One option a lot of people overlook (or don’t know about) is connecting a landline phone to your cell phone via Bluetooth. For all practical purposes this makes the normal phone work as if it was connected to a regular landline, and does not require VoIP and also does not have the issue of no or questionable 911 service (in most areas, however be aware that your actual location will be only as good as what your cellphone company provides to the 911 call center, Still, it may be better than what you get with some VoIP companies, who may route your call to the wrong 911 call center).
In order to do this you need a device that handles the connection, and there are two I am aware of from different companies. One is called the Cell2Jack and the other is one of the models from XLink. One is less expensive than the other, and at least one offers different versions that do different things, such as allow you to connect two cell phones simultaneously. The downside of these is if you carry your phone around with as if it were some kind of implant then it probably won’t work because you will be out of Bluetooth range most of the time. In my case I only use my cell phone as a phone, so when I come in from outside I lay my phone next to the device and it just works until I leave the house and take the cell phone with me. This has the added advantage of not interrupting my sleep with text messages, not that I get many of those. It depends on your usage scenario but if you just want something that will just let you use a landline phone without paying for additional service, this might be the answer. Be aware that if you have an older house with phone wiring in the walls, you can hook one of those devices to a phone jack and it will let you connect your phone to any of the other phone jacks BUT you must make certain your inside wiring is disconnected from the network interface box outside, and of course you must make sure your cell phone is in Bluetooth range of the device.
I am not giving URLs because any decent search engine should help you find those devices and because I don’t know if doing so might might cause this post to get flagged for some reason. I have no interest (financial or otherwise) in either of the devices I mentioned, though I am a happy owner of one of them.
One option a lot of people overlook (or don’t know about) is connecting a landline phone to your cell phone via Bluetooth. For all practical purposes this makes the normal phone work as if it was connected to a regular landline, and does not require VoIP and also does not have the issue of no or questionable 911 service (in most areas, however be aware that your actual location will be only as good as what your cellphone company provides to the 911 call center, Still, it may be better than what you get with some VoIP companies, who may route your call to the wrong 911 call center).
In order to do this you need a device that handles the connection, and there are two I am aware of from different companies. One is called the Cell2Jack and the other is one of the models from XLink. One is less expensive than the other, and at least one offers different versions that do different things, such as allow you to connect two cell phones simultaneously. The downside of these is if you carry your phone around with as if it were some kind of implant then it probably won’t work because you will be out of Bluetooth range most of the time. In my case I only use my cell phone as a phone, so when I come in from outside I lay my phone next to the device and it just works until I leave the house and take the cell phone with me. This has the added advantage of not interrupting my sleep with text messages, not that I get many of those. It depends on your usage scenario but if you just want something that will just let you use a landline phone without paying for additional service, this might be the answer. Be aware that if you have an older house with phone wiring in the walls, you can hook one of those devices to a phone jack and it will let you connect your phone to any of the other phone jacks BUT you must make certain your inside wiring is disconnected from the network interface box outside, and of course you must make sure your cell phone is in Bluetooth range of the device.
I am not giving URLs because any decent search engine should help you find those devices and because I don’t know if doing so might might cause this post to get flagged for some reason. I have no interest (financial or otherwise) in either of the devices I mentioned, though I am a happy owner of one of them.