Ditching your landline phone?

[sao123]

I am wondering how many of you have chosen to ditch your landline copper phone, for either a VOIP or Cellular solution for your primary phone...

I want to do this, as i can realize a significant monthly savings...

but how do you feel about E911 readyness?


When you call 911 from your landline phone, they have the ability to pull up your registered address etc, which speeds up emergency services. with E911, they only know which tower your call has connected to, if your 911 center is E911 phase 2 ready, they can eventually get the GPS coordinates from your cellular phone, or nothing at all from your IP phone.
This can delay emergency services by several to 20 minutes...

For those that made the jump, did you consider this, and how weighted did you take this into consideration when making your decision.
i guess i am apprehensive about giving up my land line thus far...

 

[Ns1]

haven't had a land line in 5 years.

i'm okay with the risk (you can't text 911 from a land line either!)

 

[Zeze]

I haven't touched a land line ever since I left HS. I'm 29 now.

I guess I may get a cheap land line when I get a family.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Ditched it 8 years ago. Wasn't home much anyways, haven't had one since. I've pocket dialed the emergency number though :\ not cool.

 

[lxskllr]

I haven't had a landline since 2006, and for the ~5 years previous to that, I used it exclusively for 56k access. Advanced 911 access isn't a concern of mine, and I haven't missed having a landline.

 

[GeekDrew]

One of the departments that I support at my office is a 911 dispatch office... I've see a *lot* of 911 calls come in.

I have no intention of ever ditching my land-line. There's a huge difference between land-line lookup and wireless coordinates. Yeah, we get the call coordinates, but that only gets us in the general vicinity. If I'm having a heart attack, I'd rather that EMS know which house I'm in, not only which street I'm on.

you can't text 911 from a land line either!

You can't text 911 from most cell phones, either.

 

[Ns1]

You can't text 911 from most cell phones, either.

thinking towards the future. (ie pilot text 911 programs across the nation)

 

[Schadenfroh]

You can't text 911 from most cell phones, either.

Email:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EBfxjSFAxQ

 

[sao123]

I haven't touched a land line ever since I left HS. I'm 29 now.

I guess I may get a cheap land line when I get a family.

i have a family now... having a child of 18 months, emergency safety is definately a primary concern of mine.

 

[purbeast0]

wtf ... "significant monthly savings" ... ??

i was looking into verizon fios triple play in the areas we're looking to buy houses, and land lines are no additional charge to tv and internet for the first 2 years, and only $15/mo afterwards. that included unlimited local and long distance calls.

how much are you paying monthly on a land line?

 

[TallBill]

Never had a land line phone as an adult (I'm 28). I had voip for 6 months but never used it.

 

[sao123]

wtf ... "significant monthly savings" ... ??

i was looking into verizon fios triple play in the areas we're looking to buy houses, and land lines are no additional charge to tv and internet for the first 2 years, and only $15/mo afterwards. that included unlimited local and long distance calls.

how much are you paying monthly on a land line?

FIOS is not available in my area, and I pay seperately for my Dish Sattelite service.
i currently have Verizons Freedom Unlimited Plan, which I believe is 49.99 per month, i also have verizon DSL at 29.99 per month.

The new verizon wireless home connect, is a CDMA device which works with your existing home phones, (cordless, bell, etc)... it offers all the same features as the freedom (voicemail, unlimited long distance, unlimited 3 way calling, call waiting, caller ID, etc. the monthly cost for this is 19.99, so I could save up to $30 per month. i know it might be slightly less, because changing my DSL over to a dry loop, probably will slightly increase my DSL bill.

 

[sao123]

another consideration i have...

What about phone service during power outages?
Vonage and even this cellular service only last as long as the battery...

at least your landline has its own power source, and can be used with a basic bell telephone regardless of your electricity outage... assuming the lines themselves are still undamaged.

After recent winter years, it is not unheard of during 30 inch snows to go without power for 5-7 days at a time... this is also a concern.

 

[Ns1]

uhhhh turn off your cell phone if you're not using it???

 

[lxskllr]

Or charge it in the car, or off a laptop battery. You can also use a handcrank battery charger.

 

[sao123]

uhhhh turn off your cell phone if you're not using it???

its not a cell phone in the traditional sense... It doesnt have an on/off switch and its not mobile...
Think more like vonage but uses cell towers instead of your internet.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/...t&action=viewPhoneDetail&selectedPhoneId=5561

 

[Ns1]

not sure what you're talking about. just responding to this question:

What about phone service during power outages?
Vonage and even this cellular cerive only last as long as the battery...

 

[JSt0rm]

Welcome to 2001

 

[sao123]

not sure what you're talking about. just responding to this question:

its cellular service with a Base Station, not a pocket mobile phone. You plug your home 2.4ghz cordless telephone into it.
you cant turn it off... You cant plug it in to your car to charge it...

it require a standard 110V home electricity connection.

 

[Ns1]

nm. over it.

 

[lxskllr]

UPS

 

[sao123]

UPS

it has a 36 hour ups built into it... my point was there is no UPS on the market which will last for a 7 day power outage...

at least a land line works without power at all.

 

[lxskllr]

it has a 36 hour ups built into it... my point was there is no UPS on the market which will last for a 7 day power outage...

at least a land line works without power at all.

Unless the phone line breaks. There's an extreme example of anything that'll render technology useless. If you really want to get nitpicky, you can take a battery out of a UPS, and charge it on a car. Of course Godzilla could walk by, and take your car and UPS battery. I guess you'd really be fuxxored then....

 

[lokiju]

I haven't had a landline since 2001.

Only a cell phone.

Hasn't been an issue much, if ever.

Once my son is old enough to know how to use a phone I'd consider getting a "house" phone for things like 911 but not saying it'd have to be a copper land line. Would probably do a VoIP phone through my cable company I get my internet through.

 

[etrigan420]

After recent winter years, it is not unheard of during 30 inch snows to go without power for 5-7 days at a time... this is also a concern.

If this is true you need a generator, not a phone.

We ditched the land line years ago, as we were kind of in the same payment predicament you're in. Verizon was dinging us for $50/mo for a land line we were using *maybe* once a week for 10 minutes a pop.

Fuck that noise. We're now all cell. VOIP is pointless in our situation.