Did you have a period of time when you had both a mobile phone and landline?
Posted by dms2628@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 61 comments
Which years was this? Did you have a landline when you also had a smart phone? Were you paying for both and why did you keep both for as long as you did?
SeaSkimmer2@reddit
How many Xennials actually ever had a landline of their own (not at a parent’s house)?
PMmeHappyStraponPics@reddit
I had one at my first apartment.
After that, though, cell phone only.
EatLard@reddit
We had one in my college apartment for some reason. One roommate’s parents insisted on it because they didn’t trust cell phones - they were from an area where coverage sucked. Never used it.
Other than that, as an adult, I’ve never had one.
catjuggler@reddit
We had landlines of some kind in college that we had to pay for I think monthly
amindfulloffire@reddit
I had one for a time when I lived in the middle of nowhere and bad cell service.
jessek@reddit
Only when I had DSL and a landline was included, but I never used it.
Smart_Imagination903@reddit
I was poor. I had a shared landline with roommates in college, then got a landlines with my boyfriend we moved in together. Then we got cellphones (flip phones) the year we got married.
Peers definitely had cellphones but I was on food stamps and I got a landline for $7/mo and the government cellphones weren't a thing yet. But I think this was also still pretty common among low income young people, punks and artists etc. I didn't feel weird about it in my friend group.
slippedintherain@reddit
I did, but I’m also on the older side of Xennials. For a while it was part of my internet/cable bundle so it was cheaper to go ahead and have one even though I rarely used it.
Accadius@reddit
I never had a landline myself. I bought a fat motorola flip phone in HS then when I joined the navy I bought a smaller sprint flip phone that had a web browser and could text with the number pad. Always had a cell phone since then. My parents kept a landline for a few years after they got cell phones.
AshDogBucket@reddit
I did, in many homes of my own, but it was primarily for internet.
AnthrallicA@reddit
I did, but only because I worked for the local telecom company and it was free.
Interesting-Goose82@reddit
I have never paid for a land line/newspaper/printer.....
somethingdouchey@reddit
Exactly. Ive never had a land line outside of my parents house.
ebles@reddit
I technically have one because it comes as part of a package with my internet/cable TV provider. I've never used it though, nor do I have a phone to plug into it. Don't even know what the number is.
Spartan04@reddit
My college included them with the dorm rooms, so anyone that lived in the dorms during those years had one.
Mysterious_Secret827@reddit
Better question! But to answer your question, no, I have never had a landline for myself.
ChopEee@reddit
I never had a landline when I lived on my own after college (starting 2003)
whamburglar@reddit
Converted our landline into a fax line for the at-home office.
church-basement-lady@reddit
This is my soapbox issue. IMO, a landline is an insurance policy. It can be used during a power outage, but bigger picture, you can teach a child to call 911 from a regular phone, and the 911 operator can see the location.
realitythreek@reddit
Mobile phones show the actual location. Voip you still set your physical location the same as landline. The power outage though, even if your phone is charged you may find the towers are overloaded.
gbroon@reddit
They are getting rid of pstn in the UK for a digital voice service. Broadband based voice service that needs a battery backup to run during a power outage.
realitythreek@reddit
Mobile had minutes but free long distance. Landlines had unlimited local but you paid long distance by the minute. So the play was to use mobile while out and about and to call long distance.
bgva@reddit
I got my first cellphone in fall 2001. I only had a landline because they gave us one in our dorm room. Come to think of it, we still had one at the house because we didn't get rid of dial-up until around 2007.
Unique_Display_Name@reddit
my dad still has a land line! he is 79!
he has a cell phone too, i chat with him throughout the day to make sure he is okay/keep him company since my mom died last year.
oof, this got dark. srry. 😔
like_shae_buttah@reddit
I’ve never actually owned a land line
usernames_suck_ok@reddit
Still.
Proof-Emergency-5441@reddit
Do you have an option that isn't Voip? Because that will go down too.
_ficklelilpickle@reddit
I had a landline bundled with our internet package when I first moved out of home. But after the contract ended I asked myself how many times I actually used the thing, and when I discovered the phone had been unplugged and the handset battery was flat I figured it was a clear enough sign as any that it wasn’t being used.
StillhasaWiiU@reddit
I had no phone at all for 9 years. where is the option for that?
jessek@reddit
Never had a landline when I moved out on my own, my parents got rid of theirs a few years after.
goater10@reddit
When I was still living with my parents they had a landline. When I bought my own place, I never bothered getting a landline as I had my mobile for years.
FAYCSB@reddit
I wish I had a landline. For reasons, I moved back into college housing in 2012 (graduated in 2005). I bought a corded phone only to discover that the landlines were no longer operable.
Pigeon_Logic@reddit
I have a landline but its mostly just for calling out. There's so many scam calls that I've just muted the ringer and check voicemail daily.
dkonigs@reddit
Kept the landline after getting a mobile phone, and technically never got rid of it on its own. I just didn't get a new one after moving.
My rationale was always that in case of emergency, there are rules and regulations that basically mandate reliable landline service. And those same things tend to not apply so much to mobile phones or Internet connections.
Scioptic-@reddit
I only have a landline. I don't have a mobile.
grantnaps@reddit
Keepin it analog. Nice!
literanch@reddit
I got my first cellphone in 2002 when I was 19 but never had my own landline. My parents had one til maybe 2015.
MrThouu@reddit
There was a period of that yes, a copper landline alongside smartphone. But at some point after changing ISPs, still have a landline phone number, but it isn't a copper landline like in the past, it's plugged into the modem.
Hossflex@reddit
Got a mobile back in college… 2002 I think. Haven’t had a landline since. Parents had both for a long time.
A7O747D@reddit
Everyone had both when I went to college in the late 90s/early 2000s. I don't think unlimited plans even existed and I lived with a bunch of other dudes, so you'd almost always get someone during the day.
Character_Bend_5824@reddit
Yes, but pure inertia. Only a couple people and businesses call it, all of whom could be easily updated to my parents' cell phones. Part of it is reliability. We are one of the last areas served by real copper. 911 knows where we are. It does not go down in an outage. The DSL has been rock solid compared to cable, which goes out or needs a firmware update to the modem every year or two. There have definitely been times when I was glad we had two distinct sources of internet and multiple cell services in addition to the landline. We are well covered. My parents are getting up in age, so I am hesitant to drop any possible lifelines.
SeaSkimmer2@reddit
Former 911 operator here. “911 knows where you are” from a landline is real, and the address/apartment number will instantly populate on the call-entry screen. (It’s still required by national certification boards to verbally ask the caller for the address at the beginning of the call and verbally verify, if possible, since there’s no guarantee that the received information is correct.) I had a few instances where the phone company info was wrong, and the worst thing that can happen is to have help sent to the wrong location.
Cellphones, at best, can provide very accurate 2-dimensional latitude/longitude if the cellphone is not located deep in a building where it’s not getting good GPS satellite signals. A voice signal does not guarantee GPS. And if you’re in a multi-story building, it of course won’t provide a floor#.
Oh, and that whole “911 address” setting that probably all carriers have (and VOIP phones) is, of course, only valid if you’re actually at the address which was pre-registered.
grantnaps@reddit
Where's the option for had a landline for DSL because I lived in a rural area?
BritOnTheRocks@reddit
My wife and I keep a landline as primary POC for anything related to the kids or the house (schools, pediatrician, exterminator, contractors etc.). That way whichever of us is at home can handle the comms without it all falling to one or the other.
It’s also hand to give out the number when we sign up for things and don’t want incessant texts.
AshDogBucket@reddit
I needed a landline for internet service much longer than I needed it as a phone, and i lived in a place where cell service was not reliable. So i did have quite a bit of overlap with cell phone and landline. By the time I got a smartphone I longer lived where I needed the landline for internet (Alaska).
PuppyJakeKhakiCollar@reddit
I never had my own landline except for the one in my college dorm. When I moved home to take care of my parents, there was a landline in the house but it was rarely used except for the times I had to call 911 for an ambulance. It was pretty useless anyway because if the power went out, so did the phones.
MajesticEmergency@reddit
I had my own landline number at home because of dialup internet and keeping the main line free. I kept it longer after getting a cell phone because my cell phone had extremely poor signal at home.
throwaway384983547w@reddit
Had a flatmate with an elderly mother who wouldn't phone mobiles because of cost. She moved overseas for work during covid and i didn't want someone new during lockdowns. Reviewed and cut costs on all old services like the monitored alarm (cameras cheaper), satellite TV (1 streaming service free with cheaper broadband package ) , landlines and insurances.
Verbull710@reddit
Never had one
JeffTS@reddit
I own a home-based small business. I still have a land line. It's part of my Spectrum package. Only a select few clients have my cell phone and I enjoy it that way.
scarred_but_whole@reddit
I voted "had to keep landline for our security system" but we actually had to keep it for our kids who didn't have cell phones until they were 16+. Then we had DSL for a while, and then we had and still have a landline assigned to us without a phone hooked up because the landline/broadband bundle is cheaper than broadband alone. So, technically we still have one but for changing reasons over the years and we don't use it. Some days I'd love to go back to it and just use a tablet or laptop on wifi. 🫤
pierrecambronne@reddit
I had to install a land-line to comply with the oncall policies of my company. Then I kept it for a while even if not needed. Got rid of it when I moved.
These_Are_My_Words@reddit
The last time I had a landline was when I lived in a college apartment and the landline was included in the rent. (I moved out of that apartment around 2009?)
MuggleoftheCoast@reddit
None at all.
I was a landline-only holdout for a long time, until 2007 when the maintenance at my grad school dorm managed to destroy the phone connection and told me it would be a couple weeks to fix. So I caved, told them not to bother, and picked up a cheap flip-phone.
crazycatlady331@reddit
Not unless you count my parents' landline.
I got my first cell phone while i was in college. I was still living at home there. If "I" had a landline, it was my parents'.
DryWittgenstein@reddit
Never had one of my own.
phoenix0r@reddit
I kept a landline until they all became VOIP because those are basically run on wifi anyway so there’s no point since they can’t be a backup for when the power is out or wifi is out. Also I kept getting nonstop spam calls.
Now it’s no longer possible to install a new landline here );
Superpriestess@reddit
Had one for a long time. I worked at home and didn’t want customers to be able to call me in my cell. Got rid of it in 2017 when I moved and just never set up a new one. Paired with my internet it was like $12/mo.
Spartan04@reddit
Several times. In college I had a cellphone and my dorm room came with a landline, as did the apartment I lived in for my last 2 years of college. A few years later I got DSL for my internet and at the time the phone company required a landline for that. Even when I cancelled the DSL because it couldn’t keep up with faster broadband I ported the number to a VoIP account and still have it active. It’s very useful since that’s the number I give out to retailers and anyone else that I don’t want to have my cell number. Cuts down on the telemarketing to my cell a lot.
Jonestown_Juice@reddit
Yes, we had both for a while. During the time before unlimited plans on mobile phones. Even after that happened we kept our landline for a while, just because we were still using it as the "main" phone. Took a while before our mobile phones became the main phone.
TwpMun@reddit
I still have one