Dumping the land line phone service?

I had a cellsocket (cell dock) which allowed you to dock your cellphone and connect to a regular corldess or other type phone. I just went ahead and wired it right into my NID and made the cellular my second line.

Another great feature of the cellsocket was the external antennas jack. For those of us that live in rural areas with terrible cellular signal is we could attach larger or even outside directional antennas to the cellsocket and hit towers that we couldn't normally even hit or get full strength signals when before it was nearly nothing.

I don't know if Cellsocket is even made anymore. DocknTalk makes one but it didn't have an external antenna capability last time I looked at them. Tellular makes one and it does. It's a good one too.

Look for a company on the net called celltenna or something like that. They handled a lot of those docking stations when no one else did.

These systems also get that transmitter away from your head if you're concerned about it. That and it isn't particularly comfortable to talk on a cellphone for any sort of duration.

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We got rid of the landline 7 years ago, couldn't see the point of it with a cell phone.

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We have a landline for the web but it costs only $14 a month since it's just basic. We also have a landline for talking so I can be online and talk at the same time. We need the landline since we have family scattered (dd here in Guam for instance). On that line we have unlimited long distance that covers U.S. territories for only $20 more a month. Since dh is a truck driver we have pre-paid cell phones that are used as walkie-talkies and using it as such doesn't cut into our minutes(it's like $1 a day for unlimited walkie-talkie).

We did. It took as many as ten times to connect when we dialed. Usually we'd get "You have dialed an Invalid Code!" which was incredibly irritating. It wouldn't have been as bad if they'd just said "We're sorry, we cannot connect you at this time" or something.

So we dropped our land line and got a cell phone, works great! We have Verizon.

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Jessica

Homestead / Nature Journal ~ A path is made by walking it ~

I would still be leary of reling on just a cell. A few years ago when we had that big blackout here in the ny metro area alot of the cell towers went out because they are battery powered but recharge from the grid.

I tend to resist technology (I have a 1957 national geographic next to the toilet) So I hated to get the cell but the demands of work finally forced the issue. Within a week I got rid of the house phone. For country folks it just makes sense .. When I'm home I'm never IN the house, usually in the yard or drive ,down to the garden ,or out in the Field. Besides that I'm gone for weeks at a time . With the cell my friends don't play phone tag or worry where I am they just call and let the cell find me.


I have the same problem in the house so I bought an external antenna its hard to find a place now where I cant get signal with it.

Those external antennas DO help, but I still drop calls in the summer (leaves on trees) in the house constantly. But even though that's a pain, it's still not worth it to us to pay for a landline.

One reason we do not have a landline is my personal boycott of landline phone companies. They keep upping rates and reducing features on basic plans. And you have to practically beat them upside the head with a tire iron to get them to give you basic service. "But for just $X a month, you can have feature X! Surely you want feature X? I'll just add that on for you..." "NO!" "Well, how about our special package that includes feature X AND feature Y. It's a very popular package. And just a couple of dollars a month!" Ugh. We can't even call our post office (3 or 4 miles from our house) without it being a "local toll" call. To me, that means "long distance," which is a load of puckey. I refuse to pay them a dime for such limited service.

Another thing that's nice for country folks is that you can carry a cell phone out to the barn or the back of the property and not be out of range of your cordless base. And I don't have to sit around the house waiting for a call I'm expecting. If I want to go, I can go.

Phone book is built in. Sick animal? Need to call the vet quick? I don't even have to run into the house, much less find the phone book.

Clock on phone - don't need to mess with a watch.

Alarm clock on phone - can easily remind myself to turn off the hose to the water tank in 15 minutes, or that it's time to medicate a critter or whatever.

Free caller ID. If I don't recognize the number, I don't answer. Simple as that. They can leave a message if it's important. Or if I know someone's calling just to gab and I'm busy, I don't answer. I'll call them back later.

On a farm or rural setting, it's more likely that emergencies will happen outside the house and away from a landline phone. Not a problem with a cell phone.

I don't use the phone while I'm driving. I don't talk on it inside public buildings. And sometimes, I just leave it at home or shut it off. Just because I have one doesn't mean I have to become an addict. That does drive some people nuts ("I tried to call you but you didn't answer! You have a cell phone! Why didn't you answer?!") but frankly, I really don't care.

No, I do not work for a cell phone company. I'm just trying to get others on board with my landline phone company boycott.

We used cell phones only for years. Now we are with Vonage, which we love. I got sick of everyone thinking they should be able to reach me 24 hours a day! So, now we just use Vonage and we're very happy with it! In the booklet that came with it were in structions on how to hook it into your phone jacks so it can be used just like your regular phones. If you have high speed internet you should consider it!

reception in this area is scattered. I carry a cell all the time and my wife takes hers when she drives to town, if I am not with her. I own a small business and clients only have my cell # so we don't have them calling at home. My business partner leases property to US Cellular, so his house is great reception all the time. They both have cells, no land line. Works great for them. I would do it if it wasn't for the lousy reception. If we ever get a tower up that is more reliable, I will drop the land line, as we don't call much and incoming calls to the cell are free.

mark

The only problem that I can think of is with 9-1-1. If you have an emergency, one can simply pick up a land line and dial 911 and not even say a word. The 911 dispatcher knows immediately where the call is from and will send law emforcement and EMTs to your home. With a cell phone, 911 calls are difficult to track. So, on the very rare occassion when you need help but cannot talk (eg, you're having a stroke, heart attack or an attacker is in your home), a land line call to 911 will bring help....a 911 call on a cell phone may or may not result in help finding you.

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I held off getting a new cell phone for a couple of years because all of the new ones had GPS installed. Finally had to give up and get one.
Most cell phones made in the last few years have GPS capability, they know where you are.

How does your phone get a fix on satellites when you are in the house?

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

I called 911 using a cell phone on the interstate once and the operator knew exactly where I was. She just asked if I was North or South bound. I was impressed!

I don't know much about satellites but do know that you can call on a cell phone and not give a location and they will know where you are located.
Your cell phone provider can probably explain it better than I could ever attempt to.

I loaned my cell phone to a woman to call in an auto accident. She didn't give a location but they were there in a very few minutes, it was a hit and run.

The FCC has mandated that all cell phone service providers have an Automatic Location System (ALS) specifically for 911 calls. They use a combination of technologies including GPS. At this point all the big cell service providers have complied. Lots of us had to get new cell phones a year or so ago to accomodate the ALS technology.

As for getting rid of my land line I just haven't done it. Cell service is sketchy where we are, and having worked for land line telephone companies for most of my career, I am very critical over voice quality. No matter how good of a signal you get with a cell phone the voice quality will never be that of a properly working land line. Maybe fine for most folks, but 25 years testing phone lines has left me over critical to that digital choppiness.

I've done the opposite of many here, except for freeinalaska above; I dumped my cell for a landline. When I had the cell and was self-employed, the people I tutored would call to cancel when I was driving to meet them. So I went back to the land line w a n answering machine, and got rid of a 20% cancellation rate. lAlso, after the hurricanes here, due to the lack of electricity, the landlines worked before the cell towers did. ldc

I got rid of the land line six years ago, and I've not missed it. Everyone was calling me on my cell anyway, except for the sales calls. I didn't want those anyway!

No cell phone will work from our place so we have land line and dial up. Sat tv here goes off when we get storms so no good for that. The only sure way to talk out of here is 2 way radio. Wife and I are both ham radio operators and have radios in both our car and truck plus base at home. We talk all over the world even when power is off. We are currently thinking about letting the count emer service inform our area that we are a base to get imfo out or in if phones and elect are out and the roads are blocked for whatever reason. It costs us nothing to pick up a mic and make a call to anywhere we want or can. We do have a trac phone but we have to drive 4 miles or climb our mountain for it to work. Guess we will stick with what we have. Sam

Ps I forgot to say we have not found anywhere local that we can't talk back to home base or have we been anywhere that we could not get some one on the radio. Sam