Home Phones are a Necessity Not a Luxury

21Jul2011 Posted by vonasch in Jul 21,2011 Home Phone

Image via Wikipedia

Raise your hand if you have a cell phone….. Needless to say, 99.9% of America has their hands raised (assuming I can get almost 250 million people to read my blog). Nowadays, when you are asked for your phone number, most people assume they are going to get your cell phone number. If you don’t have a cell phone, then people assume there is something wrong with you and/ or your financial situation. For those of us that do have cell phones, it may be because they are not only convenient but because they are cool. Even my elderly aunt jumped on the text band wagon and she is hip to all the lingo (lol, omg, smh, lmfao, etc….).

Cell phones are great and they are definitely a convenience that I would not do without. The theme of this post is not to glorify cell phones because they do that on their own. This post is to hopefully make you aware that a home phone is just as important to have as a cell phone. I mean, they still exist but fewer and fewer households have a home phone. Here are a few reasons I came up with all by my lonesome (and by that I mean I googled it all) as to why you should have a home phone line.

Savings: For some reason, people are under the misconception that having a home phone is too expensive and that they would rather pay for just cell phone service. I know that budgeting is important and cutting cost these days is a must. In regards to deciding between a cell phone and home phone, you can have your cake and eat it too. Vonage offers the best prices on home phone service that includes unlimited long distance anywhere in the US and even a couple of other countries. With that kind of home phone plan, you can lower your cell phone plan and the savings would cover the cost of your Vonage phone service.

Health: This will be short and sweet but probably the most important. Cell phones emit slight doses of radiation and when you place then to your ear you are directing them straight to your brain. There are dozens of things nowadays that subject us to radiation (aside from the sun) like our computers, microwaves, and x-rays, among other things. The way I see it is why subject yourself to more than you have to. Have a cell and use it when you are away from home but when you are home use a home phone. Forward your cell phones call to your home phone and give your cell phone battery (and your brain) a rest.

Security: When telephone service was created over 100 years ago, the aim was to unite families friends and business partners who lived far away (far away being around 15 miles or more at the time). It soon evolved into a means for security when 911 services where established in 1968 and later Enhanced 911. Enhanced 911 automatically provides the caller’s home address when they call from their home phone. This is very important in situations where it is difficult to communicate your location like in the case of a break-in, fire, or in a medical emergency like when having respiratory problems. Although at one point we relied on a home phone for all of our calls which required sometimes expensive long distance plans, it is now possible to have a basic home phone line. This is a great option which allows you to have the security of a home phone and money left over for a cell phone. It is true that cell phones have GPS tracking which, if you called 911, would assist emergency response in finding you. The only problem is that there are too many ‘what if’s” to rely just on a cell phone only. The GPS tracking in a cell phone may only pin point your location within a mile. That means that emergency response will know the general area where you are but not your exact location and every minute is important in an emergency. Then there are other fallacies like cell phone signal, battery power, and generally being able to find the last place you put it. Home phones are always stationed in the same place.

tight, $20 can be used for 4 or 5 lunch meals instead but if you think outside the box, you can get home phone service for pennies. By taking advantage of bundling incentives that all cable companies offer, you can probably get a home phone for $5-$10 a month if not for free. The fact of the matter is that almost everyone has (or will have) digital cable TV and/ or high speed internet. If you get only one service, you pay the regular and much higher price. If you get two service, then you get a double bundle discount that can save you anywhere from $10- $20. Now if you get triple bundle instead with cable TV, internet, and home phone then you can save anywhere from$20-$40! That’s like getting one of the services for free. And you didn’t have to sacrifice your cell phone service but if you want to go the extra mile to save money you can choose (or downgrade to) a cell phone plan that offers 1000-3000 minutes. You wouldn’t have to worry about going over your minutes (especially if you have roll over minutes or mobile-to-mobile) because you will also have a home phone to rely on.

What one person considers valuable enough to pay for, another may not. For many people, the abstract idea that home phones provide security in an emergency and relief from cell phone radiation does not (and has never) hit home. The way I see it is that it is better to have a home phone than to need one.