why have a landline?

I pay $45 a month for my landline phone so that telemarketers can harass me. Telemarketers never call my cell phone. My family only ever calls me on my cell phone. So I hardly ever answer the house phone because I know there’s a 99% chance it’s someone I don’t want to talk to. And it’s not like our baby is going to be wanting to talk on the phone regularly until he’s at least 10 or so.

I’m wondering how many people get by on just having cell phones. Especially now that most companies include free in-network calling, free nights and weekends, and free nationwide long distance, is there really any reason to have a landline phone at all? We can even get set up for a worldwide long distance plan (so Jim can call home to England) that costs the same monthly charge and gets us the same rates as the one we have on our landline.

Here would be my worries – what if there’s an emergency and you needed to dial 911? Will they have trouble knowing exactly where you are? Because as far as I know, when you dial 911 from a landline, your address comes up on their screen, doesn’t it?

And then what do we do when our baby is old enough to be left with a babysitter? How would she call us if she needed to, unless we gave her one of our cell phones before we left? We can’t just assume she has one of her own.

So chime in people, what do you think?