dropping my land-line phone service!

[albireo13]

I am seriously considering dropping my land-line phone service.  I rarely use it, since we all have cell phones.  I've hung onto it in case of emergencies but, have shut off long distance service.  I only can dial local, which is fine.  It runs about $35/month so, I'd save ~$700/yr.
The other thing is that we rarely get real incoming calls on our land service.  It's almost 90% solicitor/junk calls ... which drive me nuts.


Anyone else do this yet??

[geekette]

Most of our friends have, but we've stuck with it, in a way.  We have VoIPo, which, with tax, runs <$8/month ($185 for 2 years), and that allows me to have a $10/month smartphone.

I don't like talking on the cell anyway, so any long conversation is on a "real" phone.  The junk calls just don't get answered (caller ID is a wondrous thing!)

[Spork]

The remnants of Hurricane Ike (downgraded to a tropical storm) squashed my land line in 2008.  I ported my land line number to a cell phone and never looked back.  We built a house in 2011.  I didn't even run phone lines in the walls.  (Disclaimer: there is ethernet everywhere... I could theoretically run phone on the center pair if I wanted to.)

[K-Dogg]

Just a few days ago I tried to cancel my landline. Instead, we now have:

Free landline for two years
Free upgraded modem and upgraded speed
New portal/gateway receivers for free forever

They really dont want to lose customers! Lol

[alsoknownasDean]

I haven't had a landline in years,  unless you count the free VoIP provided with my ADSL plan.

I've got naked ADSL, which actually costs about the same as a landline and regular ADSL.

I'm actually considering cancelling my ADSL and tethering my mobile for my Internet access. However, my ADSL is still under contract until November next year and 8GB isn't quite enough to cover all of my Internet needs. Mobile data is getting cheaper,  so we'll see by then.

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

[Uturn]

Kill the landline.  I did it a decade ago and never looked back.  However, I'm single, I don't have to weigh the cost against multiple cell phones.  If your whole family already has cell phones, it's a no brainer.  The only logical reason I have seen in years to have a landline is if you have a pacemaker, and I assume other medical devices.  You still need a landline for the diagnostics.  I have a friend with a pacemaker and he has to hold his phone to his chest for the diagnostics.  There might be newer ways now. 

[MrDelane]

We got rid of ours about 6 years ago, and should have done it nearly 10 years ago.
We haven't regretted it for a second.

[Argyle]

Just to note that if it runs $35 per month, you won't save $700 a year, you'll save $420.

[albireo13]

Oops, you're right.

We also have the Verizon family plan for cell service.
Everyone in the family has a cell phone.

[jim555]

Land-line has been gone for years. 

[Rubic]

Anyone else do this yet??

Dropped mine in 1998 when AT&T added a $5/month fee onto my bill because I "wasn't making enough long-distance calls" on the account.  WTF?

I immediately canceled and haven't looked back since.  I've saved thousands of $$$ in the past 17 years.

[eostache]

Dropped our landline almost 3 years ago. Just have DSL internet with Century Link. The DSL from them is pretty slow, about 4mbps but it is fine for our use. Since it's so "slow" it's easy to call and negotiate a lower price. I pay $20/mo for it.

When we dropped the land line I got a Google Voice number and an Obi100 box from amazon. I hooked the Obi up to my modem and to a regular handset home phone and use the Google Voice number for FREE calls, just like using a landline. I don't have 911 service with it but we have Tracfone cell phones. If there was an emergency going on I'd be more likely to grab the cell phone anyways.

[Ducky]

We havent had a land line for years. I dont miss it a bit. Besides saving $ we don't get telemarketer calls.

[Debts_of_Despair]

I have never had a landline that I paid for.

[RetiredAt63]

I dropped my land line (horrible rural service from Bell) and got a second cell phone sim card that goes into a receiver that my house phone plugs into.  The transfer was seamless, no-one who calls my home number saw the change.  I now have home phone voice mail, how modern.

[hobs42]

My parents have a land line and I think they're the only people I know who do.

I do wish cell phones came with the ringers that regular phones had; it's the best sound for catching someone's attention.

[bortman]

I have naked DSL service ($52/mo) and have been using been using Google Voice since 2008. I "dropped" my land line three years ago and haven't looked back. Here's what I did:

bought an Obahai Obi100 voip adapter for $39 from Newegg
opened a VoIP.ms account and ported my land line number ($10)
connected my Obi100 to my DSL modem
ran a single phone cable to my multi-handset Panasonic cordless phone base station
configured my Obi100 to receive calls to my VoIP.ms "landline" number as well as my Google Voice number
set the default dial out number on my Obi100 to be my Google Voice number

Voip.ms has a monthly $1.50 fee. I pay another $1.50/mo for 911 service.

The benefits of all of this:

Friends and family who are used to calling our land line number can still do it. Cost for inbound or outbound calls to this number is $0.0149 / minute.

My default for outbound calls through the Obi100 is my Google Voice number, so all outbound calls are free.

Incoming calls to my Google Voice number are also free.

I can block annoying telemarketers via Voip.ms web portal.



So far, since Dec 2012, this has cost me $219, about $6/mo.

The biggest drawback is that some of the setup is pretty technical. I geek out on stuff like this so I'm ok with it.

[lizzzi]

I still have it, but the ringer is turned off and I never use it. Called the cable company to discontinue it, but it would only save me one or two dollars a month. On the off chance that I might drop my cell phone in the creek or something, I do keep the landline. (Nobody has the number--I got the landline when my husband was alive in case one of his aides needed to use it to call out for an emergency. Didn't want anybody calling in on it--people only had my cell phone number, so I could be reached anywhere. ) Come to think of it, I have used it twice in three years when I needed to make a business type of call and knew I would probably grow old on hold. It was easier on my hand, and the sound quality is louder and clearer than on my cell. If it cost more than it does, I would get that thing out of here.

[JLee]

I've never had a landline - never really saw the point with cell phones having been around since before I moved out on my own.

[Larsg]

Great idea. We dropped our land line service back in the year 2000 and have never looked back. As cell service has gotten better in quality and cost, there is no reason to have a land line. We have lived all over the US since 2000, east, west, midwest, south and have not ever had any problem. When the power goes out in our area, the PNW now which is often, the cell service still works just fine. And for long distance in the US, we use Google Talk that is 100% free and we rarely have issues. If the power is out and for some crazy reason we need to call long distance and our cell service is not working or our batteries are dead, we fire up the small generator we have out on the patio (Yamaha portable generator we bought on Amazon and is worth every penny) to plug in the internet/recharge cell phone and then use google talk that works just fine and it's free. Honestly we have never missed or even thought about a landline since the year 2000 - that's fifteen years of savings. I say go for it...the sooner the better.

[Bardo]

I would be somewhat surprised if many people on this board still had residential landlines.  I got rid of mine in about 2002, when I realized that there was no point in paying for a phone number that was primarily used by telemarketers.  Landline service is sort of like cable TV:  an old technology that doesn't deliver much value for the money.

[alsoknownasDean]

I would be somewhat surprised if many people on this board still had residential landlines.  I got rid of mine in about 2002, when I realized that there was no point in paying for a phone number that was primarily used by telemarketers.  Landline service is sort of like cable TV:  an old technology that doesn't deliver much value for the money.

Yeah, the only reason I can see for having a landline is if it's cheaper for the bundle of phone line and Internet than it is for Internet alone.

It actually costs me five cents extra to have my DSL service without a landline phone service included.

[geekette]

The other reason is that you can get a VoIP landline cheap and really cut back on your cell plan.