Pros/cons of cell phone only and no land line in house

[drgnfly30]

You can also hook it up to use the regular phone jacks in your house - it's very easy to do, too!

You must be reading my mind! I was just looking at Vonage's website to see how to do this... please share! Vonage doesn't tell you how to do this.

 

[welovewdw]

They send you a free router - (mine is a linksys) So the cable (for us, we use comcast) comes into the modem (from comcast) then you run an ethernet from modem to the router. (we use a wireless router, too - so we actually have stacked routers here - I've found it doesn't matter which you connect first.) From router: You can plug a regular phone into the router directly (there's a phone jack on the back) - we do this b/c we have wireless phones, so it doesn't really matter where they are hooked up, the work all over the house anyways. (we just have to make sure they don't disappear in teenage dd's room. LOL) Or to get all phone jacks working:

To go to a phone jack - you have to first disconnect outside on the box from the phone co. (where it enters your house) b/c there are power surges even if you turn off service. Once you do that, you simply plug in a regular telephone wire from the router to any phone jack and voila! they all work! It's very cool really - and like I said, easy - b/c believe me, if I can figure this out, anyone can. LOL

 

[welovewdw]

One other thing to think about - a coworker mentioned last week that she has only cordless phones in her house. The power went out and they didn't work. She realized that in an emergency, there could be a problem trying to reach emergency services. You should keep at least 1 corded phone.

actually while I haven't put alot of thought into that, we do have one of our phones hooked into an UPS - and we do keep a corded phone (that is not plugged in) to use in emergencies -b ut our internet works w/o power b/c of the UPS thingy. (they're fairly cheap now, too - like $50 and up depending on how long you want them to last & how much you want to plug into them)

 

[arminnie]

According to Verizon and Att; they are not required to to give you that access to 911. The only state that requiires them as a law to do is Vermont. So even if you leave your phone plugged in yopu cannot dial out 911. For all that are considering this Verizon offers a measured service for a rate of $15- $17 month.

I just bought a condo in New Orleans and the phone guy that was here today said that 911 is required for all phone lines here even if you don't have service. I don't have a land line here - he was just here finishing up the wiring for the developer.

 

[Tjaleks]

Just a word on Vonage. (If some one already said this, sorry), they offer service in all areas but do not have numbers available in all area codes. My sister lives in the 217 area code but they don't offer numbers with this area code. She chose a 314 because we have lots of family in the St. Louis area. So if I want to call her it is a long distance call for me and she lives less than a mile a way from me.

 

[NewEnglandDisney]

I've wrestled with the idea, but I've concluded it's just not for me. The piece of mind of having a dedicated land-line is just worth it to me. I use my cell for long distance (as it's free), but one never knows with cells - they break easily, the batteries die, service can be spotty with no explaination.

To be honest, it's the 911 thing mostly. I live alone and if something happens and I can't speak or otherwise can only manage to dial 911, I know they'll be at my house in minutes. I'm not usually one of those "what if what if" people, but I can just imagine too many situations where I'd want a dedicated land line.

That said, I've dropped all additional services from my landline except caller ID. I also route my unanswered cell calls to the landline (and eliminated voice mail on my cell) so all unanswered calls are picked up by my landline answering machine consolidating all my messages.

On a related note, I strongly encourage having a spare corded phone around if all you use is cordless. You can pick one up for like $7 at Wal-Mart. I keep in a drawer next to the phone all ready to go - including the phone cable - so I can have it up and running in less than 10 seconds if need be.

Just my experience - your mileage may vary.

N.E.D.

 

[manhattan]

After going through 9/11 and through the Blackout in NYC I am glad that we kept our landline....

 

[cra-z-4-dizney]

We dropped our land line about a year ago and do not miss it one bit. The house is so much more quieter without the land line..no annoying telemarketers. Just make sure everyone has a cell phone like a family plan, and I suggest for the ones that have babysitters just get a cheap pre-paid phone with like 60 minutes. The minutes are good for 90 days I think...alot cheaper than a land-line.

 

[lila]

Interesting I have the opposite experience of manhattan.

Originally, I kept my landline for 2 reasons:
1) When I work from home, I can't have conference calls lasting several hours eating up my minutes
2) In case of emergencies when cell phone networks are tied up so I can call out.
3) In case my cable modem goes out

HOWEVER, I have concluded that #2 is pointless for me. I live in NYC, and during the major times when I had cell phone issues, 9/11 and the blackout, Verizon had issues that rendered my landline as useless as my cell phone. The other 2 reasons, esp. #1, are still valid.

 

[Partnrpal]

I would keep your landline if I were you. I work for credit card application department and we can not extend credit if you don't have a landline phone number because we have no way of verifying your cell phone number.

Also, I personally have had tons of problems with my cell phone and I wouldn't ever consider get rid of my landline.

 

[Eeyore1928]

We have recently moved into a new home. The phone company here wanted $60.00 to hook up our phone service. Plus our plan was "grandfathered" so we had to get a more expensive plan that gave us less long distance minutes. To go with the unlimited it would be a monthly bill of roughly $65.00 with all taxes. My husband had a cell phone for work and so I just added a line to his account. We never got our phone service hooked up...in fact we don't even have a phone box on the outside of the house. We never miss a call now, we are free to leave the house while still carrying on a conversation. We travel a lot and these cell phones have been priceless. Especially when you don't want soem people to know you are out of town...we just answer like we were home. I keep my charger by my side of the bed and plug it in every night to charge. Our cell phone bill only went up $15.00 to add me. So it saved us about $50.00 a month and added a lot more freedom! Plus no TELEMARKETERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[connorsmom911]

I work as a dispatcher for the fire dept. We have had to do a lot of training on all the new technology as it comes out and becomes more popular...cell phones, voice over internet, etc.

I won't ever get rid of my land-line for these reasons...

- black-out of 2003...spotty if not no cell phone service and no power to computer
- cell phone calls to 911 will not show the exact location like a land-line does (eventually it will be close, giving GPS data, but that's only as good as the software being used at the 911 centre, if it's not GPS compatible it's useless data) so if you can't talk, we don't know where you are, all we get is the address of the cell phone tower the signal happened to bounce off of.
- cell phone battery dead or used up because of that long time on hold with credit card company right before an emergency at your house
- VOIP, like Vonage, you have to sign up for 911 service as an added feature, there is a waiting period, and it's only as good as the data you provide and that they keep in their system in order to transfer your call...it's a middle man and every time you add a middle man there is room for error
-along the same lines, when you dial 911 from a landline, the call travels on a seperate and dedicated circuit that are not affected the same way if the regular telephone circuits are overloaded (think Dec 25 or during a local emergency)...when you call from a voip phone and your call transferred to a 911 centre it's not on the 911 lines, not dedicated circuits.
-little kids, no matter how well you train them to rhyme off their address etc, in an emergency they will get flustered. and what happens if your child is unconc and a friend has to make the call? do they know your address?

Can't convince me that there will ever be enough safety and security to get rid of my landline, no matter how much it costs.

Tracey

 

[drakethib]

I am thinking of disconnecting land line phone and using just cell phones. I have a family plan with cingular and get a home depot discount. Is 911 accessible without a landline connection?? Two different answers from ATT customer service..

I use Vonage (14.99 plan) and both the wife and I have cell phones.

I had to switch to a different security system due to my system not being able to dial out on Vonage.

I am able to use my fax on Vonage with no problem at all.

Also, know that any cell phone regardless if is on a cellular service or not will work when you dial 911.

 

[Meezers]

By the end of 2005, all cell towers are supposed to support enhanced 911. However, individual communities still have to buy the equipment to receive that information, and many of them will not be able to afford it. So there is no guarantee that calling 911 on your cell phone will give your location to the responders. Not yet, anyway. This is one good reason I won't give up the landline. But to me, the most compelling reason is that my cell number is relatively private. I want to keep it that way.

I started working in Emergency Services in 1995. Enhanced 9-1-1 for cell phones was supposed to come online in 2 years...then another 2 years...then another.....

I believe that if you have phone lines in your house...and plug in a phone...you can call 9-1-1....even if you don't have service. At least in Georgia and Arizona (2 places I have worked 9-1-1).

The above is one reason I keep my landline. The second is silly...my Tivo won't work without it....give up my Tivo? That would be like giving up chocolate

 

[moonvine]

I've been without a landline for about a year now. No problems, I love it. Much cheaper too.

 

[hmgolden]

The above is one reason I keep my landline. The second is silly...my Tivo won't work without it....give up my Tivo? That would be like giving up chocolate

We have Tivo, and no landline, and no problems. DH set it up so Tivo 'calls home' via our wireless internet connection. I could never live without my Tivo!

 

[DizMare]

Until last week, I lived without a landline for two years. Bottom line - I hated it.

I hated always having to carry my "home phone" around with me. Cell phones are more delicate and I was rough on them - had to replace mine once, and my current one hangs up on me (I think I have some kind of teenager governor on it ).

My main concern was not being able to reach someone in my house when I was away with the "home phone." My son was okay about keeping his cell phone with him, but dh and dd were notorious for not having their cell phones near them/charged up/on.

The last straw was two weeks ago. I was on my way to the dentist, and realized I had left some information I needed to share with the dentist on my kitchen counter. Both dd and dh were home. I called his personal cell, her personal cell, and his blackberry - not one was answered. I came home and called Verizon.

Now I have phones galore and they all ring loud enough to wake the dead. We did save money doing the cellphone only thang, but I would never do it again.

Funny note - my teenagers are so happy to have a home phone again. They were telling their friends "we got a home phone!" and their friends looked at them like they were crazy.

 

[malibuconlee]

I would think a big con is for people who have children. Are you going to get an extra cell phone to leave at home for the sitter to use? Or are you just going to leave yours at home for the sitter to use for emergencies. Then you'll be without one.

 

[bride03]

We didn't get rid of our land line, but we cut the service down to the bare bones. We can only call within a 15 mile radius of the house, and it's about $20 a month with caller i.d. and to have an unpublished number. Our old bill was about $40 a month including a long distance plan and call waiting and a bunch of other stuff we don't need. So, we are saving about $20 a month, not bad.

Our cells have free long distance, and we have more minutes than we could ever use in a month, so I think this works out just fine.

That's a great idea. I didn't even think about a sitter coming over like someone else had said. We don't have kiddos yet but it's something I didn't even think about! I like the idea of so many people going to cell phones only. Why wouldn't you?? No one uses land lines anymore.

Oh...another con is that you can get your security system hooked up to the police so that they automatically call when your alarm goes off. That is so stupid IMO. UGH

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

If you dial 911 from your cell, they wont automaically know where you calling from, you need to give them information.

Land lines, even without service, should be able to dial 911 or "0" and be connected to 911.

We "cut the cord" in March and dont miss it a bit.

How would that work on dialing 911 from land line when you don't have service? Here if you don't have service- you don't even get a dial tone so I highly doubt dialing 911 in that case is going to do you a bit of good.... operator wouldn't work either.

We actually wanted to go without landline and stick with cellphone when we bought this house last Aug- started thinking how we never use the landline and yet were paying right at $70 a month on it. We decided a landline is necesary for 911 -just in case.... we have 3 kids and there ARE times that the cellphone is left in the vehicle to charge up or we've allowed it to go dead (one or the other- DH usually has his with him at work though so we'd be just left with mine... which might be dead or charging in the vehicle). Plus as someone else said- if anyone else is watching our children in our home- they wouldn't have a phone because for sure I'd be taking mine with me and would want to be able to call and for them to be able to call me!

BUT we went with the CHEAPEST land line- no caller id/no nothing- it's really only like $4.58 before all the taxes and fees. It's unlimited incoming, only 25 outgoing per month, no long distance on it- and so far we haven't even come close to that on outgoing since we use the cellphone usually. After the taxes/fees it's $12.06 a month- so that's still a savings of about $60 a month from what we used to pay! It's worth the extra $12 to us... but all the extra 'things' on the landline wasn't worth it.