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!