Just about a year ago, historic winter storms pummeled much of Texas and nearly 200,000 people had no power, many for several days. That left a lot of cell phone users literally in the cold, quiet, dark. But some with landline phones were also unable make calls.
Emergency situations are the typical response when asked whether you should have a landline in your home. But while 60 percent of U.S. households have decided to ditch their landline phones, there’s more to making the decision than just the question of emergency use.
What is a landline phone?
As defined by TechTarget, “a landline is a telephone that transmits signals converted from audio data through physical media, such as wire or fiber optic cable, rather than through wireless transmission as is the case with mobile phones.”
Mostly, we think of a landline phone as a static device that sits on a table or hangs from a wall. In the way back time, you could only roam and chat as far as that twirly cord could reach. In the 1980s, there were cordless phones with a wireless handset you could walk around the house with — but not too far before you lost the signal.
Landline phones have a dedicated power source, usually buried underground. It’s the corded type of landline phone, which connects to cables in a wall jack, that keeps functioning during a power outage. The cordless type — not so much, once electrical is gone.
Reasons to keep a landline phone
There are myriad online blogs about why people have landline phones, with reasons ranging from nostalgia to sound quality to emergencies.
It works well in an emergency
Most people cite power outages specifically as the best reason to have a landline phone because a landline will work without access to power. The landline phone is also tied to your specific address so that emergency services can find you.
And yet — there are always “and yets” — during Hurricane Sandy, many people reported that their landlines did not work and their cellphones did. Chief Executive Michael Martin of RapidSOS, which works with thousands of 911 call centers across the U.S., recently told AARP that “we are now entering an era where it’s actually safer to call 911 from a cellphone because of all of the additional information that you are able to share.” The article cites this example: “Apple iOS users can choose to share critical health information via the Apple Medical ID feature, a potentially lifesaving function.”
It’s reliable and always at the ready
The person on the other end of the phone line rarely disappears from your ear if you’re on a landline phone while dropped cellphone calls occur regularly. Cellphone batteries die at the most inopportune moments. People have experienced cellphone “dead zones” in parks, on city streets, even their own apartments. (And if you live in Greenbank, WV, home to a telescope so large it won’t operate unless there’s complete silence, you’re in the deadest of dead zones.) A landline phone is always at the ready.
It’s made for better business communication
With so many people working remotely from home, maintaining professionalism has become difficult. Keeping a dedicated landline phone means you’ll have reliable service, clear sound quality and the ability to send and receive faxes. (Yes, there are ways to do this with cellphone and Internet service.)
You just can’t shake them
Think about the number of hours you spend each week searching for your cellphone or your air pods or headset. Landline phones don’t fall out of your pocket and land in the mud or, worse, the toilet. Landline phones stay where you place them and wait patiently for you to use them. If you’ve got a wireless handset, check under the couch cushions.
It helps keep tabs on the kids
If you’ve got children, especially young ones, it’s easier to monitor their phone use if they’re in the house to make and receive calls. If you’re divorced and your children switch from house to house, even if they have their own cellphones, it’s good to have a landline just in case.
Disadvantages of keeping a landline phone
Nothing is perfect, of course, but if you’re wondering if you should keep or even get a landline phone, you’ve got to consider the downsides.
Landlines are potentially costly
This argument has two sides. It’s possible that having a landline is an additional expense, but it’s just as true that a landline phone is tied into a phone, internet, cable bundle and doesn’t add any appreciable cost. If you’re home-bound, it might make economic sense to have only a landline and not pay all the fees and taxes associated with cellphone plans.
But even if a landline phone plan doesn’t eat into your budget, the cost of making long-distance calls might. On a landline, long-distance calls require different entities to transmit and receive. You also need a long-distance carrier, and everyone needs payment.
Support is dying out
Fewer subscribers use the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a.k.a. POTS, plain old telephone service (really, it’s called that), it’s aging and more costly to operate. There’s an ongoing transition to VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), a technology that allows you to make voice calls using an Internet connection instead of a phone line. The big phone companies are pushing for PSTN to go away.
Telemarketers can find you easily
Many people gave up their landline phones because the only calls they were getting were from marketing companies, salespeople and spammers. Although these same folks can now find you on your cellphone, at least your smartphone alerts you to “spam risk.”
Landlines aren’t portable
This is the most obvious disadvantage to a landline phone. But you might not want to stand in a fixed location every time you want to make a call.
Decision time
When determining whether to have a landline phone or not, every pro is also a con. It’s all about your personal perspective. As you’re making the decision, consider your lifestyle and your budget — and whether you get good reception in your house or apartment.
And if you decide to ring off and go cellphone-only and you get all sentimental, you can always port your landline phone number to another service.
