In my lifetime, my landline phones have been available for my use
99.99999999999999999999% of the time. In the 10 years or so I have been
using cellular service, my cell phones have been available for use maybe
70% of the time. Additionally, virtually every phone call I've made or
received via landline has had more than acceptable quality in terms of
being able to hear and be heard clearly and without fading or some sort
of noise or interference.

Cell service has a long way to go before it even approaches the
reliability of landline telephone service.

Actually, broadband reliability isn't as predictable as the landline
phone system.  Where I live, Verizon DSL isn't so reliable, and I jumped
to Comcast after getting the same frequency of outages with Verizon as
you cite with Roadrunner.

You gotta be joking.  Everything I've ever read from someone that
actually USED a satellite phone was that it was extrememly picky--had to
be totally clear skys with no trees or anything and then they had to
walk around to get the best antenna angle.  Most STORMS include heavy
rain and/or hail--the sat phone will get squat during that.

There are exceptions to every rule, but rules shouldn't be based on
the exceptions. It's always better to have a backup.

Not a viable alternative for most of us.

Doubt that, unless you have a government sat phone.  If you want to
get right down to it, the most reliable form of communication, in an
emergency (tornado, hurricane, earthquake) is longwave, shortwave, and
amateur radio phone (voice), CW (morse code), RTTY or packet.  The
amateur community is most cities has a disaster plan that will set up
an emergency communication trailer that can get a message out of, or
into an area destroyed by a natural act.  They practice this several
times a year and have come in handy with the hurricanes in the Florida
area, and also with the military affiliated radio service (M.A.R.S.)
send messages back and forth between military families and their
sons/daughters overseas.

Name one - where I live in NC - never had a problem with the land line
phone service going down ever since 1978 no matter what acts of God occured.

Quite a long time actually:

* The phone doesn't hunt all the time, just ever so often

* I can charge my cell phone from my car (or any other 12V source)

* I also have a battery adapter that takes AA batteries, of which I have an
ample quantity on hand.

There is a couple of misnomers at play here:

There are multiple levels of access to wireless access in case of emergency.
These are set with the local authorities and the carriers. In case of an
emergency, the appropriate level emergency command can in fact disable and
prioritize access to 911 as well as regular calls in an approrpiate
emergency. The type and weigt of situation is pre formatted and only lines
properly encoded in the LERG for the local calling area can and will
connect... even to 911...

This originated several years ago when an airliner crashed (I forget exact
date and location) fairly close to a major highway. When the authorities
started responding, various level responders and emergncey managemnt
officals who would not normally have access to radios, found they could not
be contacted or use their govenrment handsets, because for in excess of two
hours (even after local radio and TV coverage started) folsk passing by the
scene on the major highway were calling 911 and "reporting" the crash (scene
was just out of sight enough passers by could not see emergency vehicles and
crews already on scene) which overloaded the sites.

With appropriate request, the sites in an area can be selectively "locked
out" except for the authorized users... with the electronic id identifing
the handset and matching it agaisnt the LERG database... if you dont have
approrpiate access class on teh site so locked out, you will get a error
message even if you are calling 911...

The federal law mandating access to 911 is not automatic. The handset must
have been activated at some point. A brand new handset, that has never
registered on any system anywhere, will not access 911. The 2 year old
handset that you used ti use, or bought at a yard sale because someone
upgraded, yes... that handset MUST allow access to 911 on any appropriate
system compatible (ie. if is CDMA, it wont and isnt required to access 911
on a GSM network etc) within teh possible restrictions imposed by the "lock
out" discussed previous...

Actually one of the things that we all forget and take for granted is
that the regulatory environment for wireline service enables people who
live out in bumblefuck to get phone service at a much more reasonable
cost than they would get if they had to pay all the costs of installing
a system in a sparsely-populated area.  And that the regulatory system
spreads the cost among the dense and sparsely poplated areas.

If the wireline service was as deregulated as the wireless services are,
 the people you know who live far away from cities would more likely
than not be able to pay for a phone line in their house.  How would they
call  the police, fire or ambulance in an emergency?

If we all start moving away from wireline phone service to wireless, and
there are not enough people to support wireline services in the inner
city or countryside for the old and infirm, the poor, etc - who can't
afford nor need a cell phone that needs to be charged up - the people
who break down on the side of the road and need to use a payphone to
call for a tow truck - what will happen to them?

I like having a cell phone, but when I am home I use my landline phone
to make all my local calls, and some of my long distance calls also.  I
save my cell phone for nights and weekends and when I really am away
from home and want to make a call.