do you have a cell phone AND a land line or just one or the other?

[ProudGrandma]

Right now we are buying a bundle that includes our high speed internet, cable and land line phone. Included in the bundle is 225 minutes of long distance phone calls. Anything beyond that we pay for. We live in a rural area and ANYTHING outside of our little town is long distance, so needless to say, we make A LOT of long distance phone calls. We own a tracfone because we don't use a cell for many calls. Our phone comapany just increased the additional phone minutes by over half the price. (they used to be .09 and now it is .20 a min). We have considered going just cellular, but one of the MAIN reasons we haven't is becasue we live very far away from family and whenever we speak to them on the phone, there are usually at least two of us on at the same time...and often even 3. we don't like speaker phones...they just seem loud and hard to listen to. But maybe that is becasue it is a tracfone and not a more mainstream phone company. One of the other reasons we thought we might not want to use only a cell phone is that if you are a person who either typically doesn't use a cell phone, doesn't even own one or owns one like a tracfone that you pay for all of your minutes, that would mean that in order for us to be contacted, it would cost the caller money even if we were local. (My husband is a Pastor) and sometimes his phone calls can get lengthy. We were wondering just how likely that would happen in real life...or if that was something that isn't as much of a deal anymore. (can you tell that we are probably way out of it??:001_smile:)....

 

SO...I was waondering if you owned both, or one or the other...and if you like the arrangment that you have.

 

Thanks.

 

Kathy

[Kathryn]

We have only had cell phones for over five years now and it hasn't ever been a problem.

[lisamarie]

We got rid of our home phone back in December and it has been great! I was super leery about doing it, what about 911, what about the kids needing to use the phone, what about babysitters, would we run up our minutes?

 

I will never get a land line again unless we absolutely had to for work or something. I use the phone way less, no political phone calls, no sales calls. I keep my phone in my pocket so it's always with me so I never miss an important phone call.

 

I don't know about pay-as-you-go phones, I have a contract through a family plan that my inlaws pay for as our Christmas present every year, but our minutes haven't gone up since ditching the land line. We mostly call mobile-to-mobile which is free since my whole family is with the same carrier.

[Princess Peach]

We have only cell phones and it works well for us. Now that I think about it, most people we are regularly in contact with use their cells as their preferred method of communication, whether calling, texting, or emailing. I can't remember the last time I called a landline. We have unlimited calling/texting/data.

[Kim in Appalachia]

We have a cell phone and we have ooma, which works over the internet. So far I'm happy with Ooma, even though getting it set up was a pain (had to set up a dry loop for the DSL).

 

Ooma says that there is e911 service, but only if it's available in your area. I have not been able to find out if our area has e911, but I did put all emergency numbers next to our phone.

 

Phone lines are a thing of the past. My dad worked in communications his whole life (I won't say which company). He was at the meetings where they discussed the future of land lines. The decision was made, back in the 90's, to treat land lines as a cash cow. They knew older folks would not want to switch, so they could charge whatever and not put anything else into it. They will not bother to update or improve land line services. It doesn't make sense when the future and big money is in cell phones.

 

He also explained to me how they blocked having a cell phone system like Europe, and blocked the integration of cell and land lines.:glare: He saw it as a good business decision, giving them higher profits. I think it stinks.

[VeganCupcake]

We don't have a landline, either. We don't have unlimited cell minutes, but we don't use very many and we always have an abundance. I think DH and I share 1000 or something and we only use about 200 or 300 max per month.

 

Occasionally we do have a babysitter who does not have a cell phone, so we have a prepaid phone that we call Sitter Phone that we keep for situations like that.

[Matryoshka]

Well, we have a cone of silence over our house. Cell service is gone as soon as we pull into our driveway. So, if we didn't have a land line, we'd have no phone at all at home. Our "land line" is now through the same fiber optic network we get our internet, though, not the old phone lines.

[Jpoy85]

we have a landline (basic phone, no call waiting/caller ID, etc) and an "Obama phone". (aka: Assurance Wireless with free monthly minutes).

 

We do have high speed internet too. A neighbor pays part of our bill since shes using our internet connection.

[gardenmom5]

We have two landlines with long distance, also bundled with other services. (one is dh's business line and is only used for outgoing calls). we both have cell phones on a nationwide plan.

 

the girls - who graduated from college and moved home (there is a joke there somewhere) both have cell phones they pay for themselves.

Edited May 17, 2012 by gardenmom5

[abacus2]

We considered dropping the landline, but it wouldn't have saved us money. If we dropped the landline, we would need to upgrade our cell phones to the next level of minutes, a $20 increase, or we could keep our landline bundled with our internet for less than that.

[LostSurprise]

We looked at this again 3 months ago. Cell phones would still be more expensive than a landline for us. A landline, all calls, runs @$25/mo. (including long distance) when bundled with cable internet. The cheapest cell phone was $40+ for one cell.

 

We chose to keep a landline as part of our cable internet. We own 2 tracphones for when people are out and we want to stay connected.

[catz]

We have land line and cell phones. I do not like giving my cell number to anyone and everyone. I don't want to be that accessible constantly. I generally do not answer the phone during our school hours unless I'm expecting a particular call or it's my husband calling. We do not have a texting plan on our cell phones and we have a very basic, minimal cheap calling plan so we'd have to upgrade our phones and plan if we wanted to drop our land line. We also have very awesome cable internet with an extremely fast connection that I consider mandatory (my husband works from home sometimes and is in the software industry so it's mandatory for him too!).

[Liz CA]

We have both still. We are old and it's hard to let go of something so basic as a landline. :lol:

I have a cell phone by Straight Talk. You can get unlimited monthly minutes for around $40.00. It works fine for me. My dh's cell is provided by his company and he uses it mainly for work.

[gardenmom5]

Well, we have a cone of silence over our house. Cell service is gone as soon as we pull into our driveway. So, if we didn't have a land line, we'd have no phone at all at home. Our "land line" is now through the same fiber optic network we get our internet, though, not the old phone lines.

 

are you surrounded by hills? we had that in our basement where dh's office is - he tried to switch to a cheaper cell provider but had NO service in his office. he get's incoming business calls on his cell so it was a big deal. so, back to verizon we went.

[lailasmum]

We have both. The mobile signal here is too weak to rely upon so we have to use our landline for the internet and most calls at home. There is a bit of signal in a few places so I can send and receive text messages in a few spots.

[MomtoCandJ]

we are cell phone only and also have mobile broadband for internet through verizon. A majority of our family is also verizon so we get lots of free mobile to mobile. Dh and I share 700 minutes with 500 text messages each (dh gets a lot of texts, me not so much but I had to change my plan when he upgraded his phone to a smartphone)

[Parrothead]

Technically we have both a land line and cell phones. We have to keep the landline as that is how we get internet. I pay $12-13 a month to have the thing on. But we do not have a phone attached to a jack. I just look at is as the price to have internet. It is the cheapest option available to us.

 

Then we have 3 smart phones with the data plan. Yes, having a fully functioning land line is less expensive but since we live so far from everything I think it is prudent to have cell phones.

 

Now the price of the smart phones and the little I pay for land line service is just about the same as paying for fully functioning land line (call waiting, caller ID, long distance package, etc.) and three regular flip phones.

[QuirkyKapers]

We have both. I don't give my cell phone number to very many people. I like talking on my landline phone better. My ear doesn't get hot like on my cell phone and I can hear better. :)

[Pamela H in Texas]

cell only

[dirty ethel rackham]

Both. We don't get the best reception/sound quality in our house with cell. We've tried several companies and borrowed other people's phones. It's either the wiring or the placement of cell towers. I just can't take all my calls on my front porch.

[MrsBear]

We have both, but mostly for redundancy....if DH needs to be reached and there's a burp in the cell phone signal, if he's paged he can call back with the landline. Our cell service doesn't "burp" all that often, but it has and DH can't be left without a means to return a page.

[Ellie]

We have both. At this time, we are not interested in getting rid of the land line.

[Guest]

We use our cell phones. We do have to have a line connected for our internet, but there are no phones hooked up (I don't think we are allowed to). If we ever were to look at a security system, I have heard we need a land line.

 

Our cell phones don't get the best reception where we live and I have thought about going back to a land line, but we probably won't. We live in a climate where we feel it is necessary to have cell phones, as breaking down in some rural areas could be dangerous and potentially deadly.

[sunflowerlady]

We have both. In my rural area, my cell phones (Tracfones) don't get reliable reception. Also, the only high speed internet option here is through the phone company.

[mytwomonkeys]

cell phone only here

[beccad777]

We just use our cell phone, but are considering getting Magic Jack or something. My oldest DS is getting to the age that we leave him home by himself sometimes and I would like to have a phone for him to use in case of an emergency, but I am not ready to give him a cell phone. We have also thought about getting a basic cell phone and adding it to our plan and just leaving it at home for those situations.

[Tammyla]

Both. We live in an extreem weather location.

 

I need a land line to call the power company...

[ProudGrandma]

thank you!!

[JaniceO]

We have both because we don't get good cell reception at our house. If we ever live somewhere here in the States where we get good reception, we'll probably drop to just cell phones.

[KarenNC]

Both, though I am considering the home phone through Verizon primarily because I am sick to death of Windstream constantly calling me to upgrade. I hesitate to give up my landline (with my old black standard desk phone---not rotary dial, but as basic as you get) as it is reliable in case of power outages (doesn't require external power to function). That's also why I don't want to have only cordless phones in the house or a phone through the computer. We only get basic service on this (no long distance).

 

My cell phone is for long distance and calling when we are away from home. Because my husband uses a work phone on a different carrier, we don't get free mobile-to-mobile minutes with him and he is the one I talk with most often.

[Jen in PA]

We have both. I would drop the landline since we both have cell phones and I am always logged into chat (via cable internet), but DH likes having something as backup. Our landline service goes out pretty regularly though, often for days at a time, so we might reconsider in the near future.

[twoxcell]

We have DSL bundled with a land line and a pre-paid Net 10 cell phone.

[QueenCat]

We considered dropping the landline, but it wouldn't have saved us money. If we dropped the landline, we would need to upgrade our cell phones to the next level of minutes, a $20 increase, or we could keep our landline bundled with our internet for less than that.

 

Same here... the cost of the extra minutes we would have needed to add to the cell plan is about the same as what we pay for the landline.... so no point in getting rid of the landline. I really don't want doctors, the plumber, etc calling me while I'm out & about anyways....