Cell vs Landline
Color me ignornant on this but I?m curious about something.
Cell phone, local and long distance unlimited minutes, I can call
From anywhere in the US to anywhere in the US and chat for hours upon hours and my bill stays the same.
Landline, I can call about 20 miles from here for free but beyond that I need a long distance carrier that is going to rape me on charges meaning I have to be mindfull of calls and how long those calls last.
So, today with cell service being what it is why is the landline companies still operating as if this is 1970?
Cell phone, local and long distance unlimited minutes, I can call
From anywhere in the US to anywhere in the US and chat for hours upon hours and my bill stays the same.
Landline, I can call about 20 miles from here for free but beyond that I need a long distance carrier that is going to rape me on charges meaning I have to be mindfull of calls and how long those calls last.
So, today with cell service being what it is why is the landline companies still operating as if this is 1970?
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Beats me, I gave up my landline about 20 years ago. ANYWHERE I called but my little town was long distance.[B)] 0 -
Because they can [}:)]....If I did not live in an area with poor cell service, I would dump my landline. It is there for emergency use and the only calls I get on it are telemarketing morons, political surveys, and scammers... 0 -
quote:Originally posted by forgemonkey
Lonnie,,,,my LL is $19 plus tax/mo. No charge to anywhere USA, Canada or Mexico, unlimited minutes.
I don't have a cell phone,,,,I was tied to one for 20 years and damn if I'll have one now,,,,,[:o)]
Tell me more0 -
The only reason we retained a landline in our previous home is that one was required by law when we installed an elevator.
Prior to that, we had one for a fax machine.
Now we do not have a landline, though I believe a pseudo landline is available through our internet provider if we wanted to hook up a phone.0 -
Century Link wants almost $40 a month for a landline here. Spectrum through my internet router was half that. As my wife works from home for DSHS she?s required to have a landline to take calls. The downside to internet phone is if the power goes out or the cable goes down then the phone does too( although this might happen once a year). I haven?t seen a working pay phone in years. I have a friend who just keeps an old flip phone with pay as you go minutes and a car charger all in the car just in case of emergencies. 0 -
when our landline got up to $70 a month and long distance added we quit 0 -
Don is referring to VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). Works just like a landline, except.....if someone drives over the pedestal down the road from you, you lose your phone service as well as your internet service.
Today, your cell calls are electronic for the most part, but sometimes end up routed through copper wire on the other end. There's no way to tell.
The reason landlines stay in business is because of one thing....reliability. Ma Bell's copper wires work just about all the time, through storms, wars, & jamming when there is a local disaster. You don't have static, you don't have garbled voice, it always seems to work. If you own a business, you probably need to pay the extra money to be sure that customers can always get through to you.
Neal0 -
Me I'm still on land line and no cell phone. I work nights so who am I gonna call between midnight and 0800? Russian phone sex operator? Da [:D]? So no sense getting a cell phone. Besides you can be tracked by those things and give you nut cancer [:0].
I pay $5 for long distance a month and nickel a minuet kind a deal. Much cheaper than $20 a month.
Strange thing the way they divi up the long distance boundary. My work is 18 miles out and is a local call while 7 miles out to Salinas is a long distance.0 -
We had Century Link for several years until the service got so bad we couldn't make or take a call for over a month, no internet during that period either.
We dumped them and got Hughesnet which isn't much better, but at least it usually works. When you live out past the boonies you have very limited choices. [:(]0 -
We had a metallic cable land line (Verizon) but service was getting really bad. Changed to a wireless setup w/ Verizon. $20 a month, no limit on minutes or long distance, kept same number, shows up on 911 as our address. Has a countertop transmitter, phones plug in to it. If power goes out, battery good for about 3 days. Got that instead of VOIP because internet goes down here sometimes- and it is hard to call them for service if it took your phone with it. 0 -
Using Whatsapp I can call anywhere in the world for free, if we both have internet.
Also have a FREE google voice telephone number that I can call from anywhere in the world using the internet to any normal landline, or cell phone in the U.S. The number looks "real" xxx-xxx-xxx. Who knows it probably is "real".
Use google voice to talk with business mostly but it can be anyone. These folks think I'm calling from Houston but in reality I'm using a "magic jack" with Another "houston number" that will show on their caller ID. That way no one I'm calling knows my main number.
Another nice feature. All my calls are "forwarded" to one or a dozen different numbers. If I'm in the U.S. they are forwarded to South America. NO cost to callers and they have NO IDEA where I'm speaking from.
Also use a VPN, (Virtual Private Network) because Internet sites know I'm located outside the U.S. and some won't allow ordering, or entrance to their site, for instance my U.S. clinic "blocks me". I can pick from dozens of U.S. servers for my connection. Mostly I use Austin.
Can also say the internet connection is coming from maybe 100 servers in the world. That's why when some "official" in a news article says the call, link, or location of the "culprit" was "Russia",, well that's a joke,, with one click it looks like I'm in Russia.
Was in the Russian Federation today, or at least that's where this post came from.[:D] Pretty sure it shows on the GunBroker log.0 -
Landlines are only for businesses anymore... 0 -
we have not had a land line in 17 years 0 -
We keep a landline, doesn't cost much and always works. It stopped working for about an hour during Hurricane Katrina, then worked just fine. Can't say that about cell phones then, it would probably be worse now, even more cell phones same towers.
I wouldn't have a cell phone except for work it's required.0 -
I had a land line before I retired because I needed it for my fax machine. After I retired we dumped the land line.
I've never understood why people say they don't want a cell phone. Just turn the damn thing off when your not using it. My cell phone is for my convenience and nobody elses. If I'm out some where and have emergency I don't want to be standing on the side of the road with a sign in my hand begging for help.0 -
My LL is cheaper than any cell with unlimited minutes.
I can call anywhere in the US and Canada and a few more countries of which I don't care because I don't use it.
When I am not home I don't want to talk to you. Everyone that knows me uses email and only a few close friends and family call just to talk.
Still, at some point you will be correct and I resign each year for 12 months to a new bundle of LL and broadband internet thinking next year might be when it will be cheaper to go cell and just internet alone at home.
Hasn't happened yet but it will0 -
We have a landline only because it is cheaper to have a landline and internet rather than internet alone, wierd how that works. I don?t think the house phone is even charged. 0 -
We have a land line,NO long distance charges. Through charter/spectrum.
Also,we just got a land line for Denises 81 yr old dad. It is through her cell carrier,Verizon.
It is a small black box that all you need is a 110 wall outlet. No antenna or phone jack.
You then go to Walmart,radio shack,target,wherever and buy your own phone to plug into the Verizon black box. Wala, you have a landline. $40.00 a month,verizon. No restrictions.0 -
Due to hearing impairment I have a caption phone which requires a landline. 0 -
I get an email from Verizon almost every month warning me I?m about to exceed my unlimited data. Several of the Verizon representatives have tried to ?splain that to me, but no two people have explained it the same way and I haven?t understood any of them.
Evidently ?unlimited? doesn?t mean what I thought it meant.0 -
Beats me pall, you have my only number. If you call you will get me here in London, can't do that with a land line. 0 -
We have a landline phone because it comes with our "high-speed" rural internet package which actually tops out at about 3Mb/sec. We don't have long-distance access on the landline and never use it anyway. Total cost for it all is about $70/month, but our internet options in rural SD are limited and we are grateful for what we get.
The best feature of the home phone is that if it rings, almost every time it is a telemarketer or someone we don't want to talk to anyway.0 -
About the only value to a landline is faxing. Many providers throw in the landline free with thier package deals. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by wpage
About the only value to a landline is faxing. Many providers throw in the landline free with thier package deals.
I?m sure a fixed business needs the fax line but via internet fax is cheap with no long distance charges. I can scan, email, print, fax right from my phone. The house printer is a wifi network printer and so is the one in my truck and I have wifi in the truck.
Forge, we are checking into Spectrum, hopefully they serve our area.0 -
quote:Originally posted by JamesRK
I get an email from Verizon almost every month warning me I?m about to exceed my unlimited data. Several of the Verizon representatives have tried to ?splain that to me, but no two people have explained it the same way and I haven?t understood any of them.
Evidently ?unlimited? doesn?t mean what I thought it meant.
Its so silly how they break things down. They will have unlimited service for specific types of things.....like calls to other Verizon customers, most of the time unlimited is for any calls or texts. You get a certain amount of unlimited data....which is anything internet related that isn't a phone call. Looking things up with Google, surfing facebook, or youtube uses data and you only get a specific amount of that before they start charging you more than your monthly bill. If you can use wifi it doesn't use your data. If you are at your house and have internet you should have your cell phone set to automatically detect your wifi router and anything you do will not use your data.0 -
We live VERY rural. When Katrina knocked out the power, the land line worked fine, gas was hard to find and had doubled in price. Then again, when tornadoes took out power for a few of days we bailed out for a motel room with a pool. (We can handle winter but not summer)
Now don't laugh, but our land line is hooked up to an old school answering machine plugged into the wall, 110 power.
Thus, we can call the house during a power outage and if the answering machine picks up, we know we have our power restored. Saves a lot of driving (gasoline) from town just to check for power.0
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