I’m canceling the landline telephone in my home. Mama Wordbones actually suggested that I do this four years ago. “It’s a waste” she said.
I kept it anyway. Having a real honest to god wired home phone just seemed like the normal thing to do. Forget the fact that we hardly ever use the thing. Everyone in our household has their own mobile phone. For the most part the only calls we get on the home phone are from telemarketers.
I’m actually kind of late to this game. According to this article by Daniel Gross in Slate Magazine, “the number of land lines has fallen somewhere between 4 and 6 percent in every year since 2000.”
“The growth and convenience of wireless have played a role, and so, too, have the rise in broadband Internet access and the availability of phone service from cable companies and outfits such as Vonage and Skype.”
The tipping point for me came during The Big Kahuna snow event. Somewhere between the first and second act of the blizzard we lost service on the home phone. We weren’t sure when it actually occurred and we didn’t miss it all. I didn’t even bother calling for a repairman until earlier this week.
Last night, as we sat at dinner at Café du Paris in Columbia, we calculated that the monthly cost of having a home phone is roughly the equivalent of a decent bottle of wine.
Once I thought about it in those terms the decision was fairly easy.
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9 comments:
We're considering the same move. Verizon (naturally) makes it challenging to unbundle the phone service from the FIOS internet and TV, but really we hardly ever use the land lines any more. When my brother moved to his new house a couple of years ago he never even had it hooked up.
My wife and I made the same choice you did of canceling our home phone service. Then every Sunday our alarm system started beeping at 7am since there was no phone service connected anymore. We found it would be cheaper to hook up the phone service again since it was pretty costly to get a cellular device for the alarm. Our phone service is now no minutes, and a fee for all outgoing calls. Of course since only the alarm is hooked up to it, I guess I will pay the 25 cents for the outgoing call if our home is being broken into.
I've been considering this, too, on my Verizon plan. I hadn't considered the alarm angle, great point there.
One other thing to consider: even though all of the members of my family have cell phones, we still tend to use the land line as the "phone number of reference." By this, I mean, that many accounts and hook-ups are linked to it, e.g., power, water, etc. De-coupling these accounts from the old land line number can take some time and paperwork.
Let us know how it goes! Bob O.
I'm old school. The land line is printed on my business cards. Maybe when I run out of cards....
Coincidentally I tried to have my land line disconnected yesterday, but the Verizon rep told me it would be more costly than keeping it with the internet and cable package.
It'll get to the point where I change providers. My monthly bill is approaching $200 and I know something can be cut from that.
When small companies come around with cheap internet and separately cheap dish (already looking at this) I'll switch. It'll be hard for Verizon to get me back afterward.
I held on to my land line with Verizon because we do use that phone and have had that number for over a quarter century. When I got FIOS I held on to the land line because I thought I should have a wired copper connection to the world. Several months after I had FIOS installed, Verizon accidentally cut the fiber optics cable in the area and we lost our TV and Internet access. Much to my surprise the phone was out too. I called Verizon (on my cell phone) and asked them about the phone outage. I found out that when they brought fiber into the house they also converted the phone line to fiber. I promptly dumped the Verizon land line and installed Vonage. With the same number that we have had for over 25 years.
So how does it feel to be like every Gen-Xr alive?
I haven't had a landline for the last six years and it's been fine. no, that's a lie-- I did have a landline for about six months (roommate wanted one) and no one ever called me on it.
I have never had a landline in my adult life... I had one in college, 98-02, but that was so long ago that cell phone reception didn't exist where I went to school (of course, the local Fox affiliate stopped broadcasting at midnight and the dorms did not get cable until I believe 2000).
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