Land Line vs Cell

We have a land line and I also use my cell. My daughter and husband only have cell phones. I find having the land line invaluable. And I wish my daughter also had a land line. It seems that often one of us doesn't hear the cell phone. The ring is sometimes not loud enough if the phone is in a different room.

We have both a land line and cell phones. Most people around here have both, I think one reason is it just comes with a bundle type package through cable or satellite. I think it's nice to have, it's clearer and if you have a babysitter it's good to have a land line.

Land line. It's about $20/month.

No cell phone. I'm not willing to pay more than what I pay for the landline, and the cheapest service around here seems to be $35.

Landline and cells. One of the firemen/paramedics who came out to our home when one of my parents had an emergency saw one of the "plug in the wall" phones and said "Good for you, we always recommend having a landline, and never having just cell phones." Both parents passed last year and we're keeping the landline. It rings all day, we use it all the time.

I believe it was an earthquake once, here in SoCal, when cell phones weren't working. No one around could call or receive calls, only about half could text. My son in NJ was able to call us, but not get hold of his son, who just had a cell. Like Nancy W. said, the landlines always works :)

I'll be 60 this year, guess I'm old.

we have a cell phone as our house phone. i wouldn't suggest any one older to do this because if you call 911 you have to tell them where you are....the service only "pings" within few houses. where as a land line is connected to 911.

Not only do I have a landline, one phone is plugged directly into the wall. It works even when the electricity goes out. So.... I'm one of those "old people"!

I hate my cell phone and only use it for emergencies. It makes me crazy when it rings while I'm driving so I turn it off and forget to turn it back on. When I finally remember, the battery has usually gone dead. My friends don't bother calling anymore, they know that sending me an email will get here faster.

We had gotten rid of our land line until I found myself with 2 young kids, hubby out of town and cell phone not working. I didn't like not having a way to communicate if I needed to so we added it back.

I'm only 30ish :) and use a land line. I have a cell for long car rides or emergencies. I don't like talking on the phone, nor do I like texting. I do not want to be a slave to my phone and have the 24/7 expectation of being reachable and having to respond to someone all day long.

I only have a cell phone and I really don't miss my landline. We have a house cell phone, a pay-as-you go for the babysitter. My son also uses it when he walks home from school. I never missed my landline. In some places you can register your cell phone to the police as your home number so that they know which address the number is affiliated with.

We have three phones: hubby's cell, my cell, and landline phone. Hubby and I were both cell-phone only for 10+ years, but when we got married and had a child (who's now 4), we opted for adding a landline to our home. We really like having a "family number."

We have both, my husband is a 911 dispatcher & we will always have both. A 911 call from a landline automatically brings your home address up to the dispatcher, this could mean the difference of life and death in the case of an emergency. Or what if a young child is calling because you are unresponsive, would they be able to give your address and other information?

True it's an added expense, but the amount of time it takes for the police department to determine where the call is coming from or for the call center to patch the call to the proper authorities could mean the world of difference because when you call 911 from a cell phone it doesn't always mean the call is automatically going right to your local department.

Both. I prefer to have a home line because 1. it's another service and 2. it's available to DD (and when the sks were little and did not have cell phones, they needed a phone line). We have had power outages where the cell towers go down and the landline is our only connection. We also have had to use DH's work phone b/c it is on a different carrier. So for me, since we can afford it (it's part of a package), we keep the phone.

In my SIL's case, they are considering dumping the landline because except for her 3 yr old granddaughter who doesn't live there FT, there isn't anyone under 18 who doesn't have his/her own cell phone. It would save them much needed money to go cell only.

ETA: good point about 911. I called 911 over the summer b/c I locked DD in the car (had turned on the AC and shut the door and immediately said many bad words) and they quickly dispatched someone from the local fire department about 5 mins away. I had called from our land line.

Many people we know have switched to cell phones only. We have cell phones, but we also have a land line. Why? Because our cell phones don't work at home. Everywhere else they're fine. But in the living room, a conversation on a cell phone is no conversation at all. Some of my husband's clients call him at home, and he's always saying, "Wait a minute - I'll call you back on the land line."

We have a wall phone in our kitchen, but it doesn't work and I can't seem to get it fixed. There's a sign of the times for you. If I could get it fixed, I'd do it, just to shock my friends and give my grandchildren something to talk about.

We've been wanting to switch to cell, but needed to wait until our oldest had a cell phone since he babysits our youngest. He needed a way to reach us when we were out. Well, he's had a cell phone for a couple of years, so that wasn't an excuse anymore, but we were still dragging our feet. I was ready, but my husband felt we needed a land line for a backup.

We got Magic Jack. It's only $25 a year, but it's AWFUL. The reception is so bad we can hardly hear the person on the other end of the line, and there is no phone number for Magic Jack, so you can only communicate with them through email. So, we're keeping it until our year is up, and then we'll have no land line. We don't use the land line at all, but it's there for emergencies, I guess.

We've discovered that we are perfectly happy using our cell phones. I love it because I'm not a phone person at all, and I love turning off my phone and being unreachable. :) My husband hates that, but I tell him he can always reach me through my oldest son's phone if he really needs to.

Sorry for the long answer, but I really felt the need to warn others against Magic Jack. ;)

When we move I am definitely turning the land line back on. We will have no cell signal and limited internet when storms are nearby since we'll be switching to satellite. I tried to get the cable company to continue the line that last mile to my house but they informed me it would cost them $30K minimum per mile to add more line.

So I am not going to get cable in my new area, although there are about 15 families that have said they'd get cable they just won't do it.

So we are adding a land line back in for safety purposes.

We got rid of a land line a few years ago. The only people calling us on it were telemarketers. Never once have I missed our land line.

We got rid of our house phone in 2010. BEST decision ever.

I know very few people with a landline.

I had only a cell phone until my boys were old enough to stay home on their own after school. Then I got a landline. It's important that they are able to contact me or EMS should they need anything.

Because I am in sales and work remotely I have to have the command center set up at home: land line, dedicated fax line, work iPhone, personal droid. My daughter has her iPhone as well. I can't trust the cell phones for conference calls.

On the computer side I use a desktop, two laptops and an iPad. Daughter has a laptop and an iPad.

In August I was out without either cell phone and had to make a call....there is not a single working pay phone in more than a five mile radius.

I got rid of my land line years ago. I use my cell only.

I've had a cell phone only since 2003. I don't miss the land line at all. I am not much of a phone talker and I have at least 2,000 rollover minutes on my cell plan. So, even if there is an emergency, I don't have to worry about a big bill. I've got a basic plan with a small amount of texting and I only pay about $40 per month.

We have a land line for international calls --I call Canada and Ireland weekly. We have vonage, so we don't technically have a "land line."

I do like being able to give my vonage number to businesses.

i'm glad you asked this! between the land line and 3 cellphones with data plans our phone bills are over $200 a month, and we're dying to fix that. but being older, it's kinda eeky to get rid of the landline. we've had this number for 25 years! we do use the landline because it's here, but there's really nothing that i can think of that we couldn't just as easily use the cells.
there has to be something cheaper than verizon, though!
i recently looked into magicjack, but the reviews on it are pretty sketchy.
khairete
S.

If it was just me i'd just have the cell. But my mom is with us and I have a child.

I have both. I give my land line number out to military groups (FRG) that need a phone number but that are not individual people I have gotten to know. Cell number goes to people I actually know or connected with things that I NEED to be contacted if something changes/happens (airlines, etc.).

we just use our cell phones. No land lines

Only cells here. We had a land line 3 years ago. Only because our cells had no reception in that apartment. No point to have a land line. Our children are too young to use the phone. And we always have our cellphones with us. Plus I'm a SAHM right now. No need for a house phone.

We only use cells. Our "house" phone is a pay as you go cheapie. Much cheaper than a landline or even adding a line to our existing plan.

I use my cell phone and Google Voice on my computer. I got a phone number that people can call that rings to my computer or phone, and that has saved me so many cell minutes. Haven't had a land line for over 10 years, and I have never had both a cell and a land line at the same time.

cell only here. budget choice. my mom just recently went landline-less - after 35 years the phone number i grew up with no longer exists :( the only one left is my grandma's! but her cell doesn't work out in the country very well, so she keeps hers.

Cell phone only. No landline.

I have a cell phone that I use only when out of the house. The only reason I keep it is because we have a good deal on a family plan for me, dh, and our two college-aged kids, neither of whom live at home. Oh, and I guess I'm "old fashioned", since I don't have a smart phone. I figure I'm on the phone and the computer all day for work -- I don't need to be hooked in every other minute of the day.

We use Ooma at home, which is voice over IP (VOIP), and runs through our internet router. It works really well, and I can call anywhere in the US at no additional charge. There was an initial installation charge (I think it was around $100), and now we pay only montly fees, which cost about $4. If I need to call outside the US, I can pay for minutes, which, depending on the country, are pretty cheap (2 - 11 cents, so far). For an addition $120/year, I've added a second line for business purposes, but my company pays for that. Sound quality is excellent -- equivalent or better than a land line, and definitely better than the cell phone.

In addition to our cell phones, we have used Magic Jack for about two years now.

I am too cheap to have both. I only have a cellular.

We don't have a land line, haven't had one for a few years. We use our cell phones usually but we also have the magic jack. It comes in handy for an alternate phone #(when you don't want to hand out your cell), when you know you're going to be on hold for a while, and for international calls. They have a new option now where you can plug it into the wall but I'm not all too sure about that one, we just plug it into the computer.

Since I moved out of my parents house almost 10 years ago I have only used the cell. Never could justify the expense of a landline.