It seems that everybody is in such a hurry to totally get rid of his or her landline phone. It does not seem surprising since almost every human in the United States owns at 
least one cell phone. Many families have multiple phones and pay a good chunk of change to keep them activated. In some cases, the cell phone is probably the main priority as far as bill importance goes.
The truth is that modern cell phones no matter how good the signal do not have the voice quality of either an old fashioned copper line or even the older larger style cell phones of a few years ago. I can remember my first cell phone. Yes, it was a bit large but it had an excellent voice quality. It rivaled the voice quality of a landline. Today’s phones are not even designed for talking anymore. The voice quality is mediocre at best and dropped calls are common.
The new cell phone technology was great for the phone companies because it lowered their overhead and allowed for more data to be moved but at the cost of voice quality. Another issue with a cell phone is safety. If you are hurt or cannot describe where you are located, it is very difficult for a police dispatch to get a patrol out to your location. Cell phones do not always automatically show a dispatcher where you are located. An old fashioned landline will. Even with the VOIP options that are available, the 911 dispatcher will not always automatically be able to trace your location. This is one of the main reasons you still need that Ma Bell for at least emergency instances.
I know myself, when I talk on my old fashioned copper line; the voice quality is excellent and sounds natural. If you take that same phone and put it on a VOIP line, the voice quality is tinnier and is just not as pleasing to listen to. I would never completely give up my copper line for anything.
Besides for safety, there are several other reasons why you need to keep or reignite that old phone line. In the event of a power failure, your copper line supplies its own power to your phone. For this reason, it is always a good idea to have an old fashioned conventional phone along with the wireless version. The conventional phone will work even if the power goes out.
I can remember after hurricane Wilma hit us here in Florida in 2005 where everything was out except for my phone and old fashioned DSL. Folks with cable were out of luck for weeks while many phone lines were fixed rapidly or were never broken in the first place. So reliability is another huge factor with a copper line. It also seems that cable outages are a lot more common then phone line outages. Yes, cable is faster when it is working but I still like my trusty old-fashioned phone line.
Radiation is another thing to consider when thinking about a landline phone. That’s right; cell phones give off radiation that has been said to cause all sorts of problems. You do not have that issue with a conventional phone. It is true you can use a headset or a Bluetooth device to keep the phones receiver away from your body but why go through all that. In addition, remember the days of sitting on the couch talking on the phone and being able to “twirl” the phone wire while you talked?
With a conventional phone, you can again enjoy doing that while talking to friends and family. In fact, they now have old-fashioned receivers that you can plug into your cell phone for just that reason. They actually sound really good, a lot better then most headsets.
So if you already have that copper line, keep it. If you don’t, call your local ATT and get one activated. You will not only start enjoying great voice quality again without dropped calls but you will have the safety of knowing you have a quality landline phone that will work almost every time.
Article by, Ross Deprey Owner of Computer Geeks Online.net
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