Posted on 01/09/2014 5:33:59 AM PST by pogo101
My wife and I are considering "making the leap" by dumping our land line phone. We'd effectively still have a hard-wired connection, to a point, namely our U-verse internet connection -- although that largely becomes wireless INSIDE the house.
We are sufficiently confident in the connection that it would work in a medical or other emergency.
Also, we have gotten so many spam land-line calls in recent years, despite being on the DNC list, that our landline is largely useless anyway.
Thoughts?
Babysitters without phones? What are you hiring, 9-year-olds?
I've looked into Vonage.
Sign you mother up for the do not call list. Cuts the annoying calls by 80% and there is a benefit of reducing the chance that your mom get’s scammed.
comcast
Haven’t had a land line in years and years. Love it. Only the people who need to get a hold of me have my contact info. Internet is wireless and TV is satellite. No need for a hard connection. Can’t imagine ever going back.
Don’t you need DSL service for Magic Jack?
I use my landline number for things like registering for store discount cards, or anything else which might tend to draw telemarketers. If I got rid of my landline, I’d start getting those calls on my cell phone.
We have used Vonage for about a decade. No complaints.
No. Cell phone possession is not ubiquitous with the young ladies’ families that I allow to babysit my kids.
When power is out in our area friends come to use my land line. Try to keep yours.
Call AT&T and tell them you are thinking of cancelling as the price is too high. They want to keep their long time customers. I negotiated for $20. a month high speed DSL and a $40. a month land line with unlimited local and long distance service. And I use a lot of long distance. DON’T let them switch you to VOIP by packaging the services. Also be sure to tell them that your budget has been busted by Obamacare’s increased rates on your healthcare.
I have had zero problems with solicitation calls, but then I never signed up for Do Not Call. I knew that would be compromised from the get go and used as a call list.
You’re lucky. Whenever we had storms or heavy rain the land line went out- for days. The phone company replaced the line over the years but it still went out in bad weather. I always worried that if the phone was really ever needed in an emergency it wouldn’t work. That made the decision easier a few years back to dump it.
BTW- it was At&T
Different approaches for different situations so one approach isn’t applicable to all.
In 2005 after Hurricane Rita came ashore, I’ve have had only cell phone access.
It hasn’t caused any problems as for as I can tell.
I’ve been pondering the same thing the last few days.
My salary is getting cut so I’m looking for expenses to cut. That $100/month for DSL and a phone line that is only used to receive annoying telemarketing calls is a mighty tempting target.
Considering Vonage/Basic Talk. I have a few resumes floating around that still have the home phone number on them, and it would be unprofessional to have it disconnected should I get a bite. But then those telemarketing calls still come through, just at a cheaper price.
The 911 aspect was a concern at first. But then we figured that, if there was some sort of emergency where the cell towers were down, calling 911 would probably be pointless.
I’d rather just cut the cord though. In terms of value for my dollar, it’s probably the worst of all my monthly expenses.
May call AT&T first and give them a chance to lower the bill, but I don’t expect they’ll go down as low as Basic Talk, and definitely not as low as 0.
We did exactly that a few months ago, I should say hubby let AT&T talk him into it. The landline is now part of Uverse and will only last 6-7 hours if the power goes down. That’s a biggy for me and I’d like to switch back to the way things were.
Also, if you do not use much long distance another option is going to local calls only. Then if you want to make a long distance call use a phone card. Costco sells them for $20. You just call an 800 number then the number you want to reach. Incoming local and long distance calls always come through.
I’ve been landline free for four years, and haven’t once missed having it.
we did it years ago and are very happy now. For the first few years I had sprint and often could not use my cell at home. I have t-mobile now and am happy. My wife always had AT&T and has never had an issue. Make sure you get a provider with a good signal at your house (have friends/family over to test).
I used to think that the land line was the most reliable option in times of power outages, but that seems to be no longer the case.
The phone company central offices used to have banks of batteries to keep the system running when the power goes off, but apparently they have cut back severely on their batteries to save money.
Case in point: Sandy
My land line phone stayed up for about 8 hours after the power went off, and then died. No dial tone, no DC power on the line. I think I had cell service the whole time.
On several earlier incidents when the power was off for several days, the land line phone was operational throughout.
On at least one post-Sandy incident, the power went off and the land line phone went dead immediately.
They’re pushing hard to get everyone onto their fiber optic system. I don’t have any confidence that this system will be any better.
Back in olden times, before the government came down hard on Ma Bell, reliable service under all conditions was a matter of pride for the company. Now I don’t think they give a crap.
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