Telephones -- Whatcha got?

[Hawkmoon]

I just became aware of a (new?) scam involving Craigs List and Google Voice. All uncharted territory for me, but it started me wondering. In my late wife's native country, even ten years ago very few people had a land line telephone in the house, but EVERYONE had a cell phone. I knew a lot of people in the U.S. then who still had land lines, but I'm curious how much that may have changed. I'd like to get some idea of how many people have dropped landlines entirely and rely completely on cell phones for telephonic communications.

Does any one have only a land line (no cell phone)?

Does anyone have a land line for phone and a second land line for fax?

Does anyone still have separate land lines for teen-aged daughters?

Does anyone rely completely on a cell phone (or phones -- plural) for everything?


[Edit to add]For the sake of not burning out too many of my remaining gray cells, let's go with the assumption that a physical telephone that connects to the outside world using VOIP is still a "land line."

[MillCreek]

I have a cell phone and a physical phone on my home desk that is connected to my Google Voice account.  No landline per se.

[Hawkmoon]

I have a cell phone and a physical phone on my home desk that is connected to my Google Voice account.  No landline per se.

I don't know anything about Google Voice. How can it connect to a physical telephone if you don't have a land line?

[Boomhauer]

Haven’t had a landline in six years. I’m cell phone only at home.

Never had a fax line when we had land lines. Only a couple places I worked had fax lines and fax machines (junky ass *expletive deleted*it that never worked right, PDF emailed is the way to go)

Fairly certain extremely few, If any teens these days have a landline at home.

Our business phones at work are all VOIP.

[Big Hairy Bee]

Cell phone only for about the last 15 years.  School phone (landline) in my classroom

[charby]

I have not had a landline since Dec 2003.

[Ben]

Cell only for the last 7 or 8 years. Physical number + Google voice number, and I use Google Duo quite a bit now too, especially for talking to relatives in Germany.

[bedlamite]

I've still got a landline with DSL. It's about the only option for internet out here since I'm in a cellphone hole. I have to go about 1-2 miles either way to get a decent cell signal.

[MillCreek]

I don't know anything about Google Voice. How can it connect to a physical telephone if you don't have a land line?

I use this handy device and connect it to my desk phone with a conventional phone cord. 

https://www.amazon.com/Obihai-OBi200-Adapter-Support-Service/dp/B07FCS1NGM/ref=asc_df_B07FCS1NGM/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=241895556407&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6062755305592693779&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9033354&hvtargid=pla-597257382428&psc=1

Having a conventional phone with a handset I can hold up to my ear works better for my hearing loss than using the brick-like cellphone.  I bought a desk phone that also connects to my cell phone via Bluetooth.  So line 1 is my Google Voice number and line 2 is my cellphone.

https://www.amazon.com/PANASONIC-Bluetooth-Answering-Reduction-One-Touch/dp/B00V5ZJRNU/ref=sr_1_7?crid=3UNTMHU7VJN5&dchild=1&keywords=panasonic+link2cell&qid=1592965911&s=electronics&sprefix=panasonic+li%2Celectronics%2C253&sr=1-7

[Nick1911]

I'm at the age where cell phones were becoming very ubiquitous when I was becoming an adult.  So, I've only ever had a cell phone.

I kinda consider landlines pretty much dead technology, and conventional fax machines a VERY dead technology.

[Hawkmoon]

Cell only for the last 7 or 8 years. Physical number + Google voice number, and I use Google Duo quite a bit now too, especially for talking to relatives in Germany.

Obviously, my ignorance is showing here but that's how I learn. What does "Physical number + Google voice number" mean? If you only have a cell phone, how do you have a "physical" number?

[Perd Hapley]

We ditched our land line several years ago, as Mrs. Spam was the only one calling. Everyone we wanted to talk to was calling our cell phones.

At work we use the usual office phones found in every office. VOIP

Even my 70-ish parents gave up their landline.

[Cliffh]

Because cell reception out here is spotty, we've got a landline.  Had to use it as a fax line at least once last year.

[dogmush]

Cell phone only, probably for 6 or 7 years.  I ran the landline (the actual copper coming out of the house) in the new house over with the lawnmower right after we moved in, and we never bothered to fix it.

[230RN]

Because cell reception out here is spotty, we've got a landline.  Had to use it as a fax line at least once last year.

Ditto here.  I sometimes have to slowly wave the cell phone around up high to hopefully catch a stray reflection from a tower.  There are a number of reflecting and absorbing objects around here which screw up line-of-sight E-M signals.

"System" at present:

Copper-wired voice phone line with DSL for my router.  I also have a conventional answering machine which filters out a lot of no-voice calls and is therefore easy to clean up.

Also have that flip-phone for emergencies which is never on except rare circumstances.  I probably have billions and billions of messages on the flip phone, but I never bother to look at them or clean them out since anyone I would want to talk to knows I don't use it for incoming.  (They know the number so they can recognize it if I call them on the flip phone.)

Thinking of revamping the system through Consumer Cellular, don't know yet if they can match my requirements.  One problem I have is visual on a smart phone.  It would seem I need to either get bifocals to handle the data side or constantly switch eyeglasses while dealing with it.

So presently:

Flip phone for outgong calls only, sometimes hard to get a connection from in the house.

Hard-wired phoneline for power failures and answering machine use, plus DSL for computer.

This may soon change when the daily challenges on other crap go down and I can take it off the back burner and deal with it.

Terry

Edited to add "and absorbing."

[K Frame]

I still have a land line.

I would have cancelled it a couple of years ago but when I called Verizon to do so it would have been more expensive to get rid of it because of the discounts I had on my FIOS packages. So I kept it.

I've not actually made a phone call on it in a long time. About 10 years ago I started using my cell phone more and more, and quit giving out the land line, and now it's just spammers calling on the land line. I turned off the ringer and the answering machine some months ago.

Now that I'm working for AT&T I'm going to cancel the phone and TV service with Verizon and just stick with internet (AT&T doesn't provide internet in my area, unfortunately.)

I may port the old landline number over to Google voice, but I just don't see much, if any, point in it.

[RoadKingLarry]

Still have a copper land line at the house. We're far enough out that a cell phone is only about 95% OK but not always so.
We have power killing storms with enough frequency for me to want to keep the reliability of the land line. The last big ice storm that took out our power left us in the dark for 6 days. It also knocked out all the cell towers. We never lost dial tone on the land line and as son as I was able to get a generator on line we had DSL as well.
AT&T had a hell of a time getting cell service back up. The power crews were dropping portable generators at the cell tower sites and they would generally disappear as soon as the sun set, even lost a couple of big trailer mounted diesel generator set ups.

[Ben]

Obviously, my ignorance is showing here but that's how I learn. What does "Physical number + Google voice number" mean? If you only have a cell phone, how do you have a "physical" number?

Physical number is the number on the phone's sim card. The Google Voice numbers are "virtual" numbers and you can have many of them. Others offer similar. Verizon does "my numbers" for up to four lines, but at $15 per each extra line.

[230RN]

Thanks for asking, Hawkmoon.  :)

And thanks for answering, Ben. :)

Additional question:  If you call out on one of your virtual numbers, can a party call back at that virtual number?  Or are they one of those ^&^&!!*&^% numbers where you get "the number that you called cannot be reached?"

Those tick me off no end.

Terry

[Ben]

Thanks for asking, Hawkmoon.  :)

And thanks for answering, Ben. :)

Additional question:  If you call out on one of your virtual numbers, can a party call back at that virtual number?  Or are they one of those ^&^&!!*&^% numbers where you get "the number that you called cannot be reached?"

Those tick me off no end.

Terry

Calling in is seamless.

[TechMan]

We have a landline and internet service through cable.  SWMBO has a cell from work (public school district) and a personal cell and I have a cell through work.  We keep the landline as a throw away and also for the kiddos, if 911 is ever needed they can dial that and just lay it down and I know emergency services will respond to the right address.

[BlueStarLizzard]

Dad and I gave up the land line like over ten years ago. The line was messed up and Everytime it rained, the phone didn't work. The phone company wouldn't fix it, so Dad stopped paying.

I might end up with a land line. The cable company seems to think I need one and won't let me change my cable package without adding their landline deal too it, and they keep raising the price on my old deal (internet and the cheapest TV package)
If I try to go internet only, it's like $300 a month. 

[Fly320s]

Dad and I gave up the land line like over ten years ago. The line was messed up and Everytime it rained, the phone didn't work. The phone company wouldn't fix it, so Dad stopped paying.

I might end up with a land line. The cable company seems to think I need one and won't let me change my cable package without adding their landline deal too it, and they keep raising the price on my old deal (internet and the cheapest TV package)
If I try to go internet only, it's like $300 a month. 

Call again and mention that because of Covid19 restrictions, you can't afford the current rate.  It might work.

I recently changed from internet/cable/phone with Comcast to internet-only.  They didn't even put up a fight when I told them I wanted to change.

For OP, we have cellphones only now.  I do have a multifunction printer that can do fax, but that just goes to my PC now.

[zxcvbob]

We still have a land line, but it's with the cable company now.  (every once in a while I check to see if my old rotary phones still work).  The VOIP is not nearly as reliable as Ma Bell; apparently the cable company does not have battery backup, so even if I do the phones don't work if the lose power at the central office.  The old phone lines are all battery operated so they never lose power.

I have a cheap Android phone on Boost Mobile (used to be Virgin.)  Wife has an expensive Verizon iPhone plan.  She's on her phone all the time; I don't use mine much.  Mainly all the calls we get on the land line are tele-scammers.  I can hear a lot better with a real telephone handset, so when family calls they usually know to call on the landline.

[Hawkmoon]

Call again and mention that because of Covid19 restrictions, you can't afford the current rate.  It might work.

I recently changed from internet/cable/phone with Comcast to internet-only.  They didn't even put up a fight when I told them I wanted to change.

For OP, we have cellphones only now.  I do have a multifunction printer that can do fax, but that just goes to my PC now.

When I switched from (extremely unreliable, plus extremely slow) DSL to cable Internet, the cable company lobbied hard for me to get their phone service, too. They finally gave up when I pointed out that I have two landlines, one of which is a dedicated fax line. I asked flat out if they could guarantee that my fax machine would work with their phone system -- they couldn't, so I stayed with my land lines.

And I also will always keep at least one old-fashioned telephone on the land line. The problem with the new sets that have a base station/answering machine and several wireless handsets is that if the power goes off -- the phones don't work. With a "real" telephone, if the line is still up the phone works, even if there's no electricity.