Dropping the land line - Your opinion?

Cellular or Land Line?

  • I cut the cord - Cellular only

    Votes: 5 10.6%
  • Land line only - trust the wire!

    Votes: 8 17.0%
  • Gotta have both!

    Votes: 34 72.3%
  • Other options?

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Neither - Smoke signals work just fine for me.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    47
  • Poll closed .

Rennie Heuer

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Staff member
Messages
11,607
Location
Constantine, MI
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?
 
I would be happy with only the cell phones, but the LOML thinks we need both...we have it packaged with our cable TV and internet so it might actually save us some money??
 
Although my alarm system has battery and cellular backup, the first attempt to notify of a break-in is the land line. The inability to use the land line triggers various other events in the reporting process. Since it is only for alarm use, I have the cheapest and dumbest land line service available. My cell is for everything else.
 
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I dropped my land lines several years ago and for the most part, have never looked back....

The one thing one must do is really evaluate your usage. I have had plans from very basic 200 minutes usage a month in the very early days, to plans for 4000 minutes plus all the "free" minutes they throw in for off peak usage when I had my business running. I just checked my usage for this month and I'm already exceeding 1500 minutes combined...thankful for accumalated roll over minutes this month!

So far, no solicitor calls, glad for that!
 
Our Sprint wireless internet's TOS specifically prohibits VOIP and our alarm and DirecTV require a phone line so we dont' have an option. Our cell phones can be questionable at times too, so we'll have a land line for the forseeable future. We actually have two--one for my work line and one for home. If the cell service improves, we might move the electronics to the office line and drop the home line.
 
In our area 911 service is not tied in well with a cell phone. No instant address or anything like that. Thats why I keep mine. Just in case. Even if I am hurt I call 911 and they know where the call came from. Even if I can't tell them.
 
Not enough options in poll. Like: considering cutting the cord.
Like Rennie, we are seriously considering getting rid of the land line.
Probably keeping it out of habit.
Downside to cutting is I do not like getting 'chatty' type calls on the cell, especially when I am somewhere not convenient to take a call.
I have a feeling we will do it, though.
 
Not enough options in poll. Like: considering cutting the cord.
Like Rennie, we are seriously considering getting rid of the land line.
Probably keeping it out of habit.
Downside to cutting is I do not like getting 'chatty' type calls on the cell, especially when I am somewhere not convenient to take a call.
I have a feeling we will do it, though.
Thanks for the additional insight - I racked my little brain trying to think of additional responses - for some reason I never thought of the one that I was in the midst of!:rofl:

My wife and I are looking into a PDA style phone - we both need to carry our contact list and calendars with us. I also need to have my home and work caledars and contacts in sync. The PDA will sync with both and keep them aligned. Having email won't hurt either. Nice thing about the newest technology - caller ID - helps me avoid some of those "chatty" calls.:D

Fortunately, we live and work in an area with very good, strong coverage. I thought about the 911 thing - haven't quite made up my mind on that one. I have a couple friends on the force - I think I'll ask them.
 
I'm one of those who don't particularly care for cell phones. My landline works in every room in the house. I'm totally deaf in my right ear and have about 30-40% normal hearing in my left ear. With the phone in my office I have a pretty good volume control so I can carry on a reasonable conversation without having to constantly ask someone to repeat themselves. My landline rings in about 4 different rooms in the house and with a 3 phone cordless set, it rings in the shop too. Just my situation and opinion.
 
I wish I could drop the land line, but my DSL comes through it.

In our area 911 service is not tied in well with a cell phone. No instant address or anything like that. Thats why I keep mine. Just in case. Even if I am hurt I call 911 and they know where the call came from. Even if I can't tell them.

Same here - and we have a home fax that also needs the land line. Wish I could drop it, but....

Nancy
 
Having recently Cut the cord, I'm going to go back partway and get VOIP once the treasurer figures out which plan is best for our budget. My directivo's need to dial in every so often, and cell coverage at our house is spotty at times.

That being said, I could live with the coverage, the directivo situation is more annoying to me than the occasional dropped call.

for the record, the cell only option is more expensive for us than the land line, but we have 4 cell lines... LOML, myself and our two older sons.
 
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So..... you voted for smoke signals? :rofl::rofl::rofl:

That would certainly get rid of the sales & political calls:D
My answering machine gets first crack at all the calls and tells them point blank that we might really be home but wont pick up for one of those calls. But I still have to listen to it. I could just shut my eyes with the smoke signals. Hmmmm:huh:... I'm guessing there's a heavy discount for nighttime calls:dunno:
 
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 would drop it but cell phones here work when they want to :rolleyes: If I'm in the shop and the big door is closed it isn't working. Some days I can wonder all over the farm with coverage, other days it only works in the library, go figure
 
I'm in the "both" camp. Like others, our DirecTiVo boxes want a landline for phoning home, and our cell coverage is a little hit or miss up in the foothills where we live. On top of that, in the event of an emergency like an earthquake, I'd like to have multiple options available. I'm not confident the cell network will be up (or able to handle the traffic). After the Northridge quake, I didn't have power, but I was getting news updates via the landline from my relatives in New Mexico, who were watching the events live on TV.
They could not call in, but I could call out.
 
Well, we are wired to the mains :D

One land line at home, four cell phones, three land lines at the Liquor shop; fax, incoming only calls, and normal line.

I hate my cell phone, I wish I did not have to have one in my pocket all the time, really and truly, I hate the darn thing, it invades my privacy too much, but that is one of the things you lose a bit of when you are in business for yourself :dunno:

I do like the caller ID thing, that helps, but still......... :bang:

Oh well, it does come in handy sometimes :rolleyes:
 
Well, we are wired to the mains :D

One land line at home, four cell phones, three land lines at the Liquor shop; fax, incoming only calls, and normal line.

I hate my cell phone, I wish I did not have to have one in my pocket all the time, really and truly, I hate the darn thing, it invades my privacy too much, but that is one of the things you lose a bit of when you are in business for yourself :dunno:

I do like the caller ID thing, that helps, but still......... :bang:

Oh well, it does come in handy sometimes :rolleyes:

Ditto that, especially your feelings for the cell phone. When I am at work, I purposely set it on my desk in my office, that way when I am out in the shop or greenhouses, I can't be bothered with the cell calls. Its' bad enough with the frivolous land line calls.

Joe
 
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