# Getting Rid Of The Landline (phone)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-rid-of-the-landline-phone/240106>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 15, 2004, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-rid-of-the-landline-phone/240106 "2004-04-15T03:36:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-rid-of-the-landline-phone/240106/21 "2004-04-16T18:09:54Z")

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I plan to get rid of my landline as soon as I get a cell phone. According to my calculations, I’ll save $14 a month or so (cable modem and cell instead of DSL and landline).

I had thought you needed a landline for DSL, but it just might be that the “naked” line isn’t available to me yet.

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**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-rid-of-the-landline-phone/240106/22 "2004-04-16T18:19:28Z")

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> [@Atrael](#):
>
> Well, I don’t know where you live, but here in Eastern Virginia, hurricans are a fairly regular occurance. And of course, it’s almost a given that the power will go out for at least a few days. No power= no cell signal…whereas I’ve never lost the land line. So keep that in the back of your mind.

During the Great Memphis Blow of '03, my house was out of power for ten days. The phone line (which we didn’t use because we’re wireless) was ripped from the house. If we didn’t have cell phones, we would have been totally SOL. Our cell phones were our connection with the outside world.

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**Author:** ![Omnipresent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@Omnipresent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omnipresent)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-rid-of-the-landline-phone/240106/23 "2004-04-17T01:30:00Z")

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Havn’t had a land-line for 2 1/2 years. Only cell. Have to watch minutes, but, it’s always a pet peeve of mine that people talk way too long on a phone anyway so…

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**Author:** ![sunfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sunfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunfish)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-rid-of-the-landline-phone/240106/24 "2004-04-17T01:41:00Z")

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I would not have bothered installing a land line when I moved into my apartment at all, except that I have to have a landline in order to buzz people into the building. :rolleyes: AT&T agreed to set me up with a plan that costs $10.50/mo ($21.61 by the time taxes etc. get tacked on). I can get incoming calls at no cost, outgoing local calls for $0.12/minute if I need to use it. Since it seems I can also make toll-free calls without a problem (I didn’t know till I tried last night), I could always make a collect call through 800-CALL ATT if I were desperate.

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