Many phone owners just have a home phone for emergencies. They do not want to be bothered with telemarketers or other people calling them since they have a mobile phone. Once you get a home phone, your phone number is likely to be in the telephone book, unless you request a private number.
Most local phone numbers are placed in the telephone book, so that people can reach you. If it is not in the telephone book, many of the times, people can do an Internet search to see if they can find your phone number. They may have to pay a small fee in order to locate your telephone number.
To make your phone number private, you may have to pay an extra fee to your telephone company. If you do not want to be bothered with a lot of calls, it will be worth it. You can also put your telephone number on the Do Not Call List (DNCL), which can be found online or in your telephone book. If any telemarketers contact you, you can write DNCL to complain.
When you have a private number, it means that you should not give it out to people, if you do not want to be bothered. If a close friend or family member gets your home phone number, they could give it to another person and it keeps spreading from one person to another. If you have a mobile phone, give them that number instead.
A home telephone should be used for emergencies and not to gossip on. For example, if the power goes out at your home and your mobile phone is not charged, the home phone will come in handy. When it comes to home phones, they never go out during a power outage, unless you have a cordless phone or the telephone line is broken. You may notice that when people ask you for your number, they may ask for your mobile number because they know that most people have mobile phones. As for bill collectors having your telephone number, they should have your mobile number and not your house number. If want to keep your number private and you happen to become behind your bills, the bill collector will not stop calling you. On a mobile phone, at least you can see who is calling you, unlike a home phone, unless you have called id.