<p>Since I work at home often, I have my work phone forwarded to my cell phone. I thought I’d be bothered with tons of calls, but it’s amazing … From a work standpoint, hardly anybody ever actually picks up the phone to call someone else. It’s all email, and phone calls are done on a scheduled-conference basis. (“Let’s plan to talk at 10 am tomorrow” type of thing, vs on the spot)</p>
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<p>But you don’t - this receiver is just like the old clunky big phone receivers that you can tuck in the crook of your neck, but it’s not heavy. I’ve got to say, it’s not as cool as a bluetooth head-set deal, but it does work well.</p>
<p>Do it if you can. You won’t miss your landline. We did it several years ago.</p>
<p>My biggest issue has been learning how inefficient other organizations (doctor’s offices, credit card companies, banks, etc.) are at making paperwork changes. I have corrected my phone number to these places OVER and OVER and OVER and they never seem to get the message. It’s amazing–they all seem to have the problem.</p>
<p>I think you should drop the landline. I’ve given this thought as well and admittedly haven’t done it yet but keep thinking about doing so - especially when I get the bill and realize I’m not getting much of a benefit from it.</p>
<p>On to a few points -
I actually have to pay the phone company extra money so I ‘won’t’ be listed in the directory. I can’t think of any good reason to be listed other than to decrease my privacy.</p>
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Most cell phones now have GPS so I think they can locate pretty well although it probably varies with the particular 911 system. But you need to consider how many times you think you’d call 911 from your house where you wouldn’t be able to tell them your address. The odds are minimal. Also consider that if you call 911 from your cell if in a car accident, a hiking accident, a parking lot, etc. that they wouldn’t have any advantage of the house call either. This is such a trivial item I wouldn’t include it in the equation unless you have someone in the household who has a major chronic health issue who needs to contact 911 frequently.</p>
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That’s strange - I’ve not had that with any of the cell phones or services I’ve had. It doesn’t happen on my current AT&T iPhone. Actually, the call quality is better on this cell than my lousy GE cordless phone on my land line but that’s the phone’s fault.</p>
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Just assume the cell network will be down or unreliable in a major hit. For example, when all of San Diego county was hit with the major power hit a month or so ago the AT&T cell network would only work very intermittently, even for texts. But really, who cares? It didn’t really matter since when it comes down to it, how much do you really need to call from your house in this scenario? And consider that a number of the people you’d call are probably on a cell locally anyway so it still wouldn’t go through. My land line phones didn’t work either because they’re cordless and I haven’t bothered to get a corded phone for the small number of times there’s an issue. </p>
<p>On long distance calls I already use the cell since it doesn’t have an extra cost like on the land line. The call quality is fine, the cell is totally portable and works from most places I go, and of course it does all the extra things a smart phone can do nowadays.</p>
<p>I’ll have to read back over my post to see if I convinced myself to drop the landline.</p>
<p>"You are no longer listed in the phone directory. I don’t think this is a big deal but husband does. "</p>
<p>“The phonebook is here! The phonebook is here! I’m somebody! Big things are gonna happen for me now!” </p>
<p>sorry, couldn’t resist…</p>
<p>What about international calls? With a sister in Europe, I can’t get rid of my land line although we do Skype each other occasionally. With land line, cable and internet bundled together, the cost of a land line is peanuts and international calling is pretty cheap too. Now, SHE can call me from her cell and does it all the time and it’s not expensive for her…sigh… It seems we’re about 10 years behind in cell service user-friendliness over here.</p>
<p>Goru, hahaha. One of my alltime faves. :D</p>
<p>We eliminated our land line several months ago and I do not regret it.</p>
<p>There was an issue recently where the police were notifying neighbors about something and we weren’t called, but I figure if it is really important (evacuation, etc), I will surely find out about it!</p>
<p>If you drop your landline phone be sure to check with your home owners insurance. A friend wanted to only use her cell service but her insurance agent advised her that she wouldn’t be covered if there was a fire in the home since cell phone do not always show location on 911 calls.</p>
<p>Landline was constructed not to go out. I would keep a landline to bare bone and an old fashion phone which does not require electricity. When D2 went off to school, I actually packed a land phone for her.</p>
<p>I would drop mine in a heartbeat if I didn’t have a business. Our cell phone quality is very inferior to our land line quality. We can’t bundle here (different providers for each service, not our choice); and we can’t get DSL, although as others mentioned, that doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine my kids ever getting a landline. I’ve never had renters in the last decade that had a landline either. </p>
<p>When the quality of our cell goes up or the business is sold, good-bye Frontier…</p>
<p>I packed a land line phone for my #2 child. It came back home after the first year never having been used. I don’t think I even saw a jack for one for child #3.</p>
<p>greenwitch, We don’t have an international calling plan on any of our phones, land line or cell. We were actually kind of flummoxed when our daughter went to China for a year but she hooked us up with skype before she left and we subsequently used it for our son when he was abroad too. We didn’t use video skype, just did it through phones or the computer.</p>
<p>You can get cell phone back-up for security systems but I’m not sure how that works for monitoring. Your company can likely tell you. I’ll never get rid of my landline because I don’t want to have to carry my cell phone with me wherever I am in the house. We actually have two landlines because my H needs one for work accessibility when he’s at home and also for the FAX machine.</p>
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This really doesn’t make any sense. Do you know which insurance company does this? I know State Farm in California doesn’t require a land line and I’ve never heard of such a requirement. Insurance companies will soon find themselves without any customers because pretty soon land lines will mostly only be used by old retirees that won’t give them up. I think the newer generation will forego them and use a combo of cell phones and IP based communications (Skype, etc.). </p>
<p>On top of that I don’t know why there’s such a worry about the location of the 911 call - most cell phones now can provide that info and I think there’s some legislation already behind it and it’s likely a small number of legitimate 911 calls where the caller can’t tell the operator where they are anyway.</p>
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This isn’t really true since they’re designed with only a certain capacity of calls in mind like the cell phone system. The advantage to the landline is that they don’t rely on the normal power grid so they can operate when power goes out but in an wider problem situation they get overloaded and the calls can’t go through - you might not even get a dial tone. I’ve experienced this multiple times and I’m sure most of you have as well. On top of that some phone lines are above ground on ‘telephone poles’ and can go down in storms. </p>
<p>On top of that I don’t see what’s so terribly urgent about having a phone that never goes out for most people. How do you cover yourself when you’re not tethered to your home line? Things can happen then as well.</p>
<p>We use our fax machine all the time and you can’t have a fax machine without a landline. I’ve noticed that sometimes my oldest kids really have a need to fax something and they scan it and send it to me so I can fax it, which is kind of ridiculous. Just yesterday I needed something time-sensitive faxed to me. I’m just not convinced that cell phones are all that healthy. I feel like it’s going to be years until we know if they are totally safe (I cringe when I see a photo of a new mom on her phone with her baby in her arms). I like having phones scattered around the house that can be heard and gotten to without having to remember to keep my cell charged at all times and with me all the time. But I know I’m quickly turning into a dinosaur. I wish the phone companies would get with the times and offer a very basic plan for very cheap. When my son was in college he qualified for that kind of plan.</p>
<p>Our landline is about $25 and our dsl adds another $30/mo. I think we’ll keep it. I am thinking of swapping my personal cell for a pre-paid one but am waiting for S to figure out what he wants and then D & I will figure out what we want. H already has only a pre-paid phone as he rarely ever uses it & can’t take it into his workplace.</p>
<p>We do lose power periodically but the landline stays operational. We have had some blips in our landline but mostly it’s OK. Am flirting with the idea of dropping it but do sometimes like to fax things as not everyone will allow you to send an email attachment for whatever reason.</p>
<p>In regard to the need for a landline to show 911 locations, I have something to add. My D had a weird situation during her last semester of college. Although she has never had a landline, somehow her apartment kept calling 911. She had several visits from policemen who accused her of making false 911 calls from her landline. She told them that was impossible as she didn’t have one. The last “visit” involved irate policemen literally breaking down the door to the apartment and bursting into her bedroom (because she was sleeping with earplugs and didn’t hear them knocking). It was a scary experience and the next day, I spent a very long time on the line with AT&T, talking to quite a few different people, all of whom were baffled. I was finally told that in some areas, the law requires that a phone jack in a home must be able to “dial” 911 even if there is no other phone service provided. So apparently her jack was malfunctioning and making rogue calls. What they did was to turn that service off in her apartment. Thankfully, with a police report filed, the landlord paid to repair the door and that was the last we heard of it. But knowing that service is available in her new apartment, I have encouraged her to keep an old plug in phone to use in an emergency.</p>
<p>I still have a landline, don’t like talking on the cell phone too much. However, I have problem keeping it to the bare bone. The cable company charges me $20+. I remember I used to be able to pay for a basic line for $4-5. I don’t know why we can’t do this anymore.</p>
<p>If there is a power outage only land lines will work (iand if there’s no power for more than a day, how do you charge the cell phone? fiber optic systems still need power too). We actually keep a non-cordless land line phone for those occasions.</p>
<p>Re: 911 location services - a land line IMMEDIATELY tells the police where you are - even the GPS feature On the cell phone is not always pinpoint accurate.</p>
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Just plug it into the car adapter in the car for a bit. There’s enough power in a car battery to go for a very long time.</p>
<p>If you’re able to dial 911 the majority of the time you can just ‘tell’ the operator your address.</p>