Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Anyone (successfully) ditch the land lines? Thinking of going all cellular...

I really don't think minutes are your problem, but rather the data.




You say you use >10gbs per month. 6gb of data (only on phone) will cost you about $75. Tethering from each of those phones will be another $30 for each line.



This is on Verizon/AT&T. Sprint may be cheaper, but it's not going to be fast - and even if it is cheaper, it'd only be cheaper by about $20 total (Guessing here).



Stick with some good internet for your household, maybe $40 a month, and get 2-3 basic phones with unlimited calling.
 
MacDawg said:
One of the biggest things to consider is your overall usage and work flow

For me, it is a no-brainer
I rarely receive a phone call outside of work

I communicate far more with text, email, FB, Twitter, etc.
Click to expand...

Same here. I have a cheap 50-minute calling plan on my cellphone, and no landline. Works out perfectly for me :)
 
got rid of actual landline

a couple of months ago...added a home line with verizon...9.99 per month and it shares the rest of our minutes on our plan and it kept my old landline #. I will keep this until the 2 year contract is up...that should be enough time to wean all the older relatives/contacts to my cell #. Saved over $20 per month doing that...but the real upside was that it was like "adding a line" with Verizon so was able to ditch my Droid X (which was a fine phone, but iPhone wasn't available on Verizon at the time) and got my 4...with trade in $ from the X I paid about $35 for the iPhone.

The Verizon base station has rechargeable batteries in it so if the power goes out it has approx 2 days of power. So far I've been happy with the change.
 
Nermal said:
While you need the physical line, not all ISPs require that you have phone service on it.
Click to expand...
Correct. I have Qwest which is now Century Link and I have not had to have a landline phone in these past three years. I still have a phone number as my account number but there is no dial tone.

Back about 10 years, they did require a land line phone in order to have DSL.
 
I didn't have a landline until recently. The alarm system required it for monitoring. It would still work, but it wouldn't communicate without that. So I went with Vonage. Though, the home phone I got is pretty handy. It's BT capable and connects to my phone to basically act as my phone. It has a talking caller ID so I don't even have to look at my iPhone.
 
lol

In Stockholm, I roll with a 4G/LTE router and don't require a phone/land line at all. Speeds are good as well (50/5 service). I can also bundle TV and phone with it, if I want, but I don't because the monthly service fee (avgift) from the apartment includes TV.

Everyone always states that 4G/LTE is overrated, but it's extremely nice when you have the option of setting up a 4G/LTE router that can carry your TV/internet/phone without any extra wires ... and it's cheaper than the standard bundles in the states (roughly 40€/mo or so.) It can also be bundled with a prepaid/contract SIM card, which is quite nice.

Also, Stockholm is in the process of updating to 180Mb/s 4G/LTE and some people already have access to it, but it's not commonly used yet.
 
I did it. No need for a landline at all, wasn't worth the line rental. So I just ditched it. Everyone contacted me on my mobile anyway.
 
as others said, no landline for phone is easy. been there since 2004.
and i always call people on cells if they have the two options, as there is a higher chance of finding them.
but i do have broadband through my cable company.

do you have cable/watch TV?
 
Thanks for all the responses thus far.

No cable or FIOS here. We are on DSL over the POTS on old copper.
No plans for either cable or FIOS to enter the area.
Dish or other satellite requires a phone back-channel of some sort for the upload portion, therefore a phone line.

I will keep an eye on the various hotspots and associate plans and revisit this thread with any updates or if we decide to pull the trigger on this. So far there are a couple of options for ~$80 for either 10 or 12 GB. I need to check on Clear and other similar plans.

Anyone with feedback on high data use on a mobile hotspot or tethered connection? (High use as in 10+ GB/mo...)
Any service issues? Slow service after a certain point of bandwidth use?
Upload/download speeds good?

Thanks for any feedback...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back