Landlines, cell phones, disaster preparation

[kbutton]

We are dinosaurs that have kept our landline. Several times when we've been tempted to give it up or bundle with our internet (which means we keep the number, but it's via cable, not available when electricity is out or cable is down), we've had local disasters and were happy to have it. It's been a decade or so since that's been the case.

Are cell phones just as useful now in a big emergency as landlines have been in times past? Tornado is our most likely scenario, though Hurricane Ike traveled up the Mississippi and across the Ohio, which is when we last had days of outages. We were just south of serious tornado damage 3 or 4 years ago. 

We have a non-electric phone to plug in, and we have only local-ish service.

My only other concern is how long we've had it--I don't want to miss changing our number with someone or an important account. 

[fairfarmhand]

As far as changing your number, you can switch your landline number to a cell. We did that a few months ago.

[vonfirmath]

6 minutes ago, fairfarmhand said:

As far as changing your number, you can switch your landline number to a cell. We did that a few months ago.

We changed our landline to a cellphone right before Christmas.

 

[kristin0713]

56 minutes ago, kbutton said:

Are cell phones just as useful now in a big emergency as landlines have been in times past?

I think it depends. A regular landline will still work in a power outage. We will always have one because DH needs a landline at home for work. If not for that, I don’t know that we’d see the need to have  one “just in case.”

[Lucy the Valiant]

We lose power with some regularity, and our landline ALWAYS comes down too. So we switched the house number to a VOIP, which is super cheap, so we still do have a "house phone" but not a land line. 

[City Mouse]

In the few disaster type situations I have been through over the years, cell phone service came back faster than the land lines, and often texting still worked even when calls couldn’t go out. 

[kbutton]

2 hours ago, fairfarmhand said:

As far as changing your number, you can switch your landline number to a cell. We did that a few months ago.

That might be a good idea. We need something when we leave one kiddo at home. He’s old enough to stay alone, but we don’t do cell phones until kids are driving.

1 hour ago, Lucy the Valiant said:

We lose power with some regularity, and our landline ALWAYS comes down too. So we switched the house number to a VOIP, which is super cheap, so we still do have a "house phone" but not a land line. 

We’ve never lost a landline when power has been out. I will have to look into VOIP. I don’t really know anything about it.

1 hour ago, City Mouse said:

In the few disaster type situations I have been through over the years, cell phone service came back faster than the land lines, and often texting still worked even when calls couldn’t go out. 

Good to know!

[Kassia]

We still have ours.  It's ridiculously expensive but we have it for emergencies since our cell service is spotty and we lose it when the power is out.  The landline always works.

[Eos]

We only have a landline - I don't like cell phones for a variety of reasons but also cell service in our area is terrible and with a Type 1 daughter we felt we always needed to keep it since it works without electricity or service.

[Clemsondana]

We are also dinosaurs.  When the kids were little we wanted them to be able to call 911 and it find us, even if the little kid couldn't remember the address.  We also like the idea that if you can just dial it and can't talk they can find your house.  Our landline has never gone out.  We have a second line, bundled with our cable, for husband's work since when he works from home he could be on the phone for 6 hours a day.  On occasion when the cable goes out he has to switch to taking calls on the landline - it's never happened in reverse where we had to switch from the landline to another phone.  Even my parents have dropped their landline - there are just a few of us left.  🙂  

[Indigo Blue]

We just canceled our landline. We were getting nothing but telemarketing calls anywhere between 2 and 6 per day. The phone was at the far end of the house from where I spend the most time, and I had to constantly run to answer it on the off chance that it might be important. Dh gets all business calls on his cell, with the occasional side job call on the landline. In frustration, one day I just unplugged it to have a day of peace from telemarketing and forgot to plug it back in. Dh later plugged it in, and I kept saying we need to just cancel it as it is really driving me crazy. It just wasn’t worth the hassle anymore. 
 

Finally, he agreed, and I canceled the next day after having been transferred to a retention specialist who told me that if I canceled, I could be caught in an emergency situation with frozen cell towers. ( I can’t remember that ever happening here as long as I’ve had a cell phone). I said it’s not worth $13.00 per month to be hassled by telemarketing all day, and to please cancel. He finally did. 
 

We are able to charge our cell phones in Dh truck even if the engine isn’t running, so we do have that option in power outages. 

I rarely receive spam calls on my cell, so for now, at least, I’m pretty much free from it. 

[Ethel Mertz]

Landline here too for all the aforementioned reasons.

[Bambam]

We still have a land line here too. My phone uses the house wifi when I'm home. Without that Wifi, my cell service is iffy at best (like go in this room and lean this way, and maybe you will get service). So, we want the phone just in case our power goes out for any length of time.  We still get a fair amount of spam calls, but long ago we put phones in several rooms, so you are generally near one. We have an answering machine too, so I don't stress if I don't get to it. They will either leave a message or not. 

[Lucy the Valiant]

7 hours ago, kbutton said:

That might be a good idea. We need something when we leave one kiddo at home. He’s old enough to stay alone, but we don’t do cell phones until kids are driving.

We’ve never lost a landline when power has been out. I will have to look into VOIP. I don’t really know anything about it.

Good to know!

We used a different one before switching to Ooma. It's not for everyone - YMMV, of course. Our power lines and phone lines are above ground, so when a tree or a driver takes out a pole, both lines are severed, rendering a true "landline" useless. I know it's different in different places.

[Carrie12345]

We haven’t had a true landline in at least 17 years. (I don’t remember if our previous one was an actual landline or just an internet line.)

Our telephone lines are just as likely to be taken down by trees as our electric lines, so I don’t see a great advantage there. Does anyone even maintain physical telephone lines anymore?
Now, for some sort of cyber attack, I could see a possible advantage. But two of our family members have access to radios to directly contact our emergency dispatch system, so I personally don’t worry much about that.
If cell phones were down, I don’t know anyone with a landline (other than emergency services) who I’d be able to contact from one of my own anyway.

[Faith-manor]

9 hours ago, Lucy the Valiant said:

We lose power with some regularity, and our landline ALWAYS comes down too. So we switched the house number to a VOIP, which is super cheap, so we still do have a "house phone" but not a land line. 

Ours too. We keep a portable battery charged at all times so if the power foes out and our cell phone batteries get low, we can charge them. Jockery is pur favorite, but we also have solar charging ones. They do not charge the phone as fast, but they also can be re-charged sitting in a sunny window or outdoors which makes them very handy.

[Insertcreativenamehere]

For those concerned about losing access to a longtime phone number when cancelling a landline, Google Voice is an option. I transferred our longtime landline number to Google Voice and then have that number forwarded to my cell phone. 

Edited March 8, 2022 by Insertcreativenamehere

[Carrie12345]

13 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

Ours too. We keep a portable battery charged at all times so if the power foes out and our cell phone batteries get low, we can charge them. Jockery is pur favorite, but we also have solar charging ones. They do not charge the phone as fast, but they also can be re-charged sitting in a sunny window or outdoors which makes them very handy.

We have a couple of <$20 crank and solar combo chargers. (At least that was the price range at the time.) Plus cheap phone battery packs for back up. Plus the car chargers.  It’s really not very expensive (all things being relative) to keep cell phone power.

And the crank can give the kids something to do, lol.

[KungFuPanda]

We have cell phones, phones that look like landlines with officey handsets but are actually internet connected, and a ham radio. We also have raspberry pis tracking overhead aircraft. That’s usually boring but has been a bit interesting this week with the weird Russian flight. We have a wide range of tech going here but a landline hasn’t been in the mix for over a decade. 

[Melissa B]

2 hours ago, Clemsondana said:

We are also dinosaurs.  When the kids were little we wanted them to be able to call 911 and it find us, even if the little kid couldn't remember the address.  We also like the idea that if you can just dial it and can't talk they can find your house. 

I know here you can call 911 on a cell phone and it will pinpoint your location without you needing to talk at all.  If you dial 911 and don't speak, officers are immediately sent to your location. You can also add your address and other important info to your cell phone so that it immediately pops up to the 911 operators when you dial - medical conditions of people in the house, pets in the home, emergency contact info, etc. I don't know, maybe that isn't available everywhere?

[kbutton]

1 hour ago, Insertcreativenamehere said:

For those concerned about losing access to a longtime phone number when cancelling a landline, Google Voice is an option. I transferred our longtime landline number to Google Voice and then have that number forwarded to my cell phone. 

54 minutes ago, Melissa B said:

I know here you can call 911 on a cell phone and it will pinpoint your location without you needing to talk at all.  If you dial 911 and don't speak, officers are immediately sent to your location. You can also add your address and other important info to your cell phone so that it immediately pops up to the 911 operators when you dial - medical conditions of people in the house, pets in the home, emergency contact info, etc. I don't know, maybe that isn't available everywhere?

Thanks for the Google Voice tip!

I think we have to file paperwork to have things come up with us on 911, and then it's only the local EMS. We also have a service for people who are especially vulnerable if the electricity goes out--I think they get checked on first in a disaster, etc. 

[KatieJ]

We had a landline until we moved to a different state last fall. I had it set up to screen all calls…therefore spam calls didn’t get thru. My phone would tell them to please  dial one to get thru and robo calls couldn’t do that. I have a phone system ( one base and 3 extras, all connected to one base) so I didn’t have to run around to find the phone. The biggest reason was my cell phone did not work in my basement, which is where my sewing room was…and I was down there a lot.

Anyway, we moved, cancelled that landline and made the change to our cell phones. I really hate doing business holding a cell phone. I do have my old phone system set up so I can answer on it, but have yet to figure out how to call out on it.

 

[Pawz4me]

1 hour ago, Melissa B said:

I know here you can call 911 on a cell phone and it will pinpoint your location without you needing to talk at all.  If you dial 911 and don't speak, officers are immediately sent to your location. You can also add your address and other important info to your cell phone so that it immediately pops up to the 911 operators when you dial - medical conditions of people in the house, pets in the home, emergency contact info, etc. I don't know, maybe that isn't available everywhere?

I think it's available in most well populated areas. The first responder in my life said quite a few years ago that there were no worries about not having a land line, that the dispatchers could locate cell phones easily. And certainly that capability has only improved since.

[Clemsondana]

2 hours ago, Melissa B said:

I know here you can call 911 on a cell phone and it will pinpoint your location without you needing to talk at all.  If you dial 911 and don't speak, officers are immediately sent to your location. You can also add your address and other important info to your cell phone so that it immediately pops up to the 911 operators when you dial - medical conditions of people in the house, pets in the home, emergency contact info, etc. I don't know, maybe that isn't available everywhere?

It may be now but it wasn't when the kids were young.  We also didn't have a spare phone to leave home with them once they got big enough to stay home alone - the adults each had one, but if we had left it with them then they couldn't call us.  It's only been in the past year that everybody has access to a cell phone.  And, I'd have concern about other people being at my house and not knowing where they are - like, I doubt my out-of-state visiting inlaws could have given our address and their phone number wouldn't be associated with my address.  It's kind of funny - my husband is a tech guy, and he's a big part of why we have old school stuff - from his perspective, a lot of tech is not alwasy as good as advertised so better safe than sorry.  We also live in an area where many houses are on 2-5 acres, so I could imagine accuracy being an issue her in particular.  

[Arcadia]

2 hours ago, Melissa B said:

I know here you can call 911 on a cell phone and it will pinpoint your location without you needing to talk at all.  If you dial 911 and don't speak, officers are immediately sent to your location. You can also add your address and other important info to your cell phone so that it immediately pops up to the 911 operators when you dial - medical conditions of people in the house, pets in the home, emergency contact info, etc. I don't know, maybe that isn't available everywhere?

I know here 911 locates by the nearest cell phone tower when you place your call. So if you are near a cell tower, that helps. I don’t think the information part is available where I am. I could type in my medical/emergency info (into the Apple Health app) so that the police/ambulance can access even if my cellphone screen is locked but I don’t think that info shows up in a 911 call.

[Melissa B]

1 hour ago, Pawz4me said:

I think it's available in most well populated areas. The first responder in my life said quite a few years ago that there were no worries about not having a land line, that the dispatchers could locate cell phones easily. And certainly that capability has only improved since.

 

34 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

I know here 911 locates by the nearest cell phone tower when you place your call. So if you are near a cell tower, that helps. I don’t think the information part is available where I am. I could type in my medical/emergency info (into the Apple Health app) so that the police/ambulance can access even if my cellphone screen is locked but I don’t think that info shows up in a 911 call.

I guess it isn't everywhere then. These are things I tell my kids to think about when they relocate. I worked 911 many years ago and we could pinpoint anyone on a cell phone anywhere in the county. It is very specific and gives exact latitude and longitude numbers as well as an exact point on the map. I had to use latitude and longitude when a worker called from a field on a farm. He wasn't from the area and couldn't give any information at all about his location. Since he didn't know any access points we had to send a fire truck straight through the fences and across the fields. 🙂  The only thing we weren't able to do then was locate what floor a person was on in a hotel or apartment building. 

[Carrie12345]

5 minutes ago, Melissa B said:

 

I guess it isn't everywhere then. These are things I tell my kids to think about when they relocate. I worked 911 many years ago and we could pinpoint anyone on a cell phone anywhere in the county. It is very specific and gives exact latitude and longitude numbers as well as an exact point on the map. I had to use latitude and longitude when a worker called from a field on a farm. He wasn't from the area and couldn't give any information at all about his location. Since he didn't know any access points we had to send a fire truck straight through the fences and across the fields. 🙂  The only thing we weren't able to do then was locate what floor a person was on in a hotel or apartment building. 

Yeah, I’m kind of in the boonies, but 9-1-1 can locate a missing hiker/hunter in the forest by cell phone signal.  That is, if they’re in a spot with a decent cell signal.

[prairiewindmomma]

We have cell phones and a variety of battery backups. It wouldn't help in a very extended power outage as the towers lose service after their battery backups (if they have them) fail.  Honestly, at that point, you're looking at satellite phones or Ham radio anyway for communication.

If your major concern is tornados, I'd cut the cord, port your number, and buy a backup battery for your cellphone. It's more likely to be of help to you. When we had landlines, it seemed like every few years we'd have issues.  We had one storm pull the line out of the side of our house and it took weeks to get in with a lineman to get us hooked back up since the waiting list for repair took so long.