Let's talk cell phones

[therising]

How many of you have gotten rid of your land lines yet?

We're thinking of taking the plunge but it seems Verizon does not have any "unlimitted minutes" packages.

I need a lot of minutes (unlimitted preferrable), free long distance, and reliable coverage areas.

Thoughts?

[moonshine]

I have a cricket phone for my business. Unlimited local and long distance anytime. Problem is the phone only works in the Buffalo metro area. No roaming.

Price is $50 per month. No contract. Service is adequate, but nowhere near the quality you will get from Verizon. The voice quality does depend on the quality of phone you purchase. I bought the cheap-o. Friends have reported better quality with the higher-end phones.

I tried the VoIP companies but found the technology immature. There were massive hassles just to get my number transfered from the VoIP company back to a copper line provider.

Good Luck!

[Night Owl]

Friends have reported better quality with the higher-end phones.

IMO- samsung is the best phone - singular is the best service.

(with all plans, watch the fine print and extra charges they don't tell you about)

[SolarEclipse]

I'm a tech geek and I wouldn't go VoIP or cell only [yet]. It's so frustrating talking on a phone that cuts out. Plus I've got the phone line bundled with my DSL package, so it saves a little on costs.

[DelawareDistrict]

Verizon will now let you subscribe to DSL without a verizon landline. They charge an extra $5 for the dsl but it is worth the savings when you ditch the landline.

[biker]

There are simple things that a landline has that you won't miss until it's not there.

I dropped landline for about half a year in '03 and then found I had no fax.

The cutting out is more than a passing annoyance, when a daylong windy day (like yesterday) causes bad cell service.

Finally, there may be other options coming on (like that DSL) that may make the landline worthwhile.

What I am amazed at is the lack of cost savings in either land or cell. What was it---Moore's Law?---that said the cost of computing would drop by 50% every X years. We know that's going on in telecommunications.

So, when my VZ cell contract was up, I contacted them about new terms. Only a couple available: shocking when they have the data on millions of customers and the ability to offer thousands of tailor-made plans to their customers.

They used Moore's Law and that customer data to offer me more of what I don't need: they doubled the number of anytime minutes and raised the new contract price by about 8%. What they offered me cost them nothing and I won't use it.

When my contract expired, I finally found something they had not told me before: I can continue on the terms of the old, on a month to month basis. Cool. Best deal I found yet.

I travel a lot in the warm weather, so I found the coverage in the other companies too lacking.

Good luck.

[moonshine]

One more thing...

Kiss TiVo goodbye if you drop your landline service. I tried many of the hacks to make it work with VoIP service but failed every time. I understand some of the new TiVo units are better equiped to handle internet based updating, but I haven't seen it work, yet. I'm hoping the microsoft media console is better integrated into the home network.

[Riven37]

I hate cell phones and its users.... you think you own everything. No matter where you go there your are talking up a storm about nothing. Talking in lines, in your cars, in the banks, in the movies, next to my table while I am eating my dinner, yep, there you all are bothering the hell out of my life.....


But did you know your cell phones already have a big brother inside. Yep, all phones have GPS chip inside to help track you and your movements.....

[biker]

I think many (not most) cell phone users are obnoxious about their use in public.

I devised another revenge.

I bought some stock in Verizon.

So every time I see a cell phone fire up, I think, "Keep on talkin'".

[Night Owl]

I hate cell phones and its users.... you think you own everything. No matter where you go there your are talking up a storm about nothing. Talking in lines, in your cars, in the banks, in the movies, next to my table while I am eating my dinner, yep, there you all are bothering the hell out of my life.....

I think the same way about it. I can't stand when people are loud and rude about their cell phones, I try to draw the least amount of attention to myself with my cell.

[300miles]

Originally posted by DelawareDistrict
Verizon will now let you subscribe to DSL without a verizon landline. They charge an extra $5 for the dsl but it is worth the savings when you ditch the landline.

Whoa, Hey! When did they start that???? I signed up with them in July and they would not allow me to get DSL w/o the land line. I even called several times to see if I could get a different answer. Is this a recent change??

I use my cell phone for almost all calls. However there are some drawbacks to not having a landline like others have mentioned.

Another one is that 1-800 numbers are not free. I work from home sometimes and call into conference calls using a 800 number. It doesn't cost me anything on the land line but I would use up all my minutes on the cell. So I may have to keep my landline until i figure how to get around that.

During the blackout a few years back, all cell towers went dead, but landlines worked.

a couple months ago I damaged my cell phone, and while figuring out what to replace it with, it was nice to have my landline as a backup. You can't lose a landline either!

Still it's frustrating paying for the landline when I rarely use it.

[300miles]

Originally posted by Riven37
I hate cell phones and its users....

You hate a lot of people, don't you.

[therising]

Thanks for all your replies. A few thoughts:

Cricket - I need to have service that will work throughout the country, so that's NG. BTW Moonshine there's a new company in town, Blue Wireless, that has a similar, but cheaper plan (I think it's $30 / month)

DSL - I have cable internet at home, and I recently found out a trick from Adelphia. I was sick of our cable bill being in the $140/mo range, so I called to downgrade - get rid off all the premium channels, etc. I was paying $45/mo for internet. When i asked them if there's anything I can do about that, they told me that they have a cheaper option $24/mo that's slightly slower. I took it and I barely notice a differnce (it' slightly slower when opening a page with a bunch of pics, but that;s about it) PS Cable is now about $85/month

Fax - I refuse to have a fax at home

TIVO - I don't have but I didn't know that it worked thru the phonelines, good to know. But isn't cable Video recording (is that what it's called?) just as good?

800 #'s - Interesting, I didn't know that.


Bottom line, i'm wondering if Cingular is the best choice. Can anyone confirm how good their coverage area is?

[moonshine]

Thanks for the Blue Wireless tip. I'll check that out.

[Night Owl]

I have cingular, and I like it. They have different option plans, (a lot of fine print though - as with any plan, you have to be careful) roll-over minutes, cingular-to-cingular unlimited minutes, unlimited night and weekend minutes.

I think cingular has great receiption, even with out of state calls and calls to other cell plans (sprint, verizon... ect)

Cingular is the leading in cell phones because they merged with AT&T (I believe) making it the largest cell network.

If you don't mind paying extra, you can get internet and your emial from the phone. IMO- a great idea if you're on vacation.

Oh, I swear by samsung products, that is the phone I have.