Ask Your Question today
Was going to cancel my landline of 40 years, but my aging parents said not to, 'they were upset of the thought of it,.' so I didn't.
To be honest, there are times I wish I still had one, or at least another phone, because sometimes I misplace my phone and there's no way to call it with it being the only phone in the house. I guess maybe I should get one of those cheap $10 phones from the store for that!
Also, if you're in an area with crappy service, it can be better. Before I moved, we had one for years in an area no cell phone seemed to get good service in.
Otherwise, it could be a sentimental thing, or that they're just so accustomed to one that they'd feel sort of lost without it.
I like having one because they work when the power is out and/or other services are down. They also register your physical location if you call 911 or whatever.
On the less serious side, I collect phones and I do enjoy displaying and using them.
And with my local phone Co, having landline service is nearly free with my internet package anyway. And yes, it's a true landline in my case.
Landlines have some very real advantages.
1) They are powered if there is a power outage. Federal Rules require batteries to provide I believe 48 hours of service.
Cell phone towers typically only have batteries for a few hours and then they die... and you have no cell coverage.
2) 911 and other emergency services knows instantly exactly where you are. Cell phones give geographic locations (if the GPS is working) which may leave emergency response wondering which apartment, condo, or house you are in.
3) It takes a court order to legally tap them (if you use actual wired phones and not portable "radio" handsets.
Cell phones and portable "radio" handsets for normal landline phones use radio waves - and anyone is free to listen to them, who can break the encryption on them (which apparently is not that difficult as it just requires the right equipment). So the Cops or anyone else can just listen in and you have no legal protection or rights of privacy.
4) Cell phones radio frequencies can easily be jammed in an area so that you cannot use them. Just buy the equipment and you can shut down all the cell phones in a 30 - 500 ft radius (larger distances are possible with high powered equipment).
5) Desk and wall phones don't get lost.
I still have my landline for all of those reasons. I do have cell phones as well (I have separate cell phones for different business interest).
I could see them feeling like they are at the end of their era. For landlines to slowly go extinct might make them realize their mortality.
If you've had your landline for 40 years, you're hardly a spring chicken yourself, so I don't quite understand how you define an "older person". I also don't understand why someone who's apparently at least in their late fifties is still being guided by their parents' feelings about something which has no real effect on them and which they don't have to pay for.
FWIW, I'm a person who's probably older than you but not quite as ancient as your parents. While I don't feel any sort of sentimental attachment to our landline, I also don't intend to give it up anytime soon.
That's mainly because we live in a rural area with marginal mobile signal and the additional cost of having telephone service along with our broadband isn't that much. Also, all companies regularly screw up their admin, and both fixed-line and mobile telecom networks can be brought down in various ways. It's entirely possible that we might temporarily lose either our landline phone or our mobile phone service due to a billing error or technical fault, but the chances of us losing both simultaneously are pretty low.