Dialling overseas is also way more expensive from a cellphone.
I have a free cellphone and Internet courtesy of work, and I have no active phone lines in my apartment. I take the cell phone home every night. Since nobody knows the number, nobody can call it. I like it that way.
If I had the Internet at home, I’d NEVER get off it.
Even with a cell phone and broadband at home, I still keep the land line. Sept. 11th showed us that the cell networks can clog up and become unreliable with heavy usage. I just like having both phones around in case of emergency, be it the cell network or the DSL going down. Also, like Narrad, my Ericsson phone tends to get warm after extended usage. Finally, there’s a part of me that just can’t believe it’s not giving me brain cancer.
I’d never get rid of the landline, because it’s designed to work even when there’s no electric power. I also make sure to have at least one non-cordless phone for the same reason. You never know when you’re going to need it. I also would never make an international call on my cell phone.
If my cell’s going to fry my brain (I’ve not yet been convinced otherwise), I’d rather let that happen over a longer period of time and use it less. Calls both from and to the cell are expensive and the reception coverage in my area is unreliable.
But another problem is that AFAIK you have to have a landline in order to make various credit applications i.e some major credit cards require one and won’t accept a cell number, plus sometimes require you to hand over your number if it’s unlisted. I have no idea if this is a blanket industry practice, but it’s been my experience so far.
Yes, I need one to use my TTY or Fax with. I would think getting telemarketer calls on your cell would be pricey?
It is extremely illegal for telemarketers to call cell phones for precisely that reason.
I’ve got a cellphone and cable internet, no landline. I don’t talk on the phone much anyway, so it works well for me.
Cellphones do not use sattellites. That would require a much stronger transmitter, not to mention the latency sucks.
Regarding international calls, it’s MUCH cheaper to use those $5 or $10 calling cards you can buy in gas stations, convenience stores, etc than using Bell, Sprint, etc. Just dial a local number, put in your code and your destination number… if you’ve got lots of minutes or free evenings/weekends, that almost elliminates that worry…
If you have an alarm system in your house that notifies the police and/or fire departments, I’m pretty sure a landline is required.
And don’t pay-per-view services associated with satellite television (like Dish Network, etc.) require landlines?
I’ve never heard that, do you have a cite that backs up that claim?
Frankly, I don’t believe that it could be Constitutional to have a blanket ban on telemarketers calling cell phones. Believe it or not, some people do respond favorably to telemarketing calls. I don’t believe that our lawmakers would make it illegal for such people to even have the chance of receiving one on their cell phones.
I found this cite: http://www.ecofuture.org/jm/usc_title47_cfr_64_1200.html which says that it’s illegal to call a cell phone using “an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice”. But that’s a far cry from banning all telemarketing calls to all cell phones.
I use only a cell phone for my business–we tried numerous times to get QWEST to install a buisiness line and they screwed it up about 5 times. I am still undoing the damage they did to my home account while “fixing” my office account. Two different cell numbers cost less than one office line and a beeper. I keep chargers at home, in the office, and in the truck. It works out great, and if I want people to find me, I pay for a display yellow pages ad.
Landline free here.
Along with the other “problems” listed of not having a phone, I guess it also depends on the type of phone talker you are.
For me, the phone call goes something like this, “Ok, yea, I’ll meet you at the bar in 30 minutes. See ya”.
So, I get away with cell service.
There was a thread about it a while back - in GD, maybe? It had links to specific laws online.
When I was a telemarketer, everyone there knew we weren’t supposed to call cell phones. We skipped over known cell phone prefixes when we did random dialing.
I don’t have a link, but I believe the law says you can’t make a solicitation call to a number where the recipient pays for the call, such as cell phones and 800 numbers.
I was just going to bring this up. We recently bought a new car, and every bank required a landline home phone number on their loan applications. If we were cell-only, we wouldn’t have been able to get a car loan.
I just gave them my cell number and no one asked. I’ve also activated credit cards with my cell phone. They say call from your home number, since my cell phone is my home number, I’ve never had a problem.
I have never had any problem with credit cards or refinancing my house giving out a cell phone as my home phone number.
Landline free for one year here. I think the answer to this question depends on your lifestyle. I have cable broadband and a Sprint cell phone with free long distance. I don’t make any international calls and I don’t have any call to send faxes that can’t wait for the office. I pay $40/month for my cell phone. I was paying $51/month for my landline + $40 month for my cell phone before. the broadband costs $40/month. When you add in the free long distance, I save about $25/month and recieve better service.
YMMV
I bank with a phone/internet only bank and they told me it’s OK for me to have a cell # as my number (I plan on having cell only when I get my own place) provided I’m an established customer. They said your original # when you open the account must be a traditional land line. Beats me as to why it matters!
One reason I don’t want to get rid of my land line is that I don’t want to have to worry about the battery of my cell phone being charged all the time.
It strikes me that have to have pretty good “battery discipline” to regularly recharge your battery, so that you never get stuck having to make a call with your cell phone battery dead.
Or, even more likely, not being able to receive a call because you don’t even notice that your cell phone’s battery is dead.
I remember to charge my cell phone only when I think it’s likely I’ll be placing or receiving a call. Otherwise, I might forget about it for a whole week.
Ed