I have two of those.
One wired about $12 with huge lighted buttons, probably is 15 yrs old. One wireless $10 ge wonder from Walgreen's thats well over 5 yrs old and original battery.

Unlimited talk time on both is about 20 dollars a month after all the taxes. I think thats an outrageous amount to pay because of all the taxes.

With our recent power outages, for no apparent reason, I was very happy to have my lowly desktop phone, I can tell you! My cell phone went dead of course since I actually needed it. I have always had at least one or more of those phones in every home.

I'm in dead zone with Verizon wireless, I have to have one.

To the oldest, honor shown.
Cradle set or princess phone
Rain or shine in snow or hail
Dial or button, never fail.
Power's down, it still will run.
Just reach out and touch someone.

I have an AT&T desk phone that has been in constant use since 1990. It has a battery to back up the clock. I don't recall ever changing the battery.

I also have a Radio Shack desk/wall phone that has been on my kitchen wall for 9 years.

Oh, yeah, I have an AT&T desk phone with two cordless phones that is less than a year old. Wonder how long it will last?

Sue

I just realized the desk phone can call a cell phone to locate a purse, a curious object reverred by women but mysterious to men, containing myrade pieces of kleenex, half sticks of gum, buldging coin purses and female apurtenances (mysterious to men) which despite their great weight can self levitate to hitherto unknown corners of the house.

When we had a home phone we were paying well over $50 a month with no long distance on it and we were hardly using it. $20 a month is cheap. I don't see me ever going back to a land line. Mary

I'm happy with my land line. I have family scattered all over and a few years ago the long distance part of my bill was almost always over $100 per month. Now I get dsl internet and phone including nationwide long distance calling for
$39.95 a month (Sonic.net fusion). Include taxes and line charges, etc. and its $49 a month. The dsl is slower than comcast cable was when I had it but I rarely notice the difference. Comcast kept raising the price until I was paying over $100 a month for what I'm getting now for $49. When you've been retired for over 20 years on a fixed income that's a big difference.

Yeah if you have a big family those new phones deals are good. My Mom's brother's and sisters are all in another state so she finally added time warner phone to her package as before tha she was using calling cards. Only drawback is if power goes out she looses her phone but we have very few power outages here unless a bad storm.

I only have my 2 brother's out of state and my Mom here and hubby has a cousin and an Uncle in another state and we email and text unless there is an emergency plus they are on verizon so verizon to verizon on our cells is doesn't take away from our minutes.

When my son started college 3yrs ago away from home we needed the texting more and we were not gonna pay to hook up a phone in his apartment so this works for us. I like now I get my calls where ever I am so if I am on vacation I don't have to call home to check the answering machine. We dropped the home phone 2yrs ago and now I wonder why I didn't do it sooner. Mary

I liked my land line to, but almost $40 a month for a couple of calls a month was rather expensive. I tried a tracfone, but it did not work so I got a refund and decided I didn't need a cell. Later when my husband was in a care home and I wanted to travel, I needed a way for the home to contact me. That is when I went with T Mobil and have not had a single problem in the several years I have had it. I have coverage every where except in mountains where none had coverage and at sea. I do miss my Kermit the Frog phone, he is a cutie.

Being in rural America and specifically residing in the electronic Bermuda Triangle I am forced to keep a land line for reliability. Add to this the fact all my adult children are long distance including two who are out-of-state. $77.34 a month unlimited ATT.

I have a harvest gold rotary kitchen telephone with an extended cord hanging on the garage wall. I keep it for the loud bell quality as I can be far away in one of the fields or in the woods when a call comes in. I don't race to answer it, but I make note to check the Caller ID when I return to the house.

Unless I am on alert from work I don't carry my iffy cellphone with me because if I unknowingly drop it I will never find it. The area is too large. Even calling it to hear the ring most likely would have a negative result. Plus, since it wouldn't float the pond and the stream are threats too.

Finally, one day my grandson from New Jersey who was sixish at the time walked in the garage, pointed at the hanging phone and asked, "What's that?"

DA

Another option for phone calls is Google Call. You can use it as an alternative for calling, to keep your minutes or call charges to a minimum.

It's completely free and you can use it to your heart's content for unlimited domestic calls, whether long distance or local. You make calls using your PC (which must be connected to the internet). All but the oldest laptops and all-in-ones have built-in microphones (whether you knew it or not) and if not, you can buy a cheap but adequate microphone for It takes about 60 seconds to get it going. If you don't already have a gmail account, set one up. When you sign on, you'll see a phone symbol on the left. Click on it, a keypad appears, call away!

Another Google service, Google Phone, is another thing altogether. It's a very sophisticated system that manages your calls, voicemails (you can even receive them as emails or SMS messages), allows you to choose which of your phone will ring for incoming calls, and on and on.

I did not know about google call, will have to try that in case the cell ever dies. My laptop is a few years old so no built in wecam or microphone but I have a head set for voice chatting my son got me. Mary

DA when I wear jeans it is to uncomfortable to put my cell in my pocket so I bought one that fits on the waist/belt. It is easy to get to but the case is a bit small and makes it hard to get the cell out, so no loosing it. I don't like a cell in my purse.