Who Has Ditched Their Land Line?

[Hellrazor]

If I decided to switch from DTV to cable I could buy their triple play for $110-$150 a month.

[KLF]

I haven't had a landline in over 4 years, and I love it. IMO, the only reason to have one is if your cell reception at the house is too weak.

In the event of a catastrophe of some kind (earthquake, blizzard), it's not clear cellular service will work as well as a landline.

Actually, I believe the cell phones would be a little more reliable in some of those situations. When we had the big ice storm last winter, no power, cable, or phones for 6 days in our neighborhood. But the cell phones never stopped working, they have backup generators at all the tower sites.

But in something like a Katrina, there is only ONE communication network that will continue to work: ham radio.

[Bill Stock]

I don't pay for the landline, does that count?

But the DSL account is in my name, which is a little odd, since Bell always gives me a hard time when I call to make changes to the land line as it's not in my name. We can also get DSL without the phone for $3 more a month.

For the guy that has poor reception on the Cell in his house, did you try calling the provider? I had the same issue a few years back (live in a valley) so I called the company and they actually did improve the cell coverage within a few months.

[rcp612]

Or lets say we had a babysitter who didn't have her own cell phone?
-Tim

Where did you find her???????
Trouble is, you'd probably have to text her to let her know there was a problem.

[jonmulzer]

I have not had a landline for about 10 years. It has never been an issue and I prefer to only have one number and one phone. Same goes for every friend of ours that I can think of. Even my 65 year old father only has a cell phone.

[richclemson]

Macguyver

JoeyGee my wife and I ditched our land line to use cell phones. We didn't get the best of service inside of the house, and it is a bit of a pain. I have no idea how to boost signal short of the approach you looked at. I think the boosters and repeaters are actually carrier specific (if memory serves me right).

Rich

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...

[Mr__Bill]

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

Tim, I know people in that situation, they have an extra -home- cell phone. It's just another phone on the account and it's tethered to the wall in the kitchen! It can't get lost or accidentally carried away. It's the number they give out as the home phone number and if I remember correctly it was the land line number that was transferred over to cell.

Bill

[tfischer]

Tim, I know people in that situation, they have an extra -home- cell phone. It's just another phone on the account and it's tethered to the wall in the kitchen! It can't get lost or accidentally carried away. It's the number they give out as the home phone number and if I remember correctly it was the land line number that was transferred over to cell.

Yeah, we actually have friends that do that (not sure about the tethering part, but they have the extra phone...) Only downside I can think of is I now need to sprint for the kitchen when we get a call, instead of picking up one of the 10 or so land-line phones we have around... But I suppose that becomes less of a problem when you start giving out your personal cell number to more people (right now I give it out only to close friends and family)...

-Tim

[Kristofor]

Or you simply setup call forwarding between the cell lines (but then you need to manage that...).

Honestly, at 19 months the boy can call his grandma on Mom's phone (he doesn't get to play with my berry) pretty reliably. I'm guessing we could teach him how to call 911 just as easily (but that probably causes more problems that it solves, as he doesn't say his address in a fashion that would be understood by anyone but his mom or me).

[docrowan]

My wife tells me that if you cancel your phone service but keep the phone hooked up, you will always have 911 service. Can't make calls to any other number except 911, but using this the 911 operator can track the phone call to your house even if you become unable to state directions or address. They can't do this with a cell phone - you have to tell them your address.

Won't work for us because I physically cut the cable to our house, but something to keep in mind. I would double-check with your local phone company to ensure this is correct.

[thrytis]

For those of you with only cell phone service at home, you can get a cordless phone system that can connect to your bluetooth cell phone and let you make and receive calls from other handsets in your house while you cell phone sits on your desk in the charger. One example of these phones is the VTech LS6245. I've seen other ones out there too.

[KLF]

My wife tells me that if you cancel your phone service but keep the phone hooked up, you will always have 911 service. Can't make calls to any other number except 911, but using this the 911 operator can track the phone call to your house even if you become unable to state directions or address. They can't do this with a cell phone - you have to tell them your address.

I'm not sure about the landline phone, but the same is true with any cell phone. Even if it's old and no longer has a service contract, by FCC rules it can always be used to dial 911.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/16/te...-call-911.html

And now that every cell phone has a GPS chip in it, they can also find you, no matter where you are (assuming your local 911 service has this capability).

So, for that one possibility where you have a babysitter or house guest that doesn't have one, just keep an old cell phone in a drawer, with the charger.

[pacwind3]

Ditched our land line over 5 years ago. I have VERY few regrets. Minor pain with satilite service in orders ppv movies and such.
The irony: DW works for a land line company.
I have a future projection of a wireless society anyway; phones, internet, networks all of it wireless.