Landline On The Farm

Spudm · Jan 13, 2015

I like my landline phone, however I have been thinking about VOIP, you know like Magic Jack or Basic Talk. Anyone with first-hand experience care to comment about it?

David G · Jan 13, 2015

I am changing over to VOIP with my speedconnect internet service.

GeneMO · Jan 13, 2015

I dropped the landline to my farm shop when I looked at the itemized bill and realized that the fees, taxes, surcharges, line use charges, etc. added up to be more $$ than the actual service itself. Have to pay the cost of Al Gores initiative to get internet into all the poor areas of the city. That was one of the charges.

Our home phone, we disconected that a few months ago. All we were getting was scam calls, surveys, and political ads.

Sure if more peacefull now without that danged thing ringing.

Gene

paul · Jan 13, 2015

How does one get good high speed Internet out on the farm when you cut the landline? You have non-DSL options?

Cable ends miles away, and everyone else has data limits.

Paul

JohnDY · Jan 14, 2015

Have Basic Talk and it works okay. Can call just about anywhere in the country with it.

rrlund · Jan 14, 2015

We've got Verizon wireless home phone. The bill is low like they promised,but there's a delay when you're having a conversation that drives me nuts. If you're talking to somebody who's on a cell phone it's even worse.

Spudm · Jan 14, 2015

Right, a separate cable line comes in for the high speed internet.(Ethernet)

Spudm · Jan 14, 2015

Yes, this is what I'm talking about! Thank you.

lenray · Jan 14, 2015

Randy----we went with Verzion from what I read about you going that direction.
It is working perfect for us up here in Claretucky--no delay and cheap............

Spudm · Jan 14, 2015

Basic talk seems to be a better option, just not sure how dependable it is.

mkirsch · Jan 14, 2015

If you watch those cell phone commercials where they show maps of the cellular coverage, there are still large areas of this country where even Verizon doesn't go. For the people that live there the only choice is a landline.

If you all keep cancelling your landline services, these people are going to be unable to afford landline service, and may not be able to get landline service at all!

Within the next few years you are going to start hearing about people sitting dead in their homes for months before being discovered out in remote areas of places like Montana, because they couldn't call for help, because meanies like you are cancelling your landline services and putting the phone company out of business.

Shame on you.

Spudm · Jan 14, 2015

I don't know about that....
I do know my present landline phone company has been trying to convince me to go wireless inside the house for years. It's all about the money I guess, as landline phone lines are expensive to maintain & repair.

Icuby · Jan 14, 2015

I am on a farm and have high speed verizon wireless

Texasmark1 · Jan 14, 2015

I pay just under $50 for the land line here. Lot of money for little use. However when I want to transact personal information business, I prefer that to airways traffic that anybody can intercept. So I have that and a cell. I primarily use the cell as a telephone number book. Call few people.

Mark

rrlund · Jan 14, 2015

I really need to go to Radio Shack and talk to them about it. Two of my brothers,three quarters of a mile away have it and they say there's no delay in theirs either. I don't know if I have a bad box or what.

Spudm · Jan 14, 2015

There are some things I like about the hard-wired landline phone, like if the power goes out, it still works, it works well with the E911 system and fax machines.
Now the phone company can have your landline phone working off a tower instead of a wire! They are encouraging this not only to save you money, but the company as well. Problem is, if the power goes out, so does your phone service at home.

Casey in Ky · Jan 14, 2015

Don't let anybody kid you, the whole reason every telecommunications provider is pushing anything but landlines is all the other services are deregulated. When landlines are gone, and they will eventually be completely gone, you will be solely at these companies mercy. These cheap prices on everything but landlines will be gone and what little customer service they provide now will be even less. When was the last time you ever heard somebody say how much they love their cable company(any of them, pick one, comcast, time warner, cox, charter, suddenlink)? That's because its all deregulated service and they can pretty much treat you however they see fit. After all, what are you going to do, go to another provider?? When they're all the same, it doesn't really matter. I'll have my landline till my dieing day or they turn it off. Pots service still works better than anything else out there at what it was design to do.

Texasmark1 · Jan 14, 2015

Down here we have no mountains and don't need microwaves to transmit signals. Relay stations have backup generators. How do you thing the power company finds out that you have no power when you have a storm and the power goes out? Your land line phone. Have never had a problem my entire life even in the most severe of weather that shuts down cell towers and satellite signals and all that kind of stuff.

I don't like the bill but I just have to "suck it up" and pay the price.

Mark

Don-Wi · Jan 14, 2015

For a landline to work in a power outage, you need an old school corded phone with no electronic gizmos to it. Not many people have one of those any more. No power and a cordless landline phone is a paper weight.

Meanwhile I can pick up my cell phone which has a spare battery and a car charger and call the power company.

In a disaster like a tornado, all bets are off. Of course they kinda know if a storm that bad rolls through the area, and no power is the least of your concerns.

Donovan from Wisconsin

mkirsch · Jan 14, 2015

(quoted from post at 08:35:14 01/14/15) Don't let anybody kid you, the whole reason every telecommunications provider is pushing anything but landlines is all the other services are deregulated.

Yes, deregulated and therefore PROFITABLE.

Landline service is totally UNprofitable because the government dictates how much they can charge, and what service they have to provide even if it costs more to provide the service than they bring in. Forced bankruptcy.

Either landline is going to go away or it will belong to the government. Actually I might be all for it if everyone got a free landline courtesy of your tax dollars, and maybe some other entitlements got eliminted, but that's not gonna happen. It will just be government funded and you'll still have to pay a bill if you want landline service.

rview_ · Jan 14, 2015

(quoted from post at 15:34:13 01/14/15) I really need to go to Radio Shack and talk to them about it. Two of my brothers,three quarters of a mile away have it and they say there's no delay in theirs either. I don't know if I have a bad box or what.

My aunt had a Verizon one and her first one acted the way you say, she got a replacement and no issues. Had it for years now, no delay, quality talking to her is just as good as the landline was, no delay. Could also be a signal issue. You could have them bring their box over to try at your place, and yours at theirs, etc.

I have the Straight Talk version going through my Wilson booster. Sounds much better than the poor quality landline did (no static or disconnects, etc.). 9 miles from the Verizon tower with trees in between. The box is very much the same, same company makes it, same features, and it uses the same Verizon towers. About $16 per month with tax. I only have prepaid cell phones so I didn't have a bundle deal to get it cheaper on Verizon directly.

rview_ · Jan 14, 2015

I have a Panasonic multiple handset system. If the power goes off, any handset in the main base will power the whole system for a while (cordless works in power outage). But I also keep a corded around.

The wireless home phone devices from Verizon and Straight talk have batteries in them, they work a few hours if the power goes off.

Also, the closest tower is 9 miles away, then a couple in different directions 20-30 miles away, which I could pull a cell signal off of before they put in this newer close one. Odds of all of them going down at the same time is quite slim. I had to think hard about dropping the landline, but no Internet coming from them any time soon (and $50 on top of the landline for 1 meg isn't desirable for what they have now if it was here), I guess for less than half the price not to mention all calls "free", figured the odds of multiple devices failing at the same time was minimal.

Brian in MO · Jan 14, 2015

We have VOIP (voice over internet p?????) it is through our internet provider which also happens to be the rural electric company. I really am not impressed, we have fiber optic to the house and the internet is fast most of the time but when the internet is "down" we have no phone, and that happens several times a month. Here in the hills we don't have cell service without driving down the road a ways. We had AT&T land line for a while, it cost more but at least you always had a phone that worked. My wife keeps saying she is going back to a "real" phone but hasn't done it yet!

Landline On The Farm

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Member

Similar threads