Do you like not having a landline?

[3angelsmom]

We dropped our landline a year ago but I really missed it. I'm bad about remembering to keep my cell turned on and the volume up. Also, the kids (11, 9 & 6) really aren't ready for their own cell phones yet. Right before Christmas we got the Ooma telo. Costco had it on sale for I think $99. It has great call clarity and has never dropped a call (we tried Magic Jack a few years ago and it was a disaster). It's well worth it for the roughly $4/month we pay in taxes.

 

[2manypets]

I used to spend $40 a month so that the telemarketers could get in touch with me.

We don't regret getting rid of our land line at all. We still have a phone hanging on our wall for 911 purposes (it still dials 911 when there's no service), but use our cell phones exclusively.

Another positive about only cell phones is if you get a call you don't have to hunt the person being call down to come get to the phone.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

We have not had a landline in over 11 years. Don't miss it at all.

 

[hsmamato2]

I love it,I love not having that 40+ bill every month for practically nothing....and phone line that goes down when the electricity goes...yes folks,that old wives tale that the 'old style' phone line is reliable in blackouts is no longer true.... ( I think it has to do with the big boxes attached to the poles now,when the batteries in those boxes go,say goodbye to your 'failsafe' phones)
...anyway.... I learned my lesson after our last blackout (9 days) and switched to a cellphone only. I now pay 30 per month,(or 40 if I want unlimited minutes to talk) and I have a bluetooth style box attached to my old existing in home phone jack,so when the cell rings,it routes thru that box,into my old standard phone attached to that jack.....so it's the same basic setup as what I had,for 30.00 per month for everything.
.....the reason I like that in-home bluetooth box is b/c I couldn't hear my one cell ringing all thru the house- now I can.
so no, I don;t miss my old worthless landline.

 

[hsmamato2]

oh,forgot to add, we pay separately for our internet- so that's not an issue.
so dh has a cell for work (free) ds1 has his own (free for me lol) and ds2 has a tracfone to use at home or about(extremely cheap to keep topped up) and I have our 'family cell" with me all the time...either on the desk at home,or in my purse..... that tracfone is usually just plugged into the wall on the desk,so my ds2 can use it when needed, but he rarely uses it anyway.

 

[robinb]

I used to spend $40 a month so that the telemarketers could get in touch with me.

We don't regret getting rid of our land line at all. We still have a phone hanging on our wall for 911 purposes (it still dials 911 when there's no service), but use our cell phones exclusively.

Don't the telemarketers eventually just get your cell phone number?My landline is 85% telemarketers (even though I am on the National and State DNC list ) but they got my number from somewhere. Someone I gave it to some who sold it to them or they randomly generated it and waited for an answer and then sold the "live number". Won't the same thing happen to my cell phone? The last thing I want is telemarketer calls/texts on my cell phone and I'm willing to keep my landline number to give out to people I don't really know.

 

[bamamom]

We haven't had a landline for 2 years. I had it disconnected and didn't tell anyone in the family....it was 6 months before they noticed....and only because my daughter couldn't find her cell phone and was going to use the landline to call the cell

 

[BadgerGirl84]

I love my landline. Because it's FREE!

I work from home every other week so I have two nice cordless handsets and a headset. We have an OBI device which connects from our modem to the cordless phone base and then a Google Voice account. Some days I'm on the phone for 6 hours of conference calls, so this is the perfect option for me. Much better sound clarity than my iPhone. I also like that we have the number set up to ring my cell phone if I don't answer the cordless phone in the house.

 

[Aristocath]

I guess we have a compromise- we have a cell phone that is our "home phone" (and then Dh, DS and I each have cell phones, eg that we carry with us.)

When we dropped the landline, I had them transfer the local phone # we've had for 20 years, to the home cell phone. People don't realize it's not a landline and don't think much of it when we're "not home" to answer it. Less pressure than giving out my personal cell number.

This is what we did. It stays in the same place in the house and my youngest son uses it at home since he is the only one with a cell phone. The only problem is we often forget to check it and people leave us voicemails. Not much of a problem because anyone who really knows me knows to call my cell.

 

[powellrj]

We have had a magic jack for several years. Its not the greatest, but at $30 a year I can live with it. We also have a cable bundle with another phone line that we use for the fax machine. I would really miss my landline because I hate using my cell phone.

 

[robinb]

I would really miss my landline because I hate using my cell phone.

I bought a VTech phone that connects with our cell phones by bluetooth. So, I can talk on my cell phone using a regular handset. The only problems are (1) I have to keep my cell phone in proximity of the base for the bluetooth to work properly and (2) the contacts phonebook on the VTech is kinda crappy and I always look up the number I want to call on my cell phone and then enter it in by hand.

 

[rock_doctor]

If you have a good internet connection consider OOMA. It is a voice over IP system. You have to buy the hardware and then each month you pay the federal taxes only. So each month costs less the $5 for unlimited calls though out the US. You can also use this for fax machines, alarms or anything that requires a land line. If you don't want to do that then get a google voice number account and port your home number to that and put your cell as the main phone on the google voice account. Then when somebody calls the home number it will go to your cell. The good part is, if the person leaves a voice mail google voice will convert it to a text and/or email and sends you a text version of it. You can also block callers. No real reason to have a land line anymore. I also saw at walmart a cellular base station. It is a box that you plug you existing phone into and then hook it up to a cell service. So basically your existing house phone is now a cell phone. Nice idea imho.

 

[blessedby3]

Don't the telemarketers eventually just get your cell phone number?My landline is 85% telemarketers (even though I am on the National and State DNC list ) but they got my number from somewhere. Someone I gave it to some who sold it to them or they randomly generated it and waited for an answer and then sold the "live number". Won't the same thing happen to my cell phone? The last thing I want is telemarketer calls/texts on my cell phone and I'm willing to keep my landline number to give out to people I don't really know.

I have had telemarketers call my cell. I dont answer the call if it is a long distance number I dont recoginze. I dont know how they get this info either!

We do have a landline, but I was about to give it up. I was tired of paying out for cells and landline, but talked to my internet/cable company and they had a deal that essentially gave me the landline for a few bucks. I am reluctant to give up that landline for 911 purposes, and my cell does not pick up everywhere in my house. I have dropped calls and have to move throughout the house to get the best signal. PAIN in the rear! Not to mention I get a hand cramp when I talk on the cell too long I have a smaller "dumb" phone

 

[DVC4FUN]

I haven't had a landline in over 10+ years. So no don't miss it at all! Lol. I have straight talk cell phone unlimited everything (I use the internet on it a lot too) $49 (after taxes) a month. Though thinking of switching to Metro PCs which is a few bucks cheaper. I had Verizon cell forever (well ever since my first cell phone in maybe 1998 or so) but finally got smart and ditched them a couple years ago when the again added more fees.

 

[beavismom]

Doh, wrong thread.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

My Niece regrets not having it. When her house ended up burning to the ground because they used the cell phone to call 911 and her call was routed to another county. The fire chief told her not to rely on a cell phone in an emergency because cell phone calls get routed to the nearest tower and if that tower is busy it can get bumped to another tower which is what happened to both 911 calls they made.

Her house fire started out small but by the time the got routed to the correct 911 dept it was too. Late.

Same thing happened to a friend who was on the turnpike and tried to report a drunk driver. He was driving in Ohio but his call went to a 911 dept in PA. I know in this situation he had no choice but it was just another incident that shows that cell phone calls can get miss directed.

SO paying $30 a month is an insurance policy for us.

 

[robinb]

My Niece regrets not having it. When her house ended up burning to the ground because they used the cell phone to call 911 and her call was routed to another county. The fire chief told her not to rely on a cell phone in an emergency because cell phone calls get routed to the nearest tower and if that tower is busy it can get bumped to another tower which is what happened to both 911 calls they made.

Her house fire started out small but by the time the got routed to the correct 911 dept it was too. Late.

Same thing happened to a friend who was on the turnpike and tried to report a drunk driver. He was driving in Ohio but his call went to a 911 dept in PA. I know in this situation he had no choice but it was just another incident that shows that cell phone calls can get miss directed.

SO paying $30 a month is an insurance policy for us.

When did those events happen? I heard that they now use your phone's GPS system to help pinpoint your location.

 

[Green Tea]

I have "heard" even if you do not have home phone service if a phone is plugged into the jack, you can still dial 911. Don't know if its true but I am investigating dumping my home line, so i am going to look into this.

 

[ssawka]

Don't miss it at all! DW gets her calls and I get my calls. No more handing off the phone and no more checking messages when you get home.

We had pretty bad cell reception in the house, but then I added a network extender that carries our cell phone calls over the Internet.

 

[SDSorority]

We like not having a land-line. It would always ring during my music lessons and it would drive me batty! And my husband would never pick it up, which would drive me even MORE batty. At least with my cell phone I can silence it when I don't want it to disturb me

And we're saving money, too, which is good. I honestly don't feel the need to have one.