I pay $25 a month for a basic landline from Verizon, I have it because I like to hear people when I call. Phone quality matters to me more than the 8,000 applications on cell phones these days. I prefer to make or take important calls on the landline, by far. I have the cell phone mostly for when I need to meet up with people (finding people in crowds).

All of that makes me unusual for people my age (I’m 28), but I lived without a cell for the first 22 years of my life, some of that in boarding school where there were only a couple of payphones and someone had to come down to your room to tell you if you had a call. We all somehow survived.

Our total phone bill consists of our land-line, a pre-paid cell-phone that is mostly used like a pager two calling cards for cheap minutes in the states and to Canada.

Our yearly bills are definitely lower than what my wife used to pay for her cell-phone service before we got married, and we don’t have to worry about if we are overstepping our limits on the number of minutes. We even have the convenience of having both a home line and an emergency cell-phone at our disposal.

I’ve been a cell-phone only kid since college, since I move a lot. It’s not a cheap plan – $35 a month – but the added mobility is worth it. Having both is redundant. Plus the only people that call on my parents LAN line are spam solicitors and political polls anyway.

The land line is cheap, and I know it will function when the dratted cell phone doesn’t. Long-distance calls are very inexpensive–nothing compared to even the most basic cell phone service–and there’s no limit after which you get gouged extra per-minute fees. A land-line phone doesn’t have a battery to run down, and when you dial 911, someone answers promptly (not so, I’ve found, with the cell!!) and the dispatcher knows where you are. When the phone rings you can hear it and find it. You’re not likely to lose it or have it stolen. And it doesn’t follow you around jangling at you when you’re in a car or trying to have dinner at a nice restaurant.

If you’re not into texting or yakking about your personal business in public, a cell phone is a weak alternative to a land line. The only reason I have one is that I have a long commute over freeways and pay telephones are no longer widely available–I felt I was forced to get a cell for safety reasons, to be able to call for help if my car breaks down. If I worked closer to home, I wouldn’t have one.

Cell phone batteries die and cell phones get lost — a few seconds in an emergency can be worth a lot – and a landline can give you that few seconds back.

I do think that traditional phone service companies are going to need to get more competitive pricing; but at 30 bucks a month or so, I think its well worth it.

KEVIN – I have DirecTV and am not required to have a landline. No extra charge.

Except I do not have a cell phone (and have never owned one) or a landline. I have never had this “emergency” I keep hearing about or have ever had trouble getting in touch with someone if I needed to. But everyone’s living situation is different.

I have people at work complain about their bills as they text on their $100 a month phone that they paid $300 for.

Cell phones are one of the things I hear people try to justify when talking about “bills” that they just have to have.

saladdin