Catmandoo62,

VZW WILL register your "Home Box" with the local E911 authorities (no charge).
So,that, if you or the "Supreme Commander" have "Fallen and can't get Up"...
When you dial 911 your designated location ("Home") will show on the Screens
at the local E911 center.

I'm not espousing VZW's (Or anybody else's) [Radio Frequency] Wireless Home
system...That's overkill if you've already got Cellular. Same,Same.

I.E. If,say,I've already got a "Smart" cellular it'll "DO" everything the
"Wireless Home Box" will do. AND YOU CAN CARRY IT EVERYWHERE!
BUT,Just remember if you've enabled the GPS on the "Smart" It can
Not only tell E911 where you are... BUT EVERYONE ELSE TOO!

__________________
'84 300SD sold
124.128

I also have a landline powered phone; it always works, even when the power is out.

and it's connected to an an answering machine that filters all incoming calls. If someone want's to speak with me they can leave a message and I'll return the call when it's convenient for me. I have a cell phone that I only turn on if I want to make a call.
These devices are for MY convenience.

__________________
“Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.” ― Robert A. Heinlein

Landines require wires, which makes them more susceptible to going down during storms.
This myth that they are in any way more reliable than a cell is erroneous at best, and is generally a defense mechanism of people who don't like change.

We ditched the landline years ago and have been using an Obi with a google voice number.
$40 for the box, free phone service in the US, Canada, Mexico and a few other places I never need to call.
Did I mention that there is no monthly fee?

I connected the box to the house wiring in the last house so all the jacks would work, but got sick of seeing the dinosaur on the wall, so when we moved I just hooked it to a set of double receiver wireless phones.

__________________
On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

So what are you using?

Supposedly the land line is more secure for eavesdropping, legal or otherwise.

Wires are underground in properly built cities. My landline has literally NEVER been down in 4.5 years, including during Sandy. Also, cell towers apparently have poor backup power capacity. During an extended blackout, the cell network will go down much quicker than land lines.

Oh yeah, and ...
ned-LUDD-ned-LUDD-ned-LUDD-ned-LUDD-ned-LUDD-YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAH!

You are incorrect on almost everything you said, except maybe the part about you home phone service not going down in 4.5 years.

Some of us don't live in cities....

Cell tower power back-up can be limited in long term power outages, but many have gone to generator after the problem came to light after some of the big storms in the last few years.

__________________
On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

I may also add that most cell/VoIP connections sound like a steaming pile of week-old excrement with flies buzzing around it.

I wouldn't know myself since I don't nose around steaming piles of excrement with flies. I guess I will have to take your expert word for it. I have used VoIP and definitely have a cell that I use way more than the landline but I can't say that I can hear that much of a difference every time. All I can say is that it works well enough. Again, I must confess that I haven't gone into measuring sound quality with instruments so all I can say is that I haven't found any functional difference between a cell phone and a landline. I don't think I will be trying to listen to symphonies on either anytime soon.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

I haven't had a landline since 2006.

__________________
Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

Just recently dumped mine in favor of Verizon wireless service. I was using a tracfone prepaid along with Fairpoint for my landline. Verizon has a network extender that uses my high speed internet to give me four bars all throughout the house and they ported my landline number to my new cell phone.

The cost is roughly the same, but I don't come home to messages, I have caller id, all that good stuff I refused to pay for before.

As for outages, I have a generator or can walk to decent service.

For the discriminating Phonephile like yourself.

http://brick.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/hurricane-sandy-wiped-out-its-telephone-lines-so-mantoloking-goes-cellular-brick

The c*nts from Verizon tried that in Fire Island, NY. Fortunately, the state Attorney General slapped down that idea like a cheap prostitute who had spend all of her pimp's money on crack. Score one for NY! Glad to have a nanny government that actually fights the more retarded ideas of Big Corp.

(Fire Island is getting FiOS, which is an improvement over copper landlines and uses a separate, non-IP protocol for voice signalling. It's amazing that Verizon received millions of dollars to roll out high-speed fiber-to-the-premises in NJ, yet is now welching on that promise.)

No voice landline for years. Had DSL until a few months ago. Still have a multifunction printer/fax/scanner that hasn't seen a FAX in forever. Still don't want a smartphone but I think that is probably a somewhat self-defeating attitude. Too much stuff and too little time.