Cell Only?

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

So I just got a fat bill from RCN for a land line I barely use. I have cell service with verizon. Seems pretty stupid to have two phones. What do I need to think about (aside from the task of updating everyone who only have my landline #). Should I cut the cord?

Comments

[-afton-.livejournal.com]

i'd go ahead and cut it, seems like you answered your own question. it's not THAT much of a hassle to update some people who only have your landline #, and think of how much money it'll save you in the long run.
Also, now that you can keep your number when switching services, it should be just fine. :) good luck!

[cos]

Landlines are more robust, reliable, and higher quality. You can't easily "lose" a landline. You can have multiple extensions, get multiple cheap phones, and not care if one of them breaks - just plug in another. Or borrow a spare from a friend. You won't lose your charger, and landlines have their own completely separate network for power and communications. When power is out (and you lose Internet as well), and your cell phone is out of charge, your landline will still be there. The sound quality is good enough to have actual conversations and understand each other. Calls don't drop or fuzz out. The speaker is fully two-way (cell phone audio is one-way at a time). And you can get a receiver that's actually large enough to be comfortable to use.

Really, aside from not being mobile, I think landlines are superior to cell phones in every way, when it comes to actually being phones. Cell phones these days are more and more portable computers, that have a lot of purposes besides being phones - google in your pocket, electronic notepad, text messages, etc. But for the actual phone call aspect of it, they suck compared to landlines in many many ways. I try to avoid using cell phones anytime I'm near a landline.

okay, but...

[mattdm [typekey.com] (from livejournal.com)]

These are all great points, but if you're paying $40-$80/month for a cell phone anyway, and mostly use the phone for quick communication rather than long conversations, is the extra $20-$40/month really worth it?

Re: okay, but...

[cos]

It's only about $25 for a basic landline, and if you have housemates, you can split it up. The one month a year when you run over your minutes (or the more expensive plan you buy to avoid ever running out of minutes) will wipe out much of the savings advantage IMO. Plus I hate the feeling of having to avoid making calls, or having to get off the phone quickly, if I think I'm running short on minutes. When I have a landline, I make enough of my calls from it that I never come close to running out of cell minutes except when I travel (but, I have a calling card so I can use payphones and other people's landlines when I travel)

Re: okay, but...

[uberjay.livejournal.com]

I guess it depends on how much you use the phone. I ditched my land line 2 years ago, and the 3 years prior to that, I paid for an unused land line. Heh, I didn't even use the thing once in 3 years, so I decided it was time to dump it.

I have 400 peak minutes, and typically end up using fewer than 50 of those minutes, due to a free in-network calling plan. ($40/month) That and I don't enjoy talking on the phone.

Of course, dumping cable TV 2.5 years ago has saved much more money than ditching the land line. :-)

Re: okay, but...

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

I ditched my land line 2 years ago, and the 3 years prior to that, I paid for an unused land line.

Same here. The only reason I kept the landline was it had a "cooler" number than the cell. But I forwarded my landline to my cell, so that was still the only phone I used.

If I "need" a landline, I use one at work. But this rarely happens.

[entrochan.livejournal.com]

Yup, I really quite dislike actually having a *conversation* on a cell phone. I always feel like I'm straining to understand, and that one-way-at-a-time thing drives me *nuts*. Despite having free long distance and way more minutes than I use on my cell phone, I pretty much always use my land line if I'm going to call up someone from out of town and chat for an hour. I really just can't imagine doing that on a cell phone.

But it does kind of suck to be paying almost $40 to have a land line for that once every month or so that I actually do use it.

[two-stabs.livejournal.com]

'When power is out (and you lose Internet as well), and your cell phone is out of charge, your landline will still be there.'

Not so. WHen your power is out, your phone is out as well.

[ron_newman]

No, I have many times lost electric power and still had the Verizon landline phone working just fine.

I know this because I've used that landline to call the power company and report the outage!

[two-stabs.livejournal.com]

Odd. Maybe it's a pennsylvania thing? I swear it was the case there.

[ron_newman]

Perhaps, but I remember using landline phones during power outages in California and Ohio as well.

Your landline phone isn't powered by your house's electricity -- it's powered by the phone company's electricity, which is considerably more resilient.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

I think it depends on the kind of phone you use. For example, if your landline phone is a cordless, then the base station is relying on the power into your home to work.

[twe.livejournal.com]

I think you've hit it exactly. I made sure to have one non-cordless phone because of this.

[uberjay.livejournal.com]

It's only out if your phone needs external power. (e.g., a cordless phone base station.)

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Untrue. Our corded phone works just fine in power outages.

[curiositykt.livejournal.com]

Your Landline only goes out if THAT wire is down, and it's one of the low ones so it rarely happens... More likely you had a wireless landline phone and that would be dead, but anything that plugs directly into the wall and you talk on the headset which is connected to the phone by a wire should work in a power outage. (that way you can call and tell the power company that your power is out)

though a cheap hand crank cell phone charger works fine too.

[cos]

You had a phone that required being plugged into normal power. Your landline was still fine, but you couldn't power your phone. You could have had a backup phone that didn't need full power. Simple check: does your phone have a separate power cord that plugs into a normal power plug? If so, it won't work when power is out. Have at least one phone that doesn't need that.

[rxrfrx.livejournal.com]

I've never had a landline since I moved out of my parents' house (I had one when I lived in a college dorm, but essentially never used it).

I hear what Cos is saying, but I'm just used to only using a cellphone, and don't think of it as a second resort after picking up my "home phone".

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

Fairly inexpensive flat rate for all local calls is another plus of the landline. I hate using cellphone minutes for being on hold at the doctor's office! On the other hand, I might not have a landline if I didn't share it.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

I find that one landline for five adults works pretty well. The entity that uses it most is the replay digital video recorder.

[kglue.livejournal.com]

I've been cell only for the past couple of years. Prior to that, while living around Powderhouse Square, I could only get Verizon service in the corner of my apartment, which made having a landline very necessary.

As is previously mentioned, it also depends on how many minutes you have during the day and how many you need ... because if you do end up exceeding your plan, those 25c and 35c additional minutes really add up quickly and would cancel out any savings from getting rid of the landline.

[taxine.livejournal.com]

I only use a cell phone. But you need a good cell plan to do it, I have free mobile-to-mobile, nights/weekends, no extra for (continental)long distance, and a large bundle of anytime minutes, which all adds up to a lot. If you have a plan with limited minutes/features and expensive peak-times/overages, it might end up being the same amount as having both if you end up on hold a lot or have longer conversations.

[charlwoo.livejournal.com]

We keep a land line to plug the fax machine into. But it's a metered line -- much cheaper than standard local service if you only use it for a few minutes per month.
I haven't had a dedicated land line for normal telephone calls for three years, and haven't missed it for that purpose.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

One plus, I do believe that if you cancel your landline, you have the option of having the phone company create an automatic message for about a month or so of "this phone # is no longer in service, the new # is..."

With the right plan (I can't imagine going over my 400 minutes a month so long as I have thousands for nights and weekends, free to other Cingular users, and rollover -- I just never have to think about going over any more; it's a $39.99/month plan) and a decent model (I invested in the $100 RAZR because it was worth it for the stable connection it provides), a cell might be all you need.

I tend to use speakerphone or handsfree for long conversations so as not to worry about all those cell-phones-eat-your-brain reports. For me, the convenience of being able to call *from* anywhere, and the fact that people can reach me whenever I want them to (and if I *don't* want them to, I turn it off or turn off the sound) far outweighs the annoyances of an admittedly inferior connection.

Anyway, for me, local calls are always brief, and *all* my hour+ calls are long distance -- which can be expensive on a landline, so I'd have to use the cell for them anyway, inferior connection or no.

[joifulgurl.livejournal.com]

i've had only a cell phone for about 4 years now, and it's never been a problem. i've never been stranded without power & no cell charge, don't have many (if any) dropped calls (in the boston area, anyway), and it's just a more cost-effective way to live for me.

if you have a car & you're concerned about running out of charge if there happens to be a power outtage, get a car charger or one of those doo-hickeys that you can plug into your phone & crank.

basically, i think people who still pay for landlines when they have a cell phone are just silly. unless they have a family, in which case i think a landline is a great idea... i would feel so weird calling my friend's mom's cell phone to talk to my friend.

[two-stabs.livejournal.com]

Landlines suck, trash it. Cell phones are def. the way to go. They're convenient, mobile, and have a ton of features that landlines can't offer.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I had to go cell-only this year. The landline was costing me an extra $70 a month and I just couldn't afford the luxury of both that and the cell.

You get used to cell-only. The hardest part was training myself to charge it regularly before it ran out of juice. Like someone above said, having long conversations on a cell is just different, but you adjust.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

The big argument for land lines is supposed to be e-911 service. I'm amused no one has brought this up.

[ron_newman]

Also, is there any way to get listed in the phone book if you have only a cell phone? Maybe I'm old-fashioned; I like people to be able to find me easily.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I don't think there is. Of course, I'm not listed anyway.

[out-2-lunch.livejournal.com]

I ditched my land line a year ago and haven't had any problems without it. Paying for a landline wound up being an unneccessary waste of money.

[darxus.livejournal.com]

I haven't had a landline since I moved into this state a little over 3 years ago. And probably another year before that. I don't expect that to change. I live in Arlington. You just need to make sure you have sufficient signal quality in your home to be able to have an important conversation without it being dropped, and Verizon still seems to be the best way to do that.

Go for it.

[push-stars.livejournal.com]

The only reason anyone may have for keeping one may be that you can use it when the power is out and during an emergency when cell phones are not working. This may be more of an benefit for people who live where there are frequent hurricanes or other emergencies.