landline

One of those terms that emerges during times of technological upheaval -- for many decades, this described anywhere that virtually any [telephone] call took place -- it seeks to home in on a location hooked up to traditional, analogue [POTS] (Plain Old Telephone Service) transmitting voice (or [modem] data) signal over copper wires. It is used in contrast to the "mobile" or especially "cellular" phone -- the one that might be used to place a voice call beginning with the question "Guess where I'm calling from?" ... with landlines you always had a pretty clear idea of the answer to that one, if you'd ever been to the caller's house (though [payphone]s, of course, were also landlines of a sort.)