May 22nd, 2008 in Communication

Lose Your Landline, Now

Telephone I don’t have a landline in my apartment. And since I work from home, that means that I don’t have a landline for my work either. I haven’t had a landline for almost four years now, and I’m okay.

While not everyone is in a position to get rid of his or her landlines, I’ve found that — in general — losing the landline can really help simplify life. After all, without a landline, you don’t have to worry about

the expense of a landline (including long distance!)
remembering to pay at least one bill
checking messages
waiting by the phone

Your Cell Phone

Odds are good these days that you have a cell phone. I can honestly think of exactly one person I know who doesn’t have one: my grandmother, who is always with my grandfather and his cell phone. In fact, I received an email last week from my alma mater announcing a change in the dorms there. The school is no longer providing any sort of phone service in student housing, because no one uses it. If an institution providing housing to hundreds of people can afford to ditch landlines, why can’t you?

There are some crucial benefits to a cell phone over a landline, as well. Long distance always comes to mind: if you have a telephone in your home or office with long distance, the odds are that you are paying extra for that service — whether your phone bill is broken down that way or not. Call waiting, caller ID and half a dozen other services are treated the same way. But most cellular contracts toss all those ‘premium’ features in at no extra cost.

Skype and Other Online Services

I admit there are some times that a cell phone may not cut it. If, for instance, you’re traveling overseas, calling back home may be prohibitively expensive. But I’ve had a lot of success with Skype, even when calling non-Skype users. (If you aren’t familiar with Skype, rather than rehashing its uses here, I’d suggest looking over The Simple Dollar’s brand new introduction to Skype.)

Skype, and its competitors, have a clear payoff compared to landlines: most offer at free calling within their systems — that is, if both people on the call are members of the service — and all offer inexpensive calls off their systems. If you can convince everyone you call to install Skype on their computers, you can make all of your calls for free. That’s a little unlikely, admittedly, but if many of your calls go to the same people, you may be able to get those people signed up. I’ve got both of my parents on Skype these days — I’m pretty sure that I’m the only person they talk to on their computers, but we talk often enough that we’re all saving money.

Get It In Writing

One of the greatest benefits I’ve had from using only my cell phone, honestly, is the fact that I’ve come to rely more heavily on email. While that can sound bad — it conjures up images of an inbox full to bursting — it can be a good thing. To get the information I need in a phone call, I might end up talking to a person for fifteen minutes. But if I’ve asked a person to email me details, rather than call me, I can sort out what my next actions are in a minute or less. And while I can choose what phone calls I’ll answer based on phone numbers, I can set up more robust rules for handling email.

The Fax Dilemma

One of the biggest struggles for me and my sans landline office has been faxing. I’ve worked on plenty of contracts where the easiest options for clients was faxing signed documents back and forth. Depending on your industry, the people you work with may be uncomfortable with digitally signing documents — or entirely unaware that such a possibility exists.

But there are quite a few options for online fax services — most are not free, but the cost is almost always less than maintaining a fax line for the occasional document. Services such as Fax Digits and FaxZero offer either sending or receiving for free, so there are some work-arounds if you want to try to eliminate your fax budget entirely.

Out of Range

Landlines do have some things going for them over cell phones: they don’t drop calls, can have a lot less static and never run out of battery (assuming we aren’t talking about cordless models). But how often are you away from your home or office? Compare that time to how often your cell phone is out of range.

I know I would have the use of a landline significantly less of the time than a cell phone — which is also available at the same time as a landline. For me, at least, a somewhat more reliable instrument isn’t enough reason to justify two phone bills. Of course, a person could choose to jettison his cell phone rather than his landline, but I just don’t see that happening in most households.

Shelve the Antique

A phone that you can’t take with you when you go is rapidly becoming an antique. While there are some homes and offices that still need landlines, there are plenty of people who can do without — and improve both their finances and their productivity in the process. It may be time to take a good long look at your telephone needs and see if you’re one of them.

WRITER'S BIOGRAPHY

Thursday Bram

Thursday Bram blogs about a variety of topics, from personal finance to small business. She is the author of an upcoming book on the tools and tricks you need to build a career you can take with you during long-term travel. More information about Thursday and her book, Working Your Way Around the World, is available on her personal site, ThursdayBram.com.

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31 Responses

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Elliot says on May 22nd, 2008 at 10:43 am
I agree with you to a certain extent, and have lived without a land line before (three years ago.) However, South Florida (where I live) is a special case. When a hurricane comes through (even a relatively weak one), it usually takes out the cellphone towers in the area, leaving land lines as the only reliable means of communication.
sammy says on May 22nd, 2008 at 10:48 am
First, when you read this post through a feed, random ??? appear all through out it.
Second, there is a big problem in some areas with “loosing the landline.” Reliability. My parents, for instance, live in NYS, 1/2 mile from Interestate 86, so its not like they are in the middle of nowhere. But my dad has a cellphone from the largest cellphone provider in the area for work, and his connectivity rate is about 50%, depending on weather, time of day, and apparently, random dust mites.
My finance’s mother DOES live in the middle of nowhere. To get cell reception, she would have to pay twice the amount of a landline, and go outside, hike ontop of hill, and pray for clear skies.
The landline, however, is 100% reliable. They are not loosing their landline anytime soon.
PChao says on May 22nd, 2008 at 10:58 am
do you have any work arounds for the security systems that dial out in the event of an alarm going off? ditching the landline is a great idea, but security systems sometimes require landlines.
Thursday Bram says on May 22nd, 2008 at 11:02 am
Actually, several security systems have begun to offer other options for customers who have switched to VoIP that work entirely online.
Furthermore, there are a couple of companies that make an intermediary unit that those systems still requiring landlines can plug into instead. I know Napco makes such a device.
kyle says on May 22nd, 2008 at 11:20 am
For apartment dwellers, this is fine.
For those in a house, who don’t want to ALWAYS have their cell phone strapped to themselves, it can be nice to have a landline, with phones in different rooms and on different floors. In my case, I don’t subscribe to cable since their offering sort of sucks (and since I don’t watch much TV anyway), so my phone/DSL line is a great fit for me.
Ellis Benus says on May 22nd, 2008 at 11:31 am
Currently I’m in the process of converting both my wife’s and my cell phone to pay-as-you-go plans. We don’t have a land line, but I’m going to get a Skype, with SkypeIn and the Cordless phone. FaxMicro.com is a great service and it makes faxing painless. I’m already a paperless office so the benefits are obvious. Finally, asking people to get back to you via email is wonderful and something I do every day. I ask my own mother to email me because I can track it and search it later.
B Smith @ Wealth and Wisdom says on May 22nd, 2008 at 11:47 am
We’re about to cut the landline and go to Skype/cell phone. ATT is costing us a huge amount each month. That was fine when my company paid for it, but I’m now in a new job. It’s amazing how much more you pay attention when it comes from your own pocket!
Perhaps the biggest gain from switching to Skype is the geographical freedom. Your landline is tied to one location. I can use Skype anywhere. For those of us trying to more to a Tim Ferriss lifestyle this is huge!
Lisa Hendrix says on May 22nd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
A couple of years ago, Seattle had a huge power outage due to storms. It went on for days in most areas, and weeks in some. People with computer-based phone service had no service, and people with only cell phones found that the towers were out and that when they came back up, there was no way to recharge their phones when they ran out of juice.
People with land lines had no trouble at all.
It may seem overly cautious to keep a landline for such an extreme situation, but if you’re having a heart attack or your child is hurt and you have no phone service, you’re going to wish you’d been over-cautious.
Cell-only probably makes sense for college students who move from dorm to dorm to apartment and are seldom in their rooms anyway (though I hope the dorms keep some landlines or payphones for those kids who can’t afford cell service). But why should a person who actually lives in one place rely on a mobile phone for all their daily conversation? Especially one that more and more science is proving causes health problems, the latest being behavioral issues in kids whose mom’s were heavy cell-phone users while pregnant.
I have a cheap pay-as-you-go cell that costs me about $20/90 days. It’s there when I need it away from home, and the landline is there for all other times—and especially those times when we really need it. As I see it, I’m covered in all emergencies, at a minimal cost.
And I can get FAXes.
jason says on May 22nd, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I’m still hanging on to my cheep Vonage number for the E911. I don’t want to rely completely on my cell phone until wireless 911 is fully deployed in my area.
Adam Snider says on May 22nd, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I got rid of my landline a while ago. When I lived with a roommate, we needed one, because the apartment buzzer is connected to a phone, and it wasn’t practical to have the buzz hooked to a phone that we didn’t both have access to.
Now that I’ve got rid of my landline, I can’t imagine ever getting another one until I have kids or something (because, until they are a certain age, they do not need a cell phone, but they do need a way of connecting with their friends).
Nate Nead says on May 22nd, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Agreed. There are very few practical reasons to be paying for both these days…especially with VOIP.
Jim Asbille says on May 22nd, 2008 at 3:30 pm
The FAX dilemna is no more. I bought an HP Copier/Scanner/FAX and when I need to do the FAX thing I scan the document and email it as a PDF. Many businesses do that now as well. All of my loan proposals came to me as PDFs that the loan originator scanned.
jared says on May 22nd, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Losing the home phone works up until your mother comes over to baby sit and requires a very low-tech solution for making emergency phone calls.
adora says on May 22nd, 2008 at 4:23 pm
There can be problems with the 911 service. It is hard to track cellphone, since we are not living in an episode of “24″. There have been many accidents and deaths that can be prevented if they had made the calls from a landline. The police suggestion is to make sure that your cellphone or VOIP provider offer 911 services and make sure your address is updated.
Andrea Johnson says on May 22nd, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I’m a little confused. We have DSL at home (and I wouldn’t give that up for the world!), and I thought you needed a landline for that. Or is that just something AT&T tells so they can take more of our money?
Shari says on May 22nd, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Rather than “lose the landline”, I say, ‘lose the cell phone.’ Like Andrea, I have DSL and need to have a landline anyway. However, I prefer not to be so accessible to people and do not have a cell phone. The very idea of being at everyone’s beck and call really irritates me. In fact, if my landline rings and I don’t feel like talking, I don’t even answer it. In such cases, people assume I’m not home, but with the cell phone, they think there’s no reason I shouldn’t be answering.
I think that, if you work from home, it’s less necessary to have a cell phone. I know because I also work from home.
jeremy says on May 23rd, 2008 at 9:45 am
I haven’t had a cell phone for two years, and I couldn’t be happier. The only phone my wife and I have is our landline. A cell phone is an unnecessary expense, and it’s only a tiny percentage of the people who have one that actually NEED one. I don’t understand why otherwise-intelligent people buy into the trend of having a cell phone and no landline. Is it to fit in with their hipster peers? I’m not old, nor am I out-of-touch, but I think your reasoning is poorly thought-out. The prevalence of cell phone use has consequences, and people don’t seem to see that.
Jeff Friesen says on May 23rd, 2008 at 10:57 am
We too are mostly without a land line. Our medical clinic, although small, does us a landline due to Hipaa regulations. It seems that firing confidential medical records through the “intertubes” is a no – no.
And I have to comment that I have found Skype to be less than great [at least for me] since a certain behemoth took them over a few years ago.
At a EU friends suggestion I tried out Jajah and haven’t looked back since. Much better service and it is still mostly free.
Jamie says on May 23rd, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Thanks for the fax info. (also thanks to Jim Asbille in the comment section) We have been without a personal landline for 5 years now, but I didn’t know how I could get rid of our fax line for the home business until today! YAY!
Anthony says on May 24th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Just don’t expect to get through to 911 on your cellphone for whatever reason, depending on where you live. I’ve been on hold with 911 in California for over 12 minutes…and they can’t actually do the cool triangulation locater thing like on TV (in most places).
Farfield says on May 24th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I have DSL too, and so I need a landline for my internet connection. I also do have a phone, but almost nobody has it’s number. I only give people my cellphone number. I’m not home that often, so the chance is not big you will reach me when you call me there…
Thursday Bram says on May 24th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
@Andrea
While you do need the physical phone line, most phone companies offer an option to pay solely for internet service. However, you’ll have to keep asking for it — generally, most companies don’t like offering that option because they get less of your money.
Gordon Muth says on May 25th, 2008 at 12:56 am
Another option…
Fixed Wireless Terminals allow you to connect your old analog phones to your wireless carrier’s network. You just add a new phone to your cell plan and insert the SIM card into the wireless terminal. Adding a phone to my T-Mobile account costs about $10/month and it shares minutes with my cellular account. You can’t even get a land line for $10 a month, much less one with Caller ID. Another plus is that telemarketers are not supposed to call your cell phone…which is now your home phone too!
These devices can also be used to connect alarm systems to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) in locations that might not have easy access to phone service. I have also seen some devices that support fax machines and can provide backup Internet connectivity.
The Fixed Wireless Terminals are not cheap, but neither is sending $250+ annually to the local carrier for basic phone service.
Tammy says on May 25th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
It is funny that I should read this post today as I just had my landline disconnected. When asked why I wanted to disconnect by the AT&T rep, I stated it was for financial reasons. He then told me that he had, had MANY calls in the last week for disconnects due to the same reason.
Gary says on May 26th, 2008 at 1:20 am
In Canada, long distance on mobiles is still a big issue. The carriers up here charge an arm and a leg. There are services like Alligato Mobile, Yak, etc. that offer good long distance deals for mobiles.
http://www.alligatomobile.com
Craig says on May 27th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Bad move. VOIP and cell phones are simply not advanced enough yet.
We were about to dump our landline, but read in the fine print that 911 might not be as reliable in VOIP as it is in a landline. The infrastructure is just not there.
And have you tried making a mobile call even during snowstorms? Right. Everyone else and their mothers are clogging the airwaves and your call will NOT go through.
Yeah, sure you pay hefty taxes, but you pay them for a reason, because 911 WORKS if and when you need it when you’re using a landline.
I don’t want to carry my mobile everywhere. I like having a landline alreay there in the room when I walk in.
Once VOIP and the cell phone network get up to speed and can handle heavy loads and 911 calls no matter what the circumstances, then we will dump our landline. Not before.
Kool says on May 28th, 2008 at 4:05 am
While I understand the articles intent in focusing of some of the benefits of ditching that old phone – I don’t think its very good idea.
Mirroring some of the previous comments, there was a blackout / power outage in New York a few years ago. This lasted for about 24 hours, and I could NOT contact my relatives to make sure they were okay. Cell phone service did not work. Period.
When I finally made it home hours later after walking from the city, guess which phone worked? Yes, that old trusty antique landline (aka the big dusty old fashioned rotary phone in the closet). A few of my elderly relatives have wireless phones AND kept that old landline, so I was able to contact them, to make sure they were okay.
As much as i love new technology – KEEP THAT LANDLINE. Its 100% reliable.
Jeeves says on May 29th, 2008 at 12:27 am
All of the bonuses of dropping the land-line that you mention could be applied to cell phones. If you drop your cell you don’t have to worry about:
* the expense of a cellphone (including a set amount of minutes!) You can pick up VOIP land-line with basic service, long distance, 911 and other features for about a third of the price of what you pay for your cell.
* remembering to pay at least one bill- and again, you’ll be dropping the more expensive bill. Many VOIP services will allow you to pay the full year at once for a reduced monthly average. Then that technically becomes 2 fewer monthly bills to worry about.
* checking messages-You won’t need to check voicemail or text messages that you receive because you were busy or because you were avoiding the call. You can set up checking your VOIP voicemails in your email account. Since you are relying so heavily on email this is a time saver.
* waiting by the phone- You don’t have to answer your land-line, as mentioned in a comment above. Most people believe that a cell phone should always be answered, because it is always with the person.
Cell phones are so trendy that everyone feels they can’t live without them. While they may appear handy in given situations, life can continue if you don’t have them. And it’s much nicer on the budget to not have to include them. For me I think it comes down to a VOIP land-line.
Will T says on January 25th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I gave up my landline ages ago and have not regretted it once. I don’t use my Tracfone much but really love being in touch in case my family needs me.
This seems to be a sentiment shared by many, see the Dept of Labor site ( http://www.bls.gov/cex/cellphones2007.htm ) for a VERY interesting picture.
Twin XL says on May 10th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Great article with many valuable points. Thanks!
Natalie says on July 10th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I wholeheartedly support maintaining a landline for all residential homes. Unfortunately, it is a losing battle in Florida and the legislature is not on the side of consumers. I see it as a safety issue. Apparently, the legislature and governor view it as an issue to be decided by the telecommunications industry. For another take on this, visit http://www.tboblogs.com/index......dial-tone/ and http://www.telecompetitor.com/.....ome-phone/