Anybody have a cell phone but no land phone?

[raccoon]

Reason I'm asking is I have a land phone but no cell phone.

I don't get or make many phone calls. It wouldn't be cost effective to have two phone bills.

Yet there are times when a cell phone would be convenient.

Experience, strength, hope?

[madokie]

1. our son and his girlfriend, I know several. As soon as I decide on an

ISP we are cutting our land line also, we never make long distance calls from our land line and the bill is around 90 to 100 bucks a month, that includes the 35 dollars for dsl though.

[bleedingheart]

2. my cell phone gets really crappy coverage in some areas around

where I live...even in my own house...thus I have both...and it sucks.

I have the cell phone to communicate with my husband about logistics regarding kid pickup..etc

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Got rid of my land line last year,

and I will never have one again.

Cell phone only.

It's beauty!!

[EstimatedProphet]

4. We only have cell phones

Works fine for us. Bills are about the same as they would be for land phones.

[underpants]

5. Sort of

we have a land line only for internet. We are cheap--$12 a month plus .10 a call so if we were to log on every day it would cost us $15 total. I have to install a TiVo so we will see how that effects the phone line bill.

[Fridays Child]

6. I tried going with a cell phone only and I didn't like it.

For the services I need, it ended up being more expensive. And I didn't like giving up the land line number that I'd had for years. Luckily, I got my number back.

[northzax]

23. as of a couple of years ago

you can move your land line number to a cell phone. and vice versa. perfect number portability.

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. Our landline is way cheaper, but I need the cell for business (on the

road alot) so we keep both. :hi:

[leeroysphitz]

8. Did things that way for years...

Until Vonage (cheap broad band phone service) came along. There are draw backs (burning up minutes on telemarketer messages etc...) but overall the lack of two seperate bills and the ability to reach my wife from anywhere at anytime was well worth it.

[wakeme2008]

9. I just converted to T-Mobile pay as you go Cell

besides the cost of the phone, you can get for the first $100 around 1200 minutes that are good for a YEAR. If you do not use a cell that much that is around 8.25 per month.

You can also go online and buy more minutes. I was paying $49 per month. At my usage, I will get 4-5 months on a $100 dollars. not bad :)

[Danascot]

10. I've had only a cell phone

, no land phone, for over 4 years and it's worked out great. I'm not home a lot and if I miss a call for whatever reason, it has voice mail and caller ID so you can pick up the message or tell who or what number tried to call. Signal strength is an issue. If you don't have a strong signal from the carrier you select at home and work or wherever you spend the most time, it would be a problem. Ask friends with different carriers to check out the signal in those areas. Also get a plan that has the most minutes and broadest free calling area you can afford. If you go over the plan, it can get expensive. The cell phone will probably cost more than a land phone. You'll probably use a cell more than you ever used a land phone. If you're on a tight budget, get a pre-paid minutes phone and plan. Land phone vs cell phone are entirely different. But unless you don't use a phone much, cell is the way to go.

Another thought if you don't go the cell phone route. If you have cable internet and TV, your cable company probably offers a TV/internet/internet phone combo rate that is about the same cost as TV and internet alone. My sister-in-law got this recently and it's worked out fine.

[Jack from Charlotte]

11. I pay under $10 per month for my cell phone.....

I use it very little but wouldn't be without it either. It's Virgin Mobile... pay as you go deal. I must BUY.... but not necessarily use.... a minimum of $20 of time every 3 months. That's under $7 per month. I've averaged about $10 per month and use it all I want.

Low useage users should consider it for very cheap cell phone. Also, the coverage is the Sprint network so the coverage is very comprehensive.

[slide to the left]

12. in college

now my husbadn and i have one just for dsl and sat, we never really use it

[Nickster]

13. Here's something to think about, cell dock station.

http://www.omnicellonline.com/id9.html

These gadgets would use your cell line as the landline.

Another thought, and this is the way I went, take a look at the VOIP services like vonage. I cut my phone bill by more than enough to pay for the cell phone. I use vonage and have been very happy. A friend of mine got SunRocket and has been ecstatic about that.

[Arger68]

14. My wife & I

Have cell phones only and cable internet. We love it that way!!

[City Lights]

15. My sister, and my niece and her husband.

No negatives to report. All of them are happy without a land line.

[liberal N proud]

16. We just went to digital phone this week, No more local phone line

Cell and VoIP

[Jennos20]

17. Cell Phone Only

Land lines are a thing of the past to me.

[mtnester]

18. Since we have a small business, our landline is now the fax line

otherwise, we are all cell phone.

Our son has not had a landline in years.

The ONLY drawback to cell phones is the 9-1-1 triangulation issue. If you are on all cell phone, you BETTER be able to tell someone where you are at, physically. (i.e your address or an address or very familiar landmark right near you where someone could see you from...i.e. "I am in the back yard of 111 Second Avenue, Anywhere, Ohio") MANY areas of the country have not completely gotten/implemented/financed/ tweaked this issue, either due to finances or squabbling by the cell phone companies, or technology lags.

[4 t 4]

19. Cell phone only

the apt. I moved into didn't even have a land line hook up. Only having a cell phone is just fine and a lot cheaper.

[northzax]

24. all phones made after January 1, 2005 are GPS enabled

there is no longer a triangulation problem, they can place you without your help.

course, as long as the phone is on, they can track you, if they really want to.

[mtnester]

33. Believe me, there are still problems since you have to triangulate through

the towers first, which is the first hurdle...then you have to get the HUGE money to purchase the next gen technology for wireless 9-1-1, which fails more often than not, etc, etc. more problems funding, no funding, bad technology...I can go on and on

It is not as rosy a picture as you may think.


On edit - as far as tracking you, you still have to get the cell phone company itself involved for that...most fire/law enforcement departments are not spy central with special devices. We had a woman who ran her car off the road, she was from out of town, had no real clue where she was....it was HOURS before law enforcement could get the lawyers from the cell phone company to at least allow their towers to be used for this purpose. Thank GOD someone spotted her before she froze to death...no thanks to the cell company BTW.

[progressivebydesign]

20. many people I know have no land phone. n/t

[pimpbot]

21. No landline phone since 2002

Great plan from sprint, 1000 daytime minutes and unlimited minutes on weekends and after 7pm on weekdays. ~$40 a month, including ability to surf the net on the phone.

Some of my friends pay $20+ just for basic landline after all the fees and crap are added in.

[northzax]

22. Most people I know have only cells

among the ten or so people I spend the most time with in DC, I can only count one landline, and that's because the building is too old to allow the dialup system to be forwarded to a cell phone.

I haven't paid for a landline since 2000.

how do you get internet? that's a question, I had to get cable-

[raccoon]

26. I don't have Internet at home. nt

[northzax]

28. well then there's no problem, is there?

go for it. stop paying taxes to pay for the spanish american war!

[Greyhound]

25. I do. Had to have a cell phone for business and I live outside the city

so the phone Co didn't offer any of the other services that would be beneficial to me (DSL). I have not had a land-line in over three years.

[raccoon]

27. Thanks for everybody's input. I'll take this under consideration. nt

[snooper2]

29. I haven't had a land line for 8 years...

screw bell....

[RumpusCat]

30. No landline for the past six years

I live in NYC and this is cell-phone city, I get great reception everywhere. Also, I'm never home, so why bother with the land line? It's the best option for busy people. I have cable internet at home so I have no need for a landline there either. :hi:

I guess an big issue is that cell phones have to be charged up and landline phones don't, but really, if you don't have the juice to charge your phone then your landlines are probably dead as well. For Christmas my parents gave me this awesome hand-cranked emergency radio that I call the Apocalypse radio. Cleverly, it comes with a billion little cell-phone adapters so you can plug your phone into the radio and hand-crank charge it! I tried it out and it really works, so that's put my mind to rest about the phone and power outages.

[jschurchin]

31. Yep...........

I will never, ever have a land line. Too many charges and taxes for shit I don't need.

[IA_Seth]

32. Cell Only

But I have an unlimited minutes package so it's not a big deal. If I had to worry about minutes and nights/weekends crap I would definitely go with both.