OT - Facebook and Phone Books...

We are thinking about dumping the land line in 2016.

But.....

As it is at my house and everyone else's house I know, just because the rest of the family has cell phones, they get the ringer turned off, left in the car, at someone else's house, at work, church, just pain lost and dead batteries........ YIKES!!!! (Sometimes I think cell phones have caused more heart attacks than cigarettes...)

However....

With a land line, you get the white pages and directory assistance to find our home phone. Sometimes distant friends and relatives need to get in touch and if they don't have our number or lost it - contact directory assistance and locally - the phone book.

Even IF we rid ourselves of the land line, we are going to have a PERMANENT located tracfone - $20 for 3 months of service so something rings in spite of everything else. Order of the day - answer the call or make it brief, otherwise use your cell phone. Cost $6-ish per month.

So what to do about being discovered by the long lost? I'm not aware of a directory service for cell phones.

Would it be advisable in this techno day and age to put up a facebook page? Not to give out your phone number, but simply provide a place for friends and family to find you - if they have a need.

Facebook to replace a phone book? We'd like to be somewhat on the radar - a phone directory provided that path.

Thoughts?

Thanks!
Bill

Dumped land line 5 years ago and never missed it. At my age if I want you to call me I will give you my cell number, plus all my known friends and kin are in my phone contact list so that my phone alerts me to who is calling. Any unrecognized numbers go to voicemail.

We moved first of September and in the process we dumped our land line too!!!!! So far have NOT missed it!!!! Plain got tired of the political calls, telemarketers and rest of the junk calls!!!! Probably wasn't the best time to do it with moving and all but its done!!!!

If we ever have a national disaster of large proportion cell phones are the first thing that are not going to work! Cell phone towers require electricity to operate. Just my opinion.

Land lines require power at the central office too, power outages effect them just as much.

Have to keep the land line down here in the holler. No signal for a cell phone. I do have a cheap cell that I use when I'm on a long trip. Our cable TV and computer are bundled with the electric service. I live ten miles out of town and have high speed internet.

Neighbor who lives in the holler with me sometimes gets a signal if he puts the phone in the kitchen window. Put it up there and forgot that he had it on vibrate. Phone vibrated and took a tumble right into the dish water.

(quoted from post at 16:09:19 12/30/15) If we ever have a national disaster of large proportion cell phones are the first thing that are not going to work! Cell phone towers require electricity to operate. Just my opinion.

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We've installed some with backup generators. I thought they all had UPS but I think a lot.

I have never lost my land line service due to a power outage, I guess it could happen but I have never experienced it.

(quoted from post at 19:09:19 12/30/15) If we ever have a national disaster of large proportion cell phones are the first thing that are not going to work! Cell phone towers require electricity to operate. Just my opinion.

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If we have a national disaster, I don't want to be called.

(quoted from post at 00:22:30 12/31/15) Land lines require power at the central office too, power outages effect them just as much.

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A friend that works for the local phone co-op showed us around. They have banks of batteries that power the system when the power goes out.

I've never had the land line not work Ina power outage.

Our phone company upgraded us to fiber-optic which gives us telephone, Internet, and television if we chose that option package. When the power went out, the battery in the switching apparatus in our home kept us connected for quite a while but eventually died leaving us with no Internet or phone until I hooked a small generator to the switch apparatus and computers. Then we had phone and Internet. They hadn't expected a 40 hour power outage.

Moved to Iowa almost three years ago, dumped the land line after about a year, did so in honor of the upcoming election, that darn caucus plays heck on domestic tranquility if you happen to have a land line. And I don't get the Wisconsin Governor calling me up to ask for my vote anymore either, was still calling me on the Iowa land line he must think I'm from Chicago or something.

We went through two separate 4 hour power outages on the weekend and the land line worked just as it always does. I assume the cell phone network did as well but mine is hardly ever turned on so I don't know. Cell phone service is way too expensive here to ever disconnect my land line.

I've been in the telephone company business for 30 plus years. Both landline and Cell Phones have their PRO's and CON's.

Both Landline phone switches and cell phone switches have at least 8 hours of battery backup with standby generators. But with cordless phones and cell phone chargers require commercial power and when there is a power outage, the cordless phone is dead and hopefully the cell phone battery is charged or you have a 12v charger. I have UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) for the cable modem and one for the TV, cable box, and wireless router at home and one UPS at office for the phone walwart. The office UPS will beep once or twice a week from power brownouts. The UPS are only good for about an hour before they quit.

The PROs of landline (copper) is the when the call is local or acrossed the road, the call path is just out to the local telephone office and back. If the copper cable is buried, there is less of chance of the phone service being interrupted during bad weather. The sound quality is the best.

The CONS is if the cable is on power poles and the there is storm damage, it can take a week or so for service to be restored. If its buried fiber optic to the house and you cut the your fiber connection without a locate, you pay the bill.

I was driving to the farm one day and seen an excavator in the ditch where a fiber cable was buried. The operator was looking at ground as I drive up. What he was looking at was the tape that was buried a foot above the fiber. The Telephone company would have replaced the whole length of cable (4000 ft or more) as a splice in the middle of the span creates a small loss of light power.

Pros for the cell phone are convenience(call from anywhere anytime), portability (when you move you don't have to change phone numbers or remove or install service) and a internet/email connection. No outside cables or wires to worry about. Just keep the phone charged and don't lose it.

Cons are battery is dead or low because of not being charged or wont take a charge,the phone screen is cracked or damage, or signal strength. Losing the phone or getting it washed in your pants really ruins your day. When you are on vacation, it really works good and you get calls. During the rush hour because everybody is on their phone some calls go straight to voice mail without ringing the phone because of too much cell traffic. Your call goes 200 to 300 miles before it reaches the called party across the road. In western North Dakota, a local cell call goes to Bloomington, MN to be switched and then goes back out. Also a fax machine will not work on a cell phone.

Lost ours for two days due to power outage, just got it back today.

We dumped our land line six years ago. We would have kept it if they offered Internet, but there are no providers out here. We could get a satellite but I am less than impressed. Everything I do on the Internet is done on my iphone. Typing to all of you on this tiny keyboard gets old. You know I have to want to respond pretty bad if I do!

Buy a Bluetooth keyboard on amazon!

"The PROs of landline (copper)"

NOT sure what you mean by that, because "fiber to the premises" is the reality or soon to be the reality.

We don't have it, yet, in our county seat town, but soon will. Several tiny neighboring towns served by a Co-op already have it.

So, in many areas "copper" isn't or soon won't be an option.

That leaves VOIP over fiber, with a few hours of battery backup, pretty much the same thing as a cell phone.

Dropped our landline 4yrs ago, i call our phonebook distibuter(yellowbook), & they will put your cell phone # in your local directory.

An Oz perspective

We're very rural, outside mobile range.

Had a major flood about 4 years ago in which the entire official communication network collapsed. Only thing we had was the ranch UHF network.

Fortunately the collapse happened after the flood peak, as I was relaying downstream.

YMMV

Many times I have thought of dropping my landline. BUT.......then I look at my phone bill and reality sets in. Phone company is giving me a $20 discount for keeping it. If I drop the landline, my bill goes UP by $20!!! So, I keep it and just don't bother with it most of the time.

As far as face book goes, I think it is a waste of time. Also a hunting ground for predators. And then there are those that seem to think that it is important to document and publish every time they cross the street. Honestly, I really don't care what they had for breakfast or how they spent their day. I have my own day to deal with!

We will keep our land line because I and the wife seldom have our cell phones turned on....They are only on when we travel in case of an emergency.......Very few people have our cell numbers....We only buy a few hours a year for each cell phone...On June 1st my cell phone had 10 hours on it and I've used 3 hours since then all for long distance calls as we dropped it on our land line....911 calls are better from a land line..

I agree. We were a coop and everything was up to date. But the last 20 years we have been doing service in the bigger towns around us and the copper service areas have not been updated.