# Stuff and Things > HISTORY, veterans & science >  Landline so practical

## Madison

As I have no cellphone

I will always keep my cord phones in my house

Just did a search 

Will a corded phone work in a power outage?

A traditional *corded phone does* not require *electricity* and *will* continue to *operate* through an extended *power outage*. In the event of an emergency, a *corded phone will* also provide emergency services your exact location, when a mobile device *can* only provide a general area.



Why do *landline phones work during a power outage? In order to work, phones require six to 12 volts at around 30 milliamps. Because they run on minimal power, the phone company has enough generators and batteries to make sure they continue to operate.


*So my phone is a keeper  :Smiley20:

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Brat (05-02-2021),darroll (05-02-2021),dinosaur (05-02-2021),East of the Beast (05-02-2021),Greenwing (05-03-2021),Karl (05-03-2021),Kodiak (05-02-2021),Northern Rivers (05-02-2021),pjohns (05-02-2021),Rutabaga (05-02-2021),US Conservative (05-02-2021)

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## Madison

And I have one like that ..yeah I know color is gross lol

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Brat (05-02-2021),dinosaur (05-02-2021),Kodiak (05-02-2021)

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## Captain Kirk!

They work on power from the phone company. If their power goes out then they won't work.

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Brat (05-02-2021),dinosaur (05-02-2021),Freewill (05-02-2021),Madison (05-02-2021)

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## dinosaur

Hurricane Michael took out our landline completely.  All those little green poles and boxes?  Smashed by trees.  Those underground phone lines also went airborne at each river/creek crossing that was relatively short.  Trees got those too.  Our local cell tower also get a bit twisted up and the cables broke.  So all the phones were out, but we were able to get a weak cell signal, and able to send text messages whenever we got "a couple bars".  Cell service came back partially in 3 weeks, but the landlines took almost 4 months.  Less than 2 months for good cell service to return.  Yes, they had a new cell tower up before they got the old one fixed.

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Madison (05-02-2021),Northern Rivers (05-04-2021)

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## pjohns

We have a landline--branches in four different rooms (two branches in one of those rooms:  a "master" and a "slave" phone)--plus two cellphones (my wife has one, and I have another).

Each type of phone has an advantage:  The landline never needs to be re-charged; but the cellphone is not limited by the cord:  It can be taken anywhere (just as long as it is not out of reach of a cell tower).

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Madison (05-02-2021)

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## Old Tex

My wife has a cell phone that I don't even know how to use. We have landlines in 4 of our rooms. 

I don't have a cell phone because there is no one in the world that I want to be able to contact whenever THEY want to. My military habit is to answer in less than 3 rings & I do that automatically so I can't ignore a phone ringing.

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Madison (05-02-2021)

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## Madison

And I have that one  :Smiley20: 
SAM_4784.JPG

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pjohns (05-02-2021)

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## Gator Monroe

Used the Landline at my Mountain home yesterday (While gettin in the last chance for Burn Piles) even though I get better cell reception up there than I do at my Country Home closer in to Redding , its strange but up there in the Southern Cascades I get 3 Bars and down in the Valley I get perhaps one solid bar in a few rooms and half the property .

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Madison (05-02-2021),pjohns (05-02-2021)

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## Kodiak

I remember losing power years ago and still having phone service.  But you couldn't here it ring as I guess that runs off the house power instead of the phone company's.

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## Call_me_Ishmael

Just received my Garmin Iridium satellite communications device today.... the InReach Mini. It's primarily a gift for my daughter when she goes hiking where there in no cell coverage but it would also be useful for loss of communication infrastructure caused by .... whatever.  Send/receive 160 character messages and press a button and a global search and rescue team is on their way. A few other features too with weather and mapping. I played with it today while setting it up so that she can just use it right away when I give it to her. Amazingly small.... like half of a 3 musketeers bar in weight and size. Sixty Iridium LEO satellites. Just need some access to the sky. 

That's not to denigrate land lines. I like low tech reliable things too. The simpler it is the fewer things can go wrong. I kinda wish I had a set of military field phones and a couple miles of field wire.  I like backup capabilities. 

Anyways... it was fun playing with the toy today.

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pjohns (05-02-2021)

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## Call_me_Ishmael

> I remember losing power years ago and still having phone service.  But you couldn't here it ring as I guess that runs off the house power instead of the phone company's.


The oldest landline phones ring off that landline. There are entire chapters on this in old engineering books.   And go back to the old phones you crank. The crank spins a simple generator that sends the voltage to the other end... or an operator.

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## East of the Beast

we have both

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Madison (05-02-2021),pjohns (05-02-2021)

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## Madison

A friend of mine have 5 old phones and they all work 
She bought it from second hand stores and antiques

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darroll (05-02-2021),pjohns (05-02-2021)

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## JMWinPR

The local telephone company office has battery back up, they can last for days until a generator or power is restored. However, downed lines regardless of cause, take time to repair. Now if your telephone is through your cable TV service, they may or may not have battery back up. The best option is satellite such as Hughes. The first two years are quite expensive, after that you can throttle back your speed, and bring the bill down substantially. When you determine your regular service is going to be down for awhile, you can upgrade the speed on a monthly basis. I was out for just under 7 months, P.O.T.S. Plain Old Telephone Service with Claro never did come back up. They canceled my contract with 2 months to go, rather than string 600 feet of line

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dinosaur (05-02-2021),pjohns (05-02-2021)

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## Freewill

My grandma had the old style crank phone when I was young.  They then graduated to a party line.  A party line is where people share the line, so for entertainment you could listen into your neighbor's phone calls.  Eventually I believe they got a regular land line.

I on the other hand grew up with a phone number that contained a type of tree. In my case it was  walnut.  I would love to have one to ask my grandchildren to dial a rotary phone.

We then moved onto digital landlines.  Everything moving on and in my opinion getting better.  We even dreamed of having cell phones.  Which we know we all got a flip phone and some people still love them.  

Now we are onto the smart phone.  I like it.  I like the apps that let me store cards so I don't need to dig through my wallet.  I like being able to go to the gym and watch movies or whatever when on the elliptical (and yes I do go).  I like the GPS feature.  Once when walking in a game land it started to get dark and I got turned around and didn't know what path to take.  I took out my cell phone and lo and behold my cell showed me the way out.

We cut the cord a couple of years back.  Which meant cutting the land line, we have never looked back.  If a storm comes big enough to knock out a cell tower it probably will knock out the land line.  Which has never happened.

When we switched cell companies they gave us 250 dollars for each line.  We don't use data and are careful not too and we pay 17.90 per month for two cell phones.  I figure that for the last two years we have basically been using the phones for nothing.  The one problem is replacing the phone, it ain't cheap.

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dinosaur (05-02-2021)

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## Freewill

> The oldest landline phones ring off that landline. There are entire chapters on this in old engineering books.   And go back to the old phones you crank. The crank spins a simple generator that sends the voltage to the other end... or an operator.


the landline phones work on about 48 VDC, with the ringer at about 105 VAC.  At 48 volts you can handle the wires without getting shocked, but if someone would happen to call that number, it hurts.  Don't ask how I know.

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darroll (05-02-2021),JMWinPR (05-05-2021),pjohns (05-02-2021)

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## Northern Rivers

> As I have no cellphone
> 
> I will always keep my cord phones in my house
> 
> Just did a search 
> 
> Will a corded phone work in a power outage?
> 
> A traditional *corded phone does* not require *electricity* and *will* continue to *operate* through an extended *power outage*. In the event of an emergency, a *corded phone will* also provide emergency services your exact location, when a mobile device *can* only provide a general area.
> ...


I rent out large, 3PH gensets. The phone companies, among them. 

If you drive around you might see a tiny little shack every now and then with the telephone company logo on it. That's where they use diesel genesis to keep the phones going if the grid goes down.

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## pjohns

> [W]e all got a flip phone and some people still love them.


I have a flip phone; and I do, indeed, love it.  (So what if it is a throwback to the 1990s?  I want a cellphone exclusively for the purpose of making phone calls--and occasionally receiving them, from my wife--so I neither need nor desire anything fancy.)

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## pjohns

> As I have no cellphone
> 
> I will always keep my cord phones in my house
> 
> Just did a search 
> 
> Will a corded phone work in a power outage?
> 
> A traditional *corded phone does* not require *electricity* and *will* continue to *operate* through an extended *power outage*. In the event of an emergency, a *corded phone will* also provide emergency services your exact location, when a mobile device *can* only provide a general area.
> ...


Well, most of our landline phones require connection to an AC plug (in addition to the usual connection).

The one exception is the telephone in the guest bedroom (a.k.a. our "computer room").  It is an old-style phone; and it has no AC connection.  (I suppose we would just use it in a power outage.)

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## Dr. Felix Birdbiter

What is a land line?  If I live on a boat in a marina can I still have a "landline"?

We had a landline in Tennessee because we didn't have cell service in the mountains.  There was a spot 4 x 4 in front of the post office in Del Rio, 7 miles from my house that did have cell service.  Later, we were able to connect to cell service through the internet because we had Dish.  Now, in Florida we don't have a landline in the house.  We did but had it connected to the fax.  No one uses a fax anymore, they simply include the information as an attachment on your email.  Cell phones have become more and more sophisticated and now we can be anywhere in the known universe and still get emails, faxes, phone calls and spam!

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## Madison

:Smiley ROFLMAO:

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## Karl

> As I have no cellphone
> 
> I will always keep my cord phones in my house
> 
> Just did a search 
> 
> Will a corded phone work in a power outage?
> 
> A traditional *corded phone does* not require *electricity* and *will* continue to *operate* through an extended *power outage*. In the event of an emergency, a *corded phone will* also provide emergency services your exact location, when a mobile device *can* only provide a general area.
> ...


Once awhile that Wire pops.

About a Decade ago was the Derecho of 2011..

A cell phone could still charge in a car cigarrette lighter plug and signals worked if charged battery

The Derecho Storm of 2011..

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## Physics Hunter

Ours looks like this one:



Liberated from Ma-Bell back when it was illegal to "own" a phone, that was how they knew how many phones to charge you for.  There was healthy black - market trade in (ahem!) liberated phones...
I used this phone to phone in a power outage a few days ago, no cell coverage out here...

The reason the US phone system stayed on it's own power for so long (so I am told) is to separate power from comms for nuclear strike resilience.  The Civil Defense planners (that brought you the interstate system) thought the low voltage, low tech phone system had a good chance of mostly surviving an indirect nuclear attack.

When I was a wet behind the ears young engineer in the 80's I worked with some grizzled old Motorola veterans and man they could tell stories!

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## Karl

> Ours looks like this one:
> 
> 
> 
> Liberated from Ma-Bell back when it was illegal to "own" a phone, that was how they knew how many phones to charge you for.  There was healthy black - market trade in (ahem!) liberated phones...
> 
> The reason the US phone system stayed on it's own power for so long (so I am told) is to separate power from comms for nuclear strike resilience.  The Civil Defense planners (that brought you the interstate system) thought the low voltage, low tech phone system had a good chance of mostly surviving an indirect nuclear attack.
> 
> When I was a wet behind the ears young engineer in the 80's I worked with some grizzled old Motorola veterans and man they could tell stories!



My folks still had a Dial Phone.

When it came to touch tone and press one or whatever

They only had Dial Pulse.

So they'd come over my house because TOUCH TONE 

Once my EX got "Pissed" and she told me tell my folks where the payphone is 

She didn't seem 2 realize how we lived so good 

That was Their Money.

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## JustPassinThru

> What is a land line?  If I live on a boat in a marina can I still have a "landline"?
> 
> We had a landline in Tennessee because we didn't have cell service in the mountains.  There was a spot 4 x 4 in front of the post office in Del Rio, 7 miles from my house that did have cell service.  Later, we were able to connect to cell service through the internet because we had Dish.  Now, in Florida we don't have a landline in the house.  We did but had it connected to the fax.  No one uses a fax anymore, they simply include the information as an attachment on your email.  Cell phones have become more and more sophisticated and now we can be anywhere in the known universe and still get emails, faxes, phone calls and spam!


I can steer you to at least one place, on the Montana-Idaho border on I-90, that does NOT have cellular service for at least ten miles in either direction.

It was my happy lot to have had a motorcycle breakdown in that exact dead area three years ago.  I also found out that Montana's Highway Department doesn't maintain traditional pay phones in rest areas anymore, or at least not there.

And Idaho and Montana both, do NOT have Welcome Centers on that line.  You have to go about 40 miles in, either side, to get all the hotel coupons and find the unhelpful government "advisors."

As for cellular phones:  Cellular towers, many of them, have their own standby diesel or other alternate power sources.  If you have your car, or tractor or riding lawnmower close by, you can charge your cell phone and use it.

Traditional phones work in power outages.  Where can you get one?  All the wired phones sold today, require plugging in to make the ringers work.  Most of them are cordless.  Many of them have electronic message recording integral.

It's always a gamble, what will work in an emergency.  Since a smartphone, once paid for, is as cheap as a landline, I'm just using my snoop-phone as a desktop phone.  I don't carry it with me, and if I must, I turn it off if I can.  It's easier than fighting with the small phone company that bought the Montana Bell legacy franchise when USWest/Qwest collapsed, fifteen years ago.

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pjohns (05-03-2021)

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## Karl

> My folks still had a Dial Phone.
> 
> When it came to touch tone and press one or whatever
> 
> They only had Dial Pulse.
> 
> So they'd come over my house because TOUCH TONE 
> 
> Once my EX got "Pissed" and she told me tell my folks where the payphone is 
> ...


I swear 2 Freaking gosh I don't need no Woman or Kids..

Wish a Real Virus kill half this planet off so I ain't gotta wake up everyday and look at it

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## JustPassinThru

> What is a land line?  If I live on a boat in a marina can I still have a "landline"?


Easy.  Or at least, it used to be.

Right next to your power box on the pier, would be the phone box.  Plug in an extension cord, and presumably your boat would have some phone wiring in it that you could plug it into.  Or else, just drape the cord down a hatch.  Presto!  Phone service.

Of course the phone company frowned on short-term connections - but if you're there all the time, you can just keep paying for it even when you're out and about.  Hopefully neighbors wouldn't plug in while you were at sea.

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## Physics Hunter

> My folks still had a Dial Phone.
> 
> When it came to touch tone and press one or whatever
> 
> They only had Dial Pulse.
> 
> So they'd come over my house because TOUCH TONE 
> 
> Once my EX got "Pissed" and she told me tell my folks where the payphone is 
> ...


You carry your baggage as a load.  I am sure that someone has encouraged you to not live there and build good memories, no matter how small, every day.
I used to be an introvert pessimist, then I started a successful company...
Every day is a gift.

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## Jen

We have a landline with the master in the dining area and an extension in the bedroom. Not corded. They don't work during a power outage. Our cell phones do work during power outages as long as they are charged.   My husband and I each have a cell phone.  He has two cell phones... one for work and one personal.  We do not answer the phone unless it's a person we recognize and have no problem ignoring the ring.  Our cells are muted during the time we sleep. Our kids know to text before they call to ask if we are available and we do the same if we want to call them.  My friends know I'm not a phone person so they usually don't randomly call me. If they do, I answer.

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pjohns (05-03-2021)

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## ruthless terrier

Landlines are very practical when you use DSL for internet.

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## Freewill

> I have a flip phone; and I do, indeed, love it.  (So what if it is a throwback to the 1990s?  I want a cellphone exclusively for the purpose of making phone calls--and occasionally receiving them, from my wife--so I neither need nor desire anything fancy.)


Can you play Candy Crunch on your flip phone?   :Tongue20:

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## patrickt

I'm not sure of the point. I live in Mexico and I have a landline so I can get the internet. I don't have a wired phone. The reason I don't is I'm too deaf to talk on the phone. I use a cell phone for text messaging. I can place important calls if I can prepare with my over-the-ears headphones and quiet environment.

My cell phone also keep my daily schedule, my various lists such as shopping and cell phone accounts I pay for monthly. I use Google Maps a lot. I thoroughly enjoy the cell phone camera and it's the camera that drives my choice of phones. I have two dictionaries on the phone and if tragedy strikes and I leave home without my Kindle I can read my current book on my phone as I wait in line at Walmart.

But, the biggest advantage, here in Mexico, is that virtually everyone can buy a cell phone and get cell service. When I moved to Oaxaca is was almost impossible to get a line in the city and it was impossible in the villages. A few days ago I saw a Triqui woman on her cell phone speaking to someone in Triqui. Back in the day of only landlines that would never happen. And, a friend who was living here when I arrived said he got a landline when it was run by the government--Mexico's Democrats, the PRI--and it cost him $3,000.

I'm deaf and I enjoy my cell phone. Oh, and my phone line costs me $200 pesos a month and my landline costs me $389 pesos a month. With my cell phone I get toll-free calls to all of Mexico, the U.S., and Canada, that's all of North America, and with the landline I don't.

I don't understand the power issue. I can use my cell phone in a power outage as long as cell towers are still operating. I could use a landline as long as the phone company's central station isn't under water. We had a severe earthquake in 1999 and phone service was out briefly. It was back up quickly but cell phones were rare then.

I know a lot of people who don't want a cell phone. Guess what? I don't care. Well, I don't care until they start asking me to do things for them on my cell because they don't have one. I don't. I don't know if I would consider a wire phone practical.

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Northern Rivers (05-04-2021)

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## Greenwing

> Hurricane Michael took out our landline completely.  All those little green poles and boxes?  Smashed by trees.  Those underground phone lines also went airborne at each river/creek crossing that was relatively short.  Trees got those too.  Our local cell tower also get a bit twisted up and the cables broke.  So all the phones were out, but we were able to get a weak cell signal, and able to send text messages whenever we got "a couple bars".  Cell service came back partially in 3 weeks, but the landlines took almost 4 months.  Less than 2 months for good cell service to return.  Yes, they had a new cell tower up before they got the old one fixed.


Yikes. That's terrifying. Even if you have a backup gennie you're screwed without the infrastructure behind cell/landline comms.

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## pjohns

> I used to be an introvert pessimist, then I started a successful company...


I have found, over the years--to my disappointment--that some people confuse introversion with *bashfulness.* 

And they are simply not the same thing.

In fact, they are not even closely related to each other.

I am surely introverted.

But I am _far_ from being *bashful.* 

Anyone who thinks that I am, obviously, does not know me...

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Physics Hunter (05-03-2021)

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## pjohns

> Can you play Candy Crunch on your flip phone?


I really do not know.  I have never tried.  

But I doubt that I would wish to, in any case.

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## patrickt

> I have found, over the years--to my disappointment--that some people confuse introversion with *bashfulness.* 
> 
> And they are simply not the same thing.
> 
> In fact, they are not even closely related to each other.
> 
> I am surely introverted.
> 
> But I am _far_ from being *bashful.* 
> ...


Actually, I perform well as an extrovert but it's exhausting. I can do parties and business meetings and those damned sensitivity training sessions quite well. But, if you want an extrovert to sit alone, in a room, without a television, he goes berserk in minutes.

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## Physics Hunter

> I have found, over the years--to my disappointment--that some people confuse introversion with *bashfulness.* 
> 
> And they are simply not the same thing.
> 
> In fact, they are not even closely related to each other.
> 
> I am surely introverted.
> 
> But I am _far_ from being *bashful.* 
> ...


I can kind of agree with that, although bashful seems to apply to only segments of my interactions, introvert is always there...

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## Northern Rivers

> I'm not sure of the point. I live in Mexico and I have a landline so I can get the internet. I don't have a wired phone. The reason I don't is _I'm too deaf_ to talk on the phone. I use a cell phone for text messaging. I can place important calls if I can prepare with my over-the-ears headphones and quiet environment.
> 
> My cell phone also keep my daily schedule, my various lists such as shopping and cell phone accounts I pay for monthly. I use Google Maps a lot. I thoroughly enjoy the cell phone camera and it's the camera that drives my choice of phones. I have two dictionaries on the phone and if tragedy strikes and I leave home without my Kindle I can read my current book on my phone as I wait in line at Walmart.
> 
> But, the biggest advantage, here in Mexico, is that virtually everyone can buy a cell phone and get cell service. When I moved to Oaxaca is was almost impossible to get a line in the city and it was impossible in the villages. A few days ago I saw a Triqui woman on her cell phone speaking to someone in Triqui. Back in the day of only landlines that would never happen. And, a friend who was living here when I arrived said he got a landline when it was run by the government--Mexico's Democrats, the PRI--and it cost him $3,000.
> 
> I'm deaf and I enjoy my cell phone. Oh, and my phone line costs me $200 pesos a month and my landline costs me $389 pesos a month. With my cell phone I get toll-free calls to all of Mexico, the U.S., and Canada, that's all of North America, and with the landline I don't.
> 
> I don't understand the power issue. I can use my cell phone in a power outage as long as cell towers are still operating. I could use a landline as long as the phone company's central station isn't under water. We had a severe earthquake in 1999 and phone service was out briefly. It was back up quickly but cell phones were rare then.
> ...


Pat...see if you can have your stapes, replaced. My left ear went from 8% acuity to 92%........ :Smiley20:

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patrickt (05-04-2021),pjohns (05-04-2021)

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## Northern Rivers

> Hurricane Michael took out our landline completely.  All those little green poles and boxes?  Smashed by trees.  Those underground phone lines also went airborne at each river/creek crossing that was relatively short.  Trees got those too.  Our local cell tower also get a bit twisted up and the cables broke.  So all the phones were out, but we were able to get a weak cell signal, and able to send text messages whenever we got "a couple bars".  Cell service came back partially in 3 weeks, but the landlines took almost 4 months.  Less than 2 months for good cell service to return.  Yes, they had a new cell tower up before they got the old one fixed.


I've been with a direct-to-satellite internet for a couple of months, now. It did cost me $950 to have trees taken off the steep hill (a crater wall, actually) and another $250 for all the equipment and the install. Now? $70 a month...instant service.

The down side????

The ex lives in another house on the property...and...I had to spend another $950 and $250 and $70 a month. :Angry20:

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## patrickt

> Pat...see if you can have your stapes, replaced. My left ear went from 8% acuity to 92%........


When I visited the U.S. I went to the clinic at the University of Utah. They suggested some very expensive hearing aids. I asked if there was some sort of computer modeling that would show how much difference they would make. No. Maybe a lot, maybe not. After considering the cost I said, "At my age, with two ex-wives, I have probably heard just about everything I need to hear." If some screams I hear it. If my dog barks, as with an intruder, I hear that. If we have an earthquake, I don't really need to hear. We do have earthquake alarms that kick in about 15 seconds after the quake starts.

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Northern Rivers (05-04-2021)

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## Northern Rivers

> When I visited the U.S. I went to the clinic at the University of Utah. They suggested some very expensive hearing aids. I asked if there was some sort of computer modeling that would show how much difference they would make. No. Maybe a lot, maybe not. After considering the cost I said, "At my age, with two ex-wives, I have probably heard just about everything I need to hear." If some screams I hear it. If my dog barks, as with an intruder, I hear that. If we have an earthquake, I don't really need to hear. We do have earthquake alarms that kick in about 15 seconds after the quake starts.


I was about to get a hearing aid...but...my local quack sent me to a teaching university for a diagnosis. 24 hours (including overnight) in the hospital.

http://www.queenslandotology.com.au/...APEDECTOMY.pdf

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## pjohns

> When I visited the U.S. I went to the clinic at the University of Utah. They suggested some very expensive hearing aids.


Have you considered Cochlear implants?

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