As the precursor to today's iPhones and foldable phones, landlines were once a staple in every home. While they may seem like ancient technology, they still might have a role to play today in your home -- especially during a major mobile network outage.
Outages can leave you stranded without one of your most critical lines of access to the world for hours if you're reliant only on a cellphone. And if your smartphone can't make phone calls, it's not much good in an emergency.
You might reconsider the role of this home device, once standard issue but now nearly obsolete. Here's what to think about when deciding whether to keep (or get) a landline.
Those old-fashioned landlines may still have a place, but only 28% of American households have one.
Peter Dazeley/Getty ImagesLandlines are telephones that connect to specialized wiring in our homes. The iconic image is that of a rotary-dial phone -- usually rented from the phone company -- that either hung on the wall or sat on a counter or table, though push-button and later cordless landlines replaced many of those oldsters in the 1980s. Landline phones connect through a global communication network that was built over more than a century. But as cellphones became broadly available and affordable, many people chose to drop their landlines altogether.
A 2022 survey by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that only about 29% of US adults lived in a house with a landline phone, down from more than 90% in 2004. The crossover happened over 10 years ago, in 2015, when smartphone sales entered a boom period that reshaped the tech industry and helped turn iPhone-maker Apple into one of the world's most highly valued companies.
Ann Williams is one of the folks who hasn't given up on their landlines yet. When asked why she keeps hers around, she describes moving to Huntsville, Alabama, after a tornado outbreak on April 27, 2011, when dozens of twisters killed at least 250 people and knocked out power for days. Although she moved there after the tornadoes, hearing about the event brought home to her the importance of always needing a phone connection.
"The weather here is so unpredictable," she told me in an interview. But landlines have dedicated power and often work even in an outage. "We remember a day when it was absolutely necessary to have (the landline)," Williams said.
Landline phones operate on a separate infrastructure, built from copper phone lines that are inexpensive to build and rather reliable. They also don't have the drawbacks of cellular networks, like dropped calls, poor and distorted quality or weak reception.
A key reason people keep landlines around is that they tend to work even during power outages, which is a big plus for folks whose work involves emergency services, business or health care.
Analog fax machines are also built around landline phone systems, which means most hospitals and doctors' offices, as well as policy and law offices, need to keep a landline connection running.
Remember cordless phones and phone books?
Catherine McQueen/Getty ImagesThe US Federal Communications Commission has effectively ended the requirement that phone companies provide traditional analog landlines, and carriers are actively retiring them in favor of newer technologies. As a result, more homes and business offices are being built with Ethernet jacks rather than phone jacks.
Landline phone connections aren't cheap, either. Standalone home phone plans from big carriers like AT&T can run about $25 to $70 per month, depending on the plan and features. CenturyLink's home phone service starts around $30 per month, and other providers, such as Spectrum, often charge around $30 or more for basic voice service, with lower promotional rates sometimes available when bundled with internet or TV.
And not all landlines use copper phone lines. Increasingly, companies are piggybacking their phone systems on their internet connections, a service called Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP. AllConnect currently tracks only three service providers offering old-style landlines: CenturyLink, Comcast Xfinity and Cox.
If you're ready to get set up with a landline, call your local phone company to learn about phone services. If you live in an apartment building, it's important for you to find out where the phone junction box is. Typically, the landlord should know, and if not, the local phone company should be able to find it.
Here are some follow-up questions you want to ask, and what to look for in the answers:
If you have a landline but leave it languishing, just sucking money out of your bank account each month, you aren't alone. But there are some ways to make it more useful.
Google Voice is a popular option that gives you a new phone number acting as a central hub. When someone calls, Google Voice rings all the phones you've connected, whether it's a home landline, a cellphone, a work phone or anything else.
There are other such services too, including Zoom and RingCentral, if you don't like working with Google.
A landline phone can also connect with home security systems and medical alert sensors to help ensure that if you're in an emergency, help will be there as soon as possible.
If you're ineligible for a landline or don't like the service being offered, you do have more options from satellite providers. Companies such as HughesNet and SpaceX can support VoIP over their internet connections.
Phone makers like Apple are also slowly building satellite messaging into their devices. The iPhone has a feature called Emergency SOS, which can connect with a satellite to send location data to your friends or an emergency text to authorities.
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