I like my landline for a few reasons:

- It's used when I have to give a number but I don't really want to give my number. But this is becoming infrequent with the phone. I much more often use a Yahoo address for this same purpose - online transactions, other businesses or entities where I'm asked for an e-mail address. Only if it's personal or important do I use my main e-mail. The success is measured in the amount of spam each address receives (one a fair bit, the other almost never), and how relatively little I'm pestered by people or entities I don't want to talk to.

- For work it's a valuable back-up. Phone interviewees get my landline as a back-up in case I don't pick up my cell or in the rare event my cell might not work when I'm at home. It's helped me often enough that it's been worth the expense. We also have a landline at the North Kawartha site, but the line there seems to go down whenever the power goes out because the two are carried on the same pole - it's a rural thing, and I've long considered ditching it, except that it could be a lifeline in the event of an emergency. I have also heard that the lines will go dead after a couple days during a prolonged outage there ... we've had up to two weeks in a go, and indeed the landline never lasts long.

- I know people in my age cohort - early-mid 60s - who don't have a cellphone and don't want one. There's lots of reasons I don't like them, as well. They're intrusive, some people expect 24/7 availability, and more. There's some things I like - the ability to text rather than talk can be quick and efficient, and it's handy in many ways on the road.

In the end it's much like door-to-door postal service, or frankly postal service at all save for packages. And cash (which I find worrisome). And radio. Darwin is coming for them all.

 

Last edited by Saul (Today 9:10 am)

RadioAaron wrote:

Bell has been aggressively moving people off of POTS for years now. If you've moved home services to/from Bell, moved, or upgraded your internet, you're probably already VOIP.

There will always be mistakes and outliers like in the article, but the transition has been largely unnoticeable.
 

I have my landline phone service with Tek Savvy, which I think piggybacks on Bell lines. But I can say there have been a few occasions over the years (specifically the December 2013 ice storm) when that phone line was my outlet to the outside world for days. That taught me the importance of having a back-up. It will be a weird felling if it goes. But for the moment, I haven't received any notice about changes. So I'll ride with it as long as it goes.

And for the record, I'm not an iconoclast, but I really, really hate my cell phone. It's unnecessarily complicated for most of my needs, it's horribly intrusive, and it gets in the way most of the time. I probably use it less than anyone here. But it's a necessity these days, so it's not going anywhere. 

RadioAaron wrote:

Tek Savvy home phone is VOIP.

Not what they told me. It works even when my home connection is down or the power is out. Can VOIP do that?

So when is this going to happen?

You can still have home phone if you have home internet. It's just a change in the way it's delivered. You'd never notice day-to-day. The numbers aren't publicly available, but it must be the majority of home phone customers that have already been switched.

I had Rogers home phone for a bit almost twenty years ago and the phone "modem" had a battery backup. The thing was relatively big and heavy and the battery didn't last very long - but it worked. I'm sure they could make a smaller, longer-lasting one now, but the demand must not be there.

Last edited by RadioAaron (Today 12:59 pm)

The Weed wrote:

"=12pxThe answer is simple: in the event of a true emergency or a blackout, that phone always, always works - something I can't definitively say about my cell service."

I always thought the same. However, in one instance, the power went out in our neighbourhood and not only did we lose electrical, we of course lost internet and cell service, but I also lost my Bell POTS landline. I'm on the border of York and Etobicoke east of the Humber River. Now on Rogers VOIP.

Question: Was your POTS phone one of those cordless models? They depend on electricity. I have a very old corded phone that plugs into a wall outlet. That's the only one that kept working when the juice disappeared. And boy, was I happy it was there!

Bell only has the original copper on my street in Mississauga.Fiber came down main community road 10 years ago then nothing. They are losing many potential customers .No upgrade notices here.

RadioActive wrote:

The Weed wrote:

"=12pxThe answer is simple: in the event of a true emergency or a blackout, that phone always, always works - something I can't definitively say about my cell service."

I always thought the same. However, in one instance, the power went out in our neighbourhood and not only did we lose electrical, we of course lost internet and cell service, but I also lost my Bell POTS landline. I'm on the border of York and Etobicoke east of the Humber River. Now on Rogers VOIP.

Question: Was your POTS phone one of those cordless models? They depend on electricity. I have a very old corded phone that plugs into a wall outlet. That's the only one that kept working when the juice disappeared. And boy, was I happy it was there!

It had a battery backup. I also have an old rotary phone stored away. I plugged it in and still no service on the POTS line. One and only time I remember losing a POTS line in Toronto.
 

The Weed wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

The Weed wrote:

"=12pxThe answer is simple: in the event of a true emergency or a blackout, that phone always, always works - something I can't definitively say about my cell service."

I always thought the same. However, in one instance, the power went out in our neighbourhood and not only did we lose electrical, we of course lost internet and cell service, but I also lost my Bell POTS landline. I'm on the border of York and Etobicoke east of the Humber River. Now on Rogers VOIP.

Question: Was your POTS phone one of those cordless models? They depend on electricity. I have a very old corded phone that plugs into a wall outlet. That's the only one that kept working when the juice disappeared. And boy, was I happy it was there!

It had a battery backup. I also have an old rotary phone stored away. I plugged it in and still no service on the POTS line. One and only time I remember losing a POTS line in Toronto.
 

All phones require electricity. The more basic corded ones get it from the phone line itself, and that source is subject to outages like any other.