**Q.E.D.***I wonder if that’s more an issue with the service than with the phone. I currently have a Samsung, and have had others in the past with few complaints.
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Jean-Marie’s iPhone was with Rogers, we’re with Bell, and my sister is with Sprint.
Actually, with my sister, she used to live in northern BC, and her old landline was a party line and pretty choppy and noisy. So when they left the ranch and moved to Victoria, I thought, “Great - we’ll finally be able to talk on the phone.” Then she and her husband got cell phones with no landline - first time I called them it was like the party line at the ranch, only worse. (Insert Marge Simpsonesque growl of disappointment here.) Oh, well - at least there’s e-mail…
I used to live in an apartment building that had the same type of buzzer system, and it annoyed me to no end. I wanted to ditch my landline, since I don’t need two phones just for myself, and my cell’s more useful, but I had to keep giving money to Telus just so I could let visitors in. Now I live in a building that doesn’t require an active phone line for the buzzer, and I’m quite happily cell-only.
Dropped the landline in 2000. Recently switched from Comcast broadband to Qwest DSL–better price and overall faster, not to mention a static IP which is important to us. Told the install people they were going to have to drop a new line since squirrels have eaten the old phone line in several spots, not to mention that the place where the landline used to come into the house is on the opposite end from where the main computer station is so it would need to be moved anyway. Guy did NOT believe us, apparently in their world it’s inconceivable that a house wouldn’t have a phone line. Install tech cussed a blue streak when we showed him the chewed line and the place where the line needs to come into the house. He finally accepted reality and replaced the line. It was funny as hell.
I resisted getting a cell phone for the longest time, then finally succumbed last year.
Advantages:
I don’t have to worry about missing calls when I’m not home.
I don’t have to deal with telemarketers.
My cell saved my bacon a few times when I had car troubles a long way from home.
They’re great if your meeting someone and have a last minute change of plans (“meet us at this location instead of the one originally planned”). Or for getting directions if you get lost.
Also, I have a cell with a flat fee plan, so I don’t have to worry about how many minutes I have left.
Disadvantages:
Phone’s gotta be charged up, which can be a pain if you’re out and it runs down.
If there’s multiple people in your house, giving up the land line means everyone needs a cell phone.
I’m considering moving in with a friend sometime next year. We’re not getting a land line. She doesn’t have a cell phone, so I suggested she get a cheap cell phone for $15 and buy minutes. That way she’ll have a phone when I’m not home, and she can use mine if I am home to preserve her minutes.
Nope. I was a relatively late adopter of cell phones ( just a couple of years ago ). But it’s not an issue of comfort. Rather my 1rst floor flat is slightly below grade ( a foot or so ), so clear reception is an occasional issue unless I step outside. For that reason alone I’ll probably be carrying a landline for another decade or so, at least.
That and it allows me to screen calls on an answering machine, which I still prefer to screening them on the cell. Generally I only give out the cell # to friends, businesses usually get the landline.
I rent a house with friends and we share a landline but I basically never use it because it’s too much of a hassle to share the phone. So anyone who I would want to talk to I give my cell number and anyone I don’t want to talk to I give the house number. I only use the landline if I need to hold down an actual conversation (cell phones are crap for that purpose) which is rare.
I moved about a year ago and never got a landline. When I had to move again this past July, the place I moved to has no cell phone reception unless I go outside and then it’s iffy. I figure the only time I need a phone at home is when I’m home so I bought a Magic Jack. It’s costs $20 a year and has worked perfectly for me. The only downside is it only works when your computer is on.
We don’t get cell phone reception at my house, so we’re stuck with the landline. I never use my cell, actually. I just carry it for emergencies and when traveling. There’s lots of area of no coverage in the mountains.
I have a landline, exclusively because of the DSL I have. Satellite broadband is just too expensive, and I got a good deal. I only have local calling (which I never use) on the landline. As for my cell, I bought pre-paids for myself and my wife, and we’ve never needed anything else. I usually Twitter with my friends.
Dumped my land line this year for a cell phone. Two things finally nudged me into getting onel: 1. several power outages in a row when the land line died and 2. the danged upstairs phone broke again. I’d replaced it twice in the past three years and wasn’t about to shell out for another one.
Actually I rather like the cell–and I loathe talking on the phone. It’s also considerably cheaper, especially since almost all my calling is long distance.
The reception in all three of the apartments I’ve lived in has been far too lousy to think of giving up the landline. The current place is by far the worst; even stepping out on the patio doesn’t help much.
How is that different than a cell phone? I can charge mine in my car if I don’t have enough battery, but power outages usually don’t last more than an hour or two.
I have my cell charger plugged into my computer’s UPS. Even at 5% capacity–the automatic system shutdown level–the UPS can power my phone for days, if not weeks.
If it’s a big enough outtage, like the one that was in New York City a few years ago, the cell towers are out. Even if your cell is charged, it won’t work. The land lines will always work unless they’re cut, they run on phone company power and they have back-up generators - they never go out.
I still have a corded land-line phone. Service-only is less than $10 a month. Lots of people don’t know they can ask for it and think they have to get the packages that start at over $20 a month or something silly like that.