The End of the Landline
A couple of old phones I have. They are now art, instead of functional.
Show of hands, who still has a landline? Unless you are living in a place with no cellular service, I can see no reason to have an old timey hard-lined telephone. Last November, after the big lifestyle change, we cut our landlines. Yes, that is not a typo, we had two of them. We'd had the lines since we bought the house in the 90s. One of them was used for voice, and the second one we considered the fax line. Yes, as a person that over the years has dealt with numerous large banks, large employers with ancient processes, mortgage companies, insurance companies, lawyers, and tons of other businesses, having the ability to physically sign and fax a document from my own home was nice. It was especially nice after being on the phone for hours with one of the aforementioned organizations and ending the call with "I got and printed the email you just sent, and I just faxed a signed copy to you."
You see, our second landline was hooked up to our multi-function printer/fax/scanner/copier. That beast of a multi-function printer died recently, the landline just received robo calling spam, so it was time. It got me thinking, why do we cling to such items as landlines? In my case it was probably habit, as I was using the advantages less and less. If you have a landline, here are a list of reasons to get rid of it:
You already have a mobile phone, and most likely when you are giving out a telephone number you are giving out your mobile number, not your landline. That’s half the battle right there.
The scenario of a power outage at your home and your phone isn't charged is not a good reason to have a landline. You have "procedures" in dealing with a drained phone battery when you're away from the house, so do that at home. You know, go to the car, start it, and charge your phone in the car. Or use that solar charger your Uncle bought you, the one he bought because he had no idea what to get you for Christmas. Or use that portable charger you carry with you during travel. Or go to Starbucks.
Any call to 911 can be made from a mobile phone, they are used to dealing with it. You don't have to have a landline to make it more "secure". In fact, one could argue that it is safer to call 911 with a mobile phone. When that maniac is chasing you with a sickle you can stay on the phone with the 911 operator, describing your fear while running with your mobile phone. With the landline you can run about ten feet.
It's 2019. I mean damn.
I hope this helps. Well, at least it helped me.
I always hated people with zeroes in their number, took forever on a rotary phone to call them.
