<p>My husband and I are toying with the idea of dropping our land line. I know it’s very common for younger people to only have a cell phone but I’m wondering how many parents out there have given up their home phone. Are there any drawbacks to this?</p>
<p>Here are my concerns:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>You are no longer listed in the phone directory. I don’t think this is a big deal but husband does.</p></li>
<li><p>If you start giving out your cell phone number every time you order something on the internet, are you going to start getting phone solicitations on your cell? I’ve actually gotten a few calls and texts over the last few months on my cell.</p></li>
<li><p>Lack of 911 locator services</p></li>
</ul>
<p>-We currently have DSL through our phone company and Charter cable is not very reliable here. I guess I need to find out if they require you to still have a basic line.</p>
<p>-Most people call me on my cell these days anyway but it is nice where I’m in the house to be able to hear the phone anywhere without having to carry my cell phone around. Didn’t someone come up with a gadget that would let you plug your cell phone into it and it would work more like a home phone?</p>
<p>On the other hand, when I look at our caller ID list, our calls are either from phone solicitors, either my spouse or me calling home or doctor appointment reminders. That’s basically it. Would love to hear what others think.</p>
<p>We used to have two landlines (it was a requirement of my husband’s profession - he always needed to have access to a phone line) but have just dropped down to one and now, with the kids gone, are contemplating dropping the final landline.</p>
<p>We were never listed in the directory (would never want to be!) so that’s a non-issue for us personally.</p>
<p>My biggest question is that I need to find out how our alarm system handles it - because I believe (though could be wrong) that if the alarm goes off, the system “commandeers” the phone line to make a phone call to the police.</p>
<p>I don’t know about you, but our cell phone rings are loud enough and distinctive enough that we could hear them throughout the house. We tend to keep them close by anyway. I do agree it is a pain if we’re charging them downstairs and we are upstairs and they ring and vice versa!</p>
<p>The majority of the young (<30) people I work with have no landline, just cell phones.</p>
<p>I’m not doing it. I’ve had cell phones “die” on me. Don’t want my personal calls interrupting me at work or while I’m in the car.
I’ve heard about those docking stations for the cell phones, but how do they work? If your cell is downstairs and you are upstairs, how do you answer? Or do you even hear it?</p>
<p>You do not need a land line to have dsl, that is for sure.</p>
<p>Ooma is an VOIP service, you plug Ooma into the internet router and then plug it into your “Land Line” phone jack, now you have a land line, you can “port” your current cell phone number to Ooma and use another phone number for cell phone. In Ooma premium service, Ooma will ring both your current number and new cell number the same time. In effect you will receive phone calls anywhere you go.</p>
<p>You can designate 911 addresses in Ooma.</p>
<p>Not sure about local directory listings though.</p>
<p>Some house alarm system still need a true land line from att.</p>
<p>You can list your cell phone number in the do not call registry.</p>
<p>It’s the issue of sound quality/onesecond lag time between speaker and listener that bothers me. I find that conversing on my cell phone is sometimes awkward because of this. My phone wasn’t a cheap model, either. Maybe it’s because I’m pushing 50. Other than that we would get rid of land lines for sure.</p>
<p>Thanks for writing a post for me!! Honestly, you listed my exact situation and all of my concerns. The only difference is that my DH is probably more interested in dropping our land line than I am. I still like talking on a “real” phone.</p>
<p>Every month when I pay the bills I am appalled at how much we spend on communication - landline, cell phone, internet and then cable. It is a huge drain on our finances. I have also started to realize that as I get older I don’t really talk on the phone very often. I communicate via email about a lot of things - book club, getting together for dinner, etc. with most of my contemporaries. </p>
<p>Can your landline number be transferred to your cell phone?</p>
<p>I dropped my land line but have a hot spot in the house from Verizon so have my regular phone # and I use regular portable phones. I pay $20/month. I had VOIP with T-Mobile, which was only$10/month but had to change cell phone provider when DS went to college as T-Mobile has lousy service where he is.</p>
<p>Since giving up my landline, I make a lot of use of Google Voice, which comes free with a gmail account. I make most of my calls through it, and give the G.V. number to everybody except family and friends. The sound quality is very good.</p>
<p>Then your hands are still occupied, though. I use the headset cord (just the one that came with my iPhone, though I know there are fancier versions) for all my phone calls. </p>
<p>Come to think of it, just a few years ago we had 4 landlines - two personal and two in my home office, one for phone and one for faxing. I dropped faxing years ago and I’m about to drop my home office landline as well since I just use my cell for everything.</p>
<p>When my youngest was ready for a cell phone I gave him my old number and moved our old land line number to my cell phone. He had redirect a few calls, but it was not a big deal. (This was before cell phones were ubiquitous.) The only thing I miss is how the kids used to run to answer the phone and then my mom would have the pleasure of chatting up her grandchildren for a few minutes. But that wouldn’t happen any more, regardless.</p>
<p>Communication IS quite expensive now - more than our electric bill. We’re considering dropping the land line, too. It is offensive to me how expensive the cell service is considering the drawbacks - we will not only lose the voice quality, but for us it is a huge management issue - we will only be able to afford 700 minutes between our 5 phones. Thankfully, my kids don’t actually do much talking. “Holding” for the IRS and other offices will be expensive, though!<br>
As my children head off to college, hubby reminds me that he & I managed to make it through without cell phones. But way back then we also made social plans via reg. phone - which is not so much of an option now. To some degree, having cell phones is necessary to function today, and dropping the land line just makes economic sense. Gonna check out that gadget kathiep referenced, too!</p>
<p>I dropped my landline two years ago and have never looked back. Havent had any problems either. I did a 3 month trial period where I still had the landline but pretended I didnt- just to see if something cropped up that I hadnt thought of. Couldnt imagine not having a landline, had one my whole life. But well I cant imagine now paying for one. Never missed it. Dont want to be in the directory, use my cell # when ordering things, etc but no annoying solicitation calls. DSL connection in my area doesnt require a landline, the quality of my cell service is good. Only time I was concerned was during a recent hurricane, but even then didnt lose reception. I have called 911 with the cell and they knew immediately who I was, and asked if I was at **** my home address- but I dont know if it was a programmed thing or just because its a small town?</p>
<p>34collegemom, I don’t think we burn minutes to talk to our kids or my mother, who is also on our family talk plan. I will continue to pay for our kids’ lines as long as it is so much cheaper than their setting up their own accounts.</p>
<p>My family got rid of the landline about 6 years ago and haven’t really encountered any problems so far…everyone always had their cellphone on them, all the time, anyway. As far as solicitors go…just put your number on the no-call registry and you should have minimal bother.</p>
<p>We have kept our landline, but have bare-bones lifeline service only: outbound, it can only make local or toll-free calls. That’s pretty inexpensive.</p>
<p>I also am appalled at what we spend on communication costs! We ported our land line number to a cell phone about 18 months ago and now have a cell phone as our “home” phone. The idea being that I will drop my cell phone (which I do not use extensively) in a year or so and appropriate the “home” phone number for my cell number. Most calls to the “home” phone are solicitations and appointment confirmations and a few relatives who have been calling that number for years. Although we can usually hear the phone from anywhere in the house, we can’t always get to it before it stops ringing.</p>