OT: Time to tell Ma Bell goodby?

[Slowpoke]

I've seen AT&T ads for wifi for $14.95/month. I was using dialup on unlimited calling and no other services that was going past $33/month. So I switched to measured rate calling at $12.65+ and was going to put the difference into wifi. I hesitated and now the measured rate is $24/month and I can't use dialup.

So I have a brilliant idea of dropping Ma Bell and adding a second cell phone on my Sprint cell account for a measly $10 or so/month. This I would keep as a home phone only. I want something large that won't get lost in the couch cushions and will sit in a cradle/charger just like a cordless phone. I found a Blackberry Curve 8330 that might work, but one of the ebay ads says it required a dataplan. I'll check with Sprint tomorrow.

In the meantime, has any one else had the same idea and if so, what cell phone did you use to replace the old cordless? Did you get to keep the old number?

Thanks
Slowpoke
 

[pete black]

gave up land line 2 years ago, i love it, wife adjusting to it. we each have our own phones and share minutes (250 with roll over). my phone is equipped with a data package plus personal hot spot for internet which works great.
 

[GordoSD]

Just me here and the only good internet was wireless so gave up the land line 6 months after they dug in the line 400 feet from the street/road. They were not too happy.
 

[Mike (WA)]

The younger generation figured that out years ago. My kids range in age from 30 to 36, and only one has a landline in his home. Daughter has never had one. Husband and wife each have a phone with a different number.

Does bring up a question- hen their kids get old enough to use the phone, do they get each kid a cell, too?
 

[MarkB_MI]

My landline bill is about the same as the bill for my two cell phones, even though we seldom use the landline. We hang on to the landline for a few reasons. The main one for me is reliability. Back a few years ago when we had the big northeast blackout, cell phone service went out in a matter of minutes. Landline phones continued to work for a day or so. I think the cell phone providers are better today, but I'm not ready to trust that they have generator backup for every tower.
 

[DownSouth]

I've hung on to our home phone, but rarely use it. When Hurricane Dolly rolled through we lost everything for 6 days except the phone. No power, no water, no sanity but we could talk to others about our woes with no trouble. Cell phone was spotty at best, I guess we lost our closest tower in the storm too. The phone is how we found out how to get out and where to go for water, ice and heater meals.
 

[Dusty MI]

We moved this past fall, only 8 miles. AT&T Would not allow us to take the number that we had had for 46 years with us.
We stumbled into a Verizon plan.
You buy a base unit that you plug your land line phones into, and it uses the cell system which basically turns your land line phones into cell phones, and there are no long distance charges.
I think it cost us about $80 to begin with and $20 a month. It's a 2 year plan and there is a buy out fee to get out of it in less than the 2 years.
You can keep your old number. And take your base unit with you any where you want to go and it will work where ever it can receive a cell tower signal.
It plugs into 120 volts and has a battery back-up.

Dusty
 

[Greg K]

When we moved to this house 4 years ago we checked in on the options. A land line was $35/month for basic charges plus whatever it was for long distance, however there was only dial-up for internet connection. 99% of our phone calls are "long distance" since her family is from out of state and mine live out of the calling area. We both had cell phones and with what we paid already it would be cheaper to go with just cell phones.
 

[Billy Shafer]

I have Wind Stream. The ones that have it can tell you how great that is(BS).
 

[Leroy]

If I get rid of either land line or cell it will be the cell. Any business is done on the land line, will not give cell number to any companys. Cell is only if I have a road emergency. And it has nothing extra, just send and recieve, no voice mail or anything else. Land line has the answering machine.
 

[notjustair]

I gave up the land line two years ago and haven't looked back. There are two of us on the plan but we have four lines. It works well because we can upgrade for free about ever 6 months if need be.
 

[Dean Olson]

YES!

We gave up our land lines 8-10 years ago.

Even before we did that we had the kids cell phones as we wanted to keep up with them, especially when they started driving. Simple rule: When I call you answer, PERIOD.

The only reason we kept it as long as we did was to be able to send and receive faxes. Once the technology allowed scanning and emailing we junked the fax and shut off ma bell.
 

[ericlb]

we cant, while we do have cell phones, they dont work here on the farm, the place is in kind of a pocket at about 6,000 ft elevation and surrounded by mountains, cell signal cant get down in here to us we have to have a land line
 

[js305]

Same story as others have related:

After having the same number for forty years we realized the only time the land line was used was when bill collectors or telemarketers called. For a long time we kept it because of the brother in law living overseas and the need/desire to keep up with him. So, a year ago I cancelled my two lines coming into the house, saving almost $90 a month. I am paying about that for three cellphones that do everything we need, plus the convenience of having the phone with me instead of the phone being tied to the house.

The deal breaker was the discovery of Facetime. Now the b in law and my wife can talk all they want at no extra charge other than the internet that I'm going to have anyway.

The "Phone Company" as we knew it is going away in a hurry. At work we are using a voice over IP setup that works really well for a lot less expense.
 

[tech4]

You might want to use Straight Talk Home Phone if it will work in your area. It also uses a cellular service. $100 for the device and only $15 per month for unlimited calling. You can transfer your old number.
Straight Talk