What smart phone do you have?

[Cataholic]

It's a bad idea to get rid of your land line, as if you dial 911 from a cell phone, they have no idea where you are, but if you dial it from a land line, their computer system can always find you!

I haven't had a land line in years. I think most people can agree that the need to have a land line to call 911, just in case, is pretty remote. However, I have used my CELL phone to call 911 often- to report accidents, situations that the police should be aware, etc. I have my CELL phone with me at all times. A land line? It is only in one fixed location. I have also used my CELL phone to call 911, while inside my house.

Poor land line phone companies. The monopoly they enjoyed for so many years is just gone.

[Catty1]

I have a landline, and a Blackberry Pearl for my business (and some personal).

Just voice and text. That's it. Works great for me!

[Karen]

I haven't had a land line in years. I think most people can agree that the need to have a land line to call 911, just in case, is pretty remote. However, I have used my CELL phone to call 911 often- to report accidents, situations that the police should be aware, etc. I have my CELL phone with me at all times. A land line? It is only in one fixed location. I have also used my CELL phone to call 911, while inside my house.

Poor land line phone companies. The monopoly they enjoyed for so many years is just gone.

You live in an area where coverage must be pretty good, no matter where you are. That's not the case for everyone. You are also relatively young, but when an elderly person has a stroke or fall and cannot speak, the cell phone is of limited help.

[Cataholic]

@Karen- well, I do appreciate the 'relatively young' part. If an elderly person has a stroke or a fall, chances are good they aren't standing up, walking 30 feet to the land line and placing a call to 911. A cell phone would be a much better bet, it is small, portable and easy to use.

Its 2011, most of us don't live in the wild boonies of no cell service. Most of us don't fall or have a stroke, and if we do, well...we aren't getting up to call 911. I would still kick the land line to the curb. I did, and haven't ever looked back. I am also pretty eager and open to change. For my age.

[Karen]

@Karen- well, I do appreciate the 'relatively young' part. If an elderly person has a stroke or a fall, chances are good they aren't standing up, walking 30 feet to the land line and placing a call to 911.

Most of the elderly I have dealt with over the years have a phone in every room of the house, for example, one by the bed (frequent fall zone) one on the kitchen table, one near their living room chair, and that physical "land line" can be used to pull the phone closer to them (and snagging it with a cane has been brought up, too). And they've thought about this, every one that I have known, and have a big button or preset for 911. I still advise any elders to get and carry a (charged) cell phone for whenever they exit their own door, but many of them rarely do, anyway.

Look at the map some time, that the cell phone companies use to brag about their coverage, and you'll still see large swaths of the country get little to no coverage. And where we live, coverage can be blocked in certain areas by buildings, hills, etc., even though every map will tell you we get service everywhere here.

[CountryWolf07]

I currently have a Samsung Fascinate - I have Verizon - Hate it - so once the iPhone 5 comes out - I will be switching to AT&T and to the iPhone.

[Cataholic]

I don't know any elderly person that has a phone in every room in their house. We must be more frugal here in the midwest. LOL.

[Karen]

I don't know any elderly person that has a phone in every room in their house. We must be more frugal here in the midwest. LOL.

Or have bigger/more rooms!

[pomtzu]

I don't know any elderly person that has a phone in every room in their house. We must be more frugal here in the midwest. LOL.

At 67 I suppose I have to be considered "elderly". I still have a land line, but only because I have to have it for the Rescue Alert system that I have. I don't have a phone in every room - I have a phone in my bedroom as I have always had, and the main one with the answering machine and the alert monitor is in the kitchen. No large buttons!!! I have my cell, but never think to take it with me when I just go outside in the yard, but my panic button for the alert system is always with me and has a 600' range. When I fell on the ice at the end of my driveway and fractured my hip, I didn't have this system, and if someone hadn't seen me laying there in the freezing rain, I would have been there till the family got home from work. I don't trust my cell in an emergency out here in the semi-boonies. Sometimes reception is good, other times, not.