Cutting the Land Line

[emuelle1]

http://www.rednova.com/news/stories/3/2003/08/04/story001.html

I've never had a good cell phone signal in my house. But it really doesn't make sense to me to pay for the cell phones AND $50 to Verizon so that people that I don't want to talk to can call me anyway.

I had an AT&T Wireless contract because of a discount that I got through a previous employer. Of course, Cingular bought AT&T right after we switched. We went to AT&T to get away from Cingular. Anyway, 2 years later, we switch back to Cingular and get new phones, and we can actually get a reliable signal in our house. I have made calls from all of the trouble spots, and I have no problems now. I'm seriously thinking about ditching the land line, which we don't use much anyway.

Can anyone think of a GOOD reason to keep it, with cell phones and a cable modem?

[rdaprix]

Most E-911 systems don’t get ANI/ALI (number and line identification data coupled with geographical location) off of mobile or VoIP phones, so in an emergency, you could have a real problem. If your carrier or ISP craps out, you have no service so a landline is always somewhat useful in those situations. You may need a modem (shudder) for fax transmission or terminal emulation when communicating to older devices or to power your incoming faxes on a multi-function device.

But, the best reason is that in the event of a blackout you need power for your mobile phone and ISP and an old single line princess telephone plugged into a POTS line will still work, even with no power because its powered from the network.

If you have kids (and even if you don’t) or think someday you may need access to a telephone in a storm or other emergency or can imagine needing a fax device or the need to call 911, you might want to consider keeping the land line. Restrict it if you like to cut down the costs, but keep it for emergencies.

[Sven Johannsen]

For me the drawback would be my cell phone ringing all day from people I don't want to talk to. As it is I give my home phone out to the vast majority of folks that need a phone number. My cell number is reserved for friends, family, business colleagues that need it, and the occasional temporary thing. That last one is like the auto shop, to let me know the car is ready. They generally lose that number after the call, and don't pass it on, or use it for other things. Or this week, they guys painting my house. If they have a question, they need my cell. They don't need to leave me a message on the machine in the house they are at. Again, they'll lose it after they are done, most likely.

It is also the one number common to my wife and me. It's the number we give to people who need to reach US, not either one specifically.

[emuelle1]

I did think about reducing it to the bear minimum, but that's still around $20 a month. With a 1 year old and another baby due any day now, I'm tempted to look at the savings in monthly bills over emergencies. I am a licensed Ham, so if it came down to it I could always use my radio in emergencies. Of course, I'm inactive, so I don't really know any of the local Hams.

[doughboy]

Our family ditched the land line in 2000 for the $26 per month savings minimum. I highly advise the move.

The 911 situation could be an issue if 911 is dialed and you cannot speak to an operator after that but when my son had a seizure, my first statement to the 911 operator simply included my address and phone #.

As long as you charge your cell phones each night, you should be able to last through an electrical outage. If my caller ID shows a number I don't know, I usually let the voice mail get it and pick up the voice mail after "daytime" calling hours.

The only other item that has been an issue for us is ensuring the more forgetful half carries the cell phone into the house with her. If the phone is left in the car, no home phone is available to call. The solution I typically use is to email my wife and wait.

Make the move. Go for it!

[emuelle1]

Doughboy, that's the only drawback I could see; expecting my wife to keep her cell phone in reach with an infant and a 1 year old. I bought a clip with mine, and being a male my clothes tend to have pockets that I can clip it to. But she says she's willing to live without the land line, so I think we will go for it.

Of course, I can't cancel until I get home, since Verizon won't talk to me without my 3 digit customer number. That's just one more reason to hate them.

[Mark Kenepp]

As long as you charge your cell phones each night, you should be able to last through an electrical outage.

I think the problem would be if there was a neighborhood blackout and the cellular antenna were down, power to your mobile would make little difference.

Also, if the mobile network were down for some reason in your area, fully charged mobiles wouldn’t work.

I know people who ditched the landline and only used mobiles and they were fine.

I would say that I had to work with a company who only used mobile phones and it was a serious PITA.

I would call to go over some documents and they would be on the ferry or driving down the highway and they could not reference the documents we needed to coordinate.

Our company no longer does business with them mostly due to problems with communication.

That is a business though; I don’t think that you would have the same issues with a family doing the same thing.

[buckyg]

My Mom & sister just went through this, decided to get rid of their land line to. They're already annoyed with people now expecting them to always answer.

And they usually don't have the phone on them or next to them when it rings. They used to have extensions all over the place.

[jmkeuning]

I 86'ed the land line a year ago and have not needed it, missed it, or cared, except for when someone wanted me to fax something.
This is when you scan, pdf, and email.

[yankeejeep]

The only reason I held onto my land line until last year was for DSL service, which was available in my area long before high-speed wireless coverage. I tried the cable modem route and decided I really preferred the DSL and added services from my ISP to the pretty pathetic offering from the cable company. As for faxing, it has been years since I have kept a dedicated fax machine. A multi-function printer/scanner and fax software solved that one. With the arrival of wireless broadband coverage in this area, though, there isn't much reason not to drop the land line.

[emuelle1]

So far I've been fine without it. I considered the need to fax, but since I moved my computer I'm nowhere near a phone jack anyway. There are internet fax services. When I did my 2nd mortgage I scanned some documents and used the prepare's personal email to deliver them.

Also, as a Ham operator, I'm going to get invovled with RACES, which is the amatuer radio emergency communication network, so if a true emergency arises I'll be part of the communications infrastructure anyway.

[PetiteFlower]

I haven't had a land line for years, not since I switched to cable from dial-up, and I haven't looked back. Cell phones all have caller ID, so it's very easy to not answer if you don't want to talk to someone. Plus for the 911 thing, a lot of cell phones now have special GPS chips that allow the 911 people to find you. Can't use them for anything else, but it's still good for emergencies. And if there's a power outage, there's always the car charger :)

[ctmagnus]

Plus, with cell phones, if someone who you don't want to talk to phones, can't you just hit 'end' when the phone's ringing to "hang up on them" without answering the phone, therefore not having to listen to the ringer the whole time?

[PetiteFlower]

Yeah you can open and close the flip to hang up on them, or hit the volume down button while it's ringing to send it straight to voice mail. On my phone anyway.