Talk of The Villages Florida - Are landlines becoming extinct?

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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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by yankygrl (Post 1830810)

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.

We haven't had a landline in 8 years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NavyVet (Post 1830745)

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?

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

Moved APRIL 2019, from The Villages to Lake Side Landing , next store, and Comcast cabel, Internet and old fashion land line phone service moved with us.

I have Comcast...triple play. I have a landline and I wouldn't give it up. it costs about $20/month with all 3 services

Quote:

Originally Posted by bowlingal (Post 1831089)

I have Comcast...triple play. I have a landline and I wouldn't give it up. it costs about $20/month with all 3 services

I understand that it should be about $10 per month with the triple play bundle. And, occasionally, they will offer a special where the triple play is less expensive than the double play, so they will actually pay you to take the phone service.

Regarding cellphone reliability inside your house, most (all) contemporary cellphones support Wi-Fi calling where your cellphone will essentially do a Voice-over-IP call via Wi-Fi through your router instead of using the cell towers. Our cell performance inside our house is solid.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NavyVet (Post 1830745)

2. Cell phone not reliable at all when signal is weak inside home and constantly dropping calls.

No. Love mine. Hate talking on a cell

Does anyone know if the new homes being built being provided with analog copper landlines? Or are they VOIP?

New houses are all VOIP. I have my cable modem on a UPS so the internet and phone still worked during a local blackout. Laptops with a battery worked for several hours and internet up for several hours until all the batteries died. have two UPS boxes, and one was used for powering phones when their batteries ran low as well.

You might want to think about a UPS for the cable model and the VOIP phone just in case.

sportsguy

They are, not becoming. Cell for everything. Phone co thinks differantly

Another downside to "not" having landline: Many people in the Villages don't have unlimited text and voice. Instead, they have older services provided by companies such as TracPhone, and others. That means they pay for a certain number of minutes per month. After that, the service shuts off and their phone won't work for anything but dialing 911.

If you are in a situation like I'm in right this minute, your monthly minutes would've expired by now. I'm on hold with the home warranty company. I've been on hold for almost an hour, mostly just to see how long it takes for someone to answer. It's my second time trying to get someone to answer.

I'm guessing they won't cover my AC replacement anyway. Thankfully I have unlimited talk and text. But not having unlimited talk and text is actually a thing for many Villagers.

Thanks for this thread

When we move down in 2022, we plan to have an analog landline for the emergency reasons mentioned.