A landline costs just as much as a smart phone plan, so very few people can justify the cost of both. I find that having just one end of a conversation on a landline improves the quality greatly and pay the ~$40 a month to have one (also, the long ago installed alarm is hooked up to it). Smart phone to smart phone calls are bad in many ways (drops, static, distortion, etc.) but what I find the most annoying is the excess delay. The old landline to landline calls had no more delay than talking to someone in person.