Let us know if you have a land line telephone and what circumstances dictate you have this technology in your home.

How else would I send all my faxes?

I have one! It's connected to a Bluetooth device and paired to my regular phone so it's not like it has its own number or anything. It rings and you can dial it on it, so it's fully functional.

The reason - idk, just because? It's decorative and sits on the dry bar and goes with the decor.

That phone is pretty cool looking!

Thanks! It was my grandma's, and it's hilarious watching the kids try to use it to call my mom. They kept trying to push their finger through the holes and push the number like it's a button.

I also have the black one that was in my (other side) grandpa's desk. It still has the old number on the piece of paper in the middle of the dial, and it starts with YU4-####.

I don't use that one because the dial doesn't turn back fast enough for it to work right but it takes calls just fine.

We do because we live very rural and no cell service in our area is good. I don't want to have an emergency on our ranch or have bad weather and not be able to reach out.

That was my first phone I had in my room, only green.

When I got my first apartment I thought a black rotary phone would add a timeless retro touch to my bachelor pad. So I bought one off eBay.

Dialing a rotary phone is a PIA. I got rid of it after a month.

Have one in our western nc cabin. Cell service is very spotty so we have one in case of emergency.

I did til a few years ago.

I remember being a kid and during heavy storms when the power failed, the phone would ALWAYS STILL WORK! I wanted the reliability if everything else went to hell.

When I found out the phone isn't even using the old copper lines that made them so reliable, I started adding up how often I used it. I hadn't answered that phone, or placed a call on it for 3 years. That's when I got rid of it. They're all internet based VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) lines now.

I can still remember the phone # we had growing up. The ultimate status symbol was one of those 25 foot cords for the handset, so you could talk on the phone to your girlfriend in your room instead of the hall. Now if you had parents that were smart, they'd get a separate line just for the kids.

It's a bundle with our cable and interweb.

That is cool.

A family friend has one only bc it's bundled with their cable and internet and it would cost them more to get rid of it

Wolfpac 08 said:

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A family friend has one only bc it's bundled with their cable and internet and it would cost them more to get rid of it

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Suddenlink was terrible about that. Fought those *******s for 4 years because I didn't want a landline but they kept putting it on my bill

I have one so my daughter can stay home by herself for short periods and have a way to make an emergency call if needed.

I remember when Mom swapped out the heavy black rotary for a 'new' updated phone. It looked just like that but was olive green. I would love to have one again just for grins.

We have a voip land line, not analog. Used to have it for kids when they stayed home. Now I keep it as my emergency business line in case clients have issues during the night. I turn off my cell ringer cause people like to text me at 3AM to
make vacation payments.

In my home office, yes.

Maybe. Don't be so judgmental

I'm under 70. I have a land line . (I'm an '80, and graduated when I was 21, so you can use an iphone or AI to figure my age.)

Reason : Rural residence, small hills block coverage for smart phones - so a landline is very useful when the internet connection and/or power goes out.

For the same reason, I have DISH.

I'm 67 and got rid of mine in 2013 when I sold my business. All cell from that point. I've got places to go and people to see.

The Fife said:

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I have one! It's connected to a Bluetooth device and paired to my regular phone so it's not like it has its own number or anything. It rings and you can dial it on it, so it's fully functional.

The reason - idk, just because? It's decorative and sits on the dry bar and goes with the decor.

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Pretty cool how you have it all set up.

Thanks! There's other glass stuff on the countertop along with a lava lamp. The house is midcentury modern and I mostly do things that play nicely with it

I would be thrilled and would welcome landlines if we could collectively get rid of cellphones

In 2018 or 2019 I went cellphone free for 6 months. But that was due to my crazy ex wife steadily accusing me of cheating. My choice, not hers.

The Fife said:

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I have one! It's connected to a Bluetooth device and paired to my regular phone so it's not like it has its own number or anything. It rings and you can dial it on it, so it's fully functional.

The reason - idk, just because? It's decorative and sits on the dry bar and goes with the decor.

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The 1972 ashtray is on point.

I am a telecom design engineer and yes, people still have them, and they are miserable to work with. Fewer people know how to maintain and work on them, all the systems are archaic and ancient, you can't get most replacement equipment any longer, theives keep stealing the copper phone cables more and more often and boldly, and you can't shut down all these expensive to operate and maintain systems if one person still wants to keep their obsolete line working. It's a bit of job security for me as I still know the stuff but it needs to go away. There's no reason not to use fiber or wireless or satellite today.

MouthBQ98 said:

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I am a telecom design engineer and yes, people still have them, and they are miserable to work with. Fewer people know how to maintain and work on them, all the systems are archaic and ancient, you can't get most replacement equipment any longer, theives keep stealing the copper phone cables more and more often and boldly, and you can't shut down all these expensive to operate and maintain systems if one person still wants to keep their obsolete line working. It's a bit of job security for me as I still know the stuff but it needs to go away. There's no reason not to use fiber or wireless or satellite today.

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Would landlines still work in the event of some sort of cyber attack that could knock those other means offline?

As we move through this digital age, I often wonder how smart it would be to keep some analog stuff around in case of some apocalypse or an event where entire satellite and cellular networks are down. Like short wave radios you seen in the movies.

Sort of. At some point, they hit powered electronic equipment, and especially today they are digitized at central offices for transport over fiber like any other data, so they are equally vulnerable anything that harms sensitive electronics. Maybe in the third world they still use simplified analog/mechanical switches.

There is some hardening against outages at the central offices, and most cell sites and remote equipment sites have battery backup power but only for about 8 hours or so of typical use, which is enough time to get portable generators set up if there isn't a widespread outage affecting more sites than available generators and work crews.

Copper lines are vulnerable to induction and attenuation and they have to be properly grounded and bonded or they will become too noisy to send a useable signal. They will work when there isn't power at the customer end but only as long as the 48v power is maintained at the phone company equipment sites and offices. The same power backs up the rest of the network for the most part so it is really no more or less reliable.

Doctor Rosenrosen said:

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The Fife said:

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I have one! It's connected to a Bluetooth device and paired to my regular phone so it's not like it has its own number or anything. It rings and you can dial it on it, so it's fully functional.

The reason - idk, just because? It's decorative and sits on the dry bar and goes with the decor.

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The 1972 ashtray is on point.

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Ashtray must not be functional because in those years it would always be full of butts and a steady stream of smoke rising from the one that was still lit

Hey Nav said:

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I'm under 70. I have a land line . (I'm an '80, and graduated when I was 21, so you can use an iphone or AI to figure my age.)

Reason : Rural residence, small hills block coverage for smart phones - so a landline is very useful when the internet connection and/or power goes out.

For the same reason, I have DISH.

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^^^^^ This

Doctor Rosenrosen said:

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The Fife said:

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I have one! It's connected to a Bluetooth device and paired to my regular phone so it's not like it has its own number or anything. It rings and you can dial it on it, so it's fully functional.

The reason - idk, just because? It's decorative and sits on the dry bar and goes with the decor.

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The 1972 ashtray is on point.

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I made sure to keep it - my grandma didn't smoke but had the ashtray around for change and the keys to her Delta 88 to go in.

I live in an area with bad cell coverage. For that reason we had an old copper landline (and for emergencies in general). However, for the first time ever last year, a storm knocked out our landline. That pushed us to move to a VOIP and save about 2/3.

I will say this, ATT is bunch of fargin iceholes about copper landline support. They tried to forces us a couple years back to drop the copper version when their line got cut.

Concerning living in a rural area (and using AT&T, which i have no issues with) what's the best way to get sat comm?

Hey Nav said:

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Concerning living in a rural area (and using AT&T, which i have no issues with) what's the best way to get sat comm?

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The new iPhones have the ability to be in a sat phone mode for emergencies. I haven't really used it but obviously you have to be outside and out from under trees and such.

My 3rd grader had this novel idea the other day. She told me they should invent a phone we could put in the living room that everyone could use.