Severing the Home Phone Line

[wdfifteen]

My recent experience:
Had an ATT land line that was costing me $26/month. When price went up to $32/month I contacted my alarm company about a cell connection. They would fix me up with a cell connection for $28/month plus hardware. At about the same time Time Warner offered a cable with phone bundle for $30 less than what I was already paying them, no setup and no additional hardware cost. (My company did buy me a UPS to power the modem) I switched to the cable, but every time TW goes dark I wonder if it was the smart thing to do. As I said, cable goes dead far more often than the cell, and the cell is slightly less reliable than the land line was. For an alarm, you really want reliability.

[Seahawk]

After spending the last hour or so looking at wireless security systems and plans
(The Best Home Security Systems of 2016 | Top Ten Reviews) I decided to go ahead and cancel the land line.

No muss, no fuss...the operator said she did the same thing!

Thanks for the inputs!

[jyl]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Certainly cheap enough but my landline is essentially free with my TV bundle.

I certainly don't save anything by dropping the landline so while I'd like to drop it, logically it does not make sense, for my situation.

Check into that. Almost all of the taxes and regulatory charges on your bill are likely tied to your landline. So even though the landline only costs $10/mo, dropping it may cut your bill by much more.

I learned this from person who came to dinner at my house, who had once worked in a Comcast call center, his job was to talk people out of dropping service, and he told me exactly what to drop to save the most money.

[LakeCleElum]

Never had one in this house. When building in 2007, I asked the phone company about DSL. They lied and said it was coming.......Ticked me off, so I went with Cell for phone and internet (5 GB month plan).

Happiest recent day of my life is when DSL speed finally arrived about 2 yrs ago, but still no land line for me.

The old argument was: If you call 911 and can't give your address, they know where the call is from on a landline.....These days on a cell, they can tell which room I am in when I call.

Another plus: when the phone rings, I don't have to run to the next room to answer it. Thinking of wireless security, using a game camera on my long driveway for now.

[Evans, Marv]

In the area we live in there is no cell signal. I only have an old flip phone & my wife has a smart phone. I never use either phone, except for maybe a couple of times a week. The land line still works when/if the power goes out, which isn't often. We also live in a fire prone area, so can get reverse 911 calls on the land line - don't know if they do that for cell phones, but it wouldn't do us any good if they did with no cell signal.

[Hugh R]

Got rid of mine a year or so ago. I hadn't had one useful phone call on it in several years. Nothing but solicitations for money.

[Neilk]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

You can get a module for cell instead of landline.

IIRC you are looking at $100-150 on average to convert.

Adding a line to a cell plan is probably $10 a month, on average, YMMV.

Certainly cheap enough but my landline is essentially free with my TV bundle.

I certainly don't save anything by dropping the landline so while I'd like to drop it, logically it does not make sense, for my situation.

Since you are local, check out Smith Thompson alarms...they offer a cell connection for $89 then it is only $18 per month or $25 if you want access to iPhone app.

[RKDinOKC]

Turned off land line and alarm system that used land line both when started working from home. Still have the alarm system sign/window stickers and the horn will still go off, it just isn't monitored. Was only using the monitored system for the emergency help button for a disabled brother and elderly Mother that was living with me anyway. Never armed the alarm. There was someone always here. May do something for vacations and trips, but would be more interested in fire than alarm.

100% cell phone for voice communications. Been over 5 years and haven't had an issue, not even with the battery (which is what I thought would be the biggest problem). When I get solicitation calls, I assign the number to a user in my address book called Solicitor and the user is blocked. Understand there are apps that will automatically block almost all solicitation calls, but haven't gotten enough to mess with it.

Thought I would miss not being able to send/receive faxes (especially receive), but can do the PDF email, print, sign, scan, email thing and haven't had anyone not accept that. There are many on-line services that provide faxing including a number for incoming to email that cost less than a phone line. Just haven't had to use one yet.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Neilk

Since you are local, check out Smith Thompson alarms...they offer a cell connection for $89 then it is only $18 per month or $25 if you want access to iPhone app.

Yeah but my current monitoring is covered in my HOA fee's.

Of course for wireless the current provider also wants extra and if I go with a different provider I still pay the HOA's contracted one.

BTW, you play poker.

Been contemplating getting the local guys together for an evening.

Friendly game.

I'll host at my place.

Let me know.

[dw1]

I've considered getting rid of our land line, but we had a power outage in the area a few years ago and the cell towers also lost power. In addition, the outage lasted long enough that the standard battery back-up battery units for my neighbors' fiber-optic/voip systems lost power.

My copper land lines kept working the whole time.

[dad911]

Originally Posted by vonsmog

Did it about three years ago, and the only thing I miss is we can't get or send Faxes any longer. Some places want a Fax and will not take documents by Email.

We send/recieve faxes with an online service(ringcentral)

Originally Posted by Baz

For me....I'm not a phone person. I really do not like to talk on the phone.

Having my landline with an answering machine allows me to provide a phone number when necessary to a device I am not "tethered" to.

I use my cell phone selectively and most days do not get any calls...which is very nice.

The landline is also my # for my business, so there's that. Most of my communication is done via email anyway.

Otherwise...I would eliminate the landline. One day in the near future when I drop off the grid....

If you port the landline to google voice, not only do you get forwarding and email notifications, you can get emails sent to you as text.

So not only did I dump the home phone 10+ years ago, we no longer have a 'wired' phone at work.

Tel companies must be feeling the pain, they won't install lines in new construction, even when I call and tell them trench is open, they just need to supply the wire. 20 Years ago, they were trenching for free.

[OffCamber00]

10 years here as well.

[GH85Carrera]

My wife insists we keep that land line. Yes dear.

I went with a OOMA system. $3.95 per month total monthly cost. It runs over the TCPIP internet connection. It works just like a regular phone line. The only downside is buying the OOMA unit up front. Once you have that it is easy. If the internet goes down, it automatically forwards to my cell phone.

[David]

The wife insisted we have one. The wife's been gone for about 4 years...

[KevinTodd]

Got rid of ours over 5 years ago and cannot believe we didn't do it sooner. Literally the only people that ever called were telemarketers.

As for our alarm system, we simply added a cellular relay, which in all truthfulness makes for a more secure system to begin with, as the lines can't simply be cut before the thief enters the home.

[ckelly78z]

Last month we finally unhooked the umbilical cord (so to speak) The only people to ever call our house phone was my Mom, and some sales people, so there it goes........no regrets. I rarely talk on any phone, including my cell, or at work, so no big deal for me at all.

Next to go is cable.

[sugarwood]

Have not had a land line or TV since 2002