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Do you have a home phone?

Kaiser17

Kaiser17

Android Enthusiast
Alright so in this day and age people with home phones get lower and lower, I haven't had one in 4 years. Most of my friends and family don't have home phones either.

Im curious to know if you guys still use your home phones or use your mobile phone instead for all calls like I would assume most people do nowadays.

Be sure to include your reasons as to why or why not you use a home phone.
 
I have a home phone but only ever use my mobile to make calls. The only reason i have a home phone is that you have to have one to get Virgin TV package. Pretty dumb really.
 
I have a home phone for my alarm system and so that I can call my family in another country since it cheaper than using my mobile.
 
I haven't a home phone in a couple of years, these carriers charge so much money that financially it makes little sense to own one. Most people communicate through text message these days and call very little. If I were to get a landline, it would probably be one of the VOIP substitutes like Vonage or MagicJack.
 
Not everyone who calls me calls from a mobile, and calls from home phones to mobiles cost a lot more than to landlines in the UK (note for Americans unfamiliar with the system: in Europe mobile numbers are different from landline, so the caller knows it's a mobile. Hence the caller pays more for the call, and the mobile owner is not charged for receiving calls). Since I need a landline for the internet anyway, it would seem unfair to these people, including elderly family members, not to have a telephone number on it.

Plus I believe in redundancy ;)

Anyway, the handsets on the home system can act as an intercom :)
 
I haven't had a home phone since around 2002. If I have a phone I can use everywhere including home, why would I want another phone that I can only use at home also??
 
I still have a home phone. One, for close relatives (kids, grandkids, sister/brothers) can call collect, if need be. Two, the wife use it to send/receive faxes for medical purposes. We have been thinking about dumping it but again, it comes in handy for faxing.
 
I need one for the broadband and my other half uses it to phone her family in Poland. It costs a fortune to do it from a mobile and part of the package we get gives us 3000 minutes to numbers in the EU.
 
We got our first place two years ago and I believe we actually had to get a landline to get broadband, rarely use it personally but Mrs calls her Gran every day often uses landline!
 
Not only do I have a home phone, but it's the good old-fashioned, hard-wired LANDLINE version. :eek: And I insist on having at least one corded phone. And I refuse to go with any 'bundled' services (i.e., digital phone + Internet + TV). Why? Well...

1) I lived in places with hurricanes, tornadoes, ice/snow storms, torrential downpours, etc., which resulted in FREQUENT loss of electricity. I learned through experience that a hard-wired landline corded phone will work even when the power's out.

2) I have unlimited long distance, plus every conceivable feature, on my home phone for about $65/month. It's well worth it.

3) I get *ZERO* bars on my cell phone inside my house. I'm on my fifth phone since moving back home to California in 2006, and not ONE of them has had any reception inside my house.

4) I talk--for hours at a time--on the phone. My best friend lives 3,000 miles away right now and we talk daily. Anything under an hour is an anomaly. My daughter and her little family, as well as my husband, are also far away, and we talk frequently.

5) My landline is used for my ADT alarm system, although there's a wireless backup in case the phone line is cut.

6) The reception cannot be beat. Plus, there's no such thing as a dropped call. I cannot stand fuzzy, spotty, fading in and out cell phone calls. :mad:

7) Bundling is stupid--as my best friend is finding out RIGHT NOW. She has digital phone service, cable Internet, and cable TV through Time Warner. They're *ALL* out right now and have been for over a week; the revised ETA for when they'll be fixed is Tuesday. She's less than thrilled. On the other hand, I have my wired landline through AT&T, cable Internet through Earthlink (over Time Warner's cables), and DirecTV. If one goes out, I still have the other two! :D
 
Haven't had one in years. I get internet through Comcast, so I don't need the phone, just the line. I also live in a city of 11,000+ so if the phones go down, we're small enough to where help is not far away anyway.
 
YES!!! I have a home phone (land-line).
I am an American, teaching English in Prague, CZ. Family all over the USA.
Yes, I have a land-line AND my Gal-Note-2.
 
Frisco said:
No, but the wall jack is still there.
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I went thru and pulled out all of the plugs (there was one in every room) then drywalled over the holes. All the wire is still in my walls and floor but no more wires. I have unlimited everything on my phone ands so does my wife so it doesn't make any sense to have a landline.
 
I still have a landline. I've had the same number for many years. It's a home/business line that I still feel the need to keep. I'll admit to not using it much at all. It no longer has a long distance package on it. I do send and receive fax on the line and it's been my business number for near forty years. I hate to sever such a connection.
 
olbriar said:
I still have a landline. I've had the same number for many years. It's a home/business line that I still feel the need to keep. I'll admit to not using it much at all. It no longer has a long distance package on it. I do send and receive fax on the line and it's been my business number for near forty years. I hate to sever such a connection.
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Do what my parents did. They transferred there home phone number of like 30 years to a cell phone ;)
 
I used to have a home phone in the UK. Never had one since I've been living in China though, as I didn't consider it would be useful or beneficial for me. If I make local calls I use my mobile. and for long distance and international calls I use Skype Out.
 
In 2003, my wife, correctly, told me to move the hell out. First thing I did, as I had done in countless previous moves, was get a landline. Then, because it was all the rage back then, I got a cell. It eventually occurred to me that I was double-billing myself... haven’t had a landline since.
 
I haven't had one since Sun Com came out with, what I believe may have been, the first unlimited plan many years ago. After I bought my house I took out all the wires because they ran along the walls and I didn't want them there when I repainted. My dad on the other hand is just like many other older people and is die hard old school and still has a land line. Now that he has Life Alert he needs a land line.
 
I have a home phone but only because my house alarm is hooked up to it. I recently upgraded to a wireless system so no more landline and hello extra $ in my pocket!
 
MoodyBlues said:
5) My landline is used for my ADT alarm system, although there's a wireless backup in case the phone line is cut.
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That's what's known as dual path signalling. I'm pretty sure that some insurance policies insist on it, depending on what the alarm system is guarding. BT Redcare in the UK is a dual path system, which is supplied by ADT. This signals that something is wrong as soon as the phone line is cut. I used to be a BT linesman, and we had to get special permission from the alarm monitoring station before we could work on Redcare lines, to avoid false alarms.

BTW in China, you actually see very few electronic alarm systems. Jewellery stores and banks have them. Probably because it's actually cheaper to pay a guard to stay there, than it is to have a remotely monitored electronic system.
 
siggy1964 said:
I haven't had one since Sun Com came out with, what I believe may have been, the first unlimited plan many years ago. After I bought my house I took out all the wires because they ran along the walls and I didn't want them there when I repainted. My dad on the other hand is just like many other older people and is die hard old school and still has a land line. Now that he has Life Alert he needs a land line.
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I suspect that would be a dual path signalled system, wireless as well as land line. It would still work even if the hard-wired line is out, or if the wireless was out. A life or death monitored medical emergency system like that.
 
h4x0rj3ff said:
Do what my parents did. They transferred there home phone number of like 30 years to a cell phone ;)
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That would work except I don't want to carry two cells. I've had my cell number for decades as well and can't drop that number. I had a two meter phone before cell tech.
Here is a pic from the net of my first phone .. which still lights up lol.

images
 
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