Curious...Who Has Gotten Rid of their Land Lines?

[sjsjbrook]

We got rid of ours. All we were getting was telemarketers. It's been great!

Lucky you telemarketers are calling my cell phone it is rather annoying.


My friend uses only thier cell phones, the only porblem they discovered was when their mother babysat there was no phone in the house.

Here it is still cheaper for me to keep a land line than a cell phone, it works when the power is out (I have one cord phone).

 

[wdwscout]

We have "spotty at best" cell service at my home (we live in the woods).
No matter the carrier- if I want to have anything resembling a conversation I have to stand outside on the deck!
I do a significant part of my work from home, in my basement office. My cell phones won't even ring there...
We won't be getting rid of our land line anytime soon.

 

[WaltD4Me]

We have "spotty at best" cell service at my home (we live in the woods).
No matter the carrier- if I want to have anything resembling a conversation I have to stand outside on the deck!
I do a significant part of my work from home, in my basement office. My cell phones won't even ring there...
We won't be getting rid of our land line anytime soon.

A friend of mine that only has a cell has issues with it in her basement too, but her basement is their family room so they are down there alot at night, so whenever I call her it's a big production because her cell keeps cutting in
and out, so she has to get up and go upstairs to talk, then I feel bad she has to get up and go upstairs, so I don't call her as much and then she'll say to me "how come you never call me anymore?" and I tell her to get a real phone.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I want to but my husband says no.

Maybe I'll get him talked into it sometime. It would be great to save that money.

 

[quirty30]

I didn't get rid of it altogether, but I did switch to Vonage for half the price I was paying AT&T. I have 2 younger kids so it's prudent to have a land line and I have lived here for almost 20 years and I wanted to keep the same number. Really, really liked the price of Magic Jack but didn't want to switch numbers.

 

[simonkodousek]

We'll probably drop our landline within the next year and switch to Road Runner instead of DSL. That way, the bills can be consolidated with Time Warner. We mostly call friends and family on their cell phones, so the mobile to any mobile plan on AT&T will be put to good use. I can't wait until I get my iPhone!

 

[LMO429]

we have a land line for one reason only...for our home security system. we have never given the land line number out to anyone we associate with and we use our cell phones to make all our calls.

 

[dalt01]

wife wont let me...................................

 

[WaltD4Me]

Okay, now I have another question....if you use your cell for all your calls, do you have a headset or something for it? My portable phone is bigger so I can cradle it on my shoulder, but I've never been able to do that with a cell. It would drive me nuts to always have to hold a phone at home when I'm talking.

 

[dalt01]

i put mine on speaker and lay it down

 

[k5jm]

I use one of these at many work facilities. It allows you to plug your home, hard line, phones into your Cell via bluetooth. This is very handy when you have spotty coverage in basements and other parts of your house.

The Xlink connects your Bluetooth enabled cellular phones to your landline phone, or to your telephone wiring, allowing you to use your regular landline home or office telephone over your cellular service network. All you need is a Bluetooth enabled cell phone, and the Xlink will take care of the rest. Simply plug your traditional phone in to the Xlink using a regular modular (RJ11) plug. The Xlink will then connect wirelessly via Bluetooth to your cellular phone. Your deskphone is now using your your cellular service.

Best of all, the XLink supports rotary dialing!

You can pair up to 3 Bluetooth cellular phones with the XLink potentially giving you access to 3 separate phone lines from any phone connected to the device.

Features:

- Displays Caller ID number from your cellular phone on your phone's LCD display.
- Call Waiting between calls on one and/or multiple cellular phones.
- Integrated echo cancellation for optimal call quality.
- Simultaneously connect up to 3 cellular phones to XLink.
- Voice dialing as provided on your cellular phone.
- Speed dialing.
- Voicemail access.
- Connect directly to any number of standard telephones using XLink's built-in RJ11 (standard telephone) jack.
- Standard Line Ringing Voltage ensures home phone ringer performance.
- True 5 REN ensures all home phones connected to the XLink ring properly.
- User configurable and programmable for cellular phone features (voice mail number)
- Built-in USB port.
- Connect your PC and XLink USB ports to: easily upgrade XLink firmware for added features and functionality; adjust unit configurations including, ringing patterns, tones, home phone's LCD and voltages (compatible with North American, South American, Asian, and European standards)
- Dimensions: 4.5" x 4.5" x 1.5"
- 1 Year manufacturer's warranty

Here is what our first Xlink customer had to say:
"I just unboxed the X-Port and got it working with my HP Ipaq 6845 in less than 60 seconds! I made test calls with my B1 desk stand/685 subset combination and 100% went through perfectly every time! I called (name witheld) in Wisconsin and talked for 45 minutes...

I might even use it with an inverter on my pickup truck and go down the road talking on a 211 or 302 just for the heck of it. Or.use the unit to demonstrate an antique phone at an antique fair!

 

[soupy11]

It is actually very dangerous to NOT have a landline. If, God forbid, you need to contact the police for some emergency, it takes them time to pinpoint your location from a cell phone, whereas they can automatically find you from the landline. Also, like you said, if there's an emergency and the city needs to contact you, they'd try your landline, not your cell.

I went a year without a landline when I lived with a roommate off-campus in college, but after hearing some stories I never would again.

Hmm, most phones nowadays are transmitting GPS locational info so you shouldn't have any trouble with the 911 folks tracking you down. And if your not equipped with that tech, the triangulation software they use is top-notch....

Also, why would the city call a non-existent landline over your recorded cell-number? I'm just a bit confused over that part as they routinely call the number they have stored.

As far as the battery problem...I agree....one downfall is running outta juice!

 

[Disney Khi]

We haven't had a landline since 2005. We had Vonage for the few years we lived in Canada so we could have a local Canadian number plus a virtual local US number for our friends back home to call us, but since we moved back to the US we've gone back to cell phone only. I can't imagine what I would do with a landline at this point.

 

[DaParkers]

Also, like you said, if there's an emergency and the city needs to contact you, they'd try your landline, not your cell.

They would try whatever number that you gave them. If you only had a cell, then that's the number that they would call. I gave up my landline last year after years of throwing money away. I rarely used it. And if my power goes out, I'll just use the car charger or my backup battery. Every one with a cell should have an extra battery anyway.

 

[PeterPan09]

Gave my land line up about 6 months ago and haven't regretted it. The big plus for me was that I got ZERO calls during election season when my family and friends with land lines were getting them non-stop.

 

[rotlex]

Still have a land line, and always will, just for backup. Frankly, it costs me like $12 per month. Less money than I pay for text messaging. Why the heck would I drop it?

 

[*NikkiBell*]

I got rid of ma-bell for VoIP 8 years ago. I will not let go of the home phone anytime soon. Of course, I have a PBX at the house, also.

Does anyone understand what Mike is trying to say here? Is he speaking English?

Okay, now I have another question....if you use your cell for all your calls, do you have a headset or something for it? My portable phone is bigger so I can cradle it on my shoulder, but I've never been able to do that with a cell. It would drive me nuts to always have to hold a phone at home when I'm talking.

That's what Bluetooth is for! Duh!

I haven't had a landline in about 7 or 8 years. I recently moved and am not spending the money on a landline. I just don't see the point. I haven't used one in all of these years nor had such an emergency that required it. I can charge my phone in my car if the electricity goes out and I am close to stores and my work, if need be.

 

[darrengs]

Whenever I think about totally getting rid of my land line (I use PhonePower.com VOIP and love it), all I think about is how on September 11, 2001 I could not get through to anyone I knew here (NJ & NY) on my cell phone. But land line to land line worked fine.

 

[Susan R]

I gave up a land line when I built a new house and discovered that the phone company wanted to charge close to $5,000 to run the phone lines to my new house I made sure I have a car charger and have had no problems with power outages...and I live in the middle of nowhere!

Susan

 

[itch1]

Got rid of ours 8 years ago had vonage but never needed it so that's gone also, last year got the Comcast triple play and have VoIP again never use it and all it does is ring telemarktors.