Landlines vs. cell phones Is it time to cut the cord?

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Landlines vs. cell phones
Is it time to cut the cord?
       

     

Reception complaints with the new iPhone 4, and occasionally every mobile phone on earth, have made the decision to ax one's landline less clear-cut than many thought it would be by this stage of the cell game.

But as consumers continue to cut costs, more are cutting the cord. One in four homes in the U.S. relied on cell phones alone during the last half of 2009, an increase of 1.8 percentage points since the first half of 2009, according to a survey by the National Center for Health Statistics.
One in every seven homes had a landline yet received all or almost all calls on cell phones.

"I argue with my wife often about why we still have a landline," said Mitch Hiller, director of technology for Consumers' Checkbook. "She wants one. She isn't clear on the reasons for that, but for the sake of domestic tranquility, I give in."

Several variables, logical and psychological, complicate making the call.

"Part of the answer about what is the right answer is the comfort level of the person with technology," Hiller said. "The answer for me is very different than for my mother, who is phobic of technology. If she tries to implement the same solution, she's going to be frustrated and unhappy."

Here are some arguments for and against the landline. You make the call.

5 reasons to keep your landline

Multiple users: Having a landline means relatives and family friends can reach all members of your household (in theory) by dialing one number and/or leaving one message. (That's assuming voice mail in your household gets checked more than once every two months.)

Multiple phones: It also means you can have several phones within your house, rather than conjoining yourself to your cell phone in order to hear incoming calls.

Reception: Landline phones don't require you to plaster yourself against the bay window to hear and be heard. Although a landline-based cordless phone sometimes has spotty reception if you're far from the phone's base, points out Robert Krughoff, president of Consumers' Checkbook.

Power: Relying solely on a cell phone demands diligence in keeping it charged. A landline will work in power outages if you have a phone that doesn't require AC power. If your landline phone does require AC power, you can buy a four- to six-hour battery backup from your service provider for around $45. Verizon fiber phone service will provide you with one for free.

The biggie — 911: Consumer Reports still recommends having landline service, because emergency services can more reliably locate you quickly from a 911 call on a landline than from a cell phone. Based on advancements, Consumer Reports said it is reviewing that advice and may revise it later in the year after a survey of consumers' 911 experiences.

Kent German, a senior editor who covers cell phones and smart phones for the technology site Cnet, said he too retains a landline because he lives in San Francisco.

"If there's a big earthquake," he said, "cell phone lines are going to be jammed."

Even at a fun public event, calls can overwhelm cell networks and shut you out.

5 reasons to DITCH your landline

Reception boosters: Companies such as Wilson Electronics and Wi-Ex offer signal-enhancing devices that spare you from performing contortionist movements to get reception within the bowels of your abode. They can be pricey, around $200 to $300, some with an additional monthly fee of $15 to $25, but "anything purchased from the cell phone carriers is usually going to work," German said. For iPhones, there's AT&T's 3g MicroCell, for example, designed to give five bars of signal strength and up to 5,000 square feet of coverage for up to four phones.


 

Technological advancements: Many apartment-building security systems and home-alarm monitors used to require landlines. Nowadays, many can operate through your cell phone.

Power outages: In a power outage, a charged cell phone still works, and it will continue to work even as you wait for hours or days for the electricity to be restored to the premises that houses the landline.

Telemarketing: In most cases, federal laws prohibit telemarketers from calling wireless phones, which reduces the likelihood of a buzz kill during a romantic dinner in.

The biggie — savings: Landline service might run $20 to $50. Presuming you have a cell phone, you might need to add minutes to your calling plan if you drop your landline, but falling rates for unlimited minutes on cell phones are making those contracts better bargains.
 Cell Phone vs Land Line On Cost:
When it comes to saving money and phones, the question of whether a cell phone or a land line (or if you need to keep both) is a better value for your budget often comes up. While it would be nice to be able to give a definitive answer to one or the other, the truth is that it depends how you use your phone as to which is the better deal. Here are a few issues to consider when deciding which makes better sense for you:

How Big Is Your Family? - The bigger your family, the better the chance that a land line be a cheaper alternative than cell phones. With a land line, your can get a phone placed in the room of each person in the family on the single line coming into the house. With a cell phone, however, you would need to provide each member of the family with their own separate phone. While "family plans" exist that lower the cost of multiple phones within the family, these plans are still much more expensive than a single land line.


How Much Do You Talk? - The amount you talk on the phone will determine which option is a better value. If you talk a moderate amount, then land lines and cell phones stack up pretty well against each other in relation to cost. The more you talk on the phone, however, the land line quickly becomes a better value than the cell phone. This is becasue landlines tend to be a single, flat rate no matter how long you talk and this is why land line phone are better for your budget it you talk a lot. In addition, cell phone service in the US usually charges whether you make or receive the call which means that you often use more minutes than you realize.

Some people argue that cell phones are a better deal becasue of "free long distance." While this may be true if you make your long distance calls on weekends and nights when they are unlimited but be careful to assume that long distance calls made at other times are "free." these peak hour calls usually still count toward your overall minutes which will usually favor the land line phone.

What Is Your Current Lifestyle? - How you go about your life will be a big factor in determining which phone makes sense for you. if you are away from home, travel and use your cell phone as your main contact phone, then it's worthwhile considering whether or not you need a land line at all. If this is the way you use your phone and find that you rarely, if ever, use your land line, then your land line phone may be costing you money that you don't need to be spending.

In addition to these money related issues, there are some other issues that may make you choose one type of phone over the other:

Reliability - While cell phones have vastly improved over the years, they still aren't quite at the level of land line phones when it comes to reliability. Pick up a land line phone and unless a hurricane is blowing through, you're going to get a dial tone. This is not always the case with a cell phone. There may also be an issue of contacting emergency 911 services if you happen to be ill. If you call from a land line phone, the 911 operators can locate you even if you can't speak which may not be true with a cell phone. If you opt for cell phone only, make certain that it has a strong signal in all parts of your house.

Battery Life - While battery life for cell phones continues to improve, cell phones continue to add on new features that drain the batteries quicker as well. Cell phones may need to be recharged on a regular basis which can cause problems.

Wireless Contracts - While land line phones don't have contacts, many cell phones require a long term commitment to a contract. If you fail to meet the length of the contract and cancel your contract subscription early, it can mean penalties in the hundreds of dollars.

Locating You - Unlike the white pages of your local phone book, there currently isn't a centralized directory for finding cell phone numbers. This means that someone who doesn't have your cell phone number may not be able to contact you if you don't have a land line.

Several Reasons

We keep a landline for several reasons:

-- PEACE OF MIND: Cell service, no matter how advanced is not as reliable as a land line. If ever there were a time that we needed to call an ambulance or something for an emergency, I wouldn’t want to rely solely on a cell phone.

-- SECURITY: I won’t even give a credit card or social security number over a wireless phone, let alone a cell phone. I would not live in my home without a corded phone that does not rely on electricity. It’s not foolproof, but I why spit in the face fate.

-- IT’S THERE WHEN YOU NEED IT: There are times when I use a low cost long distance service (OneSuite) to make an important call that I don’t want dropping for any reason (low battery, cell service, etc.). If I talk to someone about a job interview, or a client where I want to present myself professionally, there are just too many variables with a cell phone.

No I do not have both.

I only have a cell phone but for some people it is reasonable to have both.

I may think of several reasons to keep a land line as well as a cell phone. None of these apply to me and that’s why I do not have a land line! I think if none of these applies to somebody he should only get a cell phone!

    There are some people who have DSL or use dial-ups. They want to have Internet and that is why they buy a land line.
    Some people live in West Coast and have family members in East Coast. They want to talk to their family members but because of the time difference they can not use their cell phone "night minutes". The way they handle it is that the one who lives in West gets a land line and the one in East uses their cell phone night minutes.
    There are some people who make a lot of local calls and they don’t want to use their cell phone minutes for that. It makes a lot of sense for them to get a land line.
    You may want to have a number to give to some certain places like credit card companies that call you too much and do not want to answer their calls all the time and be disturbed.

If you have problem with telemarketers you may always register for do not call list.

No I do not have both.

I only have a cell phone but for some people it is reasonable to have both.

I may think of several reasons to keep a land line as well as a cell phone. None of these apply to me and that’s why I do not have a land line! I think if none of these applies to somebody he should only get a cell phone!

    There are some people who have DSL or use dial-ups. They want to have Internet and that is why they buy a land line.
    Some people live in West Coast and have family members in East Coast. They want to talk to their family members but because of the time difference they can not use their cell phone "night minutes". The way they handle it is that the one who lives in West gets a land line and the one in East uses their cell phone night minutes.
    There are some people who make a lot of local calls and they don’t want to use their cell phone minutes for that. It makes a lot of sense for them to get a land line.
    You may want to have a number to give to some certain places like credit card companies that call you too much and do not want to answer their calls all the time and be disturbed.

cell phone and land line

I have both.  I have a landline because cell service where I live is just horrible.  I am not home a lot so I use my cell phone.  I just decreased the number of minutes on my plan because most of my friends and family use the same cell phone company.  Therefore we can talk to each other for free.  I use the same phone company for both land and cell so I save money on my landline.  It works for me.