25% Of Homes Have Ditched Landlines > why not have both,

why not have both,

Um cost?

reply to tab2274
It seems to me that your argument is reversed. The herd is heading towards mobile only service. What happens when you have an emergency and you have no cell service?

Anyway, BF69 gave you the most likely answer as to why the trend is to not have both services.

reply to tab2274
I have both a landline and a cellphone and will keep it that way.
Recently had a power outage in our area - no electricity. The landline is on a Uniden handset-type, which, of course, is plugged into an outlet.
I used my cellphone to notify Ohio Edison of the outage. Glad I did, because the Rep told me that I was the first residential customer to call-in the outage.
I don't use my landline very often and the cellphone is just for emergencies, etc. It is NOT attached to my ear as an appendage of my body.
Having both services cost me approximately $59/month - well worth the price.
BTW, if I'm lucky, the cellphone averages maybe 5 minutes/month...out of 200 minutes on the plan.
--
Lonnie

reply to openbox9

I ditched many years ago. The drop from the house to the pole was removed after a truck yanked it down over winter. Went ahead and pulled the NID and cleaned up the wiring.

Bye ATT... Not looking back.

reply to djrobx
I agree with you on that one:

The cost of POTS (including fees/taxes/charges) can be the same as or more than the following combined:

- Cellular
- VoIP (cable modem or other)
- Skype
--
Canada = Hollywood North

reply to djrobx
I do the same thing, I have a cell phone and a cheap voip service, with phonepower I pay $9 a month for the first two years
It was totally worth it since it keeps my cell phone bill down, though after two years I think it goes up to almost $20 in which case I might opt for a femtocell and a $20 unlimited calling from the femtocell (AT&T)
I'm sure in most cases my cell or voip will work, nether has actually gone completely out in my house. To some degree I think the emergency crowd is slightly paranoid, most people have only cordless phones so when the power goes out they are in the same place as I
actually I'm in a better place because I have my cable modem,router,voip adapter and cordless phone on a UPS

reply to tab2274
I have both as well - landline only costs $31 but I could get it to about $25. Cheap insurance as our landline phone has not gone down for external reasons for a LONG time and we have 2 young kids. Batteries last only so long for a cell yet most landlines phones work for days upon days.

My cell is old enough I am not sure the cell has GPS to notify 911 of a location where as with a LL phone it will give the location.
--
Brian

"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain

reply to LadyL
If you only use 5 minutes per month, why are you paying for 200 instead of just getting some sort of pay-as-you-go or prepaid solution where you could be paying $10/mth or less?

reply to LadyL
i use an old UPS to power my cordless phones base unit in the case of a power outage, longest outage so far has been 4 hours, and it was still working when the power came back up.. might consider getting a used one

and some of the newer cordless phones have built in battery backups, ofcourse the battery is usually extra

reply to tab2274

reply to Guspaz
In most cases prepaid services don't have access to the same roaming areas that post paid users enjoy. If you travel at all that might well make it worth keeping a higher priced plan rather than going prepaid.