Do you still use a land line phone?

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elmo16

#1
#1
Do you still use a land line house phone in addition to your cell phone?

My land line went dead, I was going to Verizon to fix it. I noticed that my last phone bill was for $55, and the one before that was for $90+, that was when I had to stay one the line for about an hour and a half with Cablevision. This was at night over the weekend. On my cell, the whole thing would have been for free. I thought about it for a while, and then I realized that I don’t really need a land line at all. I’m going to cancel my land line and use my cell phone as my only phone.

I found out that many people are doing the same thing.
 
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karlostro

#2
#2
Haven't had one since 2003. I remember applying for a Victoria's Secret credit card and they wouldn't accept a cell phone as a legit number. That was in 1999. Was the last time I had an issue with using cell phone number as my primary number. But one thing about a traditional analog land line that is good, is that if the power goes out, then it will work for a little while because of battery backups at the CO. Cell phone towers have battery backups too, but I'm not sure if they last as long as an analog line. Only other time I think that analog line came in handy was on 9-11, couldn't get through to my family at all on the cellphone, only on the land line. But in this day and age I am guessing that mobile technology is probably a little more reliable.
 
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Scott68

#4
#4
I haven't used a land line in 8 or 9 years. I've had the same cell # for about 16 years. I use Verizon and have not been solicited yet i.e. bullshit sales calls.
 
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fuckingahole

#6
#6
I use the landline for business calls when needed, I have an office in the home, the other reason its cheap, 29.99 a month or something close to that with optimum and I think the house would just feel "naked" without a landline... if I didnt use it for business calls I would be more likely to get rid of it..
 
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Boywonder2

#7
#7
I have both and use both. I agree with the above statement house would seem naked without it. Not to mention my house phone is relatively cheap around 30 / 35 a month and I have never had any costly repair problems.
 
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NYC55

#10
#10
I just got the Verizon Fios version of triple play(phone,cable, phone). I'm am paying the same phone/cable bill as before but my phone is now basically free.. I never use the house phone because all of my #'s are stored in my cell phone. Keep in mind If you loose your cell phone, you won't have a phone for a couple of days.
 
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elmo16

#11
#11
I thought about going to VOIP, but I found that people have had trouble with them. I general most people seem to be satisfied with them, but if you read the reviews, people seem to have problems with them. When traffic on your cable network is high, they have dropped calls, one end of the phone call can't hear the other, there are echos, delays and other problems. People seem to have problems with their voice mail, unlike standard land lines, VOIP's will try to save your unanswered calls to their voice mail systems, even if you didn't pay for this service and not on your phone's answering machine. If there are cable problems, or if there are power outages, even for a few minutes, you will lose the phone calls. VOIP's just aren't as reliable as standard land lines or cell phones.
 
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NYC55

#12
#12
Voip is terrible. unreliable service and the worst thing is that they back feed the phone through the exisiting wiring and make a mess of it. If there is a problem with the phone wiring in the house, the cable company will never figure it out. It just causes problems.
 
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jseah

#13
#13
karlostro said:
But one thing about a traditional analog land line that is good, is that if the power goes out, then it will work for a little while because of battery backups at the CO.
Click to expand...
That's only true if you have a "regular" wired home phone. If you have a cordless phone, then you're SOL unless you have that phone plugged into a generator.
 
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jwills500

#14
#14
NYC55 said:
Voip is terrible. unreliable service and the worst thing is that they back feed the phone through the existing wiring and make a mess of it. If there is a problem with the phone wiring in the house, the cable company will never figure it out. It just causes problems.
Click to expand...
I don't route my Voip phone over existing wiring. Some things to be considered when using Voip. 1. Make sure you have a fast router, I was having all kinds of issues with voip when I first started using it, found a good router fixed the problem, I also have 10 meg service, which helps also. 2. At home, it wired into a 4 position on my phone system, I have analog service on the other three lines. I would like to get rid of at least two of my three landlines, but for some reason, I can't port the existing numbers over to Vonage. I use my vonage line for outgoing toll calls. I have vonage at my apartment in Queens, the base of the cordless phone is sitting next to the vonage box, no wiring issues. It works great.
I think it depends on your circumstances, whether one is better than the other. My daughter has her phone service thru Comcast and she has issues from time to time. I can only use my vonage as a comparison
 
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elmo16

#15
#15
I’ve been reading reviews of VOIP devices. MagicJack which cost $39.95 and $19.95 per year. You get unlimited national calling, voicemail (you can receive messages even when you're offline), caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, and emergency 911 dialing. The only catch is that you have to have a dedicated (you can’t use the line for anything else but your MagicJack, you can’t share this line with any other computers) high speed cable internet connection. Your computer must remain on all the time, and you can’t use it for anything else but the MagicJack. You have to disable all security software (which maybe ok as you will never go to any web site but the MagicJack web site. You will also have to modify your computer configuration, your port settings, virtual memory settings and not get any software updates from Microsoft. Your computer must be wired directly to your modem (no wireless connections). The reviews state that your internet access speed should be at least 1.5 mbs up and down load, the faster your internet connections are, the better your telephone will work.
 
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kdee

#17
#17
No need for a land line as only my adult daughter lives with me. The only calls i was getting were telemarketers and old girlfriends I have no interest in so it had to go. I have a Blackberry with a 900 minutes with rollover, 500 texts with unlimited internet and email. This costs about 95 dollars monthly vs about 75 dollars for the land line with unlimited long distance. Can't wait for WiMax to become common so i can break away from cable too. For those who worry about losing phones and numbers always back up your numbers. Most carriers have a website to store the numbers. I keep my old cells as spares. If the phone is lost or damaged i can get a SIM card from my provider until the new unit arrives via UPS or FedEX.
 
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elmo16

#18
#18
T-mobile@Home seems to be the best VOIP in terms of overall performance and price. It uses a Linksys WRTU54G-TM router, which is a 802.11b/g router, a bit dated, it was state of the art in 2005. Unlike other VOIP phone systems, the phone quality remains consistently good. How? the WRTU54G-TM has been specifically designed to always give priority to the telephone, which is the opposite of other VOIP systems. Your phone calls remain very clear, with no dropped calls (provided you have a decent broadband connection with at least 1 mps up and down stream). The router cost $59 and the plan cost $9.95 per month with a two year plan.

The down side is that you must have an existing wireless T-Mobile individual plan of at least $39.99 or a family plan of at least $49.99, and when you make or receive a phone call, your internet speed can drop to as low as 60 Kps or about dial-up speed. If you have several people in your household and they use the phone a lot and plan on using the internet a lot, this might work well for you.
 
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