I have a land line because of my security system. It has unlimited minutes, local and long distance so I downgraded the cellphone plan and the only people that have my cell phone number are related to me.

Katie

[jebartle]

Land line is Magic Jack for unlimited LD calls, cell for emergency only....

[USCGretired]

We use cell to call out. We have Centurylink Internet and they gave us at no charge a phone number that allows in coming calls and outgoing 911. Also, the cell phones today work fine with the 911 systems in the USA so no real need for the landline anymore.

[tommy steam]

We have both.

[Heartnsoul]

Originally Posted by billethkid

It has been an ongoing question for me whether to give up the land line and just use cell phones. With the improved 911 capability of cell phones/GPS cel phones, I see little advantage for keeping a hard wired phone in the house.

What do you think/do?

btk

I LOVE my land line. can hear with no problem and like to chat. Only use cell for emergencies as I'm leary of the cells radiation near the brain. Studies showed they MAY cause brain cancer which we see in more and more young people. That's just me. I tend to be cautious.

[borjo]

Have a smart phone, got rid of the landline, BUT, we can still call 911 on the landline. It's by our bed while the cell is charging overnight.

[LynnDeb]

We both have cell phones only

[The Great Fumar]

I have phones in the house (every room) garage, patio. attic. bathrooms , cellphones , mac-jack, majicjac and carjack and no one ever calls.....

Goebel has nothing on me, Lonesome Fumar .....

[lpkshop]

After hurricane sandy we had no cell phone ,landline came back before cell

We have both till the service is more stable

[mrdarcy]

I only have a cell phone. I used to have a landline just to fax documents. Now I just scan documents and email then. No fax needed. I think my friends like having only one number to try and reach me-- not home, work, and cell. Just cell now. Very simple.

[Serenoa]

Originally Posted by Ecuadog

We have a copper landline because it will work during a power outage.

In Florida, as long as you have Verizon as your cell phone provider you should be ok now during any occasional power outage, or even after a major storm or hurricane, that is unless the towers themselves are damaged. Over the past several years Verizon has installed thousands of LP & diesel powered emergency generators at their cell sites. And they're all equiped with automatic transfer switches, so when the main power goes down the emergency generator automatically switches on with no interruption in your service. So, as long as you have a charger to use in your car you should be good to go. Most other cell providers (Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, Metro PCS, Clearwire) still only have battery back-up at most of their sites, which will only keep a site up & running for a few hours, at best.

I know this because I work for an engineering firm that does tons of work for Verizon in Florida & all over the southeast. Their infrastructure is unmatched.

[MikeV]

We have had Magic Jack for years. We switched to the newer Magic Jack Plus and it works great. The cost is about $23 a year with taxes. The only downside is you have to dial the area code for local calls but it becomes second nature once you get used to it. Our MJ is connected to Comcast and so far no real problems.

[George Bieniaszek]

We have Verizon as our cell phone carrier. A couple of years ago, Verizon came out with Home Connect which the best way to explain it is that it is a wireless land line for your home. The beauty of it is that you can bring your home phone with you anywhere in the country. We have a home in TV and one in CT. 1000 monthly minutes, toll-free long distance, voice mail, caller ID, no minutes charged if calling Verizon customers, and the service costs half of what we were paying ($20.00 per month VS $45.00).

You just bring the "black box" with you and plug your home phone into it and the black box to a 110 power source.

[Jullie]

We have cell phones only. For the last 7 yrs, no problem.

[AriaGrandparents2013]

My wife and I both have cell phones and we also installed a land line. Our cell phones are from out-of-state and was concerned with roaming charges if we used them solely for emergencies as our only phones.