Why you should think about keeping your landline in 2025

Massive mobile network outages it can leave you stranded for hours without one of your most critical access lines to the world If your smartphone can’t make calls, what good is it? Especially in an emergency.

An AT&T outage last year took out services for more than 12 hours in many of the most populous cities in the United States, and in September, a Verizon outage caused some phones to be in SOS mode for much of the day. These interruptions serve as a reminder of the dangers of relying solely on mobile phones.

Maybe it made you rethink the place of a home device that used to be standard issue, but is now almost obsolete: the landline phone. Here’s what to consider when deciding to keep (or get) a landline.

Remember the landline?

Landlines are phones that connect to specialized wiring in our homes. The iconic image is that of a rotary telephone – usually leased from the telephone company – which is either hung on the wall or placed on a bench or table, although push-button and later landline telephones wireless replaced many of the old ones in the country. 1980. Landlines are connected to each other through a global communications network that has been built over more than a century. But as cell phones became widely available and affordable, many people chose to ditch their landlines.

A 2022 survey by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that only about 29% of American adults lived in a household with a landline, down more than 90% in 2004. The crossover happened around 2015, which was also when the sale of smartphones entered a boom period that reshaped the tech industry and helped turn it around iPhone maker Apple in one of the most appreciated companies in the world.

Ann Williams is one of those people who have not given up their landlines. When asked why she keeps her neighbor, she describes that she moved to Huntsville, Alabama, after a tornado burst on April 27, 2011, when dozens of twisters killed at least 250 people and knocked out power for days. Although he moved here after the tornadoes, hearing about the event brought home the importance of still needing a phone connection.

“The weather here is so unpredictable,” he told me in an interview. But landlines have dedicated power and often work even in an outage. “We remember a day when it was absolutely necessary to have (the landline),” Williams said.

What makes landlines more reliable?

Landlines operate on a separate infrastructure, built from copper telephone lines that are inexpensive to build and fairly reliable. They also do not have the disadvantages of cellular networks, such as dropped calls, poor and distorted quality or weak reception.

A key reason people keep landline phones around is that they tend to work even during power outages, which is a big plus for people whose work involves emergency services, business or healthcare.

Analog fax machines are also built around landline telephone systems, which means that most hospitals and doctor’s offices, as well as policy and legal offices, need to maintain a line connection. fixed

The disadvantages of the fixed line

The US Federal Communications Commission is phasing out requirements for telephone companies to provide landline services (called Plain Old Telephone Service) throughout the country. As a result, more homes and business offices are built with ethernet jacks rather than telephone jacks.

Landline phone connections are not cheap. CNET AllConnect’s corporate cousin note that AT&T’s traditional cell phone plan starts at $48 a month, and you also get to use the company for Internet. CenturyLink is cheaper, starting at $30 a month, and Spectrum charges just $20 a month.

And not all landlines use copper phone lines. Increasingly, companies are piggybacking their phone systems on their Internet connections, a service called Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP. AllConnect currently tracks only three service providers that offer old-style landlines: CenturyLink, Comcast Xfinity and Cox.

How to get a landline

If you are ready to set up with a landline, call the local telephone company and ask about the telephone services. If you live in an apartment building, it is important for you to know where the telephone junction box is. Typically, the landlord should know and, if not, the local telephone company should be able to find it.

Here are some follow-up questions you’ll want to ask, and what to look for in the answers:

• Are landlines VoIP or are they POTS? Ideally, if you are looking for security and reliability, POTS is what you want. VoIP can work, but understand that it probably relies on your Internet modem and connection to work.
• If VoIP, does the company have power backup systems to ensure that the voice line works in a power outage? Most companies sell backup batteries that you can buy directly from them. You can use an uninterruptible power supply, perhaps from CyberPower or APC. Note that these are different portable power supply. Portable power supplies allow you to stay electronically powered on the go, but those aren’t meant to continuously monitor power outages and then plug in as needed.
• Local calls are usually free, but dialing outside your area code costs. What is the fee structure? Companies like AT&T have various extra fees that they charge for domestic calls, as well as international long distance. Long distance calls in particular are usually charged by the minute, and companies don’t always publish that information on their website. Make sure you know what it will cost, and if it’s too much, consider using a chat app like Signal, WhatsApp, Google Meet or Apple FaceTime instead for your long distance calls.

What to do with a landline

If you have a fixed line, but leave it languishing, just sucking money out of your bank account every month, you are not alone. But there are some ways to make it more useful.

Google Voice is a popular option, giving you a new phone number that acts as a sort of hub. Whenever people call, Google Voice then calls whatever phone you’ve connected it to, whether it’s a home landline, cell phone, work phone, or anything else.

There are also other such services, including Zoom and RingCentralIf you don’t like working with Google.

A landline can also connect with home security systems and medical alert sensors to help ensure that if you are in an emergency, help will be there as soon as possible.

If you can’t get a landline

If you are not eligible for a landline, or you do not like the service offered, you have more options from satellite providers. Companies like HughesNet and SpaceX can support VoIP over their Internet connections.

Cell phone makers like Apple are also slowly building satellite messaging in their devices. The iPhone 14, which debuted in 2022, has a feature called Emergency SOSwhich can connect with a satellite to send location data to your friends or an emergency text to the authorities.