Re: ‘Slow shift away from land line us’ (Citizen, April 20)
My wife and I are both in our early 70s and we have a land line in our house with both cordless and corded phones and we both also have cellphones.
We have the cellphones for convenience and safety whilst travelling and we have the land line for economy and for safety in emergency situations.
Regarding economy we can call anywhere in much of the world including the UK on our land line for five cents per minute through our deal with Telus; this is much cheaper and more convenient than using a cellphone for these calls.
Regarding safety I would point out that in case of a power outage many cellphones may not work as there will be no power to the towers which are the vital points of connection also cordless land line phones will be inoperative due to lack of power.
This is why in our house we have a corded land line connection on each floor – for safety and the ability to call 911 in case of emergency including during a power outage and, as was stated in your article, use of a land line to call 911 enables the emergency responders to have the correct address for the emergency
As was demonstrated during the 9/11 emergency in New York, cell phone systems can rapidly become overloaded as all calls have to go through one or more cell phone towers which have a limited number of channels.
Thus, though many may say that we are “old-fashioned” my wife and I will continue to have and use our land line with both corded and cordless connections.
Graham Jones
Chemainus