do I need a landline?

[Koronin]

I like a land line for added security. I also have a corded phone, although I actually have mine plugged in at all times. I use the corded for for any type of conference call I need to do from home. I also prefer it for longer calls. The place we rented when we first moved here had horrible cell phone reception. Basically if we were in the house the cell phones didn't work and we had to use the land line (which also wasn't great there, but at least it worked). Where we bought both work fine, but I prefer having the land line in case of power outages, for conference calls and for longer calls. Also I use a fax machine occasionally for work and I needed a land line for that as well.

[Fredwina]

That depends on the situation.
I did not have landline when I lived in California and did not miss it.
When I moved here, my credit cards were maxed out and the Cable provider wanted a cc # to turn on the line, so I went with landline and DSL.
Where my mother lives, she has landline, but the bldg does not let call her LD, so I got her a cell phone.

[Kiwi Stoker]

Yes it depends. My sister had no landline for some months and both mum and I complained when we found we had $100 phone bills calling her cell phone a few times. Often we got calls from her when she was at work at the end of the day as she had run out of credit on her phone so couldn't call us. She also didn't have the internet so was either at my parents place using theirs or at work.

Both of us told her- enough is enough, get yourself sorted, otherwise no free internet and we will stop calling you.

[Crankin]

I have a VoIP home phone. So, if the cable/internet goes out, we have our cells. I do have one corded phone, so old it still has my AZ phone # written on the inside of it.
I don't want to give up my home phone #. Although, I had to give up my precious "1-1-1-1" (last 4 digits) number when we got the Comcast VoIP phone, because we had Vonage, which was so awful, it never worked, and in order to get the switch done immediately, we couldn't transfer our #. Our kids were traumatized, seriously, neither of them have memorized the new #, 5 years later.
DH constantly harasses me about giving up the home phone. I don't feel comfortable doing this. We live on a street where it's very hard to find the houses and I get worried about 9-1-1 calls. Yea, I am old, so this is one change that I won't make. Maybe when I move. I am not attached to this #, so, we'll see.

[Irulan]

we have crappy cell coverage at our house and two home offices so we keep the land lines.

[lph]

I've been debating the same thing. I don't like to have my cell phone on at night because I'm a very light sleeper and I swear I can hear the little "bipp!" of a message coming in even if the phone is on another floor. So our landline is for emergencies.

btw, what are peoples feelings around cell phone use at night? Since we all turn ours off or onto flight mode at night, I tend to send people messages without considering if it might wake them up. Like "We're planning x, y or z for tomorrow. If you're awake, please give me a call." But I'm wondering if it might be a bit rude, since I now know some of my friends never ever turn off their cell phones, and keep them on their bedside tables. That would just stress me out.

[Catrin]

I gave up my landline almost 3 years ago and I do not miss it. I was nervous about making that change, but I really wanted to try a smartphone and that was the only way I could justify the additional expense. I am glad I made the change but, of course, nothing is perfect. I do like not having to decide which number to give out, not having more than one voice mailbox to check (though you can forward your LL to the cell phone if you wish), and the lower expense.

[ny biker]

I've been debating the same thing. I don't like to have my cell phone on at night because I'm a very light sleeper and I swear I can hear the little "bipp!" of a message coming in even if the phone is on another floor. So our landline is for emergencies.

btw, what are peoples feelings around cell phone use at night? Since we all turn ours off or onto flight mode at night, I tend to send people messages without considering if it might wake them up. Like "We're planning x, y or z for tomorrow. If you're awake, please give me a call." But I'm wondering if it might be a bit rude, since I now know some of my friends never ever turn off their cell phones, and keep them on their bedside tables. That would just stress me out.

I generally don't send messages to people if I think there's a chance that they're asleep. Except for one friend who I know is a ridiculously heavy sleeper. (I envy him...)

[OakLeaf]

I tend to send people messages without considering if it might wake them up. Like "We're planning x, y or z for tomorrow. If you're awake, please give me a call." But I'm wondering if it might be a bit rude, since I now know some of my friends never ever turn off their cell phones, and keep them on their bedside tables. That would just stress me out.

I leave my phone on and yes, a text "bong" would wake me.

For one thing, I have a phone just as much for other people's emergencies as for my own. It wouldn't be fair to my family to be inaccessible if something should happen, so I don't turn it off and I try not to let it out of my earshot. If my phone rings in the middle of the night, my assumption is that someone's gone to the hospital. Stress - uh, yeah.

For another thing, it's my alarm clock (and a lot of people use theirs that way, too - never have to worry about forgetting daylight savings time, overlooking an appointment, or synching with the atomic clock).

If I want to send that kind of a message to someone, I use email or Facebook. If someone's awake and open to phone calls in the middle of the night, by all likelihood they're checking their email. If they've got their phones set to sound audibly when those kinds of messages come in ... that's their own problem - since they're as likely to get spam or news messages as "real" ones.

[lph]

Actually I'm talking above myself when I say "cell phone use at night". I'm never awake at night But occasionally I'll send a message expecting someone not to see it until they are up the next morning. I'll stop doing that, I've realized most people don't switch off their phones like we do. Not least because more and more people don't have land lines any more.