There’s the actual phone, which could run anywhere from a few bucks at a stoop sale to more than $140 for a phone-and-answering-machine combo. (Also, for many, a landline means upping the likelihood of wrong numbers and getting heckled by telemarketers, so best to let them go.)

Meanwhile, phone companies like AT&T and Verizon are hoping to phase out traditional copper lines, anyway, as they’re costly to keep and repair. In fact, after Hurricane Sandy, Verizon cut landline service to parts of New Jersey and Fire Island, due to severe storm damage, replacing it instead with fiber-optic FiOS service. In fact, the Federal Communications Commission has said it’s unsustainable for telephone carriers to maintain traditional landlines because of rising costs and declining usage, so even if you decide to keep your landline for the time being, it is probably a technology we will see slowly phased out over the next decade or so.

Plus, and we concede that this isn't a super-practical factor, we think it sounds a bit more professional to have a landline, especially if they have the coveted 212 area code (hey, there's a whole Seinfeld episode devoted to it). And of course, if you can’t find your smartphone or left it in the back of a cab, it’s always nice to have a backup means of communication (or at least a way to call your missing cell phone).