<p>Would love to give up the landline but hesitant. Does anyone have any experience with these phones that allow calls to be directed to a line in your home. You don’t miss calls because your phone is in your pocket upstairs. thanks! happy holidays to all.</p>
<p>We have the bluetooth capable phones. The calls don’t really “link” to your home line, it’s just that these specific types of phone can pick up your cell phone call via bluetooth. I like the phones, they work well. We’ve had our Vtech phones for about 2 years. I work from home and use my cell phone as my work contact number (we still have a landline. The call clarity is actually very good using the bluetooth. For our phones, since we have a landline, one button lights up when it’s a landline call and another if it is a bluetooth call. I want to drop our landline but we have DSL so we can’t. You can transfer your current landline to a cell number and keep that landline phone number (get a dumbphone and add it to your cell plan–keep that phone connected to your “landline” phone).</p>
<p>I have one of these bluetooth phones in my house. I do not have a landline.</p>
<p>It works very well. Mine is made by At&T.</p>
<p>It can connect a land line and up to 2 cellular devices and i seem to think it can do 2 other bluetooth devices like a headset for example.</p>
<p>Quality is very good.</p>
<p>SteveMA-
we are considering dropping our old Verizon copper landline. NOT interested in paying for a triple play, we like our Directv TV plan.
I’ve asked Verizon if we CAN drop our landline and still keep our Verizon DSL. Been told we can…they said it would create a ‘dry loop’ or something like that but that it would be OK. </p>
<p>Are there any other opinions on this point?</p>
<p>A friend of ours uses a Panasonic unit that they got at Costco. They like it.
Their landline number rings with a distinctive ringtone and each of their two cell phones ring with other ringtones. This Panasonic unit can be bought with a base unit and up to 4 additional satellite phones for other rooms.</p>
<p>We haven’t done any “linking”, but don’t miss many calls. Gave up the land line about two months ago. The only thing that is a problem is faxing. I had a separate fax line with the land line. I tried a couple of internet fax services, and finally settled on one (the first was unreliable… did not send the faxes, and did not give a message). The second is slightly more expensive, and more reliable. But I get a lot of incoming “spam fax” that they are incapable of blocking. The monthly page limit is very generous (you pay if you go over), but I still worry that I will go over because of the spam. Have not yet, but am watching this… Also, I now need to scan an time before faxing, which is an extra step. But I saved $50 a month in getting rid of the land line, so consider all of this worth it.</p>
<p>We have DSL and dropped our landline over a year ago. Saved over $50 per month and we don’t miss the landline at all. </p>
<p>Sent from my ADR6350 using CC</p>
<p>musicmom,
We do not have triple play - but we do get our internet and phone from a cable provider. I tell you this so that you can know that is certainly is possible. My husband called our cable provider to ask about lowering our phone bill (we are considering dropping it) and the person he spoke with told us that we have to talk to someone from ‘disconnect department’ to see about lowering the bill. We will call soon (he’d been on the phone for so long that he ran out of time to talk to the disconnect dept). </p>
<p>We are currently spending $30 a month so telemarketers can call us. Seriously considering dropping this unless the disconnect dept can make us an offer we can’t refuse.</p>
<p>bookreader- I’m jealous that your DH makes such calls…in our house, I am the official caller…my husband says that I’m better at it. Yeah, right, great way to get out of difficult calls.</p>
<p>Anyway, yes, get the right department to get someone to agree to lower bill.
I do make a very easy call once per year to Directv to chat about my husband’s supposed need to switch to Verizon Fios tv which is available in our area.
The ‘retention department’ can and does authorize a $10/month discount for a year and will usually throw in 3-6 months of premium channels free.
NO commitment on my part, just for asking. </p>
<p>It’s not much but it is probably 10 minutes each year.
We are very close to dropping the landline that each day we pay for charities to solicit us, chimney sweepers and lawn services to invite us to hire them, etc.
It is inertia (and a bit of fear I admit) that is keeping us from doing it.</p>
<p>We also would want to port our exisiting home number to one of our cells…it has been our number for >30 years and there probably are a few folks that we’d lose otherwise.</p>
<p>Somethimg to consider before dropping your landline is how emergency calls will work from your mobile phones. 9-1-1 call centers don’t get your address when you call from a cell phone so you have to be ready to give it to them.</p>
<p>We made sure everyone in our family was aware of this and comfortable with it before we made the switch. </p>
<p>Sent from my ADR6350 using CC</p>
<p>We just got Sprint Phone Connect. It uses Sprints network rather than a landline or broadband service. We have a ‘box’ but still use all of our home phones. It is $20 per month for unlimited US calling. The Sprint Phone Connect device was free. We (H) installed it and we could keep our home phone number. If we call 911 it is connected to our home address. That was important to H. We don’t use our landline that much, but it seems to be just fine.</p>
<p>We have an AT&T bluetooth capable phone system that we purchased at Costco about 18 or so months ago. It has a base with an answering machine and handset as well as three other handsets that we have placed in various locations within the house. We got rid of our landline a year ago this month and it’s the best thing we ever did. Using the house phone doesn’t require me to charge my cell phone as often and, if I desire, I can text or surf the internet on my cell phone while speaking on one of the handsets. Ours automatically syncs when we pull in to the garage.</p>
<p>How do you get DSL service without a landline since that service comes through the landline?</p>
<p>I dont want all housecalls coming to my cellphone, and I get spotty cellphone service in my house. I should look into one of those booster things. Anyone have one of those?</p>
<p>SteveMA: Traditional telephone service and DSL are separate services that just happen to share the same physical copper line. If you drop the phone service, the copper line is still there. The concept is the same with cable TV/Internet/Phone service.</p>
<p>In our case, we were getting traditional phone service from CenturyLink … using a copper phone line that was originally installed with the house. We added DSL service through AT&T later, so we had two different providers using the same physical line.</p>
<p>I called CenturyLink and told them that I wanted to to drop the telephone service but add their DSL service. They had no problem with it.</p>