I did it! (1 Viewer)

[e9999]

Cancelled my landline, finally... Must be the last person in the US to still have had one... Didn't even bother to port the number. I'm a new Man! Free at last!

Been meaning to do that for the last year or so. Consumer Reports pushed me over the edge. They reported that during Sandy, people had more trouble with landlines than with cell.

Now to decide if I should get an Ooma or not. With free wifi calling on my phone and a google voice number + GrooVe IP, seems that basically the only advantage of Ooma is that you can get phones to ring loudly throughout the house, and maybe use it for faxes (unclear).

Another $500 a year to spend on tools! Yea!

 

[1911]

I would like to cancel mine, but cell service is just not reliable enough where we live (out in the country).

 

[Off Duty]

Nope.
Still have ours...

 

[e9999]

have you tried climbing on the roof? Dowstairs I have HSPA+ but upstairs I get LTE...

but seriously, if you have internet access and wifi at home you don't need cell that much...

 

[OregonLC]

Lost ours years ago. Wife has ip phone for her business if we need it. Verizon has 4 bars at home.

 

[Off Duty]

Unfortunately, Sprint coverage seems to be getting worse and worse

In many places, I couldn't get a signal, if I had a tower stuck up my ass!

 

[1911]

but seriously, if you have internet access and wifi at home you don't need cell that much...

Also a problem out here; no true broadband internet access, no wifi - the best we have is HughesNet satellite. Speed is OK (not great), but downloads are extremely limited by even the most expensive data plan.

 

[PAToyota]

Nope. Still have my landline - and very infrequently use my cell phone. Just have a TracFone pay-as-you-go that I mostly use when traveling.

 

[rusty_tlc]

We have a land line but only because it is bundled with our Cable and Internet service.

 

[pappy]

Gotta have mine for the house alarm. It's about the only reason I still have a land line. Local calls only, though.

 

[Tapage]

We have a land line but only because it is bundled with our Cable and Internet service.

Same case here .. actually we have the same phone for land line and skype ( it's more an skype phone with land line capabilities ) .. but now that Micro$oft got Skype .. don't see it lasting that long..

 

[e9999]

I was shocked the other day when I did a bit of comparo between Skype and Google voice. The former was literally 2x more expensive when calling Europe mobiles. And has a connection fee that the latter doesn't have. Only redeeming feature for skype calling are the subscriptions AFAICT.



I have effectively replaced my expensive unused landline by using Google Voice over wifi for calling for free in the US and cheap overseas.

 

[e9999]

OK, so now the latest development is that Google will reportedly cancel support for XMPP third party apps. In practice, I guess that means that Groove IP and Talkatone and more will no longer work as of May 15. It seems like Google voice and the google numbers will remain active, but will move to Hangouts. No idea what the latter means.
Anybody knows what will happen? Will I at least still be able to put a call through a google web site?
I really liked using Google Voice and not racking up minutes on my cell, so this is not great news unless there is a good workaround.

 

[TXLX100]

It's been a long time since I've had a landline at the house. We have poor cell reception at the house, but finally got AT&T to buy us a microcell. It uses internet for calls when at home, but still uses minutes. Calls are exactly the same as being away from home. I can step outside and make a call with out it, if the power is off.

 

[MrMoMo]

When we built our house I ran a buried line from the house to the pole. Wire was provided free from the phone company. Never bothered hooking it up..... Never been a problem. Thinking about killing the satellite too, with Netflix and all...

 

[Fast Eddy]

Used Google Voice to make calls in the US when I was in Japan and previously in Korea. It would suck if it starts to degrade.

I've got a magic jack. It's a relatively cheap service and a good value.

 

[WB8LBZ]

I went with MagicJack 6 months ago. Paid for 2 years with $40 for international calls (my wife is Korean). My caller Id is an old Dual Core AMD MiniITX box.
I won't have another phone bill until 2015. I might go for 5 years at $99 prepaid.