Who has replaced their landline with a cell phone?

[neadods]

Who has replaced their landline with a cell phone? The rain has shorted my landline (again!) and I'm getting that much closer to just giving up on the service. I like the number... but then, I can port that to a cheap cell just to act as an answering machine.

Comments

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Haven't replaced the landline with a mobile, but we did dump Bell for a VOIP service (Vonage). No regrets so far. Much cheaper, and we don't have to pay extra for services that should be standard anyway (voicemail, call waiting, caller display etc etc). If your internet service is reliable, then VOIP could work well for you - and most VOIP services can let you keep your existing number.

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

This. We need a house phone for various reasons, some of them work-related, and have had Vonage for that purpose since buying this house in 2005. Very pleased with it.

[suzy_queue]

I have - I haven't had a landline since I moved into my own place in 2013. Zero regrets.

[signeh.livejournal.com]

I haven't done it, though I am very tempted to do so. The thing I always come back to is that I hate having all my communication eggs in one basket - if my cell service is brought down by a DDS attack, or my landline by a storm, I've still got a fallback service in place. I just can't convince myself to take the leap.

[bentleywg.livejournal.com]

Signe: I went with AT&T's Consumer's Choice Basic. By the time you add federal access charge ($4.72) and all the fees and taxes, the $9.50 is really $17.43/month for me.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I always come back to is that I hate having all my communication eggs in one basket

This is why I am never, ever going to bundle phone and internet in the same service. I don't care how golden the deal is; they stay separate!

[longtimegone]

I haven't had a landline in over 10 years. I have no regrets. One less bill to pay. I never used it when I had it, and during one of my moves, I just... never hooked it back up and I haven't ever missed it.

[belovedwarrior.livejournal.com]

Me! I haven't had a landline in over a decade. Most people that I know that are my age don't have a landline. Once I got a cellphone, there wasn't a point.

[songfire3.livejournal.com]

I haven't had a landline since I moved 6 years ago and I've never regretted it. :D

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

Dropped my landline like 4? 5? years ago at this point? For the same bullshit 'rain makes it break' reasons. I'M SORRY BUT RAIN ISN'T A FREAKISH CONDITION YOU CAN'T BE EXPECTED TO DEAL WITH PHONE COMPANIES. Hurricanes making shit go out, fine. But rain? Yeah, no. Then there was this whole thing where the phone pole was technically in someone else's yard so they had to get that person's permission to go in the yard, so maybe they'll reschedule a visit the following tuesday and just...no.

Long story short, if you have someone in your home who is prone to, like, almost die and need 911 at any second I wouldn't drop the landline. Also if you live like a mile from any other neighbors, maybe not. But otherwise, going cellphone only is the way to go, for sure, *especially* if you have somewhat reliable internet. Also especially if you live anywhere remotely urban or suburban where in a true 'someone's bleeding from their eyeballs' emergency you could get up and knock on a nearby door or grab a payphone, ditch that landline bullshit. I liked mine until the moment (read: year and a half) where they couldn't *for 65 dollars a month* provide me with the most basic audible phone service. Because rain.

And apparently squirrels?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'M SORRY BUT RAIN ISN'T A FREAKISH CONDITION YOU CAN'T BE EXPECTED TO DEAL WITH PHONE COMPANIES

Seriously!

And they're coming to fix the line today - the line that of course miraculously healed when the rain stopped. I told him I was going to soak the line down and he said I didn't have to. I told him I'd had to do it before...

[kradical.livejournal.com]

No landline since 2008. Haven't missed it, as I never used the damn thing.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Most of my younger friends/colleagues don't have landlines. The first thing we do after we close on our new apartment (a week from now) is the thing I've forgotten to do in previous visits -- check for cell reception to see whether we're moving the landline or dropping it. We've kept it here, as we have bad cell reception, but most of our friends call our cells (or email us) anyway -- it's really only my mom and annoying survey callers who still use the landline.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking about moving my landline number to my cell... but it does mean that I'll get a lot of spam on the cell!

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

I was going to move my treasured 212 landline number to my cell, but that. And more people have my cell number at this point anyway.

[melusinehr.livejournal.com]

I haven't had a landline since around 2006 or so; I just haven't needed it with a cellphone. My last apartment didn't have great reception, but my smartphone can connect to the internet through wifi, which worked just fine.

[gonzai55.livejournal.com]

Kept the landline, because Mom needs a phone.

But bear in mind that weather, etc can also take out your cell phone. The derecho took out mine for a couple days (longer than the power was out).

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I know. I'm less worried about the cells being out of power - I've got backup batteries, car chargers, and am looking into a windup USB charger - but I know that anything that takes out the towers takes out the cell networks. That's already happened in hurricanes and after 9/11.

[ponygirl72.livejournal.com]

Dumped the landline in Sept. 2012 when we moved to the city. Haven't missed it.

[orlacarey.livejournal.com]

I haven't had a landline in more than 10 years. The only time I really miss it is when I'm trying to call my house and whoever my current housemate is at the time isn't anywhere near their cell phone.

[stlscape.livejournal.com]

Dissenting vote: I wouldn't dump the landline for anything. Every time we start seriously considering it, we lose power for an extended period (due to very bad weather/natural disasters). If we were dependent on cell service, we wouldn't be able to recharge them. (Also, one of our neighbours uses our landline to send her heart monitor report - she can't do it by cellphone - and my brother, when his power goes out, comes over to use our land line rather than use up all his cell minutes and battery on hold with the power company.)

Mind you, I'm only paying $100/year total for TracFone cellphone service, so my cell doesn't add much to my monthly expenses (and my unused minutes all carry over).

I've got a Skype VOIP number for my business, but haven't been thrilled with it. All too frequently I'm not happy with the transmission results - warped voices/voices cutting out/garbled to the point of unintelligibility. I've had to fall back to my house land line too many times.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I had that 100-a-year service for ages, and sometimes miss it (having gone to 100 a month!) I'm not overly worried about power itself because I've got car chargers and backup batteries - enough to keep limping along for several days without house power.

But health reporting - that kind of thing is a good factor to keep in mind.

[glamazonwarrior.livejournal.com]

I haven't had a landline in years. When I had a roommate, it was easier for us to each have our own phones.

[settiai]

I haven't had a landline since I moved to Maryland three-and-a-half years ago.