Land line phone - what type of phone and what service provider?

[Anonymous]

Need to get elderly mother a land line phone. It needs to be basic, with big buttons, and REALLY easy to use. Also not sure what carrier/service provider to use.

[Anonymous]

I work in telecom.

Get a Cortelco 2500 set or an old Western Electric one. These are more-or-less indestructable, don't require AC power, and have no "features" besides a dial. The sound quality is excellent.

As for provider: find out who provides copper line services to the area. You do not want VOIP or cable service. You want a "POTS line" ("plain old telephone service"--yes, that is an industry term that people actually use to refer to the type of service). This is the most reliable service, since it uses a copper wire pair directly from the central office to the house. Power is provided over that copper pair, so the service will work during a power outage. Newer services are not built to the same standard of reliability and also often fail to provide the proper address for 911 emergency calls.

[Anonymous]

Just got my mom this phone. So far so good. She is on a DSL line because that is all they offer.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MM35F79?pf_rd_r=45Q0YSF9DV8G7KN141P2&pf_rd_p=5ae2c7f8-e0c6-4f35-9071-dc3240e894a8&pd_rd_r=c3ee3ae7-46bc-474f-9992-60f011575add&pd_rd_w=8OCAZ&pd_rd_wg=KOai2&ref_=pd_gw_unk

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in telecom.

Get a Cortelco 2500 set or an old Western Electric one. These are more-or-less indestructable, don't require AC power, and have no "features" besides a dial. The sound quality is excellent.

As for provider: find out who provides copper line services to the area. You do not want VOIP or cable service. You want a "POTS line" ("plain old telephone service"--yes, that is an industry term that people actually use to refer to the type of service). This is the most reliable service, since it uses a copper wire pair directly from the central office to the house. Power is provided over that copper pair, so the service will work during a power outage. Newer services are not built to the same standard of reliability and also often fail to provide the proper address for 911 emergency calls.

+1 This is great advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in telecom.

Get a Cortelco 2500 set or an old Western Electric one. These are more-or-less indestructable, don't require AC power, and have no "features" besides a dial. The sound quality is excellent.

As for provider: find out who provides copper line services to the area. You do not want VOIP or cable service. You want a "POTS line" ("plain old telephone service"--yes, that is an industry term that people actually use to refer to the type of service). This is the most reliable service, since it uses a copper wire pair directly from the central office to the house. Power is provided over that copper pair, so the service will work during a power outage. Newer services are not built to the same standard of reliability and also often fail to provide the proper address for 911 emergency calls.

+1 This is great advice.

It’s great advice - from 1995. Unfortunately, many areas no longer support copper.

She might be stuck with VoIP.

[Anonymous]

We've been using MagicJack for the past 10 years - not truly a landline, but plugs into a router and has worked flawlessly for years. https://www.magicjack.com/

We use a telephone system with a base and satellites throughout the house - just plug the base unit into the router, and all the other phones will work.

https://www.amazon.com/PANASONIC-Link2Cell-Bluetooth-Assistant-Expandable/dp/B071GPHYRT/ref=sr_1_15?dchild=1&keywords=telephone+satellite+base&qid=1611949362&sr=8-15

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just got my mom this phone. So far so good. She is on a DSL line because that is all they offer.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MM35F79?pf_rd_r=45Q0YSF9DV8G7KN141P2&pf_rd_p=5ae2c7f8-e0c6-4f35-9071-dc3240e894a8&pd_rd_r=c3ee3ae7-46bc-474f-9992-60f011575add&pd_rd_w=8OCAZ&pd_rd_wg=KOai2&ref_=pd_gw_unk

Actually it was this phone. I wanted the amplified phone.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073CBSJ1N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1