Why you need a true home phone line

[spidey07]

1) EMS knows exactly where you are calling from, exactly. Not so much with cell or other service
2) In power trouble, #1 becomes even more apparent, cell towers will be overloaded. My city is dealing with power outage and the damn libraries are saying "you can charge you cell phone if you must here". HELLO, car battery/charger?
3) In power outage you can always make a call with your hard line, the switches MUST stay up for 48-72 hours+ by federal law. The switches provide power to make a call.
4) Even if you do have a hard line, what use is it if you need power via cordless to make a call?

I will NEVER give up my true hardline and a real analog phone. Ever.

Think about a power outage or emergency and how useful your cell phone really is.

 

[HAL9000]

1) EMS knows exactly where you are calling from, exactly. Not so much with cell or other service

If I'm phoning from home I can tell them where I am.

2) In power trouble, #1 becomes even more apparent, cell towers will be overloaded. My city is dealing with power outage and the damn libraries are saying "you can charge you cell phone if you must here". HELLO, car battery/charger?

It's incredibly rare for there to be a power outage where I live, and if it's enough to affect mobile phone towers then my near by police station will be out aswell.

3) In power outage you can always make a call with your hard line, the switches MUST stay up for 48-72 hours+ by federal law. The switches provide power to make a call.

Not relevant in the UK.

4) Even if you do have a hard line, what use is it if you need power via cordless to make a call?

How does this point aid your argument?!

I will NEVER give up my true hardline and a real analog phone. Ever.

Think about a power outage or emergency and how useful your cell phone really is.

My mobile is exceptionally useful in those events. More useful than a phone I can only use in one location.

 

[ISAslot]

i don't pay for a landline, however it's still 'connected' and can make emergency calls.

 

[mattpegher]

We lose power all the time and keep an old phone arround just in case, both at home and at the office. Have had to use it a few times.
They also rarely break if unused.

 

[thomsbrain]

Pretty sure any land line that's physically connected has to accept a 911 call, similar to cell phones with no service.

 

[kranky]

You need to make sure it's a true landline and not something that appears to be a landline but isn't, as with cable company phone service or FIOS phone service. Those don't have to be powered through the phone company and if power is out, so is the phone.

 

[her209]

If there was an emergency of the shit has hit the fan kind, then 9-1-1 would be overwhelmed anyways.

 

[zinfamous]

If I'm phoning from home I can tell them where I am.

the point of that is that you don't have to tell them anything. you can just leave the phone on and they can trace the call.


btu I do miss the landline--analog so, so, much better than these shit digital voice.

it's the most hilariously obvious marketing lie of recent times: Crystal Clear Digital Voice! it is so obviously bad in comparison, I have no idea how these idiots live themselves and serve up BS like this, lol.

 

[xanis]

If I'm phoning from home I can tell them where I am.

So what do you do if you're unconscious? Or over a relative or friend's house that you don't know the address of? "Somewhere in Islington", for example, doesn't really help you out. What if you're in a dangerous situation where you don't want to speak and let a threatening individual know where you are?

It's incredibly rare for there to be a power outage where I live, and if it's enough to affect mobile phone towers then my near by police station will be out aswell.

Just because the power is out doesn't mean that all communication to/from emergency services ceases. Also, what if you need to call a relative or, say, ambulance or fire?

Not relevant in the UK.

cool story bro

How does this point aid your argument?!

Cordless phone... no power... do you really need to ask that?

My mobile is exceptionally useful in those events. More useful than a phone I can only use in one location.

And if the cell towers go down or get overloaded, you "more useful" cell phone will, ironically, be useless.

 

[darkxshade]

Lemme guess, OP works for Verizon and currently on strike. Trying to save ur job?

 

[zinfamous]

Cordless phone... no power... do you really need to ask that?

.

he no smart, he don't get it. did you miss that he also didn't understand the real reason that a sustained power outage will render the cell mostly useless.

 

[xanis]

he no smart, he don't get it. did you miss that he also didn't understand the real reason that a sustained power outage will render the cell mostly useless.

Sometimes I forget that neckbeard was probably dropped on his head one or more times as a child.

 

[HAL9000]

So what do you do if you're unconscious? Or over a relative or friend's house that you don't know the address of? "Somewhere in Islington", for example, doesn't really help you out. What if you're in a dangerous situation where you don't want to speak and let a threatening individual know where you are?

Mobile phone, in the UK the police can definitely track you very accurately from your mobile.

Just because the power is out doesn't mean that all communication to/from emergency services ceases. Also, what if you need to call a relative or, say, ambulance or fire?

Mobile phone.

Cordless phone... no power... do you really need to ask that?

Cordless phone... no power... problem! Not relevant to the "why you need a true home phone line" argument.

And if the cell towers go down or get overloaded, you "more useful" cell phone will, ironically, be useless.

A valid argument. The same could be said for a landline phone line... etc.

 

[KK]

3) In power outage you can always make a call with your hard line, the switches MUST stay up for 48-72 hours+ by federal law. The switches provide power to make a call.

Where did you hear that? I know of alot of switches that do not have the BHR in the 48-72 range, granted they do have backup gens, but shit does happen.

 

[Lifted]

Pretty sure any land line that's physically connected has to accept a 911 call, similar to cell phones with no service.

This.

There is no need to pay for that land line if you're only worried about 911 calls.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I made a pretty good living but still have no interest in paying for a land line. I haven't had one since 1999 or so, and have saved thousands of dollars in that time by not having one. I'll take my chances . . .

 

[Turin39789]

I'm in the same power outage and my phone was down to 6% battery when it happened, no land line, no car charger.

But I can do fine on my own without a phone, and the phone charges via usb so I leached power out of a charged laptop. Got power back last night around 7 after 25 hours. Now just need my piece of crap insurance to get out here about the missing shingles.

 

[TridenT]

If there was an emergency of the shit has hit the fan kind, then 9-1-1 would be overwhelmed anyways.

Where I live, this.

There's thousands of people in my immediate area. The fire department is just down the street.

No reason for wasting my money on a shitty landline.

 

[Red Squirrel]

1) EMS knows exactly where you are calling from, exactly. Not so much with cell or other service
2) In power trouble, #1 becomes even more apparent, cell towers will be overloaded. My city is dealing with power outage and the damn libraries are saying "you can charge you cell phone if you must here". HELLO, car battery/charger?
3) In power outage you can always make a call with your hard line, the switches MUST stay up for 48-72 hours+ by federal law. The switches provide power to make a call.
4) Even if you do have a hard line, what use is it if you need power via cordless to make a call?

I will NEVER give up my true hardline and a real analog phone. Ever.

Think about a power outage or emergency and how useful your cell phone really is.

This is all true, and is why I will never give up my analog phone line. I work for the phone company, so I can back all this up. I've been inside the CO. LOT of effort is put into keeping the phone system running. It is a very reliable system. Our phone switch has been rebooted 3 times in like 30 years. This thing is a massive beast, but it works, and it's solid, and you can still get parts for it. They have no reason to change it. Cell technology is constantly changing and is fairly new compared to old analog phone, so it is more prone to issues. I can think of multiple occasions where the cell network was down or was having issues. I can not think of any time where the analog phone service was out.

If your land line is not working, they'll have someone out to fix it ASAP. If your cell is not working, they may even need to take it for a few weeks, now you have no cell, and no land line, what are you going to do now?

Also, having at least one plug in phone is important too as it will run straight from the DC power provided by the phone company. A cordless will still require power. I have my cordless phones at home on a UPS so they're good for a bit, but I still have a desk phone plugged directly in. If the power is out for hours at least I can still phone out.

Idealy, a cell is still good to have as a backup. A criminal gang comes by, cuts your power and your phone line, at least you can still call the police with your cell. So both is better than just one.

 

[spidey07]

Where did you hear that? I know of alot of switches that do not have the BHR in the 48-72 range, granted they do have backup gens, but shit does happen.

Yes, shit does happen. Look at katrina and how long the phones were up, underwater. Batteries only last so long.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Shouldn't the OP come with a disclaimer?

 

[spidey07]

This is all true, and is why I will never give up my analog phone line. I work for the phone company, so I can back all this up. I've been inside the CO. LOT of effort is put into keeping the phone system running. It is a very reliable system. Our phone switch has been rebooted 3 times in like 30 years. This thing is a massive beast, but it works, and it's solid, and you can still get parts for it. They have no reason to change it. Cell technology is constantly changing and is fairly new compared to old analog phone, so it is more prone to issues. I can think of multiple occasions where the cell network was down or was having issues. I can not think of any time where the analog phone service was out.

If your land line is not working, they'll have someone out to fix it ASAP. If your cell is not working, they may even need to take it for a few weeks, now you have no cell, and no land line, what are you going to do now?

Also, having at least one plug in phone is important too as it will run straight from the DC power provided by the phone company. A cordless will still require power. I have my cordless phones at home on a UPS so they're good for a bit, but I still have a desk phone plugged directly in. If the power is out for hours at least I can still phone out.

Idealy, a cell is still good to have as a backup. A criminal gang comes by, cuts your power and your phone line, at least you can still call the police with your cell. So both is better than just one.

So you know what's up, I'm just spreading it. I will NEVER give up my true hard line and bellphone with my buttset as a backup.

 

[Lifted]

So you know what's up, I'm just spreading it. I will NEVER give up my true hard line and bellphone with my buttset as a backup.

regular calls - mobile phone
911 calls during power outage - dial tone only land line
regular calls during power outage - buttset

why do you need to pay for a land line?

 

[eldorado99]

If you want an alarm system on your house you usually also need a land line. +1

 

[spidey07]

regular calls - mobile phone
911 calls during power outage - dial tone only land line
regular calls during power outage - buttset

why do you need to pay for a land line?

I like asking for an operator, makes me feel all matrix and shit.

As long as you have hardwire, with hard phone and number then good for you.