How many still have a Landline in their home?

[tallyho8]

I still have my land line but will probably get rid of it soon. I had kept it for years because I moved and knew that my old friends could find me by looking in the phone book. This year they stopped distributing the white pages. Just the yellow pages are delivered now so I lost that reason to keep it. Then Katrina hit and the power was out and all cell phones were out but my AT&T landline kept working even though many of the poles were down on the ground.

We still have the old black desk phone plus a couple of cordless phones. The desk phone is now unplugged because we got a rescue greyhound a couple of years ago and he was sleeping in the living room when the phone rang. Being trained to leap out of the box and race when he hears the bell, he awoke and jumped up and started running, bumping into tables and chairs, breaking vases, and scaring himself silly. None of the other phones has a bell or ringer like the old desk phone.

 

[3930dave]

911 is definitely a factor to consider before dropping a landline. Would be prudent to call the 911 center to see what technology they have BEFORE making the drop decision. Nothing worse than having your house on fire, calling 911, and they can't find you! :shocked:

Key with Voip, is ensuring your address is correctly listed, and up to date with your service. Something that was taken care by default in older landline systems, is now on the customer.

Sad case in Canada a few years back..... family moved provinces, but didn't update with their Voip service. Critical 911 call got dispatched to their old home. Ended with fatality.

Most every tech has strengths and weaknesses. Been using cell phones since '95, but still keep my Cu landline. I like redundant systems, and will still pay to have it.

One thing I've found with recent cell phones, some have really cheaped-out on the Mic hardware/processing. Many people today seem to primarily just text with their phones, or watch videos, so may not care.... but I much prefer voice calls at times.

Rgds, D.

 

[Jstpssng]

I ditched my landline in 2005. Back then it was difficult as my Cell company needed a landline on record. About 5 years ago I ditched my cell phone and went back to a landline; as the phones "improve" the signal quality goes down. I once could sit in my house to use my cell; now I need to drive to the top of the hill in my field to make calls. Plus I like having a local number again, and my internet comes in through the same line.

 

[Maxify55]

Built our place back in '07 and never had one put in the house.
CAT-5 connections in every room but telephones? They're so 1960, anymore.
We put an access point on the roof with another in the barn and never looked back.
1/4 mile omni-directional wi-fi & a BT headset.
"Sorry, Honey, I didn't get your call cause there's no signal.", don't work around here anymore.

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^
How easy is a system like that to hack? It sounds like something I would be interested in.

 

[Maxify55]

^^^^
How easy is a system like that to hack? It sounds like something I would be interested in.

PM sent

 

[ultrarunner]

Looks like the nail in the coffin for Landline is here.

Just received official notice ATT is seeking “Relief” as Carrier of Last Resort (COLR)

Upon regulatory approval ATT will provide minimum of 6 months continuation service.

Several of the longtime homeowners here have never had Internet with some going back 60+ years with original POTS.

The deal was the telecoms would serve all but the deal may be no more.

Still have several functioning rotary dial phones… no batteries required…

 

[Eagle1]

No Cell service here so land line it is. Still waiting for TelCo to pull fiber the last 1/4 mile to my place.

 

[lman]

Fiber was installed here a couple of years ago and the phone company pulled out their boxes and is not available now. I don't know what the Amish neighbor is doing now. They had a phone booth outside the house.

 

[scootr]

It's been over 10 yrs since we unplugged the unreliable landline. Seemed it went out every time we had a big rain event. We don't miss it. A Starlink zoom call is better than a phone call. And Cell service is good here. Thank God for progress

 

[ultrarunner]

Cell here is abysmal.

150 yards up or down ok.

Fiber is in the area and has its issues.

Still kept a few POTS lines at the hospital and twice they saved the bacon…

Have them for a dedicated fax with cordless and the for two Language Line translation service and dedicated UL Fire System.

 

[2manyrocks]

My cell service is too spotty. Stuck with landline. Have a rotary phone laying around somewhere. May have to plug it in for fun.

 

[3930dave]

The deal may be no more.

I think I'll put that ^, on a T-shirt.... as it travels/covers so well..... ,but graphically, "may" is crossed-out, and written-over with "shall".

Fiber is the general answer, but no good if not in your 'hood. I'd expect it would be local to you ur - if so, guiding your elderly neighbours thru a fiber-box upgrade, w. a regular handset to pick up in the house would be a good direction for them..... many would likely have cable already.

I don't like cell phones, for a few reasons. POTS was designed as a simple, and highly reliable system - uptime on CO batteries for instance, was many days, W/O generator assistance required, and much of the field equipment was, literally, bulletproof. Rotary (I still operate one here) was/is telco line powered, so no need for a UPS or generator, just to run a handset.

5 year olds (and perhaps even younger) can operate cell phones today, but there are a lot of dependencies with that system. Rogers (former ATT ally up here) had a major extended outage not long ago - cell, and internet service wiped out. Talk about zombies, walking around bumping into walls, staring @ their phones.... Some of those people, would have had all, repeat ALL, of their payment ability locked into those phones - Why Carry Cash ?

I ditched my cell coming up on 2 years ago. There are times where my wife likes me to carry hers (ex. MC riding), and I don't push back on that, but generally don't want one.

I guess the only caution I'd venture for flipping elderly people over to VOIP, is make absolutely sure the address location is defined correctly with the "carrier". Landline and cell (when working) have 911 locating baked-in, but it's not a given with VOIP. A fatality was in the news a few years back, family moved to Calgary from Toronto, didn't update their address on their VOIP service. Kid died, as the ambulance was dispatched to the old Toronto address.

Partly hobby interest, partly not.... I've been getting more active in (ham) radio, this last year.

Rgds, D.

 

[ultrarunner]

Cable not universal with the oldsters…

Can’t count the number of times I’d come home to a message from a neighbor saying the TV doesn’t work again… often as simple as the wrong source had been selected…

A lot to be said for reliably simple.

My smart goto cell setup nephew was in his teens and asked me to show him how grandmas rotary dial phone worked… he had never seen one and was amazed it didn’t need batteries and not affected by power outages.

I can see it now telling his grandkids when he was a kid his grandma had a phone that worked over wires.

 

[3930dave]

Still kept a few POTS lines at the hospital and twice they saved the bacon…

Many people refuse to consider contingencies - even ones that (should) know better.

This thread has me thinking wayyyy back - first company I worked at, coming out of college. It was considered a hot-startup at the time, party because the whole economy was a wreck. Upgrading office phones, we are all sitting in a presentation by the phone supplier, presently this latest/greatest phone system. Being me, I stuck up my hand "What happens when the Power Goes Out" - A: Phones don't work. People are used to this now, but that was less well-known then...

Sales rep then says (holding up a set with a battery symbol on it) "But we have these, that will run on battery". I look at el presidente, and ask "How many are we ordering ?". His answer "Zero". I then said "OK, but it will be somebody-else, driving miles away to make calls out of here".

My youthful impertinence notwithstanding, it was a totally idiotic scenario. El presidente was an engineer (OK, an ME, but this was hardly nanoscale lithography at play), but refused to consider contingencies. This was before cells were even starting to ramp, so just reporting a power-outage would have been a PITA, and if there ever had been a medical or other emergency at the site, there would have been no way to report it quickly.

For some elderly people, even if they have a cell phone, they rarely use it. My neighbour's landline went down, so I walked her through using the flip-phone her kids insisted she have. She'd had it for a quite a while, but just never used it........ Hard to believe, I know, for generations (including some elderly) who have their facebook up on their phone, 12-18 hours/day, but there are people (including ultra-wealthy, and tech-savvy) who don't want to carry a cell.

Pick yer poison, take yer chances..... if I get back to commercial messaging, it will probably be Inreach - probably doesn't make sense cost-wise for an elderly budget, and "kids" have no use for it, as you can't stream on it..... in other words, perfect for me .

Elon should be out with something soon (another new month is coming), so there will probably be even better/cheaper Sat options shortly.....

OTOH, I should get on with ordering the 2'nd book, that follows One Second After, and get on with stocking up on ham tube gear

Rgds, D.

 

[bmaverick]

yes. We've had towers in the rural area go down for a week or two at a time. It's foolish not to have one.

 

[bmaverick]

OTOH, I should get on with ordering the 2'nd book, that follows One Second After, and get on with stocking up on ham tube gear

Rgds, D.

And get the PDF free download of, Lights Out. An easy to read, packed full of 'what ifs' and possible outcomes.

 

[ultrarunner]

Decades ago Austria went free satellite for TV.

It made sense because the villages were between mountains and antenna TV at its best might deliver 2 channels if any.

I remember watching free CNN in English showing footage in Oakland from my Alpine location.

Now 99% of Austria is fiber too.

 

[3930dave]

My smart goto cell setup nephew was in his teens and asked me to show him how grandmas rotary dial phone worked… he had never seen one and was amazed it didn’t need batteries and not affected by power outages.

I can see it now telling his grandkids when he was a kid his grandma had a phone that worked over wires.

It's not just oldsters like me that appreciate Simple/High-Rel designs....

Some of the appeal is It's Different (retro), but there are things that get left out of modern platforms. I was driving along the other day, listening to a Canadian jazz station, discussing with an artist the factors in their latest release being on vinyl.....

There are vids out, concerning using milsurp field phones to set up geo-local phone networks. With your enclave of adjacent Seasoned-Citizens (You could bury/wire field-phones in your sleep), you could have those phones up in no time. If the big one drops, and you and the Seasoned ones are underground, all you, and those phones (and Keith Richards) would survive. You basically would have built a tiny POTS.....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

And get the PDF free download of, Lights Out. An easy to read, packed full of 'what ifs' and possible outcomes.

Thnx, I'll check that out !

Rgds, D.