This is not a true land line. It still requires a functioning modem. No internet, no phone.

I’ll give it 5 more years, as older folks die off so will the land line telephones. I also think coax cable will also be gone in few short years. Everything will be wireless.

Why? If they ask For my number I say I call you if I need you’re service. Medical appointments are the only exceptIon for me.

That is interesting. Do you have a reference for this? I seen Recent anecdotal reports of people losing all comms except for their landline. Such as in hurricanes and forest fires .never heard a report . Losing their traditional phone line but did not lose cellphone service and the Internet.
It seems strange that landline phone Phone calls to the traditional copper line would be going through a cell phone tower. I could see it with VOIP.

Like getting a letter from
 

a friend I guess

Cord been cut for 21 years, lived through a destructive hurricane in Punta Gorda if your home is destroyed your not going to be able to use land line, everyone needs to have a couple of chargers handy , you can now get a cordless one also charge it up and keep it handy

I haven't had a landline since 1999.

Still on POTS
 

I tried OOMA VOIP on our Comcast Blast two years ago. Person on the other end said they heard echoes of themselves. Didn't matter who initiated the call. We could not have a conversation it was so bad for them. Was on the phone with OOMA service often to get it resolved (download new firmware many times over, etc.). Took a whole month and still was not resolved. Even the senior tech on the other end understood and heard the problem. Took another month and fighting to get a full refund. Their tech department does not talk to their billing department. Glad I did not get rid of our home number. So for us, OOMA with COMCAST did NOT work. I believe it was our Comcast local node at fault trying to do duplex with IP.

If you have a whole house security system, like us, (fire/intrusion/flood with no monthly monitoring fee BTW), you need to have a POTS dial tone if you don't want to rely on Comcast. With POTS, if the electricity in the area goes off, you still have phone service. POTS runs on a DC battery system invented by A.G.Bell. Your digital phone station may not work but an old fashioned handset on the line still works without electric in the area. A security system with battery backup dialer (like ours) still works, so you DON'T need internet or electricity to dial out.

If electric goes out, sometimes cell service goes out too (depending on the tower location). Most now have backup generators (if they work!).

If you are out of town and a storm breaks a window in your house and rain comes in, our system dials 5 numbers: 911, your cell#, spouse's cell# and two local friends that can come and repair the damage because they have a house key. The security system earns us an insurance discount too.

So we have Centurylink POTS at $50+ /month without Caller ID. Wish I could drop the long distance portion. We use our cell phones for long distance cause it's free.

Anyone have Centurylink POTS without a long distance add on? I'd like to know.

For some, POTS is not dead. Hope this helps.

Skip

they are disappearing

Apparently this is true because I always thought I had a regular landline. I get my phone service through Comcast. When hurricane Irma went through and I lost electric for several days I did not have ANY phone service -- not from my hard-wire phone (Comcast) or my cell phone or my internet. Nothing for days.

I don't have the LD add-on. I pay about $38.50 per month.

An extra $30 with internet service through Centurylink.
After hurricane Irma only our land line worked.

I know a couple guys who work for telcos and service lines and towers and such(not around TV). The landlines don't go through towers, but since they have backup capacity(Batteries and gensets) at certain "main" towers, they've trunked the POTS lines over there instead of maintaining separate battery banks. It all depends on where really.

The only reason I know this is because I got into a conversation with a buddy who works in the field about the reliability of POTS and he informed me that the POTS lines often terminate at a neighborhood level CO and are translated onto Fiber to get digitally switched. This does not mean they don't have an old copper connection from everywhere to everywhere else(which is somewhat mandated by the government) it's just that those lines are DARK most places and in a disaster, no one is going to bother energizing them either.

Your POTS line will work until the batteries and gensets run down. Then nothing is going to work.

If you live very rural, the POTS lines are the old lines and probably haven't been updated, but we're talking about TV here.

I understand your point, but I would take issue that any phone service 40 or 50 years ago would have been more reliable than today.

No landline in TV for us, too many telemarketers.

Ohiobuckeye
 

Duh, why unless it was package deal to get internet & cable TV. If you’re at home why would anybody want a cell phone & a landline both at home. Cell phones are more convenient!

It was very reliable and was substantially upgraded in the 40s and 50s to withstand nuclear attack. My father worked for AT&T Long Lines and he spoke plenty about it. All the main central offices had what he called "Blow off buildings". All the important stuff could withstand a somewhat nearby bomb going off since it was well underground.

During the blizzard of 1977 in rural Ohio where I grew up, we had no power for almost 2 weeks but the phone worked! I can't recall the phone not working ever and we lived 10 miles outside of nowhere ;).

Ooma works well with CenturyLink fiber to the house. The Ooma box is first in line for IP packets. Our router plugs into the Ooma box.

How was this done

I've had VOIP landline for over 15 years now and just love having it for several reasons.
When I can't find my cell phone, I simply dial the cell ph# on my landline and listen for the ring to locate my cell.
I give this landline number to all businesses, so they can't tie up my cell phone.
Once I give this landline number to businesses, I find most all solicitation comes just to that landline number, not my cell.
Yes, you will lose use of this landline if internet goes out, but I've lived in TV for almost 3 years now and never once lost internet long enough to lose my landline service.
I need a landline to send faxes and it works just fine over VOIP.
Yes, the other landlines will not lose power with loss of internet, but for only $39.99 a year, I feel VOIP is a much better deal.
Just ordered a MagicJack for my friend at only $39 and it gives you one free year of service now as on a special offer. MagicJack has to be placed next to your router or computer, requires an open USB port and the main unit of your portable, wireless landline phone system has to be plugged into your router. NetTalk doesn't require use of a USB port, but not sure they're offering $39 yearly price anymore and they're not offering free 1 year of service with the purchase of their device, so better go with MagicJack.
Try it and see if it works for you!

CPR call blocker stopped the telemarketers for us on our landline.

There is nothing "DUH" about wanting to keep a landline and no, cell phones aren't necessarily more convenient.
1. Quality of sound is just better on landline. Can hear better when not distorted or breaking up.
2. Cell phone not reliable at all when signal is weak inside home and constantly dropping calls.
3. Due to the way cell phone service is set up, providers will not allow you to disable voice mail. This is a problem because ...
4. ... There is no true Call Blocking function. Blocked numbers still go to voice mail so the harassing caller can still leave a message. So call blocking on cell phones is a joke, truly useless. I even called the cell provider for options. They could not block specific numbers and their only solutions were don't listen to your voice mail or change your phone number. Those are not viable solutions!
5. At least with Spectrum landline, you can completely block numbers so your phone doesn't even ring and the caller gets a message "This number is not accepting calls at this time." What I ended up having to do is having ALL calls forwarded from my cell number to my home phone. My cell hasn't rung in 8 months. I use it for texting, Internet, playing games, and making outgoing calls when I'm NOT home.
Living with PTSD, my safety and privacy is of paramount importance. Therefore, I will never give up my landline. Everyone's mileage may vary, but is the duh attitude really necessary?

My landline deal is so cheap with crystal clear clarity. Buy OOMA on Amazon (about $75) , $75 set up, then $5.61 a month for 911 & taxes. My computer handyman charged $40 to install. OOMA is a VOIP. I use my headset with cordless phone and love it. Cell phone is for emergency only. When I go out, I don't want to be on the phone and am put off by friends who choose to take calls while we're together. Now I get up and leave. Cell phones are an unworthy addiction.

Also landline phones offer services for the disabled such as arthritis , hearing impaired , visually impaired. Wouldn’t be without these features.

Are you sure you have a wired phone line? Comcast's phone service is VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), which is why it's only $9/month. Other than Centurylink, I'm not aware of any other wired phone service in TV.

VOIP is not landline. It's VOIP. You need internet service in order for it to work. Landline doesn't require internet service. It also doesn't require electricity.

Hmm something to look into. The price you mention is about the same as we are paying and we are with xfinity a division of comcast.

Perhaps we do not have a regular land line and if so why pay for it.

We have had StraightTalk landline for a couple of years. About $16.00 a month and it is fine. Way better than prices everyone else wants.

Landline
 

1992 was the year I took out the landline and went full time to cellphones. At the time people thought I was nuts. I have Not experienced any issues in getting everything I need with the cellphone, including emergency services when required.
I do not believe in holding on to the past.

We’ve used OOMA with Comcast/Xfinity internet service here in the Villages for 2 years with no issues. We get crystal clear reception for about $5 a month. We also bring our OOMA box up north to our summer residence to use for calls because the cell reception there is very weak.

I live in Lake Deaton and have a landline with service provided by centurylink. I have not been informed that there will be a change to ATT. I have a lifetime guarantee rate with my internet package for $85.00/month. With taxes and other charges total bill is less then $105.00/month. I have no issues. Neither Comcast nor Spectrum would get me a landline without changing existing number which I had for 4 years when I lived above 466A.

Straight Talk is not landline. It's a wireless home phone base used to replace landline.

I have been here for 15 years and thank goodness for land lines. There have been many times thru storms or hurricanes , my cell phone did not work. Thank goodness I had a landline. That’s all I have to say about that

The infrastructure here does not support traditional copper lines. Any voice service is VoIP. POTS stands for plain old telephone service, but does not indicate a traditional copper line to the home.

OOMA base is bought on-line then set up at home. After that, monthly billing is $5.61 making yearly total $67.32. Your phone number is then ported. No other provider is needed. Best deal ever! Never use Magic Jack.

Holding on to the past when it provides a huge saving is equivalent to Clark Kent changing into his Superman costume and saving the world. Where is he when we need him to obliterate Covid?

OOMA provides porting your number which is why I bought OOMA to pay a yearly total of $67.32 for 911 & tax.

South of 466A (and other areas), CenturyLink is fiber optic cable to the house. This means that you don't have a "land line" in the traditional sense of copper wires. Essentially, you have CenturyLink's Voice-over-IP phone service (plus internet service). While there may be some convenience to having a "land line" from CenturyLink, you could be paying less. If you reduce your service to internet only then your price-for-life would be $49 per month (IIRC). You can then buy an Ooma box to provide essentially the same "land line" service (Voice-over-IP) you have now for about $5 per month. You can generally keep the same number by having it ported over to Ooma. I have been using Ooma for 6+ years.

We haven't had a landline in 8 years.

They can’t block number cause they Are the ones selling
Blocks of hundreds to telemarketers and scammers.