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

[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.