Dropping the land line - Your opinion?

Stuart Ablett said:

I hate my cell phone,

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I respect this, and resemble it in some ways.

We have a land line as we also have DSL over it.

As for cell phones... I don't *want* an electronic leash. Yes, we have a cell phone, but it is for OUR convenience and emergency use, not for others. In fact, it is turned off 90% of the time. We don't give that number out to anyone but family usually.

A few years ago I was talking to a colleague who had no landline, which was a new thing then, and he reported that he had some problems with companies -- I forget if it was a bank or CC company -- who would not deal with him because he did not have a land line. Has that changed?

...art

Art Mulder said:

A few years ago I was talking to a colleague who had no land line, which was a new thing then, and he reported that he had some problems with companies -- I forget if it was a bank or CC company -- who would not deal with him because he did not have a land line. Has that changed?

...art

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That's something I should look into.

Our Internet and TV both come over the cable, so no DSL issues. We live quiet lives - kinda - without a lot of people calling us on our land line(other than those annoying 'exempt' telemarketers) :soapbox: So, getting too many calls should not be a bother. The LOML works for our church and for an assisted living facility - she needs to be able to be reached all the time. I don't, but then no one calls me anyway. Still up in the air, but leaning towards cutting the cord!

glenn bradley said:

Ken brings up a good point. LOML is hearing impaired and only certain cell phones will not interfere with her hearing aids. I am surprised there are not more hearing aid compatible cell phones out there. Jeff makes a good point as well. E911 service is not everywhere and well implemented almost nowhere. that will improve. I keep a phone in the shop about 2 feet off the ground just in case I have to crawl to it. Single button dailing to 911 (sounds grizzly but I learned about this here, I think).

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I wear hearing aids and have no problem with the cell phones. But, the land line phone(s) can be very difficult.
If you have to crawl, you shouldn't be in your shop.
And, wats that ye were saying about Grizzly?

Frank Fusco said:

And, wats that ye were saying about Grizzly?

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If it was up to me, I'd cut loose the land line. I don't think our combined use of our cells and our landline equals the monthly allocation we have on our cells. And we don't get all those phone solicitations on the cells. But the LOML seems to think she needs to have the land line for talking long distance to the kids, grandkids, and her mom.

Jerry Palmer said:

But the LOML seems to think she needs to have the land line for talking long distance to the kids, grandkids, and her mom.

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Jerry, doesn't your cell provider have a provision for free long distance? Verizon does, and I make all our long distance calls on the cell.

Nancy

Art Mulder said:

As for cell phones... I don't *want* an electronic leash.

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"Best description I have ever heard."

.... Rant ....

I don't ignore my wife/children/girlfriend in public places.
I don't pretend cashiers, waitresses and passers by do not exist.
I don't get in a buffet style situation and hold up the line.
I don't start my car and dial a number at the same time.
I do not expect people trying to serve me to either try and understand my hand signals or stand there and wait until I decide to get off the phone.
I don't insist that the whole restaurant share my telephone conversation.

When I leave my home, polite interaction with other human beings is only common courtesy.

I had one girl try to give me a hair cut one handed because her cell phone rang.
Needless to say I have never been back to that shop.

It's only my humble opinion, but I wouldn't have a cell phone if the service were free.
Any phone calls I need to take can be directed to my home.
If one wants to walk around with a phone stuck to their ear, don't bother asking me to go along, there is a possibility I'm going to hurt your feelings or "really" perturb you.

.... Rant Over ....

DT

Don Taylor said:

"Best description I have ever heard."

.... Rant ....

I don't ignore my wife/children/girlfriend in public places.
I don't pretend cashiers, waitresses and passers by do not exist.
I don't get in a buffet style situation and hold up the line.
I don't start my car and dial a number at the same time.
I do not expect people trying to serve me to either try and understand my hand signals or stand there and wait until I decide to get off the phone.
I don't insist that the whole restaurant share my telephone conversation.

When I leave my home, polite interaction with other human beings is only common courtesy.

I had one girl try to give me a hair cut one handed because her cell phone rang.
Needless to say I have never been back to that shop.

It's only my humble opinion, but I wouldn't have a cell phone if the service were free.
Any phone calls I need to take can be directed to my home.
If one wants to walk around with a phone stuck to their ear, don't bother asking me to go along, there is a possibility I'm going to hurt your feelings or "really" perturb you.

.... Rant Over ....

DT

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I agree with everything.......except........what I do and what my wife does require we be reachable. Please note - we both posess (ready for this?) manners, and we would abide by everything noted - leash or no leash.

Don Taylor said:

I don't ignore my wife/children/girlfriend in public places.
I don't pretend cashiers, waitresses and passers by do not exist.
I don't get in a buffet style situation and hold up the line.
I don't start my car and dial a number at the same time.
I do not expect people trying to serve me to either try and understand my hand signals or stand there and wait until I decide to get off the phone.
I don't insist that the whole restaurant share my telephone conversation.

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I agree... I do a lot of driving as part of my job, and thus am on the busy highways of NJ a lot. At least once a day if not more (and the closer you get to the NY area the worse it gets...) I run into a situation where a car is going 40-45 in a 55mhp zone where the normal traffic flows about 60-65... traffic backed up behind him/her, and when you finally get to pass and look over there is some moron on the phone, head cocked sideways yapping away without a clue.

Unfortunately, as others here have stated, as much as I hate the cell phone, for saftey and other reasons I have one, and I'm glad my girls have one when they're out alone driving down a lonely highway. Would I ever cut my land line though? No, because also as others have said, the ability to dial 911 and immediately have the cops at my door within a few minutes is something I don't want to give up. Maybe if I lived alone, but my wife runs a little day care business out of our home. The 911 landline connection alone is worth the $30 a month the home phone costs me. I've been in 911 call centers and watched those folks. As soon as you dial 911 your whole history comes up on several screens arrayed in front of them... address, family size and ages, registered cars... prior police record if any... it's a little scary. But in an emergency one button and the cops are knocking at your door. 911 from a cell phone doesn't get the same response.

Well... it's about time. They must have heard me whining... NJ just passed a law making it the most expensive state in the union to be caught driving while using a cell phone. I live in PA but work in Jersey, and do a lot of work realted driving there throughout the whole state.

http://mobile.aol.com/mobilearticle/_a/new-jersey-now-the-most-expensive-state/20080228104609990001

You still can do so if you have a hands free device. But that won't stop most folks I figure, at least not for a while until hopefully enough publicity and news stories about people getting whacked $250 for each offence. That won't even stop some, but at least it's a start.

Since I live a little out of town, I cannot get good cell phone reception inside my house. Sometimes it won't even ring in the house, but just beeps that I have a message. I have to step outside to use it.

So, until they put a cell phone tower closer to my house, I need both.

A guy I work with installed something like this in his house and went from no inside signal to a full strength signal, even in his basement. Something to consider for those with bad coverage.

Our daughter informed us that, as of this Friday, she and her husband will be dropping their land line. The practice is growing.

Matt Meiser said:

A guy I work with installed something like this in his house and went from no inside signal to a full strength signal, even in his basement. Something to consider for those with bad coverage.

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Very interesting. But, I couldn't find any pricing.

I finally found some pricing info in their FAQs. A basic home set-up would cost about $600.00 to $1,000.00. Kinda pricey.

Frank Fusco said:

Very interesting. But, I couldn't find any pricing.

I finally found some pricing info in their FAQs. A basic home set-up would cost about $600.00 to $1,000.00. Kinda pricey.

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His cost about $350. Not cheap, but it would pay for itself in 10 months at our rates. I don't think that is the exact one he used.

For good reception I just rent out space on the very tall, very large water tower on the property to 2 different cell phone providers...cost to me, NADA....benefit(s)....great cell service and 2 monthly checks from very good tenants.

Update...... No change

I've looked into the 911 thing. The local police are set up pretty well with both full 911 service and GPS. The dispatcher I spoke to told me that calling from a land line would guaranty my being located regardless of my ability to speak. The monitors pop up everything about me that is available on public record, priors, etc. (I'm happy to say my screen would be quite empty )

As for the cell phone call to 911, the GPS would get them to within 50 feet, but it will take longer and they would not have all the address info, etc.

The local phone company offers a bare-bones service for half of what we're paying now - about $20 a month. We might look into this. Then we would still have the land line, but none of the frills like caller ID, etc. Easy, just let everything go to the message machine!

Rennie Heuer said:

...The local phone company offers a bare-bones service for half of what we're paying now - about $20 a month. We might look into this. Then we would still have the land line, but none of the frills like caller ID, etc. Easy, just let everything go to the message machine!

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I've used a similar strategy in the past (basic landline, and use the cell for long distance) and it's worked out well.

Rennie Heuer said:

I'm giving serious consideration to dropping our home phone all together and using only our cell phones. Both my wife and I work, no kids at home, and about 1 out of every 4 calls we get on the home phone is someone (political, non-profit) we don't want to talk to anyway. I don't think we used our home line for more than 100 min last month.

With the new plans available, and very capable equipment, I think we'd be better off.

Anyone out there cut the cord and gone cellular only? Any pluses or minuses?

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When I was still working and in Houston, the wife and I were in same situation.. we dropped the landline and had no problems with it at all.. our internet was through the cable company, so no problem.

Now that we are in Tennessee, we have to have land line for the DSL and we're so far out in the country, cell phones don't work here..