Monthly Archives: November 2014

landline phone services

Five Reasons Why You shouldn’t Unplug Your Landline

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Landline phones

There are many reasons why people buy cell phones. Some do it for the benefits and others, merely because everyone else is buying them. And if you end up buying an iPhone, you might automatically start looking at your landline a little more critically to see if you can get rid of it so you can save some money to make up for that bundle you just spent on your new cell phone. But before you proceed with cutting the cord, ask yourself a few questions to be sure your decision to eliminate the landline is the right one. Here are five reasons (but not the only five!) to help you decide. See if you agree.

  • Need 911? HELP finds you!

During an emergency, 911 is able to track you when you call from a landline because your residential address automatically displays on the screen of the 911 operator, which isn’t the case with cellphones. If you have kids at home, your landline will be of great help as it is the most reliable connection to 911. Cell phones are good with their GPS facility while on road but they still cannot compete with the accuracy and dependability of a landline connection to the 911 office.

  • Clear Communication Counts!

A landline will provide a crisp, crystal clear connection on every call whereas with a cellphone, you will inevitably experience dropped calls, interference or buzzing, and confusing situations where you are wondering if the other person can you hear you. In this fast paced world, a clear crisp communication network is important for which a landline works best.

  • It Works Even When the Power goes Out

When the power goes out, a landline phone connection will still work in most cases. As long as you’re not using a cordless phone, an old fashioned telephone will work without electricity in your house. It’s required by the FCC so that you can still reach 911 and friends and family. Even if a major storm (tornado or hurricane) comes through the area, it might take away the cell connectivity, but its less likely that it will break the underground phone lines.

  • Privacy

Did you know that some cellular phones use radio frequencies which can be easily intercepted? Eavesdroppers can easily use even the simplest devices or software to intercept the analog radio waves that carry wireless calls. After breaking into your private conversations, they can take down your credit card information while you’re making a purchase over the phone, or find out when you’ll be on vacation to plan their evil deeds. With a landline, however, you always enjoy a certain amount of privacy and safety.

  • Home protection

Nowadays, many home security systems only work if a landline phone is in operation. And that is precisely because the home’s fire and burglar alarm systems are hardwired into the phone system to automatically alert authorities. Some new alarms my offer a cellular connection but that is at an added price and less reliability.

If the security systems and 911 prefer landlines, why shouldn’t you? Use your mobile phone but remember, landlines will always remain your safest bet!

Home Phone, Landline Services

Are We Done with Landlines, Yet?

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Home Phone

We live in a modern age surrounded with a tech-savvy world and therefore, must abide by the changing trends around. But as we do change, we must spare a deeper look at the older tools to decide if they need to be really replaced or simply an addition of the new ones to the lot is just manageable. One such dilemma that concerns most households today is choosing between a cellphone and a landline. Let us compare to see if the former can, indeed, replace the latter?

Internet Speed

No matter how quick and efficient the technology has become, people tend to have different standards for Internet performance for home and elsewhere. While at a WiFi spot or on the road, people tend to be tolerant of jerky connection and low bandwidth because cell data technology is never that great. Yet, it’s a different story when people are at home as they expect their home networks to be great each time they use it.

Voice quality

The quality of a conversation is a whole lot better on a landline than on a cell phone. In fact, cellphone calling and networks are less than perfect. You can talk to a friend just fine from your cellphone, but data transmission gets interrupted constantly.

International Calling

The calling plans for landlines are usually cheaper than what you can find for a cell phone. Particularly, if you are making international calls, landlines can turn out much cheaper.

Satellite Services

If you’re using a satellite TV provider, they often end up charging you higher for the same services if you do not have a homephone. So, forgoing the landline, in a way, costs you more than what you pay otherwise.

Ease of Access

A homephone does not require charging. When it rings, you always know where it is. You do not have to turn the place upside down to track down where you put it when you dropped the groceries on the counter, or went to the bathroom.

911 Tracking

There is a huge difference in how 911 calls are handled through a landline versus the cellphone.  A landline call goes straight to the call center who immediately know where you are and soon, help is on its way within seconds. However, calling with a cell phone gets a cumbersome. As you have to waste time spelling out your complete address. If you are in a high-density area or apartment complex, they have no way to pinpoint your location with a cell phone.

All of us feel the need to take some cost-cutting initiatives to curb our expenses, chucking what’s no longer in use or helpful. However, choosing the landline for it is not a wise move yet because it has some superb irreplaceable features that we cannot afford to function without.

Home Phone, Landline Services

Missing Having a Clear Connection?

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Land line telephones

It’s not unusual to come across people talking about how they no longer own a land line connection. In fact, many even wonder what it is like to have a land line telephone.  Yet, there are those who still believe in the power of this old school but trustworthy device.

Data companies in the US are consistently working to encourage customers to acknowledge the benefits of having a hard wired phone in addition to the cell phone. To convey this message and spread it across masses, the company is sending out mail pamphlets with the title “Miss having a clear connection?” The fact is that all of us have, at one point or the other, suffered through the problem of “poor signal strength” while working on cellphones. We know how it feels when an important call is dropped, mid-sentence, due to a poor cellphone signal. But home phones don’t dump you like that. They do not leave you in the lurch because they do not run on a wireless connection. The clarity is irreplaceable and connectivity is always unquestionable with landlines.

Land line telephones are an important aspect of our businesses too. In recent times, the use of the telephone for business communication may have reduced a bit due to the advent of the computer as well as the internet. Yet, from the business infrastructure standpoint specifically, landline telephones still score higher when rated on communication satisfaction than cellphones. A major reason for this is that business set ups largely depend upon landline connections so as to establish user identification and have clearer communication that does not get interrupted by low signals, and they have a lasting reliability on a device that does not need charging.

The teleconferencing feature in landline telephones is a function that has helped many businesses overcome the challenges of long distance business communication or conferences. It brings people together from all over the organization at a fraction of the cost of travel and meeting facilities. Conference calls, when used along with video conferencing, bring the essence of a personal meeting to the meeting as presentations are viewed, questions are asked via the Internet and answers are discussed among a number of people attending the call.

Landline Services

Calling 911 from Your Cell? Tracking You Won’t Be Easy

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Calling 911 from Your Cell

The mobile phones of today with their smart features and high-end specifics can do most of the things a computer can. Yet, when we need them for their most important and basic purpose, making phone calls, especially in emergencies, the overhyped modern technology doesn’t always serve the purpose, particularly for a 911 caller.

When people facing a situation call 911, the first question they are asked is, “Where is your emergency?” Whatever the problem, this stands out as the most important question during  an emergency because the 911 folks need to know where to reach you in order to extend their help. However, cellphones don’t provide a strong vote in such times because their location can’t be tracked so precisely. Landline phones, on the other hand, offer a much more secure and stable answer to the “where” question as the device is linked to a specific address. Unfortunately, that has become a much harder question for first responders answering emergencies reported on cellphones the past 20 years primarily because the GPS on cellphones doesn’t work as well indoors as it does outside.

In this regards, the Federal Communications Commission has proposed new regulations for wireless carriers to help address the problem but, so far, wireless providers are resisting the changes. A 911 call operator shared his experience when an 8-year-old called him on a cellphone because his parents had a medical emergency. The boy couldn’t read very well, and his parents didn’t speak English. So the call taker asked him to walk outside and read out the number of the boy’s house. It took about 10 minutes. Although the number was given out by the child somehow, situations may be worse where providing the address verbally is not possible. Such scenarios could turn disastrous. In this case too, if the call had come in on a landline, identifying the house would have been instantaneous — the location would have just popped up on the 911 operator’s computer screen.

With nearly half the children in the U.S. are living in wireless-only households, situations like this are common. According to the National Emergency Number Association, around 210 million 911 calls come from cellphones every year. About half of the people calling on a cellphone from indoors don’t know where they are specifically. The statistics should wake people up to consider retaining landlines in their households. We must welcome the new technology but also recognize the benefits we might forgo when letting go of the past.