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Do You Still Use A Landline At Home? Have You Ever Had One?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by the mechanic, Oct 22, 2013.

  1. the mechanic

    the mechanic Active Member

    ... i'd imagine that the newer generations who've grown up with cell phones don't see landline phones as necessary. the older folks are maybe more attached to them having had them in their homes before the prevalence of cell phones ...

    ... do you have a land line? do you see yourself giving it up one day?
     
  2. Night Of GuardianS

    Night Of GuardianS Active Member

    We don't have landline in our home anymore. Canceled it before the summer. I remember we had one of those phones in the early 90's where we had to spin the dial to dial.
     
    the mechanic likes this.
  3. Vivek Golikeri

    Vivek Golikeri Active Member

    I still have a landline, and have never had a cellphone. A cellphone can easily get lost or stolen. With all the identity theft going on these days, I think it is prudent to keep one's phone at home.
     
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  4. the mechanic

    the mechanic Active Member

    ... never had a cell phone? i'd consider never having possessed a smart phone still possible for many, but to have never possessed a cell phone is becoming rarer and rarer ...
     
  5. Stuntman

    Stuntman Full Member

    My wife and I got rid of our land line several years ago when Fido offered unlimited local calling. It was more economical at the time to switch to Fido and remove our land line.

    One huge benefit of getting rid of our land line was that we get way fewer telemarketer calls. A large reason is likely getting rid of our old phone number. Another reason is at the time, telemarketers generally do not target cell phones. I do get some via my work cell some how, but very few on my personal cell and no where near the amount I would get before with a land line.

    There was a bit of an adjustment to getting rid of our land line. The first adjustment is having to bring your cell with you into every room you go to in the house. Before, we have multiple phones for our land line in different rooms in our house. If you forget to bring your phone with you, you end up having to run up or down the stairs to answer a call.

    The reliability of cell phones and networks seems to be comparable with land lines. I think there may be only one time in the past few decades that I remember a problem with the service on any land line I have used. In the past 10 years, there have been 2 incidents where cell service was down. These numbers are very small for both and statistically, there is not enough data for me to really form a conclusion on the reliability comparison.

    Cell signal strength also varies depending on your location and on which carrier you are with. When I was with Clearnet, signal in my parents' basement was not very good. It was also not very good at my current house. Fido was very good for where ever I lived. Bell is good as well. Telus was poor, but that was with the old CDMA network that they will be shutting down next year. I'm not sure about Telus's GSM network as I have only used Telus's older phones.

    Both my wife and I use smartphones now with a data plan. My wife still uses her phone for phone calls more often than any other use. I find that I use my phone for many other things more often than for phone calls. I primarily communicate via messaging or social networks. I hardly use my phone for phone calls. I have a much bigger data plan than my wife as I use my phone's data features significantly more.

    We haven't had a land line for many years now and do not feel we need one. I was offered one for free for a year, and declined.
     
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