Cancel my home phone especially since i havent made any calls in 2yrs?

[JEDI]

i now use my cell exclusively. I havent made any calls, or received any relevant calls on my home phone in 2 yrs.

I pay $16/month for the bare minimum home phone service.

A minor thing that stops me is DSL (Verizon). I pay $15/month for 1meg/384k. Dry loop (DSL w/o home phone service) is probably $5/month more.

The MAJOR thing that stops me from canceling is 911 service. so essentially, $11/month ($16 phone - 5 for dry loop) is a 911 fee.

I have never needed 911 for my house, but it came in handy at my parents place a few years ago. Dad said "i dont feel well" then collapsed a few sec later. Mom called 911, and an ambulance was at the door almost instantaneously. (It was high blood pressure, and he's on meds for it now.)

Basically, i'm paying $132/yr for 911 insurance.

Sugestions/Alternatives?

.

 

[xanis]

You realize that cell phones have 911 service, right?

 

[Capt Caveman]

/facepalm

YAJT

 

[Red Squirrel]

I never understood people who use solely a cell. I find they are annoying to use, can't hear well, buttons harder to press since they seem to be making them smaller and smaller every month etc. I prefer a phone where the buttons are actually the size of my finger or bigger, and where I can hear more clearly and loud. Cells are nice for when you're on the go, but I prefer a land line for at home.

 

[spidey07]

I'll never give up my hardline. The quality, super reliability (try using your cell phone in wide emergency like a power outage or bad storm), and not to mention 911 location services which you DON'T have with a cell.

I'll never give it up.

 

[l0cke]

You know you can call 911 without paying for phone service?

 

[RESmonkey]

Not to derail thread, but question: When you call 911 from a local land line from home, do the police know your location from the call or do you need to tell them?
What about cell phones? What if you're in an accident and can't talk but managed to dial 911?

 

[JEDI]

/facepalm

YAJT

ahh.. another unhappy troll for the Ignore function

 

[Red Squirrel]

You know you can call 911 without paying for phone service?

Pretty hard when the line is physically disconnected from the frame. No phone service is, no phone service.

Cells can dial 911 though as far as I know.

 

[thomsbrain]

You realize that cell phones have 911 service, right?

When you call 911 from a cell phone, at least in California, you get the regional Highway Patrol call center, which could be 100 miles from you or more. Because all cell calls go to them, they are massively overloaded and you inevitably get put on hold before you even get a human. Then when you finally get someone, they have to transfer you to a local police, sheriff, or fire department. Then you get to start all over again with that operator. Now imagine your kid is cardiac arrest...

That said, in many cases phone companies leave land phone lines active but restricted when you cancel service. That means you still have a dial tone and you can still call 911, but you can't make other calls and the 911 operator can't call you back. So you may still be able to make direct emergency calls even from the land-line even after you cancel service.

 

[thomsbrain]

Not to derail thread, but question: When you call 911 from a local land line from home, do the police know your location from the call or do you need to tell them?
What about cell phones? What if you're in an accident and can't talk but managed to dial 911?

From a landlline, they will see your location but if you can talk they will ask you to confirm it. From a location-enabled cell phone (GPS), if they have modern equipment they will be able to locate you but would still ask you to confirm. If you don't have a location-enabled phone, they can only triangulate within maybe 1000 feet. If you were on a lonely highway, that might be enough to get the ambulance on the right road, but if you were in an urban environment it could take them forever to find you.

 

[JEDI]

You know you can call 911 without paying for phone service?

What?!

if i cancel my home phone, i no longer have a dial tone. i can still dial 911 and talk to them???

Link?

 

[Capt Caveman]

ahh.. another unhappy troll for the Ignore function

Then stop posting dumbass threads.

I've been using a cell phone exclusively for 10 years. Cell phones have 911, you know.

 

[spidey07]

Not to derail thread, but question: When you call 911 from a local land line from home, do the police know your location from the call or do you need to tell them?
What about cell phones? What if you're in an accident and can't talk but managed to dial 911?

They know your address. Not so with a cell phone. There have been many cases of emergency service not being able to locate somebody that uses a cell phone.

There are some basic location services with a cell but it's not exact and certainly doesn't work in 3d (like apartment buildings). It's a hodge podge of systems that really doesn't work very well.

 

[Parasitic]

You could've just programmed in your local PD/FD/hospital's emergency numbers in your cell phone and canceled your landline. Some PD's do put these numbers on their web.

 

[spidey07]

You could've just programmed in your local PD/FD/hospital's emergency numbers in your cell phone and canceled your landline. Some PD's do put these numbers on their web.

And they still wouldn't have an accurate way to locate you.

Landline - have a heart attack or debilitating injury and you pick up the phone and dial 911. Gurgle into the phone.

Cell - same, but now you have to be conscious/capable enough to give your address.

 

[*kjm]

And they still wouldn't have an accurate way to locate you.

Landline - have a heart attack or debilitating injury and you pick up the phone and dial 911. Gurgle into the phone.

Cell - same, but now you have to be conscious/capable enough to give your address.

For my city all I had to do was call the PD and have them put my number in and link it to our address.

 

[spidey07]

For my city all I had to do was call the PD and have them put my number in and link it to our address.

Well that's good. But there's no mandated/law requiring it like there is with landlines. I'll never give up my hardline for the reasons I listed above. We had a few wide spread emergencies within the last 2 years and cell phones were essentially useless for communication.

The huts/buildings that provide phone service are mandated by law to be hardened against most that mother nature can throw at them including days of service the must stay up without power. Cell phones - no such requirements.

 

[GeekDrew]

I have no intention of ever dropping land-line phone service. Cell phones *do* connect to a 911 service center, but it won't necessarily be the closest or best dispatch center. Landlines are infinitely better when it comes to emergency services. I've called 911 from a cell phone several times, and have reached appropriate service centers, but if I have an option of a land-line and a cell phone, I'll choose the land-line any day.

Yes, there are some areas where land-lines can still dial 911 after they have been "disconnected" -- in those areas, the telco just imposes access restrictions on the circuit, rather than physically disabling it. The telcos in my area physical disconnect the line, so it obviously cannot reach 911.

Oh, and *kjm -- what use is it that the PD knows what address corresponds with your cellular phone number, if a call to 911 from your cell phone is routed to some other dispatch center?

 

[*kjm]

I have no intention of ever dropping land-line phone service. Cell phones *do* connect to a 911 service center, but it won't necessarily be the closest or best dispatch center. Landlines are infinitely better when it comes to emergency services. I've called 911 from a cell phone several times, and have reached appropriate service centers, but if I have an option of a land-line and a cell phone, I'll choose the land-line any day.

Yes, there are some areas where land-lines can still dial 911 after they have been "disconnected" -- in those areas, the telco just imposes access restrictions on the circuit, rather than physically disabling it. The telcos in my area physical disconnect the line, so it obviously cannot reach 911.

Oh, and *kjm -- what use is it that the PD knows what address corresponds with your cellular phone number, if a call to 911 from your cell phone is routed to some other dispatch center?

From my house it never is...... now if I'm traveling it will be but then I would want it to.

 

[Parasitic]

And they still wouldn't have an accurate way to locate you.

Landline - have a heart attack or debilitating injury and you pick up the phone and dial 911. Gurgle into the phone.

Cell - same, but now you have to be conscious/capable enough to give your address.

The OP is talking about giving up his landline at his home. Surely he knows his address?

 

[GeekDrew]

The OP is talking about giving up his landline at his home. Surely he knows his address?

He may know it now, but if he's in the middle of a heart attack and is unable to speak, but is able to dial 911, a landline has a much better chance of getting him help than a cell phone does.

 

[GeekDrew]

From my house it never is...... now if I'm traveling it will be but then I would want it to.

Are you entirely certain that you'll be sent to the right dispatch center, calling from your house? Whether or not you are depends on your area, which cell tower you connect to, etc. At my parents house, for example, my cell phone will connect to a tower located in 3 different jurisdictions that would not normally respond to a 911 call from their address, but it will not connect to any towers in the jurisdiction that *should* respond.

 

[tokie]

What?!

if i cancel my home phone, i no longer have a dial tone. i can still dial 911 and talk to them???

Link?

I don't have a landline, but there is still a dial tone on the line. The thing is that the only number that works is 911. All other numbers give me a Bell prompt saying I don't have a phone number or whatever.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

What?!

if i cancel my home phone, i no longer have a dial tone. i can still dial 911 and talk to them???

Link?

This is correct.


And you do have a dial tone, or should. (This is firsthand experience)