The Land-Line Phone Makes a Comeback: New Features You May Not Have Heard About

Do not give up on your Land-Line Telephone just yet. Your local telephone company may be able to offer you great product services and features that your wireless cell phone cannot. Here is a list of the features you are probably already familiar with, and five of my favorite new ones.

Most people who still utilize their land-line telephones already know about Call Forward, Caller ID and so forth, but did you know about Distinctive Ringing? This allows you to have a main phone number and a secondary number on the same line. The secondary number has a distinctive ring all its own and is helpful when you want to distinguish a family member or friend from the rest of the callers.

Everyone who has ever had an annoying caller or friends who give up after one ring are familiar with Last Call Return. Usually this is star-69, but it does not work on most long distance callers or those who have intentionally blocked their incoming calls from caller ID, another feature, usually star-67. My land-line offers a Do Not Disturb Feature, Three Way Calling and Voice Mail. Land-lines can forward your callers into voice mail when you are on the phone or signal you another caller is coming through or waiting.

Voice Mail has become so sophisticated lately. Did you know that you can pick up your wireless cell phone voice mail from your land-line and save a few pennies of air time? You can have the cell number direct your calls to your land-line for ease of access and, I believe, vice versa. You can save voice messages for designated periods of time by saving them which is handy if you cannot reach a pen to write return phone numbers down. You can make your Voice Mail as personal or impersonal as you desire ("Your call is being forwarded to an automated voice mail messaging system").

My favorite new feature is Selective Call Acceptance. You need to arrange this product with your telephone company in advance - usually around $3 a month. You can list up to 12 callers you want to allow through, everyone else gets a polite refusal. I have found that if you are still using internet access by phone, it may be able to stop people from coming through your line in advance and certainly better than the dreaded busy signal.

There is also Selective Call Rejection, similar to the above, but you can list up to 12 numbers you wish to reject on a permanent basis.

You can add your number to the "Do Not Call" registry, but I hear that only alerts spammers of real working phone numbers. I would also suggest that you list your phone number in the local directory for free. You do not want to miss that call from an old high school acquaintance. If you want spammers to not call, you can add the phone company features which block those types of calls or remove you from the directory altogether. If you run a business, do not forget to update your information with the local directories in your area and that means the book as well as the operator assistance directory people. You would be surprised how many people simpy use directory assistance and still cannot find the number.

Land-line phones will always be popular for those on limited incomes or disabled persons. That is because the government offers them reduced fare phone service meant for those with special needs, they have to be able to call out.

If you live near the ocean, you may have access to "marine bands" which can offer more features than regular telephones can. Wireless cell phones can now text and email to computers, and that includes camera phones sending pictures directly to your desk top or lap top. Land-line internet may be less crowded and less costly than high speed internet now since less people are using the land-lines.