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Cellphone vs. Land line: Do We Need Both?
Submitted by MrD on May 22, 2008 - 7:15am.
My wife and I both and cell phones and very rarely use the landline. We would save about $60 bucks a month if we get rid of the land line. But some people tell me that we need to keep it since we have small kids. The majority of our freinds only have cell phones, but they are the ones that don't have kids. I am leaning towards getting rid of the land line. Any thoughts?
911 for everyone
If you disconnect your service 911 will still work. All phone companies are required to leave the phone working for 911 only at no cost to you.
I hope this helps.
What about the kid's friends?
I wonder what you would do when your kid is old enough to have friends calling him/her? But he/she is too young to have a cell phone? Do you want your kid giving out dad or mom's cell phone number to talk about the birthday party this weekend or the latest SpongeBobSquarePants episode?
It seems like that would be a big advantage to having a "house" phone line, so the kid can have equal access for incoming phone calls.
Or you can just get him/her a cell phone too.
I don't know. My kid is only 13 months old. Not a problem for us yet.
-John
Vonage, Cell Phones, and the Land Line Dilemma
I've also considered dropping the land line, simply because I'm over the annoying telemarketing calls, which, thanks to caller ID, I am able to avoid. My fear, though, was expressed in an earlier post. Having been through a couple of hurricanes in the coastal city in which I live, my fear is that I'll need a reliable land line to call for help should cells go down.
So, for now, I still have two phone numbers. :(
Hurricanes Too
I, too, survived a few hurricanes in FL and we were with power for 8+ days a ta a time. The thing that sucked was the land line was down longer than our cell signals. I almost canceled recently but our house larm is monitored and it needs a land line. *sigh* I guess we have to stick with a land line and cells for now
I recently moved to Michigan
I recently moved to Michigan from Florida and just cut my land-line. We also have a home security system hooked up. We have ADT and they only charge us $16 extra per month... way less that what you would save, you would still be a head.
Always keep a landline
As someone said, having a cheap landline is worth the cost.
Of course, where I live, its essential since the best possible cell signal in my house is one-bar, but that's my trade-off for rural living when people have a imagined fear of cell-towers.
Land line vs cell
We went without a landline for three years, relying on cell phones.
These days we actually have a land line and keep a very basic cell phone plan for emergencies. We found we save more money that way. But then we don't use a cell phone that much to begin with, and we're both walking distance to work. We've found a prepay plan where we paid $20 for the phone and a $100 card that is good for a year. In ten months, we haven't even used half of that card's value. I say $120 for a year of cell phone is a great savings, even combined with the cost of a landline.
Vonage may be a good choice, but 911 works differently with them (we use Vonage at work). 911 calls are actually sent first to a Vonage service center who then forwards the call to a 911 service area based on the location listed in your profile. So if you have moved but haven't updated your Vonage profile, that creates a 911 dilemma. Not to mention, that extra 15-30 seconds of call transfer could be a major obstacle in an emergency.
Cheap Landline
We pay about $7 per month for our landline including 911 service (we have Verizon). Your phone company won't advertise it, but you can probably get a stripped-down, basic, no-frills landline service for around $7-10 per month. You should call them and ask.
re: Cheap Landline
That's a great idea. I appreciate it.
Tough call on nixing the land line
Well, a regular land line is more reliable compared to a cell phone. Land lines are powered by the head end, which in case of a power loss has diesel generators that run them. No batteries to die out. Since they are hard wired they don't lose signal like a cell phone and are not prone to RF interference. 911 can locate you on a land line even if you can not or are unable to speak.
Using a voice over IP service like Vonage is great, but if your cable goes out, so does your phone. At the same time your home # would never need to change because the phone number is assigned to the router and not a street address. So if you travel and have internet access you can literally bring your home phone with you.
But land lines are really expensive, especially compared to cell phones. Features like call waiting and caller ID are a la cart services on a land line, while standard features on a cell phone. Long distance is also a separate charge on a land line. I thought about ditching the land line to save the money, but that day a big storm hits, knocks out power and cable TV, and all the RF in the air make it impossible to get a cell phone signal I will need to call for help and be unable to do so. So I look at it as assumed risk. Is it worth the money that could be spent over decades for a land line for that one time where you need to make a call and nothing else works, or are the chances of that happening so remote that it doesn't matter?
No landline for 2 years...
We got rid of our land line two years ago and we have never had any problems. I am not sure I understand the argument about having a land lines with small kids. We have three boys (7, 6, 3) and a baby girl due any day now and they don't seem to care what kind of phone we have as long as they are still able to call Grandma! Besides even on a cell phone you can dial 123456789.
911 still works fine on a cell phone and since most of the new ones have a GPS tracker in them they are actually more accurate in locating where the caller is. Plus, you are more accessable to respond to calls from school or your kids friends parents.
We haven't had a landline in
We haven't had a landline in over seven years. We didn't have one before we had The Boy and we haven't had one since we had him. It seems to be working fine. He knows his phone number - it's The Man's cell number right now because that one was easier to memorize.
It has never caused a problem for us.
911
I think the main reason there is concern regarding the lack of a land line is because of 911 service. I'm not sure how it operates on a cell phone but with a landline, I think your location is immediately available in an emergency situation.
With that said, I have approached wifey about getting rid of the landline since we hardly use it but she doesn't want to. It's kind of a permanent contact for us in since we're more likely to change cell carriers (and possibly have to switch numbers although not as big of a deal anymore).
Maybe you could look into Vonage as well....
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