Weighing the Benefits of a Land Line in Your Apartment

Are you reading this on a smartphone? It’s 2013 after all, so it’s not too unlikely. We rely on cell phones for a lot these days—not just making calls, but also for finding directions to your favorite Bothell area businesses, doing research, making to-do lists, or just browsing the Web.

With cell phones so versatile, it’s increasingly common for people to opt to go without a land telephone line. But for some people, it can be beneficial to have a landline for emergencies, for work responsibilities, or for a number of other reasons.

ApartmentTherapy had a very informative article last week on the pros and cons of keeping a landline in your apartment—here are some letters they received from people who have decided to keep their traditional phone line:

"We have a landline because my husband is Australian and have found that making international calls isn't as reliable via cell phone."


"Cell reception in our home is typically fine, but I do use the landline when I have conference calls for work that take place during the evening hours, just for that extra reliability that cell phones sometimes can't provide."

"None of my cell phones have provided me with the comfort level (shoulder-neck-ear)..."

"Can't help adding one more important factor to consider in whether to ditch your land line as a backup - in the event of a disaster, network congestion can make cell communication difficult or impossible. (for example, Superstorm Sandy and the Boston Marathon bombings.)"

Do you still have a landline in your apartment? Tell us why it’s important to you—share it with other residents on our Facebook timeline!