about saving money, and keeping a number that everything uses, since I've had it for ~32 years.  It's also an emergency number that I know my mom knows by heart if something happens and she needs someone to call me for her.

At the same time, using the phones we have scattered through the house is kind of nice, instead of remembering to carry the phone with you. 

Anyway, momentum of life and all.

I'd love to get rid of my landline but cell service at the compound sucks.  I can't reliably make a phone call and have a weird paranoia that the day I cancel it someone will need an ambulance. 

I finally dropped my land line just a couple months ago.  I also have that silly Comcast package that includes a VOIP line but I've never hooked it up and actually used it.

I've been wondering about a way to connect my cell to my existing phones but haven't researched it, so thanks for the suggested solutions.  I have vintage telephones scattered around the house and garage I'd like to be able to still use, including this beauty sitting here on the desk next to my computer.  

We've got the landline as part of the Comcast package and I use that number to absorb the spam. i wonder if I could plug in an old rotary phone and have it work. I could teach my grandsons how to call their parents on it....That would keep them amused for quite some time.

Landlines work when the power goes out.  That's why...

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

I have my dads old rotary wall phone in my garage.  It entertained my teenage daughter for 30 seconds.  

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Not so much anymore. A majority of them are VOIP now. No power means no modem means no phone. 

I thought a land line is what holds a boat to a dock.  Guess I don't know E36 M3 about E36 M3.

Dropped my landline when I moved to Dayton in 2011, so far so good.  My only concern is I believe a 911 call from a landline would give them the location, where a cellphone doesn't?

RevRico said:

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Not so much anymore. A majority of them are VOIP now. No power means no modem means no phone. 

 

don't know if they won, but I remember some holdouts in rural areas wanting to keep their analog copper lines because of that.

I had a land line in my family home up until around 2018 I think, I honestly kinda missed it because it would be where most spam calls would go instead of my cellphone haha

Good night!  I cannot imagine not having a landline.  My cell number is available only to friends and relatives and others I might want to speak with.  I don't have the time or inclination to allow the unwashed masses to hit my cell phone. 

Landline callers get screened on Caller ID.  If I don't recognize your number, it goes to the machine. 

If you want to reach out and tell me about a deal that's too good to miss, put your thoughts in a letter and Berkeleying mail it to me! 

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

I'd love to get rid of my landline but cell service at the compound sucks.  I can't reliably make a phone call and have a weird paranoia that the day I cancel it someone will need an ambulance. 

We used to have a thing AT+T gave us that was basically a short range desktop cell tower that connected our cell phones to their network via our fiber internet.  That kind of thing may still be available?

We kept our landline long past its usefulness because we had the triple deal and it was a nominal fee to have it, though I think they had made it VOIP long before.  Once we decided to drop TV and go internet-only, it just wasn't worth keeping.

I have my mobile phone with me any time I'm wearing pants anyway, so there is zero need for extensions throughout the house.  I guess a 911 call in the middle of the night for an intruder on the ground floor would be problematic, but that seems unlikely.