@Bromfield2 – your MicroCell must have been configured incorrectly. You have to enable cellphones on it via the ATT website. Once you do that you’ll get a full set of bars on reception on every phone in your house (I even add relatives’ phones when they’re visiting, works perfectly).
Gave up the landline years ago. Haven’t missed it once.
We haven’t had a landline in about 5 years. The only con was paying more for international calls until the older family members came around to using Skype, wi-fi calling, WhatsApp etc. Landlines are obsolete.
With a landline for longer calls, you can reduce your exposure to radio frequency energy. I prefer using the landline primarily for this reason, and for the better sound quality.
@Nurse001 That’s the same reason we hang on to our landline - the estimate for making our system wireless was outrageous. We get a bundle through Time Warner.
Anyone who knows me knows to call the cell. I have the ringer off on the landline - the only important call coming through is the security system after an alarm trips, and believe me I’ll know it. :))
We considered getting rid of ours this winter. I didn’t want to, but thought I’d see how much money it would save. Only $5 month. So, for added security we are keeping it.
I like the sound quality and it doesn’t bother my ear after awhile. Plus, my phone died for awhile and I could still make and get calls. Plus, I don’t like feeling like I have to be tethered to my cell.
Both my mom and I still have a landline because we like the sound quality. Few of my friends also have landline. When we want to have a long chat we usually call each on the landline. As long as the cost remains minimum I don’t see any reason to disconnect it.
I read few posts about not using cell phone for conference calls because of sound quality. When I work from home I use my work cell phone for calls. To improve sound quality I connect it to a Jabra speaker (puck), https://www.jabra.com/business/speakerphones/jabra-speak-series/jabra-speak-410
The sound is very clear and easy to connect.
We are bundled with FIOS and getting rid of the landline portion wouldn’t really save us much.
We use the landline for H’s business, primarily, and so that we have a consistent family number. I really hate not knowing who all the calls we get are from, though, because I am a nosy busybody, lol.
WHEN we move (H says if) after I retire, I will probably upgrade to something else and port the home number to my current cell number as a means of purging people I no longer wish to have my number. like adversaries on cases.
I am very much a Luddite. I toyed with getting WhatsApp to talk to H while I am in Europe this summer, but the thought really disconcerted me (I don’t like apps), so we have decided that I will talk to H on D’s bf’s phone. He has an international plan because his parents live in Europe.
At some point, I will have to do something because the cost for bundling is crazy, but I am not ready to give up the landline yet.
We still have a landline which is bundled with our internet, so I’m not sure how much we’d actually save if we got rid of it. I prefer the sound quality of the landline and prefer giving out that number to places/people I don’t hear from often (drs offices, businesses, etc). OTOH, we plan to move within the next year and don’t plan to have a landline unless we need it because of poor cell service.
This and not wanting oodles of our friends/family/contacts having to change “our” number is why hubby kept that number as his cell phone number. (Most calls to our house were his.) I kept our main cell phone number. Only minor changes had to be made with others. If we hadn’t been able to change this way I’m not sure we would have.
We still have our landline (bundled service) but could probably ditch it. We also have the ringer off so the telemarketing calls don’t interrupt us. I do like having the landline # to give out to dentist, vendors, etc - but so many are now confirming appointments or communicating with their clients by text that I don’t even do that much anymore.
H and I have a consulting business, and we do use our office landline for client calls for better quality reception.
I don’t think any long lost friends would ever try to find me via landline (Facebook is where they can find me, and I am already connected with anyone I care to be), and all of our current friends, family and contacts have already replaced our home # with our cell #'s - so hanging on to the home # is really not a reason to keep the landline at this point for us.
We’ve been using the “ringer off” system for a year or so; it may be time to take that next step!
We were able to keep our 28 year land line number, drop AT&T by using Phone.com - we pay $11 month and any voice messages are emailed to me real time so I see/listen to them on my cell phone which i can then forward to whomever. I usually use the landline number for shopping and other registration information. Only non-soliciting callers actually leave messages. I may drop it in the future but for now it has helped with most unwanted calls going to the home number.
Reasons I keep my landline:
- I don't stay attached to my cell phone 24/7.
- I can hear the landline ring throughout the house day or night, but I would never hear the cell phone unless I had it with me. (See #1)
- I have 4 land line phones but still can't locate one when the phone rings, so I certainly couldn't keep up with a cell phone as my main phone. (See #1)
- I still talk on the phone frequently and I just can't hear well on a cell phone, nor do I find it comfortable.
- My cell phone battery is always dead.
We have a landline but only hubby, the kids and I have it. It’s really used as an evening emergency number. I charge my phone in the kitchen overnight so if any of them need to reach me they call the home line which is next to my bed. Funny thing happened a few weeks ago - the dog started crying to go outside at 4am, hubby was out of town and there was no way I was staying up. So I let her stay outside. We also have ring on our front porch. Apparently she kept rolling around and walking up and down the stairs and setting it off on hubby’s phone. He had his phone dinging constantly. I wasn’t picking up my cell so at 6am he called the house phone and told me to go let the dog inside.
For all of you holding onto your landline bacause of your phone number, that’s not a valid reason. Switching to a VOIP such as Ooma, Comcast or a service such as VOIPo, you can 1) use your existing phone(s), 2) port your phone number over 3) have much much better control over telemarketers 4) international plans are cheap, like maybe 1 to 2 cents a minute 5) get a ton of features such as 3 way calling, call forwarding etc included 6) save a ton of money.
For years, I was pay $35 a month to AT&T for residential service, which is around $420 a year. And that’s with no nationwide calling, no international, no other features such as call waiting, just local calls to a 10 mile radius. Now let’s look at some VoIP alternatives. Comcast (you need to use one of their internet modems) charges $10 a month if you get one of their bundles. Vonage costs $10 a month, then they always have some promotion. VOIPo as mentioned before is $186 for 2 years, about $8 a month. Skype Out is around $13 a month. Some of the VoIP services even includes free faxing.
I use a Bluetooth device when talking on my cell a lot of the time, even around the house. It is more comfortable than holding the phone.
I do call my dsd’s land line when I phone him (he has a flip phone cell phone on my plan that he uses for long distance calls and when away from home). I presume the land line is easier for him to hear on and handle because the phone is larger.
I was just poking around on the Xfinity website. They really know how to manipulate their customers. If you opt for anything less than triple play, say dropping phone or cable, the only plans made available to you, at least in my area, have MUCH lower download speeds for internet. The fast speeds don’t even seem to be an option. To get those, you need to bundle all 3 services.
@doschicos I see what you mean, I just tried it now and the same thing happened. I would either call or drop by a local store. Any combination is available. I have 200Mbps plus very limited basic cable for $80 a month. The cable portion of it comes out to like $7 a month. For purposes of this thread, you probably can get a Double play of Internet and Phone for say $90 a month for 200 Mbps, internet cable modem and VoIP phone. (Don’t quote me on this) You have to use their modem in order to use VoIP, I don’t think you can buy a cable modem that has VoIP.
We were anxious to drop the landline because all the incoming calls on the landline were robocalls and there were a LOT of them. We had stopped answering the phone.
We were very disappointed when we learned we saved almost no money when we dropped it because the landline was part of a bundle.
What bundle is this? Xfinity? That’s not a landline that is VoIP. As mentioned there are all kinds of choices for individual VoIP. Including not going with it at all and going with strictly cellular which is ok too. Many of the VoIP comes with Nomorobo and prefix filtering to block out telemarketers.