<p>One other thing is sometimes CC & other companies like your landline number to verify you are whom you say you are. I guess there must be a workaround for that as well, but since we still have our landline, we haven’t figured it out yet. Don’t use the landline all that much, but like to have it anyway and DO call locally & toll-free #s on it.</p>
<p>Dropped our landline. There were no repurcussions.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t have wanted to keep our landline phone number, because we got a lot of crap calls on that number. I liked the idea of starting over, and the only people who have our numbers are people we want to have our numbers.</p>
<p>I think that for 911, a land line will provide the operator with the street address. A cell phone will not. I recently had an emergency when I was out on the road. The 911 people could not locate me easily even though my phone had GPS. </p>
<p>For long distance, we use MagicJack. My husband thinks that MagicJack cuts out when the wireless connection inside our house is interrupted when someone uses the microwave? </p>
<p>Anyone else have that problem?</p>
<p>Since the MajicJack is connected to the internet, it WILL cut out when there is any problem with the internet connection. Don’t notice any particular problem with our internet connection when we use the microwave, but haven’t really paid much attention.</p>
<p>Speaking of charging the phone during a power outage, I purchased a car battery charger ther other day and was pleasantly surprised that the charger will fire up a number of devices in addition to a car battery, including cell phones. Just always keep the thing with a full charge and you’re set.</p>
<p>Its generally in my pocket so goes room to room with me. When not, its either on the kitchen counter (charger station) or on my bedside table. I didnt transfer the home number, got a new one. Left a forwarding message on the old number for 90 days.</p>
<p>ATT is releasing a microcell extender that lets you route your calls through your net connection. The thing is designed for when you have spotty coverage around your house and I think it supports a bunch of phones and covers a reasonable area. Not yet national but will in the next weeks. That kind of thing makes dropping the land line easier.</p>
<p>We gave up our landline two years ago and have no complaints. I’d read about the 911 issues, but being relatively young and in good health I don’t worry about that too much. My house is also brick, and I-beam construction with poured concrete floors upstairs and down. Reception was iffy with our earlier phones, but is not a problem anymore. When DH mentioned that we would lose our phonebook listing I reminded him that people used to pay extra for that.</p>
<p>A lot of newer phones have mini-usb ports so you can charge your phone off of your laptop. I imagine that there are battery-powered mini-usb charges out there too.</p>
<p>The microcell thing is an interesting idea.</p>
<p>Our cell phones don’t work in the office. It would be nice to have them work though the net connection.</p>
<p>Our cell phones don’t have the best reception in our house. For long conversations I prefer the comfort of a traditional phone. We did just switch our land line to the cable/internet company. That is saving some money. We also have a gate that is attached to our phone system.
Our kids seldom get calls on the land line. That is the biggest difference in the teen years between my oldest and youngest.</p>
<p>I got an emergency radio that can be powered by batteries or by a hand crank. It came with a postcard to send the radio company telling them what kind of cell phone I have, and they will send me a “tip” for that type of phone to go with a cable that was enclosed. It says I will be able to charge the phone via the crank on the emergency radio if necessary. The tip has not arrived yet, so I haven’t tried it. I did crank and try the radio, my arm will be quite strong if I really need to do this for any length of time! But it will be an option to keep the phone working in case of a prolonged electric outage.</p>
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<p>Yes, this is another issue. I find cell phones really uncomfortable after a few minutes, and the same thing is true of landline cordless phones. We have a couple of old, corded, Ma Bell phones which I am loath to part with. The handsets fit my ear so well, and it’s easy to have long conversations on them. I’m such a Luddite…</p>
<p>I also personally prefer the traditional phones for conversations of much length–don’t have to worry about possible health risks of radiation (e.g. cancer), plus my landlines seem to work more reliably than the cell phone and never are “out of juice.” It is a luxury, as we pay nearly $25/month for them and about $30/month for the DSL, connected to the landline. Still, we feel it’s worth it. For cable, we still pay under $20/month!</p>
<p>I use a wired headset with our corded phone and it is comfortable and efficient. I can easily do two-hour conference calls with this setup and I have my hands free for looking up information on the computer.</p>
<p>As an aside to HImom’s inexpensive cable service…</p>
<p>I bit the bullet exactly 12 months ago and cancelled Cable TV and internet service. I get DSL internet from the phone company and I watch TV by means of antenna for over the air digital broadcasts. I discovered the only channels I watched anyway were weekday PBS, the talking head shows on Sunday, and college football. I did miss basketball on TNT and ESPN but I got used to it and just increased other activities, like reading. I am also online more often, for better or worse.</p>
<p>We only watch PBS, history channel (I think) and the basic TV stations. If we want to watch other stations, we can visit my folks, who have literally hundreds of channels. As it is, we only watch TV about once or twice a month, so don’t see any point on extending coverage. My folks have their cable company provide their internet service & so far I don’t see any particular advantage of that service–haven’t been impressed to date.</p>
<p>Have not tried to check and see whether they have any reduced rates for DSL and/or phone lines lately, but I guess I ought to. I have read articles that suggest that periodically, all of these services & their prices should be re-evaluated to see if prices have gone down & services have increased.</p>
<p>Cable internet by itself is pretty expensive in my area: $60/month. The cost of cable internet goes down if you get TV service but the overall cost is higher. We watch little TV and my wife doesn’t care to pay for TV service even though she watches TV more than anyone else in the house.</p>
<p>One advantage of Cable Internet is the lack of the USF but they apparently don’t care to use that advantage.</p>
<p>Sorry, what is USF?</p>
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<p>Bro in law bought one of the last gas generators in Houston (I’m sure of it!) the day before the hurricane hit, so we had electricity during the waking hours (we didn’t want to run the generator at night). We charged up all the phones in the neighborhood.</p>
<p>By the way, a workaround for folks who want power for phones or other things during a power outage is to have solor powered radio, etc. If you use photovaltaic here, you don’t have power during an outage, since it’s all tied to the electric company’s grid. Another option (tho it will use your car battery & perhaps some gas) is to use an inverter & plug phone into car charger.</p>
<p>A problem is that phones rely upon towers and don’t work when they are overwhelmed by huge volume of calls in short time. We have been instructed NOT to place any non-essential calls during times of emergency (most recently the tsunami watch), as it leaves lines free for crucial calls. We try to comply.</p>