How many still have a Landline in their home?

[deserteagle71]

Article out today:

Still love your landline? Phone service providers are getting closer to phasing it out

More people who are still using telephone landlines will soon need to decide if they want to finally hang up on their service.

www.yahoo.com

 

[Oaktree]

Article out today:

Still love your landline? Phone service providers are getting closer to phasing it out

More people who are still using telephone landlines will soon need to decide if they want to finally hang up on their service.

www.yahoo.com

I totally get why the telcos want to get away from copper lines...most are decades old and in bad shape, many/most of the technicians who know how to maintain that equipment have retired too. Time marches on.
OTOH, I don't think it's right to leave customers in the lurch either. To me it would suck if a cellphone was my only option, especially in much of rural America where service can be spotty.

 

[HAR]

Once again, very late to the party. I too still have a land line. Reason? DSL. Living in rural Vermont, the only way to get decent, dependable Internet. We have heard for over 20 years that cable is the way to go. It was not until last year that any hint of cable would be coming to our area. Now, today, there are two competing cable companies with cables hanging off my power pole. But still no cable. It takes a long time for all the infrastructure to be installed, configured, and tested. However, the recent AT&T cell system failure, for upwards of 12 hours, really put the shine on how safe and dependable cell coverage is. My land lines still worked. But, then again, with more and more people abandoning landlines, the telephone utilities will soon abandon the landlines as they will no longer be a profit center, if they even generate a profit now. I suspect my local phone company is just waiting for cable to be available before they drop the service. Also, while satellite and other options might be possible, rain, dense clouds, snow, etc. all limit that as a viable Internet solution. My son has a satellite system, and all the time things go wrong with that signal. It is frustrating to try and use the AInternet or stream at his place. A flock of geese will cause it to fail.

 

[MoKelly]

Our Farm (while not all that rural - meaning only 10 or so miles from a town) has zero cell phone coverage. No bars whatsoever. Nada.

So, we need a land line.

Have tried satellite for TV and internet but (as stated above) it’s not all that reliable. Never seems to work when you really want it to work.

One good thing is we have learned there are lots of other things to do rather than watch TV or be on the internet.

 

[Eagle1]

Our Farm (while not all that rural - meaning only 10 or so miles from a town) has zero cell phone coverage. No bars whatsoever. Nada.

So, we need a land line.

Have tried satellite for TV and internet but (as stated above) it’s not all that reliable. Never seems to work when you really want it to work.

One good thing is we have learned there are lots of other things to do rather than watch TV or be on the internet.

Darn and you are like 50 miles closer to the city than me....

 

[NoTrespassing]

Folks still have a land line, same number for over 50 years. I "fixed" their answering machine/wireless phones yesterday. I purchased a pair of phones/answering machine for Christmas last year and didn't have time to set them up. Yesterday I visited them for the first time since Christmas. The new phones were still in the box right where I left them 2 months ago. I said, let's make sure your old phones don't work before I set up the new ones. After recording a new message, I noticed that the answering machine button was turned OFF. I pushed the button and what do you know, the thing worked.

Dad wanted me to take the new phones with me and send them back to Amazon, lol. I said keep them for when your 7 year old phones die.

 

[DarkBlack]

I still remember when I lived in a town where the best I could get was slow DSL, while everywhere nearby had cable. I can still hear my modem making multiple dial attempts, and me waiting with my fingers
Uggh

 

[hube2]

Once again, very late to the party. I too still have a land line. Reason? DSL. Living in rural Vermont, the only way to get decent, dependable Internet. We have heard for over 20 years that cable is the way to go. It was not until last year that any hint of cable would be coming to our area. Now, today, there are two competing cable companies with cables hanging off my power pole. But still no cable. It takes a long time for all the infrastructure to be installed, configured, and tested. However, the recent AT&T cell system failure, for upwards of 12 hours, really put the shine on how safe and dependable cell coverage is. My land lines still worked. But, then again, with more and more people abandoning landlines, the telephone utilities will soon abandon the landlines as they will no longer be a profit center, if they even generate a profit now. I suspect my local phone company is just waiting for cable to be available before they drop the service. Also, while satellite and other options might be possible, rain, dense clouds, snow, etc. all limit that as a viable Internet solution. My son has a satellite system, and all the time things go wrong with that signal. It is frustrating to try and use the AInternet or stream at his place. A flock of geese will cause it to fail.

Yes, the recent outage shows why land lines are still a good idea. While cable has recently become available here there are still may rural areas that do not have cable and they still maintain the phone lines. Nothing in new technology, cable, satellite, cell service, is as reliable as my land line. Satellite is likely the worst choice, anything can cause it to go out, and even when it's working the latency extremely high.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I worked for the landline division of Verizon for 40 years before retiring. Many telcos, including Verizon, have been trying to get out of the wireline business for a decade or more. Since they are regulated entities, the public utility commissions in many states require that landline service be maintained, for many of the reasons already mentioned in the thread.

It gets worse. There are still many rural "mom & pop" landline telco's around. Some are going belly up, and as they do, the larger companies are being forced to take them over.

Until the regulatory laws are changed, even though it's a losing concern, landline service will still be available.

 

[JethroB]

Once again, very late to the party. I too still have a land line. Reason? DSL. Living in rural Vermont, the only way to get decent, dependable Internet. We have heard for over 20 years that cable is the way to go. It was not until last year that any hint of cable would be coming to our area. Now, today, there are two competing cable companies with cables hanging off my power pole. But still no cable. It takes a long time for all the infrastructure to be installed, configured, and tested. However, the recent AT&T cell system failure, for upwards of 12 hours, really put the shine on how safe and dependable cell coverage is. My land lines still worked. But, then again, with more and more people abandoning landlines, the telephone utilities will soon abandon the landlines as they will no longer be a profit center, if they even generate a profit now. I suspect my local phone company is just waiting for cable to be available before they drop the service. Also, while satellite and other options might be possible, rain, dense clouds, snow, etc. all limit that as a viable Internet solution. My son has a satellite system, and all the time things go wrong with that signal. It is frustrating to try and use the AInternet or stream at his place. A flock of geese will cause it to fail.

HAR, I suspect you are correct on most fronts there. But I have found STARLINK satellite internet service to be excellent for two years now. A bit pricey upfront (~$600) and you must have a clear view of a broad range of sky though. A heavy rain will take it out for a few minutes. No snow here to contend with.