Has anyone cancelled their wired phone and just use a cell?

[FrustratedUser]

Originally posted by: charliebrown
I pay about $30 mo for my home phone but never use it. I'm thinking of cancelling it and just using my cellphone. Is anyone doing this? Any problems?

I did it a couple of months ago. Got a free phone with T-mobile and the international calls goes through BigZoo.com. 3 cents/min to Europe is hard to beat.

:beer:

 

[zerocool1]

at home my folks cut long distance, and just use local landline and cell

 

[Bryophyte]

Originally posted by: screw3d

Originally posted by: Dead Parrot Sketch

Originally posted by: faZZter
Only bad thing is that if the power goes out seems cell phones are the first to go......landline still works most of the time, at least in my area.

Why the heck would a cell phone stop working ?

If your battery dies.. how would you charge it?

Car (inverter)

 

[kami333]

Originally posted by: kranky
All you cell-only people, how do people reach you by phone if they don't already have your number?

I went through hell last year when one of our newer employees didn't show up for work one Monday. He was a very dependable person so after he was two hours late I called his house. I got a the recording that said the number you have reached has been disconnected, no further information is available. I call information, but they have nothing.

I figured he didn't pay the phone bill for some reason, but I still didn't know why he wasn't at work. Tuesday and Wednesday he doesn't show up either. Our rules are that if you miss three days of work without contacting us, you are terminated. So they send out a registered letter on Thursday informing him that he's been terminated.

The next Thursday I get a frantic voicemail from his wife asking how could I be so brutal as to fire the guy while he's laying in intensive care, then calling me a lot of bad words. Unfortunately, she doesn't leave a number to call her back. The following Monday she calls back, and this time I'm there to take the call.

It's now two weeks since he didn't show up for work, and I finally find out why. They went away for the weekend and had a bad accident about 300 miles away. He was hospitalized, she had a concussion and was released. She knew she needed to contact us but couldn't remember the exact name of the company (he had only worked for us for a couple of months) due to her concussion, and she couldn't get home to look it up. So she had changed his cellphone voicemail greeting anticipating that someone from work would call and explained the situation on the voicemail greeting, leaving the number of the hospital.

Except the guy had recently cancelled his landline phone in favor of a cell phone, and neglected to tell me. So I didn't have his cell number, and had no way to get it. She didn't get the registered letter until a week after it was sent because that's the first time she went home.

I finally got things straightened out but it was a major league hassle for everyone involved, not the least of which was having his health insurance cancelled while he was in the hospital.

A shorter example was my elderly neighbor who became very ill and I had to call an ambulance to take her to the hospital. I couldn't reach her son to tell him because he also dropped his landline in favor of a cell phone, and I had no way to get his number.

I still don't see why having a landline would help in these cases, they could just as easily have changed the landline's number and not told anyone.

 

[fastz28]

Originally posted by: Mwilding
How do you make international calls?

onesuite.com

 

[edro]

I do.

Verizon 400 anytime, free night and weekends, free long distance. $39.90 a month every month.

 

[rudder]

Originally posted by: charliebrown
I pay about $30 mo for my home phone but never use it. I'm thinking of cancelling it and just using my cellphone. Is anyone doing this? Any problems?

As long as you live in an area where the 911 emergency system can pinpoint your cell call. Mine does not so we pay $15 a month for a landline. There are other reasons as well, but that was a big selling point for me.

 

[SuperTool]

I cancelled 3 years ago. SBC DSL better get with the program, because as long as they require a phone hookup to get DSL, I'll keep using Cable modem.

 

[SuperTool]

Originally posted by: fastz28

Originally posted by: Mwilding
How do you make international calls?

onesuite.com

I got minutepass. Very good international calls to Russia.

 

[WhiteKnight]

I can't believe that no one has mentioned the problems with cell phones in emergency situations. I know that during the power outage this past summer a lot of cell phone towers went down for a while. The same happened during the hurricane this fall. Then there's also the problem of what happened on 9/11 where the cell networks were so flooded that no one could get through. I love my cell and I hardly ever use my landline, but paying $20/month for the peace of mind that I will have a better chance of contacting being contacted by my family in an emergency is worth it to me.

 

[V00DOO]

I have not have home phone service for more than 2 years. I don't miss it either. But I do borrow my neighbor's phone line for DSL. It's a win win situation, they get free DSL and I am paying $27 per month for SBC DSL.

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: kami333
I still don't see why having a landline would help in these cases, they could just as easily have changed the landline's number and not told anyone.

But odds are good I could have gotten the new number from Information. In the case of my employee, his old number would have referred me to his new number.

Of course, if the phone was unlisted, then it wouldn't have mattered, but not too many people do that.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: charliebrown
I pay about $30 mo for my home phone but never use it. I'm thinking of cancelling it and just using my cellphone. Is anyone doing this? Any problems?

no problems, no telemarketers either

 

[charliebrown]

Why are there no telemarketers? Is there some law they cannot call cell phones?

Anyway telemarketing calls on my landline are down about 95% since they started the "Do not call" list.

 

[gsaldivar]

Originally posted by: Unkempt1
I have not had a home phone for several years now, and I couldn't be happier. I use T-Mobile service, and have been very happy with them.

 

[Thegonagle]

Tried it, didn't like it. Had my home phone hooked back up after three months, and dropped my cell phone plan back down to 400 minutes from 800.

I admit that my cell phone is now my main incomming line, but I still like having two phone numbers--a personal number (cell), and a "correspondence" number (home). My friends and family tend to call me on my cell phone, and businesses/others that I've given my home number to and collectors calling for "Joanne Evans-Palmer" (who I don't know and have never met) call on my home phone. The state do not call list keeps cold-calling telemarketers off that line.

Stripped down home phone service (no call-waiting, CID, long-distance, your own answering machine, etc.) should cost about $25 month max, not $45. (It can sometimes be significantly less if "metered" service is available to you, or if alternate phone companies are available in your area.)

My bottom line on my home phone is about $23 per month, about what my additional cell phone minutes would cost every month if I didn't have the home phone. Of course, I'd lose my "spammer" phone number if I went wireless-only, and my cell phone would be ringing left and right from people who I can definitely wait to talk to.

 

[cyclistca]

Originally posted by: kranky
All you cell-only people, how do people reach you by phone if they don't already have your number?

Were I live in Vancouver Canada the service I have is a direct replacement for a landline. If I want I can even have my cell phone listed in the white pages. Havn't done it so far only because I like having an unlisted number.