Do you keep a local line phone?

[KBecks]

I'm thinking of maybe dumping our local line and replacing with a cell. The only reason I keep it is for 911 being able to locate us. Do you keep a land line?

[niccig]

We have to as our cell coverage is very spotty, and that's all the carriers. Damn canyon hills. My ILs don't have a land line, they get great reception, but they have to remember to always have their phones charged.

[kayte]

We just got rid of our land line. We had Vonage previously and it let us look online and see how many minutes we actually used it --it came out to be a lot more than more minutes on our cells.

[infomama]

That is exactly why I kept the land line...911. $16/month is a small price to pay for the assurance that police or EMS could locate us in case of an emergency. Cell 911 calls can be routed to a central call center and dropped before reaching the proper agency. Not a chance I am willing to take when we need help.

[SnuggleBuggles]

We use our land line. I am not totally convinced on the safety of cell phones even though I use mine. I just wouldn't want to use it all the time. Plus, I like to keep my cell number private (only friends and family have it). I wouldn't want to be getting solicitations and other calls on my cell.

Beth

[Mommy Of A Little Angel]

We keep a land line because we have an alarm system so it's required. If not for that, we probably wouldn't (though we'd probably go back to Vonage if that we the case because we had great cheap service with them!)

[Ceepa]

We're keeping our land line. We aren't the best about charging (or locating) our cell when we need it.

[WatchingThemGrow]

We keep our cells in a certain spot at night- when we have to call 911 for random things -you know, drunk neighbor flips his car at 3:30 am right by our driveway, that sort of stuff. We've never lost a call to 911 and we do call a lot. Coverage is great in our house/area, and DH is amazing at charging our phones.

[writermama]

we keep a land line for both the 911 thing as well as the emergency access thing.

Sure there's no guarantee that in an emergency the land circuits won't be busy, too ... but it gives us one more thing to try if we're desperately trying to get a call out or if power is out for a prolonged time and we can't recharge cells. We also keep at least one phone in the house with a cord so it will work in a power outage.

On edit: IIRC, the phone companies are required by law to give you a line just for 911 if you request it. I beleive it is free, or if not, very low cost. It might be a good idea to have as a back-up if you switch to cells for all of your normal calling.

[3blackcats]

I don't know how to answer. We have a land line in the fact that we have a phone that stays at home. But, it's VoIP service through our cable company. So, it's not the typical land line, but it does stay in the house.