Yes, but the location services aren't nearly as good and they easily could wind up at the wrong house. Even worse in apartment. Not to mention, you slump over in the bathroom where's your precious cell phone? I've got hardwired phones in every room including the shitter.
I will always have my hard line for the following reasons:
1) E911 - they know exactly where to go, not so with cell
2) Have phone for a week during power outage (power provided by hardened CBX shelter and battery)
3) Quality. You simply cannot beat the quality of a hardline to a phone (no cordless, a real phone).
4) In an emergency situation your cell phone will be worthless as the towers are overloaded. Not so with a hardline. We had an extended power outage and cell phones just didn't work because of call volume. My hardline? Singing right along.
I've been in networking/telecomm for over 20 years. I'll never give up my true hardline. Ever.
The general public's inability to make reasonable risk assessments rears its ugly head again.
Here's a thought:
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-HeartS.../dp/B00064CED6 Compared to $35 a month for a land line, it's cheaper than 3 years worth of land line, and a much better investment (provided you're not home alone most of the time.)
The odds of suffering a life-threatening situation where you're incapacitated to the point of not being able to make a cellular call and give your address, but able to pick up a phone and dial 911 are laughable. It's even more laughable that you have a landline in your bathroom for that reason.
Furthermore, they're getting better and better at locating where cell phone calls originated. One of my county dispatchers told me that for our area, it's within 100 feet. (We have enhanced 911 service.) If you live in row houses, that might not so great, but if you live in a mcmansion or a rural area, or are one of the "my lawn is 1 acre that I have to mow" people, it's more than good enough.
Things that would make a hell of a lot more sense than hard wired phones in every room:
multiple fire extinguishers in the house, extra smoke detectors, heat detectors, even a defibrillator.
Landlines. LOL
(Edit: of course you would have a land line in an area with poor cellular reception.)
Pre-emptive "I thought of that before you thought of that": If calling "911" on a cell phone routes to a different dispatch center than calling 911 on a landline, then program in the number for the faster dispatch center (you can reach them through a regular phone number as well.)