Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Tied to my land line - should I break free?

It seems more and more I'm hearing people say they don't have a home phone any more - they've switched to cell phone usage exclusively.

I can see the benefit of this, truly I can. No long distance charges, only one number to keep track of, and for me, it works out to be a bit cheaper each month to upgrade my cell plan and ditch the home phone service.

My concern is this: if I drop my home phone, will the phone company mess with my DSL service? I have this *probably* irrational fear that my DSL quality will drop if I drop my phone service. Have any of you been through the process of dropping home phones but keeping DSL? If so, what was your experience? (By the way, I don't have cable or satellite so getting internet through a TV provider is not an option I choose to explore.)

My phone company charges me more for DSL without a home phone. But even with the upgraded cell plan and more costly DSL service, I still come out ahead in the end money wise. But what about service wise?

What's a girl to do?

2 comments:

LeahBear said...

I too thought about nixing the land line, but my husband tends to leave his cell phone on vibrate and in another room so if I want to get him to answer the phone, we have to keep the land line. Such a waste! Also, my *probably* irrational fear is - what if I have to call 911 but I can't speak clearly enough to give them my address?? If I use my cell phone, would they ever find me??!

jay said...

Hmm. Interesting dilemma, and one I can't really contribute much to. We have a landline, and we each have mobile phones, but the advantage of landlines for us is that the number never changes. Over here, it can be difficult to keep the same mobile phone number when you change either phone or provider. So there's continuity with that.

Things work a little differently over here, maybe. Good luck with your choice! I do know friends in the US who don't have a landline and they manage just fine.