I guess I’m more affluent then, because I’d hate to think I fit into the “older” demographic now. This Slashdot post talks about the increasing trend among young people to give up the land line:
More than a quarter of the under-30 crowd has decided you only need one telephone — and it sure as heck does not plug into a wall. The trend towards an all-mobile lifestyle is accelerating, according to a new survey. Besides younger people, lower-income people are also more likely to have cut the cord. And while businesses may be a bit slower on the cell-only uptake, there appears to be little doubt at this point that the traditional landline will be joining rotary dials and party lines as a relic of the telecommunications industry.
I still have a land line, but I have thought about giving it up. I use my land line similarly to how I use GMail.  When I want to give someone a phone number, but I really don’t want them bothering me, I’ll give them the land line. Anyone who I know well enough gets the cell phone number. I don’t answer calls on my land line unless I recognize the caller, which is rare, since everyone who knows me knows to call the cell phone.
Thinking about it, it probably makes sense to give up the land phone. But I doubt I’ll actually do it. It must be the old fogy in me that has a hard time letting go of the wire.
I’m well past the “under 30” demographic but my wife and I gave up the land line a couple of years ago.
We did it primarily for financial reasons. We were not giving up the cell-phones, they are just too handy to have around. Why are we paying $50+ a month (most of which was taxes and other fees) when we both had phones with us pretty much all the time. The only thing the land line was good for was for telemarketers to leave messages on.
We had a little angst about it at first because we were both so used to having the ubiquitous phone on the wall, but it only took about two weeks before we realized we didn’t even really miss it. The only two drawbacks that I’ve noticed: First, we now have empty telephone wall plates and wiring that are good for absolutely nothing but cluttering up the wall space. Second, I no longer can send a fax directly from my computer. If the company I’m dealing with requires an actual fax and will not accept an emailed version (very rare now days but does happen) I’ve got to send the document to someone else to get it faxed. Not a huge hardship and a rare occurrence indeed, but is a consideration.
If you have a cell-phone with the capability and appropriate cabling to hook to your computer and use as a modem, this problem would be alleviated and the only drawback to having no land line would be the useless wiring in the house.
With Skype giving trans-Atlantic calls for 2c a minute, our last reason to keep a land line disappeared.
The biggest benefit of losing the line? When someone calls, we know who it is for – so no jumping up to get a call, only to find out it’s not even for you.
Oh, and no “Vote For Me” calls and surveys either…
You could use those wall plates to run Ethernet cables, though WiFi can negate the need for such cabling. If someone installed a higher grade wire than POTS (CAT1) such as CAT5, then it would be easy to use it for a network.
I think there are intercoms that run over telephone wires. Of course, walkie-talkies could also be used, but they broadcast in the clear.
The thing that I don’t like about all cell phone is what happens when the cell breaks/runs out of juice?
There’s also the advantage in 2+ households that calling the landline will get either party (for those times when you really just need to talk to someone, it doesn’t matter which someone)
There is also the advantage of “hey, honey….. Ralphie wants to talk to you too… why don’t you pick up the extension next to you upstairs in the den?” that you don’t have with the cell phone.
There are 9 rooms in the family house. Unless the cell is on me, it’s probable that I won’t hear it ring and even if I did, it’s usually in a different room than I am. The land line on the other had has a plugged in extension in 7 of the 10 rooms. So, occasional dashes, but less frequent (and the corded phone is fairly static and pretty easy to find)
but YMMV of course :)