I quess it depends on what time frame you are talking about! Post TWAWKNI it's a moot point I don't think the telcos will be operatin in any form. One could find a surplus field phone and lay line to the nearest friend or retreat . any form of radio will do in this case.

I just made a post under 'Frugal Till It Hurts' regarding switching from traditional landline (Qwest) to cable telephony. I did it to save almost $300 a year but also found that cable phone conversations are a little more difficult to trace on the internet. Not impossible, but difficult. I'm ditching my cordless phone for a corded phone if I can find a good one. Any good scanner can pick up a cordless phone conversation.

I lived for 25 years with a radiophone as my only source of communication, other than a CB for neighbor to neighbor conversations. It was subject to malfunctions like any other radio-type of communicator, fog, sun spots etc. There were many times when this radiophone would not work and I was forced to drive the 15 miles into town to use a pay phone. Thirty mile round trip to make a phone call !! Any standard Radio Shack scanner could pick up my conversations. Finally we got a new phone company, Verizon, and they allowed me to install 5000 feet of phone line down the side of a mountain, across a stream and up the other side to my house. I am responsible for maintaining this phone line, but now we have a traditional land line type telephone and I am a happy camper. This allows me internet access and fairly reliable communication to the outside world. Cell phones do not work in this area because we are too far away from the towers and cell phones are" line of sight " type of technology.
It IS very true that the NSA monitors all phone call communications via computers that search for certain trigger words that will activate a computer to start recording and analizing your conversation. This is known as Project Echelon and is orchestrated from Ft, Detrick Maryland. They employ over 103,000 people for this operation. It might be wise to restrict your conversations to basic hello, yes dear, good by, type of communications.

I've been told some things that I'm not sure of the veracity of the facts, but here goes. Remember Skype? Skype is a VOIP system and I understand that it has been driving the feds crazy because it is next to impossible to trace or monitor. Now I don't know about VOIP through your cable provider and I don't know about anywhere else, but here in Free Wyoming we receive our cable via microwave and then it is transmitted via cable to the customers. If an EMP attack should occur, microwave will go bye-bye. Same with cell phones. I am not sure of the effect on regular landlines. Anybody know? I have NEVER experienced loss of landline service except when some idiot cut through a fiber optic cable with his Bobcat. It happens. But I have encountered cable outages. So far I have not had any problems with Verizon on the cell.

I agree with you about the cordless phones - any unadulterated scanner can pick them up.

I am of the opinion that with these agencies listening to all these calls by all these means that it is obvious to me that they are not doing so with human ears, instead I'm sure they are using a sophisticated computer system that culls through the mind numbing 'I honey' and 'but Dad' calls looking for key words and combinations of key words. Then it probably sends those calls to human ears. My point being, on a day to day basis, my call to the wife during my commute, is probably not to interesting to the algorithm, nor the human monitors... so if I do trigger a combination during the call, and it is send to the humans, it would not take them long to figure out that I'm not planning anything more sinister than what to cook for dinner. So even though I dont like to talk on the phone, I do talk on my cell, to my wife, on my commute, or if Im at the store and she has thought of something to add to the list. I dont think it is anyone's business what I talk about on the phone, but I am also aware that this is the age of big brother.

So which type would be most effective? Well after going through a major ice storm a couple months ago, I can tell you that for the most part cell service was reliable, so long as the generators were working. I did hear of a few times the generator sets failed at key towers, but that was quickly taken care of. So I would give them an A-. The land line, and subsequent DSL, worked well, so long as my generator was running (DSL part), and the hard wired telephone never missed a beat. so I'd give it an A. I have since switched to a cable package that includes telephone and uses a VOIP telephone service, I suspect that in a tough situation, that will be problematic. During the ice, the cable system went down for a month and a half, so I will give it a D. BUT, I want to make this point. From a 'my neighbor' snoops on my calls perspective, cordless phones are the worst. If you choose to use your land line, have corded phones. Cell phones can be intercepted by mischievous civilians too. So keep that in mind. I have heard that technology exists that can clone your cell phone sim card, and then they can program one and put it in their phone. The then can place calls poising as you, and you accrue all the charges. SO, FYI there.

In conclusion, I finally get to my A+ pick. If you are lucky enough, and do a little observation you might just find that you have one of the remaining, public telephones on the corner. I have found one, maybe a half mile from my house at a gas station. These are the A+ in my opinion, they are wired, they are anonymous, they are probably your best bet for secure transmission over the telephone grid, just dont forget your Germ-x and clean the thing before you use it. :lol:

Since we already know that alphabet agencies monitor 100% of both landline and cell phone calls, what type of phone do you believe would be the most effective in an emergency situation? Does it concern you that your conversations are being recorded? This is not about radio but phones - please stay on subject. We're evaluating the pros and cons of both types of telephone service.