Who Has Ditched Their Land Line?

[JoeyGee]

We are considering ditching our land line in favor of cell phones. I am all for it, but we don't get great reception in the house on our cell phones.

I have seen repeaters and boosters for ~$250, but that kinda defeats the purpose of trying to save money. Has anyone else run into this? What did you do about it?

Surely there must be some sort of Macguyverish DIY paperclip method to boosting a signal...

[kevincan]

I still have a landline so I can't comment on that. I would look at other cell carriers in your are to see how their signal is. Maybe borrow a friends phone or see if the carrier will allow a trial period.

Another option is to talk to your cell carrier and find out if they have boosters and what they charge for them. If you are a good customer you may get one for cheap.

[Mr__Bill]

We did, about 6 years ago. Only down side is no fax. Understand that different phones and different carriers do make a difference. 3G seems to be flaky and CDMA has for us the best signal reception even though the towers are about 10' apart. Try out as many phones as you can on different carriers. Note that not all phones with an exterior antenna work better than those that don't. If you do go the route of an antenna on the roof with a repeater in the house be sure you can take it back if your unhappy with it.

Another down side is people knowing it's a cell phone expect you to always answer your home phone. The number of times I have heard 'I called you over an hour ago, what took so long getting back to me?' that I now just say that they called at their convenience and I returned the call at mine.

Bill,
I forgot another advantage, we each have a phone and separate number, I don't have to remember to give a message or make polite talk with someone who was not calling me anyway.

[jackellis]

We're sticking with land lines. Each of us has a cell phone that's primarily for making outbound calls. We occasionally turn them on so others can call us but very few people have my cell number.

Yesterday I got cut off four times talking to a client who had called from his cell phone to my landline. We were both in Silicon Valley where there should be NO dead spots. Cell phones that lose signal drive me nuts.

Cell phones aren't reliable enough when they work. In the event of a catastrophe of some kind (earthquake, blizzard), it's not clear cellular service will work as well as a landline.

[dbhost]

I'm on AT&T, and LOML and I ditched the land line 3 years ago after I realized we hadn't picked up the land line handset in a year and a half...

[Hellrazor]

I don't use my landline for much but I don't plan to giveup my dsl...

[JoeyGee]

I don't use my landline for much but I don't plan to giveup my dsl...

I recently switched from cable Internet to DSL. We kept the cable company for the phone (don't ask...). I didn't think I could get the DSL without also paying for a voice line, but I found you can go with a LEC (Verizon) for DSL only without voice.

[aggrex]

I got rid of my land line and so far no regrets. The money saved per month goes toward the internet/cable and no more annoying telemarketer calls at dinner. My blackberry is not perfect but I text more than I call some months.

[crokett]

We didn't have a land line for a good long while after realizing we never used what we had. You can get DSL with no land line - I do it here. I did get Vonage for a land line for the in-home sitter we have and because I work from home 1-2 days a week and use my Vonage line. I've never had a problem with Vonage.

[cgallery]

No landlines. We use our cells primarily, but I have a VOIP terminal ("the bat phone") that I use at home from time to time (if I'm going to be on the phone a hole bunch).

[Jim Frye]

VOIP setup here...

About three years ago, we dropped AT&T for phone service and went with the local cable company's VOIP service. The AT&T lines here are of such poor quality that they can't support DSL, or a decent phone conversation. Modem usage was limited to about 38 kbps. The cable supplied phone service is about $10 a month less than AT&T and we have a local calling area that eliminates a ton of long distance calls to some area towns. We also have 911 capability with the cable phone service. The voice quality is a huge improvement over the land line and we have no contention with the 10MBps download speed for our internet connection. I think the fiber optic network the cable company uses is one of the reasons for the quality of service. I am told next year they will make the drop to my house with fiber also. The only drawback I see with this arrangement is that the cable modem's battery backup is only good for about 10 minutes in the event of a power outage. I added a 750 watt UPS battery backup to the cable and computer set up to give us more run time for the phone if we have an extended power outage. I guess that means we sort of still use a land line as opposed to our cell phone.

[Kristofor]

No land-line here for 6 or 7 years. I do have access to VOIP through our phone switch at work which I occasionally use for long conference calls when traveling. Previously that was because cell phones were voice or data only not both concurrently. However, with a newer 3G enabled blackberry I can be tethered and be talking on it at the same time so that's probably the option I'll use more in the future.

Cell phones aren't reliable enough when they work. In the event of a catastrophe of some kind (earthquake, blizzard), it's not clear cellular service will work as well as a landline.

I'm sure there will be instances where both scenarios occur. For any given call to have interference or be dropped the cell network seems to be 10x more likely to have a problem. But when it comes to actual service outages I think there are generally far more (but still rare) lasting outages on a land-line network.

[docrowan]

No landline for three years. My wife, her mother, brother, and I are all on the same carrier so no minutes used between us. We have cable internet and the most basic cable TV they offer. We did have the VOIP system the cable company offered for a few months, but decided it wasn't worth the extra $20 per month. Upside: low cost, simplicity of billing, no extra cable cluttering my backyard. The cable was actually a problem for getting my new shop delivered, but a pair of cable cutters took care of that in two seconds. So when people talk about cutting the phone cable I'm really did do it. Downside: no extensions in other rooms. I usually take my phone off my hip in the back bathroom, I have to remember to carry it with me through the house. My wife's better at remembering than I am so we use her number as our "home" number.

[tfischer]

Anyone here have no land line but have small kids? We have an (almost) 5yo and a 2yo. The 5yo could call out to 911 if necessary (I should really brush up on that with him to make sure). But what if we didn't have a land line? He'd have to hunt down for a cell phone (lets say I had a heart attack while alone with the kids, and didn't have the phone on me...) Or lets say we had a babysitter who didn't have her own cell phone? How do you folks handle stuff like that?

I'd love to save the $40(!) a month on the land line...

-Tim

[Black wallnut]

We gave the local phone co the boot several years ago hwen we decided to bundle TV and internet service via cable. WE both had cell phones at the time and have since added a third one for the house; baby sitters and children.

As far as boosters we do not have one but I do know of a man that does. The Camp Ranger at one of my Scout Council's properties (summer camp) has one. Wher this camp is located not only is there no phone landline service but no utilities of any kind. He's powered as is the camp and all of his full time and part time neighbors with generators, propane for him and the camp. He has a cell booseter and it works well although he does not have much range away from it, measured in feet. From a saving money standpoint I can see a quick pay back on the cost of a booster if you use long distance much with your landline. An added bonus is hardly any more telemarketeers bugging you.