And yet my family has two landline phones. We keep the home phone because my wife doesn't want to give it up, and she's reluctant to make our friends learn a new phone number. And I need my home-office phone so that I can keep my work and home lives separate. I give my office number to all sorts of people with whom I wouldn't want to share my home or cell numbers.

Despite what some folks think, you don't need a landline for 911 calls. Cell phones work just fine in an emergency. And if the electricity goes out, they're actually better than most of today's landline phones, which require AC power.

It's true that a landline gives you unlimited local, incoming, and toll-free calls, and lower per-minute charges in many situations. And another consideration is DSL, which comes over the phone line. If that's your source for Internet access, you'll have to switch either to cable or to a so-called naked DSL account that doesn't involve analog phone service. Either way costs more. AT&T would charge me $10 a month more for the DSL package I have now if our house were stripped of phone service.

So if you intend to keep your landline, how do you lower costs?

Examine your bill--both local and long distance--for extra, optional charges. If you're unsure what a charge means, don't hesitate to call the phone company and ask.