Hi All,

I am seriously thinking about dropping my land line telephone and only using my cell phone. Have any of you done this? What are the PROS and CONS? Thanks.

Beth, I had thought about it before but decided I didn't want to make sure my only connection was always charged! Also, I prefer the reception on a land land much better than a cell phone connection. I use my cables bundle package with the unlimited long distance and I like that quite well.

One more thing I don't like about cell phones is that you can't prop them on your shoulder when you are doing something around the house. I know that sounds funny but when blabbing with my gf Julie, we can talk for an hour and holding the phone that long becomes a pain!

Beth:

We have to second entirely what Karen says. It is exactly the same for us.

Our dtr #2 uses a cell phone only as she is single and has good reception in her home. If she needs to call overseas or fax something, she can come to our home and use our phone.

Good luck on your decision.

Cheers! Ray & Penny

We have only minimal basic service on our land line. rest is all cell phone.
Around here we have lots of power outages which
affects our cell phones.
The other good or bad thing with only going with cell phones is finding someone. No phone book!!

I agree with all.

Great picture Beth!

Nothing to do with phones - you're much prettier in real life Beth (and no I'm not trying to crack on to you)! Lee

We keep our landline primarily for the fax machine! We also have our phone bundled in with our internet and cable tv so it really doesn't cost that much to keep it.

Yea.
Ours is all in a package too.

We went all cellular several years ago because our landline (Qwest) innundated us with spam calls even though we were on the do not call list. Eventually, we added the landline back, strictly for FAX and also for me to conduct telephone interviews for writing assignments (which don't work well on a cell). We make outgoing local calls on the landline but do not give the number out. There is no answering machine attached and we keep the landline set to FAX so that any spam callers get an ear full of buzzing. We are quite happy with our cell service by Verizon and would gladly use only that except for our FAX needs.

We just bought Droid smart phones. Loving being connected to the internet all the time. But, then again, I am a geek and internet addict.

All of our children use only cell phones. We figure if they can do it, so can we.

Karen, you can solve the phone to your shoulder problems on a cell by using ear plugs or purchasing a blue tooth device. It will save visits to the chiropractor from those 1-hour phone calls to your friend. :)

Donna, how do you like your Droid? I have been eying those!!!

Thanks for your comments everyone. I appreciate the time you took to give me your honest opinions on this subject. Guess I have some more thinking to do before I make this decision.

I think it depends on your lifestyle, whether you live in an urban or rural area, and your need to contact others. I have found that most of our need for long distance has gone away, and most of the remaining can be done with Skype. For us that's a consideration since connect time adds up if you're talking to a relative across the country or the planet.

We have considered doing it at our summer home, since all three of us now have cellphones, but I keep the land line in this rural area so that local contractors and neighbours can reach us easily, and so that I can use dialup internet. But this may all change, if I get a 3G phone--we have good connectivity and David already has an iphone, so the need to read mail and do a little surfing goes away.

Here in the city, my son is cellular only. He is nomadic and rarely home so it is a reliable way to keep in touch.

One factor can be whether you can find a cellular plan that includes free talking to a group of family or friends. For example my son and I share a plan so we can talk to each other freely at any time. Unlimited texting also helps.

It really comes down to a couple of things. One is your cell service level in your house. Is it good? When I lived abroad, it was so good, I never needed a land line. In my home here, it is so poor, I couldn't consider it. Two: do you want a package with an internet, tv and phone package? Does it make sense where you live? In our neck of the woods, we can't use a satellite, so cable is the only game in town and internet is best that way too. Adding a cable phone as a third line for international calling and fax made sense for us...and we needed it for the poor cell service. So, we have both cell and cable. Now, we have cable issues with a lot a electrical storms, so we also keep a bare bones telephone company line as well. It all comes down to location, location, location.