How many of you just have wireless phone service?

[Marseeya]

Have any of you decided to get rid of you home phone and just kept wireless service? DH brought it up to me tonight and I was wondering what the pros and cons are of doing this.

Wireless service is a bit expensive here, but still cheaper than regular phone service. I could get 2200 minutes for around $100 a month.

What do you think?

 

[LilyStar]

I dropped my home phone about 3 years ago and have just had a cell phone ever since. I do not miss it and I have no idea what I needed it for! LOL!

I think the answer is different for everyone. Do you talk on your home phone a lot? If so, with whom? At at what time? Do you have kids? Do they talk on the phone? I am at work all day long and if I needed to talk to anyone, I would probably either call them from my office or from my cell quick to talk to them. My entire family has Verizon wireless so it is free if I call them anyway. I also have free nights (after 9pm weekdays) and free weekends as well which makes it even more affordable. And I never have to worry about checking the answer phone when I get home and/or missing a phone call....I always have my cell on me. If I am busy, I just let it ring through to voice mail.

For me, getting rid of the land line made perfect sense.

 

[lowkat]

We just got rid of our land line. We had it cut down to the bare bones (no long distance, call ID etc) and finally decided we were paying the telemarketers $29.00 a month to call us. Family and friends were calling us on our cells.
The only thing I miss about our land line was we had 3 Mickey phones (but they still make cute deco.

 

[KarenAylwood]

There was a really lengthy thread on the Budget board recently about this.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1050050

I personally just have a cell phone (and DBF does as well). The pros are:

- only one number to reach me at
- don't have to pay for a regular phone service when we wouldn't use it much

cons are:
- do you have kids? might not be a good idea to get rid of home line b/c they could have their cell turned off/vibrate/forget to charge so you can't get a hold of them when they are at home.
- when in a large house you'd have to have the phone with you at all times to hear it ring (we're in an apt so you can hear it anywhere). I know I missed calls constantly when visiting my parents because I'd be in the other room or upstairs.
- 911 service doesn't work when cell tower/power is out, and they can't pinpoint your location if you call them and for some reason can't give your location (pass out, kid's description, etc)
- if you don't get good service- DBF loses calls a lot because he doesn't get good service in the apt, while I get great service
- some places block out cell phones (I can't remember the specifics but I wasn't able to call my dad in the hospital on a cell, or he wasn't able to call me- something like that)
- One poster mentioned that in school directories, their cell was listed and they would get calls for their kids on it- then have to redirect them to the kid's phone

You could always get Vonage- there's a current thread made tonight on it, sounds much cheaper than a regular phone line.

It personally isn't worth it to me to have a landline because I
a) have no kids,
b) live in an apt where I can always hear the phone
c) get great service here
d) live in an apt complex so if power goes out or I need to use a phone to call 911- I could use a neighbor's phone easily, AND I live directly across from a huge hospital, so if something happened it's right there.

It all depends on what's right for you. If I had kids, I'd keep the landline or go to vonage.

 

[luvdisney81]

5 years and no landline. I have not missed it at all. The perk to a landline I find is if your home does not have good reception inside. Many cell phone companies will give you a 30 day trial too, sometimes for a tiny fee but many for free. The other con is during storms, your landline will almost always work because it does not depend on satellites. Granted you should not be on your landline but if you need it, the cell just might not make it through the clouds. This has never been a problem for me though. I like having one number and the landline was just becoming a waste of time. Now I have a new place to put a disney picture, right over the phone outlet. Plus it freed up another outlet in my kitchen, big perk!

 

[Marseeya]

I wish we had the option for Vonage or digital phone service through our cable provider! It's not available where we live yet.

 

[TinkerBess_SnowTori]

We seriously thought about it - but decided not to because of the kids.

They aren't old enough for their own cell phones (that is a whole another thread), and I just feel safer having the land line there for them to use in case of an emergency.

I never thought of the point about the school directory having my cell number and getting calls for the girls - this has just started happening and would be so annoying

 

[N.Bailey]

We just got the family plan with Verizon and couldn't possibly cancel our landline as the kids each got a phone and we got none.

I rarely talk on the phone for any length of time, but my friends that live out of town are on Verizon too and they can call me (I rarely call anyone LOL) on the kids' phones.

The kids have MANY friends who are on Cellular One, so I encourage the kids to take those calls on the land line, though to be honest, I don't think they hear me. Our landline is only like $30 a month and that includes 30 minutes of free long distance per month and we rarely use that.

 

[stacy347]

We got rid of our landline a few months ago and don't miss it a bit! We'd had SBC here for years and even though we were on the "all-inclusive plan", the bill kept going up and up and up .
We tried the cable phone line through Comcast but we got nothing but static and half our calls didn't even get through.
Finally we talked about just cancelling it altogether and after sitting down and looking at how much the phone actually got used (mostly telemarketing calls ), we realized we didn't even need it.
Our older kids have cell phones as do we and the 2 little ones aren't big phone talkers yet so it has worked out wonderfully for us!!

 

[dizneenut]

We got rid of our land line last year. DH was on medical and we just didn't need the extra bill. We just added a 3rd line to our cell plan for the boys to use as a "home" phone for friends to call them and so we can get ahold of them if we are out and they are home. Most of our family is on Sprint, so all those calls are free, so it works out really well for us.

 

[siouxi31]

The only con I have found so far is for work.
I work for a company that on occassion has international conference calls. Since we work with people from Asia, sometimes the call will be in the evening so that it is for the Asia peoples morning hours. We have a calling card for people to dial in from home but when they have a cell phone, there are still expensive charges because you are charged for your minutes on the phone even if you're calling into an 800 calling card.

 

[Galahad]

Haven't had a land line for almost 4 years. DS#2 is 16. We've had not problem with the having kids thing. You get in to the habit of having your phone clipped to you all the time. No big deal. The 911 location thing isn't a problem - our service has the 911 GPS feature. I've yet to be convinced that the "tower" is less reliable than the "wires". We've never been without service, even when the power/cable/phones are out due to storms. If it's a hurricane or some other catastrophe, I think my phone service might be the least of my problems - and again - how are wires more reliable in that instance?

 

[LiteBrite]

I've yet to be convinced that the "tower" is less reliable than the "wires". We've never been without service, even when the power/cable/phones are out due to storms. If it's a hurricane or some other catastrophe, I think my phone service might be the least of my problems - and again - how are wires more reliable in that instance?

After Hurricane Ivan came through our town in September of 2004, our land line was down for *6 weeks*. Our cell phone service was spotty, but at least if we had to make a call we could drive a couple of blocks to where the reception was better and make it from there, and if people needed to get us, if the cells didn't ring while we were at home, at least they could get to our voice mail and leave us a message.

 

[luvflorida]

We got rid of our land line a few months ago. We don't miss it AT ALL. Everyone in our household has his/her own cell phone, so the land line wasn't being used that much anyway. We finally got so tired of answering the phone only to hear a telemarketer on the other end.

The thing with the cell phone is that you have to remember to keep it with you at all times. Ocassionally, I've missed a call because I was upstairs and my phone was downstairs, or vice versa. Not a big deal, though, because I can see who called, or they'll leave a text or voice message.

 

[In a hurry]

I hate it now that my brother doesn't have a real telephone. I could just call and leave a msg. during the day if I needed to. Now, I have to worry about bothering him at work, etc.

 

[CEDmom]

Well, our home security system is hooked into our phone line so we couldn't just get rid of it. Also, I'm the type of person that needs backup plans for everything. I just wouldn't feel comfortable relying just on my cell phone. It would be just my luck to need the phone in an emergency and have a dead battery or not be able to get a connection. I think the most basic local phone service plan runs about $15 a month which to me is a very small price to pay for peace of mind.

 

[Galahad]

Well, our home security system is hooked into our phone line so we couldn't just get rid of it. Also, I'm the type of person that needs backup plans for everything. I just wouldn't feel comfortable relying just on my cell phone. It would be just my luck to need the phone in an emergency and have a dead battery or not be able to get a connection. I think the most basic local phone service plan runs about $15 a month which to me is a very small price to pay for peace of mind.

We have an ADT security system that uses a cellular connection.