Spin off of the cell phone/land line thread

morrismomaof2 · **Spin off of the cell phone/land line thread**

Okay, so I guess Im curious as to how many of you use only cell phones and dont have a land line and is it really cheaper than having a land line? Right now we have a land line only (through Qwest

which I cant stand) and our internet through them also. We have thought about getting cell phones and dropping the land line all together but we arent sure if it would be cheaper or not. What are yall's opinions on it? TIA

Jillypoo · 06-22-2007, 09:59 PM

We have both a land line and cell phones. We only have local service on our phone and we have DSL. We use our cell phones for long distance.

desertmom · 06-22-2007, 10:01 PM

We live next to a hillside, so the cells don't work consistently in our home. I've been told for a couple of years that should improve, but it hasn't.

That said, one downside is you would have to watch your battery constantly and have a backup. You could easily mislay it during the day, so you're phoneless. If you call 911 they can't find where you are right away as they can w/the land line. They were supposed to solve that problem w/Vonage on the web connects, but the fine print still says it's not fixed.

So it will depend on your lifestyle.

ember15 · 06-22-2007, 10:13 PM

I guess every time I have looked at cell plans they start at like $60 and thats before taxes and I would still need to pay for internet on top of that so our monthly bill for phone and internet comes to about $87 after taxes. My DD is little I don't have the school or daycare or anyone who might need to contact me in an emergency. I am wondering who the heck I would need to call when I am away from home anyway.

I agree it depends on your lifestyle but 20 years ago no one had cell phones or if they did they were bricks and we all got by just fine

morrismomaof2 · 06-22-2007, 10:21 PM

Well right now we are mainly considering it for 2 reasons 1) long distance (right now we use a calling card and Qwest still charges us!) and 2) dh and I could get a signifigant discount through his work and then if I need to get ahold of him at work I can contact him directly. Right now if I need to contact him (which is emergency only-like a family death etc.) I have to call the main office and tell them where he is working and then they contact the journeyman in charge and then they have to go and search him out and let them use their company cell. Its a bit of a pain.

Also, we would be paying less for 2 cell phones than for a landline.

ember15 · 06-22-2007, 10:46 PM

Awe see my DH has a company cell phone so if we do go on a long trip we take it for emergencies. Work cells are great they don't cost us a penny.

Jules47 · 06-22-2007, 11:13 PM

We have a landline and cell phones. We originally only had cell phones but got a landline because of the alarm system (it goes through the phone). We have the cell phones because I feel safer being away from home with it. What happened if there was an emergency while we were out, especially having the baby with you ya know?
Thats my 2 cents!!

LuvMySoldier · 06-22-2007, 11:23 PM

Right now I have both a cell phone and a land line. My internet and land line are "bundled" with Qwest, and that bill comes to around $60/mo. ($23 for the phone, $37 for the internet.) The only reason I HAVE a land line is for the SOLE PURPOSE of being connected to the internet. (The ringer is turned OFF at all times, in fact.) Whether I had decided to go with dial-up, or DSL (which is what I have), I would have to pay for a land line either way.

Our cell phones are with Verizon, and we've gone with the 2-year contract (twice now) and our bill (which includes THREE phones) comes to just over $100/mo. The three of us, which includes an elderly friend, share something like 1500 min./mo. If we go OVER that amount, which we haven't yet, they would charge us for what minutes over the limit we used.

I make all my long distance phone calls on my cell phone, (which are few, since I use email and instant messaging mostly to communicate with people) and only use the land line to call one of our phones if we've misplaced them, or to make a local call if my cell phone is charging. I also have a belt clip for my phone, which is attached to my purse, and that's where it stays 99% of the time. So I don't lose it very often...

My question is...if you dumped the land line, how would you connect to the internet? I'm not much of a "techie", so I'm not sure how you would do that, but it seems to me that you would need a land line anyways. Do you mean that you would go wireless? Let me know, as I would love to forgo the extra $23 charge every month if I could go wireless cheaper. What do you do? By a card of some type for your comp? And are they secure to use? Now you've got ME wondering about all this!!

morrismomaof2 · 06-23-2007, 01:24 PM

Well, right now in my area we are getting Clear Wire so we should be able to get it soon in our neighborhood. Which then we could just connect to the internet through that company instead of Qwest and then not have to pay for the landline. We dont make a lot of long distance calls either which is why we dropped our long distance through Qwest and bought a calling card but we still pay either way since Qwest charges us everytime we use our calling card! We do have wireless right now for my laptop and I just went and bought a card for it at Walmart. It was pretty inexpensive and easy to set up. Its nice cuz I can take my computer anywhere in the house and not be tied down but I can also take it w/ me on trips and use the internet as well as long as I can get a wireless signal.

Tracks · 06-23-2007, 01:47 PM

We've discussed going to just cell phones but I'm really leery of doing that. We've also looked into VOIP such as Vonage or Lingo but right now we're waiting on them coming to our area so we have a local number.