I don’t get this. It annoyed my grandmother for about 5 seconds when she found out I didn’t have a landline but no one else has really commented on it.
Let me also say that, in addition to not having a landline, my cell number is from an area code on the other side of the country. I moved here almost three years ago and never changed my number. I rarely get comments on that anymore, either, as it seems that more and more people are doing it. Domestic “long-distance” phone calls are quickly becoming a thing of the past.
What exactly do you mean by “big companies . . . expect people to have a landline”?
I’m coming up on a year with no landline. I don’t miss it. Like others, I live in a smallish one bedroom apartment. Typically, when I come inside, the phone goes on the table where I can hear it and get to it (to at least see the caller ID) if it rings.
It’s also nice because there’s only one number people have to have for me. Call it. If I want to talk or the phone’s on, I’ll answer it. If not, you’ll get my voice mail.
So it sounds like if I wanted to go “landlineless,” I’d need to get three cellphones (me, my wife, and my son), give up the fax machine, and get used to dragging the phone around the house with me wherever I go (unless I don’t care about receiving calls at that particular time). I’d probably be better off at this point keeping a land line for my son and the fax machine to use.
Of course, it’s a moot point at the moment since cell phones don’t work at or near my house and the reception is so bad over most of this county that you can’t depend on them anyway. I’m considering moving in closer to town, though, so that’s why I asked.
I should have followed the link Uncommon Sense posted before responding. I’ve been told that there are antennas capable of pulling in cell phone service in marginal areas. Would it be possible to hook up one of those puppies on the roof and use something like the Cidco MERGE to place & receive cellphone calls from my regular house phones? That would be very cool!
I don’t have a landline either. My apartment is pretty small, and I keep my phone on the loudest ring so I can hear it from anywhere. It’s really loud and I know I could hear it from another floor if I had one. I’ve misplaced it a few times, but I just get my roommate to call me. The cell phone actually comes out cheaper than the landline would considering that my parents and most of my friends live in another area code so I’d have to call them long distance. The base cost is higher, ~$30 for LL vs. $40 for cell, but long distance calls always bumped my bill to over forty for LL, and with the cell I don’t have to worry about rationing calls. I don’t know anyone under thirty who even has a landline other than people who still live with their parents and even they have a cell phone. Landlines are going the way of the rotary phone. I can see why you’d still need one if you live in an area without any coverage, but I don’t see why you’d need both. No company has ever commented on my lack of an LL or asked why I have an area code that’s different than the regular Pittsburgh area code. How would they even know it’s a cell if you had the regular area code? Is it different in Australia?
I also like the fact that I have one number that is good everywhere, instead of ten different numbers for my house, my work, my parents’ house, etc. We are getting into a system where we are calling the person, not the place, and I think it makes a lot more sense communication-wise.
Some credit card issuers won’t accept a call from a mobile phone number to activate a new/newly-received card. I used the phone at the Home Depot customer service desk instead of my mobile phone (the number on the credit card company’s records).
As for companies knowing if a number is a cell, I know in England they had special area codes for mobiles. I’d imagine it’d be easy to do in other countries that have smaller geographic areas and/or smaller populations than the US.
Back to the OP. I haven’t had a land line since 1997 and never looked back. Like Davenportavenger, I’ve enjoyed giving out only one phone number to everyone and knowing I’ll get the call no matter where I am or what time zone they’re in. It’s also great not having to change my phone number I move, as Davenportavenger discovered when he moved to the Steel City. If you want to change it, fine. If not, no biggie.
I seem to have confused a few people with my earlier post, so I’ll give a general reply to you all:
I think the situation here must be quite different to the US. Although Australia is traditionally an early adopter of new tech, and I know very few people without a mobile (even most very elderly relatives I know now have one), and I’ve had one for fifteen years, my country lags behind on cost. Things like mobile telephony and broadband internet are expensive here. Landlines, on the other hand, can be dirt cheap, especially if you don’t go with one of the traditional big providers, but instead get a prepaid card or similar. If I call my mum for example, I’ll have barely gotten a minute into the call when she’ll say, “oh sorry, I’m on your mobile, aren’t I? I’d better go.” I know she’d like the occasional long chat, but is reluctant. My father is even more like this. They also prefer to call me on a landline because they know I’m not driving, working, etc when I answer it.
Also, Australian mobiles have distinct prefixes, and our landlines not only have area codes, but usually an experienced operator in a company call centre can take one look at your actual number, and work out where you are to within a suburb. This means they can be more confident the street address I’ve given is not bogus. This is why a lot of places don’t like being given a mobile, especially when you’re trying to set up credit. I had to appear in court in November, and the court most certainly did not like that I couldn’t supply a land line number. They couldn’t do anything about it, but theree was a bit of tut-tutting. This attitude is still very common. I also was once refused placement of a classified ad in a newspaper for the same reason. Mobile numbers here seem to suffer the same stigma as a PO Box address as opposed to a street address. There’s a feeling that you’re some sort of fly-by-night conman if you only give a mobile. The situation is improving, and land lines will go the way of black and white television and LP records, but a lot of people aren’t ready for it yet, and I discovered this when I tried to be Mr Modern 21st Century Dude and ditch the land line. Maybe in five years.
The irony is that it costs the telcos less to provide a few cell towers across a city than it does to string out cable to each home and business. People counter, “but the land line infrastructure was already there!” Well it was, but the ancient copper line network was pretty much totally replaced by fiber optic cable, microwave towers and the rest of it, so I don’t think that argument holds water. We’re just being ripped off, plain and simple. People love their mobiles, and the telcos know it.
I know some years back when prepay cellphones first became available in the US, a lot of younger people went to having only a cell phone–because one way or another, either them or their room-mates had run up huge land-line bills on their name that were never paid, so they couldn’t get a land-line without paying off the outstanding debt.
But do note: in the New Orleans flood fiasco–the cell-phone system went down very early and stayed off. Most land-lines worked through the whole thing–some public phones kept working, even in the areas of waist-deep water. I have read a number of accounts of people who had ditched their land-lines previously for their mobile phones, who vowed never to go without a land-line again. If anyone knows, it’d be interesting to see what kinds of loads typical cellphone carriers can manage, versus what land-line systems can handle (what is the most percentage of subscriber connections that can be in use at once?..).
In many wealthier countries mobile phones are considered something of a luxury and overpriced compared to existing land-lines–but in many poorer countries that up until recently had no widespread phone service, they have gone straight to mobiles and never bothered to put in extensive land-lines–because actually stringing the lines to and inside everyone’s houses and businesses is what takes most of the time and cost. Mobile service is both faster to install and costs less.
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My SO and I both have cell phones and use them exclusively to call each other, to call and receive calls from friends and family.
I have an internet connection through the cable company.
So why do I still have a land line? Simply for decoration…and because that is the number I give to my bank, my mortgage company, the electric company, etc. etc.
We NEVER answer the land line - it has an answering machine that is on low and the ringer on the phone is turned off. Occasionally we glance over and if there is a message, we listen…99% of the time, it is “you won a fee gift” or “do you want ot get a new mortgage” or such nonsense.
I would get rid of the land line, but to be honest, it is fairly cheap, considering we never use it, and I like to give out the number to people/businesses that I never really want to speak to in person anyway.
That was price gouging too. I remember in the early 90’s I had to budget several hundred dollars per month for phone service and only a couple years later you could get call-all-you-want service for $30/month. They were gouging us for years, before cell phones & internet started threatening their monopolies.
I was at Kinko’s the other day and wanted to fax some documents. The clerk was all, “are they local or long distance?”
“What difference should that make?”
“Long distance faxes are $3.00/page.”
“Huh, you’re telling me you pay more for long distance phone service? Baloney!”
Which doesn’t have much to do with the OP, but I had to bitch about it somewhere.
In the “old days”, they used to charge more for a local fax! I once asked why, considering it was basically just a phone call. Nobody could ever give me an answer, but they charged it anyway.
I too lack a landline. I also don’t care if I miss a call. I check my messages and missed call numbers periodically. If there’s someone I want to talk to, I just call back. No big deal.
land line??? oh that is* SO very last millenium*!
i switched soley to wireless several years ago when i got my cable modem. these days with viable broadband options i don’t see the point of going with tradtional service with Verizon, SBC (or worse yet RCN …don’t get me started! [RCN the arsy phone company funny story there, perhaps a PIT for later) For me, wireless works best, I’ve sadly been doing the roomie situation (as is commonly done in NYC) so no fuss no muss about the bill!
Free nationwide, and I skype internationally, so savings galore!
The trade off thought is spotty service. Not terrible, but doesn’t come close to old school reliabilty. So pick and choose one supposes.
I skimmed the thread but didn’t read every word, so apologies if I’m repeating.
One thing to consider: if you live in a disaster-prone area (floods, earthquakes, hurricanes) you may have trouble getting through on the cellphone in case of emergencies. Yes, the landlines may be down too, but the cell network seems a lot more prone to not being there when needed.
We went “cellular” a few months ago, but kept the landline for emergencies like this. Our phone company has a plan where, for $13 per month, you just get the landline - nothing more - no fancy features, not even long distance. Even the local service is “metered” which is fine with me. It’s just enough to dial 911 if needed.
The only real hassle comes when sending faxes - which is difficult to do with a cellphone. We end up using a phone card for this situation, but it can be a real pain. And there are still plenty of companies that require faxes - just try buying or selling a house, for example.
The only reason we ever had a land line was for DSL service. When the DSL provider couldn’t get service to our new place we went to a cable modem. Suddenly there was no need for a land line. We never used it any way. Do we miss calls, sometimes, but that’s what voice mail is for. There’s no need for a land line at all.
You are the second person to mention the problem with faxing.
Might be wise to invest in a printer/scanner (they are cheap now) and then scan your document and there are several free fax programs out there that you can send via your computer internet hookup.
Is eFax still around? I used to use them back when I had access to a scanner/copier and actually had to fax things more often.
And I did tell myself there’s no way I’m paying Kinko’s $27 to fax some documents “long distance” like long distance means anything anymore. It costs less to physically overnight them. I said I’d rather spend $100 for a cheapo scanner than pay $27 to Kinko’s this one time, except I fax so rarely I can’t justify the cost. Fortunately, I know people I can mooch some faxing/copying off of for free, since it’s unlikely I’d need to fax/copy something more than once a year or so.
As for the basic $13/month mostly for emergencies service, I thought even if you didn’t have phone service, as long your house was equipped with phone lines, you could plug a phone into the jack, get a dial tone and dial 911. Did I just dream that?
If you’re either young, new to an area, or both, and don’t know where you’re going to ultimately live, land line re-connection charges of $50 here in the sticks–and no doubt much higher in real cities–can really mount up.
And what are these charges for? The" High-Priced Union Phone Man" hasn’t been seen in this area ,outside of terminal box malfunctions due to accident or weather, in more than 30 years. Activation of the landline at your new home is accomplished via a keystroke made by a minimally-paid office drone. $3-5 is all this is worth, tops.
Of course, once you’re established in a place you’re reasonably certain you want to be for the next 3-to-5 years, having a land line does make you look more “stable” to lenders, prospective employers, etc.
I never use all of my Sprint PCS minutes locally, so the mobile is my provider of non-800, 888,876 long distance. Gotta use 'em or lose 'em and it’s stupid to pay long distance charges on the home phone when you’re trashing some of your allowance of mobile minutes each month anyway.
I got rid of my landline when Telstra tried to rip me off over a service outage for over a month. Went to Orange and got the home and mobile number plan (although it looks like they may have stopped that again). It lets people call my “landline” number for the price of a local call and if I’m not in my “Talk Zone” to answer, it goes to voicemail which I can access anywhere as I always have the mobile with me.
Would never go back to a landline.
Wow. Gotta be a regional thing–or else a money thing. My daughter recently got married. One land line for the two of them is something they can afford. A cell phone for each of them is just too expensive.
Yes, service area has a lot to do with it. I like the fact that my land line just plain works. All the time. It doesn’t cut off my calls. I don’t have to worry about the phone working upstairs (where there’s sometimes coverage) but not downstairs. I never have to worry about whether the phone is charged. I never get “all circuits busy,” bad weather doesn’t knock out the landlines…
Faxes. It’s a lot easier to toss ten pages in the fax machine and enter a phone number than to scan ten sheets into the computer one at a time on my flatbed scanner and build a fax from them. And it’s a lot easier to pick up pages from a fax machine and see what came in while you were gone than to run down to the computer, find incoming faxes, and print them.
