February 22, 2005

• Do it, if only for the fear you will hear in a telemarketer's voice when it finds out it has called a cellphone (they are not worthy of a personal pronoun). If you have to get a landline, then just slap a fax machine on it or something.
• We switched over to cell phones about a month ago because we got mad at our land line service for not being able to fix our connection without a $70 per hour house call. With keeping our cable modem, getting a "family plan", and switching the home phone number to one of the cell phones, we are saving over $50 per month. No complaints so far.
• I need a landline so I got the cheapest DSL deal Qwest had(without MSN). I pay about $40 mnthly which includes phone.. The problem with having the old landline phone service is all the little taxes and access charges they hit you with. Not as fast as cable but DSL does meet most the requirements for todays internet access.
• For us, it wasn't worth it to get rid of the landline completely. Verizon requires a lit-up land line for DSL (at least they did when we went through our most recent spell of decision making. I've heard Verizon was going to finally change that but I don't know for sure if they did). If you have cable television (we don't) then it makes more sense to ditch the landline and get the cable modem, but if you DON'T have cable the pricing and hassle factor is (was) better to get the no-frills landline and DSL. Boy I hate the phone and cable companies.
• a colleague just told me about vonage voice over IP. that sounds cool. he has all kinds of features plus unlimited north-american long distance (hiya canadians!) for $25 a month. that's not bad. right now i pay around $40 a month plus long distance on my landline, about $35 a month, 300 anytime minutes, free long distance on my cell. i hardly ever use my landline.
• If you have decent signal at home, and plenty of minutes to spare, I say go for it. I've done it for years, and only have a land-line now because my girlfriend has one. Down with land-lines!
• I'd love to ditch my landline, but my roommate (whose name the phone service is in) won't get a cell phone. If you are going to have cable, go cable internet and ditch the landline. Most phone providers require at least basic phone service to have DSL though, so you may be stuck.
• I'm paying for a landline, since I've got the DSL, satellite, and Tivo hooked up to it. But both Mr. Mickey & I use cell phones to make all of our calls. I kept a landline phone plugged in for a few months, but I never gave the number to anyone. And the only calls I ever got were from phone companies, trying to get me to sign up for their long-distance plans. After one particularly aggressive telemarketer from AT&T ticked me off, I unplugged it and haven't thought about it since.
• yeah we're definitely going to have cable. is cable internet as fast/faster than phone DSL? sorry, technodoofus
• No different, I think (perhaps even faster - I'm a doofus too, I just know it won't be worse...)
• You might also consider Speakeasy DSL, if it's available in your area. They offer "Onelink services" specifically for people who don't want a landline. It's probably not cheaper than cable, however, so take this as you will.
• Cable's faster than DSL. Also more expensive, at least around here.
• Cable internet access is a faster download than DSL, but a slower upload. I think it tops out at about 300mb/s on cable download, about 100mb/s on upload. DSL has about 170mb/s on both upload and download. Those are the ideals, though. I think I got near 240mb/s on cable once, but it is certainly the exception, not the rule (and for some reason when I used to use IE, I used to get the 240mbs for the first five seconds or so, then it would scale down to between 50 and 25mb/s for the rest of the download. I could download four things at once, and all at that same speed. Now that I use Safari, I can routinely get around 200mb/s).
• Oh, and no land line here. I lived with two guys who both already had cell phones, and it was just as expensive for me to have a landline (paying alone) as it was to have a cell, so I ditched it. That, and SBC (ne Ameritech) had always been cocksuckers, so I was glad to be rid of them.
• wow. thanks, muaddib. the options are boggling. i need a personal technology coach. i want someone to come in, say, this is what you need, here's the cheapest option, i'll hook it all up for you. meanwhile, i'm watching from the sidelines, eating ice cream.
• js, virtually the only thing i understood in your message was "cocksuckers." ha! so which is best for watching baseball games on mlb.com: DSL or cable internet? that's what we need.
• I haven't had a land line in over a year. No worries at all. I don't have cable TV, but pay about $40 a month for cable internet. Don't miss it. No telemarketers!
• I hate cell phone providers - huge contracts, crappy service, gigantic cancellation fees. I have unlimited local/long distance/local toll plus voice mail plus lots of other stuff plus REALLY high-speed DSL for $90/month. If you got even cheap DSL and a cheap cell phone plan, you'd be talking about at least that much and you'd be unable to get rid of it for a year.
• I haven't had a land line in probably five years now. Often just leaching off workplaces for daytime calls back when cell minutes were crazy expensive. But nowadays you can get killer cell plans. I'm paying $40 a month and never run out of included minutes (helps that my free nights start at 7pm with free incoming). Last time I had a landline I made/took about five calls a month on it. Was crazy expensive per minute that way so I dumped it and haven't looked back.
• Yeah.. been without a landline for about two years. Cable modem is really good in my area, and I live in a higher population zone (NYC). Cell phone bill is $70 per month, I've yet to go over my minutes, as I rarely make daytime phone calls on the cell (use the landline at work). Cable bill comes out to about $170 per month, but that's only because I got every damn channel possible, and I'm addicted to MOD. So fuckin' lazy, I am, can't even be bothered to walk to the mailbox..
• I'm still on a landline and don't really ever want to go to a cell phone. My landline (local and long distance) runs about $40-45/month. If I miss a call, I've got an answering machine. I'm not locked into some ridiculous yearlong contract, and there really is a difference in the quality of the signal compared to a cell phone. Voice quality isn't really that important, I know, but I hate the weird freakin' silence/lag you get when talking to someone on a cell. If things like this don't bug you, go for it.
• anyone concerned about 911 access on cell phones? a pal out in silicon valley said to keep local cops on speed dial because the emergency folks don't pay attention to cell numbers. huh?
• The blackout that hit the east coast (and Canada) a couple years ago knocked out our cell service but the old landline was still alive. It ended up being the only way to reach the fams and buds. So keep one for emergencies or faxes just in case.
• I've had no landline for about three years now and don't miss it at all. You have to be militant about giving out your number though; If a service/company REQUIRES me to give them a number, they get my office phone - because I'm not there at 8 PM eating dinner. It is amazing to sit at home during peak telemarketer hours and not hear the phone ring. Anyone who calls me actually knows me, because nobody else is ever given the number. Cable is nice - downloading, great; uploading, well faster than dial-up anyway. With cable though you're sharing bandwidth - DSL gives you your own private connection, so it's slower but the speed is constant, doesn't suffer during peak usage hours or when your neighbor is downloading gigabytes of porn. Personally I've never seen it slow down noticably, but it is slower than the LAN I use at work. I keep hearing the argument that a landline is worth having. Personally, I was very anti-cell phone for years, but finally went over because I hated the telemarketers calling. I don't use my cell any more often than I used a land line, a few calls a day at most. The nice thing is that (a) it has an off switch, and (b) it follows me everywhere - which can be great if you're expecting an important call, and can lead to some weird conversations (like "Hey, wanna come play golf?" "Can't, I'm on the beach five states away.") I still can't stand people who have the phone glues to their heads at all times. It is actually physically possible to have a phone in your hand and not be using it. cog_nate: What silence/lag are you talking about? Unless you're using satellite you shouldn't get that. The only lag or silence I hear is when the person I'm talking to has me on speakerphone or is driving, and is paying more attention to the road than to the conversation (the way it should be); this will happen on a land line if the other person is preoccupied or has you on speaker, too.
• I don't have a cellphone. Too expensive and I don't want to be available all the time. I'm part of a dying breed, I know...
• mare, i recently saw a story in a college paper about non-cell users. the reporter was treating them like some kind of odd creatures to be studied and pitied. heh.
• Big Ups to mare. Another non-celler here. I'm sure I'll have to get one eventually, but I'm holding out. For precisely the same reasons. Plus I carry too much shit around with me as it is.
• hikikomori - during the big blackout I actually had no problem at all getting cell service, but my land line was completely knocked out for 3 days. Odd we had completely opposite experiences, no? The biggest issue with getting rid of a landline, to me, is the lack of quality on cellphones. I know they've improved significantly of late, but I still think there's a huge improvement in quality when using a land-line. Whether the cost is justified, however, is another matter entirely.
• I made the switch about a year ago. My justification: land-line=$25ish (min) + $20 dial-up vs. $40 for cable intarweb. Also I was spending $100+ per month in local-long-distance.
• We haven't given up our landline, mainly because I'm paranoid and have had bad experiences here in LA with cell coverage. And when I'm at home, perhaps it's the very tiny microfraction of me that's actually old-fashioned, but I like talking to people on a handset that's bigger than my palm. Now, if I could get some great old bakelite Pokia handsets, that would rock. Unfortunately, my phone doesn't use the 2.5mm standard jack. WTF, Nokia? Why no standardization???
• SideDish above mentioned Vonage, so I feel like I might as well mention Broadvoice. I wanted to ditch my landline also, and my cell service was terrible. While I was looking at Vonage, I found Broadvoice and have been totally happy. I pay $10 a month for the unlimited State plan. This includes voicemail, call transferring, call forwarding, caller ID, and tons of other crazy stuff. I have my voicemail emailed to me (as a wav file), and if I move I can take the box with me - as long as there is a router to plug it into. I feel like it's too good to last, and that very soon there are going to be tons of taxes or something thrown onto it. But for now, it's great. They have unbelievable deals on international plans as well (I think $20-25 for unlimited international plans). Phone support is super friendly and helpful - email support was less helpful) The only downside is that when my internet goes down, my only communication method to get it fixed goes down as well (this has happened twice). I know I sound like a salesman (and the fact that this is my first post doesn't help), but I have no affiliation with them, and have nothing to gain (unless someone choses to say that I referred them - if so, feel free to message me privately) - I'm just really happy with the service.
• this is all great stuff. another weird question: is it just my cellphone, or do all phones get hot when you talk longer than five minutes or so? that's something else to consider.
• Jaypro, yeah, weird. And on 9/11/01 our landline worked great but the cell service (ATTWS then) was constantly conking out even though it never gave me problems before. Maybe we're in a great landline area but a so-so cell area (at least when it comes to emergencies).
• My Nokia 8200 used to get ridiculously hot after only a few minutes but my 8890 and hasn't had that problem.
• perhaps, hikikomori, i'll saunter into my phone store and request a "non-warming cell phone." heh.
• Of course, now that I have a phone that doesn't reach the boiling point I miss the discomfort. Strange.
• I've been "cell only" since 1995. Whoa. I just realized it's been 10 years. Whoa, again. It's the only way to go. For the time being, no telemarketing. Which is nice. I always hear from some people that it's too expensive or they dont want to be available all the time and the assorted other reasons some have listed above. Balls. The only reason I can think of to *not* go cell only is that perhaps you live in an area with poor or no reception. All the other reasons can be simply refuted. You no longer need a land line for Tivo, and at the moment Protection One is installing an alarm system in my house that uses a cellular connection instead of a landline. You don't even need one for DSL, if you have to patience to explain what a "dry pair" is to about a dozen telco reps. I used to use DSL over a dry pair, but have since switched to faster cable modem service (6mb down, 768kbps up). You don't need one for a fax either, as long as you have a scanner. It is cheaper. There are plenty of super cheap plans out there that can easily compete with pricing from most local telcos (exlcuding some cooperatives and the like). Long distance? Haven't paid for that in years! International calls are expensive, but there's no way around that land line or not, unless you use VoIP (and ther are several free services for that). As for the "don't want to always be available" stuff, well - quite honestly, a cell phone is simply a portable phone. With Caller ID. I know for a fact that when I answer the phone, I have made a conscious decision to do so. I base this subjective decision on who's calling, what time it is, how I feel, how busy I am, the planetary alignment of Uranus and the like. And as such, I don't always answer the phone. Simply when I want to. In addition, it's handy to make calls whenever you need to do so. It's a fact that as cell phone usage rises, payphones are becoming much less profitable for telcos. So they're slowly disappearing. Granted, they'll be around in some form and quantity for the foreseeable future, but it's getting harder and harder to find a payphone when you're out and about. In my experience, most of the non-cell people I know would ask a friend to use their cell phone when out and about before going to hunt a pay phone down if one isn't immediately available. The benefits of being cell only are incredible. No telemarketing, for now. I only have 1 phone number for people to call when they need to reach me. (very nice if you have children, elderly parents, pretentious pets and/or "simple" friends/family) I have an unlimited data plan, so anywhere that I have my laptop and a cell signal, I have wifi (slower than I'd like, but certainly usable). I can send and receive email and sms messages with or without a computer. I have my entire phonebook with me at all times, and can easily (and often) back it up to a computer. I sync my work and personal calendars to my phone and get helpful reminders for meetings, appointments, events (birthday's, parties, anniversaries, etc.) There's more, but this comment is long enough already :) In conclusion, I'd be happy to answer any questions about my experiences in being cell only for anyone on the brink of dropping a landline.
• International calls are expensive, but there's no way around that geek, couldn't you use a phone card? i bought those when my sweetie lived overseas. just 3 cents a minute from america to germany. it's a local number to call for access.
• My unlimited local/long distance plan is good on the int'l calling too. For $5 more I could've gotten unlimited canada calling.
• geek (or any other monkey), my contract is about to run out with verizon and i have the opportunity to get a new phone, and could switch providers. synching the phone book and calendar with the computer sounds pretty hot. could you tell us a little more about this? what kind of phone do you use- do you need one of those expensive pda phones to get that kind of functionality? does it synch with outlook, or its own application that comes with the phone?
• As for the "don't want to always be available" stuff, well - quite honestly, a cell phone is simply a portable phone. With Caller ID. Not true. If you have a cell phone people expect you to pick up. Always. If not, they get pissed. Especially if they are clients and you work self-employed. And I don't like caller ID. I don't want to know who's calling. I'm strange, but I hate it so much from the other end ("Hi mare!", when I haven't said a word yet.) that I don't want to use it myself. And no, I'm not a ludite: I do have a watch (although not on my wrist), a digital camera and a laptop.
• O, and environmentally speaking, mobile phones are a disaster, because they are almost always replaced before they break. What happens to the old phones? No, they aren't given to friends or family members because for the same price you can get a brand new one. So they end up in drawers and eventually in landfills.
• On that last point, there are places where you can drop them off for recycling. In the US, I think Best Buy does this, and I think Lowe's or Home Depot will as well.
• "virtually the only thing i understood in your message was "cocksuckers."" -- SideDish I have been looking for a woman who understands that word -- and that word only -- for a long time now. Ah, my dream girl....
• I have no cellphone and if I could ditch my landline as well I would. Stupid phones, I hate them. *Returns to his Unabomber-like shack
• ok bernockle, gotta tell you one of my favorite jokes: longtime married couple, the one thing she won't do is give him a blowjob. he really really wants one. on their 25th anniversary he wines and dines her, very romantic. they get into bed and he once again begs for a blowjob. she finally relents, as it's their anniversary. the phone rings, he answers it, holds it down and says, "it's for you, cocksucker."
• and that's a phone joke so it sort of fits into the thread...
• Cell phone only. cable modem. Honestly, my cell rings so infrequently I'm thinking about ditching it too. I check my email about once an hour, so if mom would learn to use email there isn't anyone who couldn't get ahold of me in a timely fashion.
• Very nice. I am not typically a joke person, but I enjoyed that.
• 911 - that's the biggest argument left for keeping a landline. I'm a bit of a paranoid type though. You will always get better response to 911 over a land line because they're confident they know exactly where you are. If I need 911, I want fast response. Probably within two years we'll see the 911 situation clarified for VoIP (i.e. Vonage). I suspect, with the way things are going, that the regulators will decide that it's the consumers responsibility to make the choice. You want 911; get a land line. Want to take the risk; get VoIP, etc.
• You may want to read Greg Costikyan's blog entry on the future of landlines and mobile phones. Greg is a World Famous Game Designer who now works for Nokia. He sees the future as being VOIP over data channel on 3G phones.
• What about sat dish for inernet?(for the country) Anyone, anyone? I also am of the non-cell users. For what most people spend on their bills, I could lease a car. In the old days I remember my brother spending over a grande a month on his diamondtel.
• What about security? Not that I say anything that needs to be secure, but cant anyone with the right equipment pick up cell phone calls out of the air? or are they encrypted somewho?
• "somehow"
• This thread is interesting to me, as I dislike paying for a land line that I hardly use for the sake of DSL service. (My cell is provided by work.) Now it looks like I should read up on voice over IP, "dry pair" and cable internet. Thanks guys.
• Got rid of the landline almost a year ago, got 3 celphones (1 for me, 1 for each kid) & cable modem with no cable tv. Yes, it is a bit more expensive than it was with just the landline, a pay-as-you-go emergency only cel & dial up, but I am so much happier. Now I can always find my kids and they can always find me (when kid #1 graduates from college this spring the bill will go down, too) and, like someone upthread said, there's only one number to reach me - it's just simpler. I use Sprint, I like it, and the kids & I talk for free to each other no matter where they - or I - am. As for 911, at least here & I think nationwide, if you keep your landline plugged in, you can use it for 911 without paying anything. Seriously - it's some bill they passed quietly a couple years ago that has to guarantee 911 access even to us po' folk whose landline phones get turned off from time to time.
• I went Landline free when I moved into an apartment that is out in the woods and couldn't get DSL. (Oh, and the phone company lied about that, too, so that didn't help.) Cellphone and cable modem is where it's at. Re caveats: I would highly advise making sure you have at least an in-home and in-car charger for the phone, otherwise you might forget to plug it in. Secondly, backup the phone numbers. Third, I actually did call 911 once and even out here in the woods got a response at around 12 minutes for a 'I think I'm bleeding too much but I'm not sure' call. Fourth, I donated my old phone to a women's shelter, where they use them. There's no need to throw out a phone and there's no need to replace them as often as some people do.
• I'm another cellphone avoider: with all the time I spend hoping that they cause brain cancer, I have no wish to use one. Cable internet is beyond fast for me. I just did the McAfee test and got rated at 951.68 Kpbs, which is about average here. I recall the days of dial-up and shiver now.
• Saw some consumer piece on cellphones on tv last week wherein they said that you can keep an old phone in your car. Even if it's not activated with a service provider you can still call 911 (as long as the battery is charged).
• The phone company must connect 911 calls, from a landline or cell, whether you pay for the phone or not. They've worked out the 911/cell phone problem, and I think some cell phones have a GPS sort of chip these days that can transmit your location when you place a 911 call (for people who do not care about being tracked by "the man"). These are all non-issues when making this decision. As is the DND issue- if you don't want to be bothered, turn your phone off. Leave the house, leave the phone at home if you want. (Then it's just like having a landline, only you can take it with you when you want.) If people give you a hard time if you don't pick up, that's more of a problem with them than the phone.
• Yes, yes, yes, friggin landline-free. The pros are obvious. The cons: - getting cable tv (if you want it) suddenly becomes more expensive, because you have to get a freakin land line connection just for that. (we can't get satellite) - you leave your phone at the office, or the battery is dead and for some reason the charger is not around. ever spend an evening at home without any kind of phone connection? the essence of vulnerable. - contracts. you can get a land line for a month if you want. That's about it! Not too bad, really. Well worth doing.
• cant anyone with the right equipment pick up cell phone calls out of the air? My understanding is that the encryption built into current generation cell phones is fairly safe for general use. It can be broken, but not easily enough to be commonly taken advantage of. If the NSA wants to listen to your calls, however... Much easier than defeating the encryption is simply cloning the phone, so the cell system duplicates all calls to both phones.

• Saw some consumer piece on cellphones on tv last week wherein they said that you can keep an old phone in your car. Even if it's not activated with a service provider you can still call 911 (as long as the battery is charged).

  does anyone know if this is also true (and the related comments about emergency calls being free whether or not your phone is connected) for 999 calls in the UK?
• monkeyfilter: I think I'm bleeding too much but I'm not sure
• monkeyfilter: I think I'm bleeding too much but I'm not sure I heard somewhere that if you could fill a shotglass in a minute or less, and can't slow or stop the flow until the blood coagulates, you're in trouble.
• SideDish says: "geek, couldn't you use a phone card? i bought those when my sweetie lived overseas. just 3 cents a minute from america to germany. it's a local number to call for access." Yes, if you have a land line you can use a calling card. They can be cheap, but I overlooked them because of the colossal pain in the ass they are to use, especially when you're in the middle of a conversation and your minutes run out. When you already have to dial about 20 digits just to call the int'l number, I don't like having to prepend that with up to another 20 before I even dial the number. There's a high likelihood that I'm going to misdial before I get done, and it's a drag (to me). VoIP is so vastly superior that for me, a calling card would only ever be purchased if I cheaped out and didn't want to pay for a cellphone for my son (which may happen if he continues to lose and break all my old phones, which coincidentally are being reused.) musingmelpomene says: "My unlimited local/long distance plan is good on the int'l calling too. For $5 more I could've gotten unlimited canada calling." $5 gets you unlimited calling to Soviet Canuckistan? I pay nothing, other than the minutes I use. Calls to Canada typically only cost regular or just slightly above regular long distance rates. Canada is a lot of things, but it is definitely *not* a good indicator of int'l phone rates. Again, VoIP rules this category.
• smallish bear says: "geek (or any other monkey), my contract is about to run out with verizon and i have the opportunity to get a new phone, and could switch providers. synching the phone book and calendar with the computer sounds pretty hot. could you tell us a little more about this? what kind of phone do you use- do you need one of those expensive pda phones to get that kind of functionality? does it synch with outlook, or its own application that comes with the phone?" I use the Motorola V3 Razr, with Cingular as my provider. You can use bluetooth or a USB cable to get connectivity to a PC, though I'm unsure about Mac compatibility. In addition, you need a piece of proprietary software from Motorola to do anything. This software cost me $70, but that's because it came with a super duper tiny bluetooth adapter for a computer. I own legitmate copies of all the software I use, and believe you should too, when you have a choice. Since there are no software alternatives out there (yet), and Cingular markets the phone in a way that makes these things seem possible without spending an additional $70 on software after buying an already expensive phone, I have no problem making the software available to those who may need it, though I won't post a direct link. Once it's installed, it's simple as hell to use, ans works quite nicely with Outlook. Back to your question... No, my phone isn't a PDA phone, but it does sync to my Outlook (at work) contact manager and calendar, and to my ACT based contact and calendar manager at home. None of the free phones offer this type of connectivity and syncing ability, but most $100 and up phones do.
• mare says: "Not true. If you have a cell phone people expect you to pick up. Always. If not, they get pissed. Especially if they are clients and you work self-employed. And I don't like caller ID. I don't want to know who's calling. I'm strange, but I hate it so much from the other end ("Hi mare!", when I haven't said a word yet.) that I don't want to use it myself." As the user of any device, you must take control. If you let others dictate your use patterns, well, you're f*cked. All you need to do is simply reset those expectations. I had no trouble doing it with my employer and those under me, my family and friends, and the clients of a side business I'm involved in. You have a cell phone. You're on the go (cheesy sounding, I know). You are busy. You cannot answer the phone every second. You must communicate this clearly. And there's nothing wrong with not liking Caller ID. I mean, I don't understand it, but I certainly don't expect to justify understand my various forms of neurosis :) 911 calls Yes, you can always call 911 from any cell phone. Yes, most of the phones out there do not have GPS location ability (though they can be triangulated to a certain extent, based soley on the information each providers cares to share about it's infrasrtucture, which ain't much). Without GPS location ability, you have to tell the operator where you are. Maybe you don't know, maybe you're injured, under duress, or perhaps just stupid. Landlines are tied to an physical address where they terminante, so emnergency call centers can immediately dispatch support to your location even if all you can do is babble incoherently. To have this ability with cell phones, you need one that is fairly recent. GPS location is a simple thing to ask for when looking at phones. And there's still a bit of good news for those who fear the tracking of Big Brother... You can turn the GPS location chip off, if you so choose. I don't know anything abou the emergency number and cell phones policies and capabilities internationally, but unless you're a thirld world country, your cell tech, culture and policies are almost gauranteed to be years beyond those in the US. All cellular calls that are digital are encrypted. No encryption is unbreakable. They are all far more difficult to intercept than landline or cordless communications. Some analog call are encrypted, but most aren't.
• I didn't spellcheck that lost post. My apologies.
• What software do you use for VoIP? We used Skype for a while but I got irritated with the delay and inability to handle two people speaking over each other.
• Well, honestly I haven't had any *really* irritating troubles with Skype, and for other "free" servics, you can use AIM, Yahoo, or any other number of voice-capable IM programs out there, though fully duplexed voice can be an issue at times with any of these. Free services that can call standard phone numbers died with the dot-com bubble. Somehow, somewhere, the IP network has to integrate with traditional land/cellular/satellite communications networks, and the owners of theese networks aren't about to let that happen for free. However, if you want the benefits that come with a pay service (better duplexing, ability to call traditional phone networks, a traditional phone number for your phone, ability to work with a standard phone etc...) I highly recommend Vonage. They have good rates, support, and quality. I haven't used the pay service from Lingo, but friends tell me they like it a lot and apparently their billing is wacko and only charges people every few months (total hearsay, and if true it doesn't look good for the company's future).
• I'm totally landline free. Only mobile phone and wireless broadband. I've discovered in the long run it's cheaper for me as I'm not paying for line rental. And my mobile service lets me make up to $500 worth of mobile calls and only charges me $80, so I treat my mobile exaclty like an untimed landline service. Also , when I move house, I'm phone and internet ready as soon as I walk in the door. And I can take my broadband to work with me.
• No landline since 2001. Cable Internet that works as well as anything else from a cable company. I'd ditch them entirely except that I don't feel like putting up a dish for video or arguing with the telco about dry pair. As for the cell phone, I am always happy to remind people that I pay for the device and its service and it therefore exists for my convenience, not theirs. And when I'd rather not see the flashing lights or hear the warble of an incoming call, I simply turn the thing off (yes, they have off buttons, or standby or whatever, but they exist). This brings me to a question: While most people will nod in agreement when I tell them "my phone, my rules," why do they act as if I'd just slapped an infant when I tell them I use the off button on the thing?
• Oh, and as a note, I've had nothing but shitty service from Cingular. T-mobil, on the other hand, was great. I wish that I hadn't dropped it (because now I'm in a stupid contract with the Cingular fuckers).
• Funny, I've been with all the major carriers (except tmobile) and I was teh happiest with sprint, unitl they gto really shitty all of a sudden and jacked my data plan. So I switched to cingular and I love it. Great coverage, good prices and nice phones. I really think that peoples cell experiences are very regional. There seems to be no consensus when you get people from a wide area talking.
• I really think that peoples cell experiences are very regional. There seems to be no consensus when you get people from a wide area talking. Indeed. I had horrible problems with Sprint when I lived in the Bay Area -- single-bar coverage, dropped calls, voicemail and SMS that would show up hours or days after sent. I've now lived in Seattle for six months, Sprint is still my carrier, and the service couldn't be better.