Using a cell phone as your home phone comes with a risk Although consumers can save money by canceling their land lines, they risk dropped calls and difficulty being located if they ever need to call 911. What do you think: are the savings worth the risk? [Consumer Reports Electronics]
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I have a basic CORDED landline (still works if the power goes out) -- no caller ID, no call waiting. $13/month. I also have DSL, so it works out. But as a single gal living on her own, I feel better having a landline at home. Also, I am notorious for leaving my cell at friends' houses or just plain losing it, so it's nice to have a backup just in case.
I never answer the damn thing (unless I lose my cell phone...hah!). It has an answering machine I clean up on occasion. I think the ringer is off right now, actually.
For me, yes. I have full bars in my house, I live on the same street as the hospital, I know my neighbors and the one across the street is a police officer. I think if I was in any condition to be able to dial 911, I could also cause enough of a ruckus to get someone's attention who could get me to the hospital in time.
@nakedscience: And I will say, once the power DID go out and I had left my cell phone at work. I had to call 411 to get the nearest Holiday Inn, because who has phone books anymore?! It was kind of hilarious. I'm glad I had the landline, then!
Well, I suppose I could pick up the Triple Play from Comcast and get a reliable phone line that won't drop calls.
Oh....wait.
No thanks - I'll stick to our cell phone plans - we get full bars in our home and always sleep with one of them in our bedroom charging in event of emergency.
911 on cellphones works PERFECTLY for location information if you have a modern cellphone. It works even better if your cellphone has GPS, since that info will be relayed to 911 for you.
If you are replacing your home phone with a cellphone, I have to assume you are buying a decent phone...
Also, the cell network around here is VERY decent, for me. That being said, 911 calls WILL knock non-priority (ie: Non-government) users off the network, so don't worry about capacity. 911 calls also permit phones to operate at maximum power, so you can dial 911 when you wouldn't normally be able to dial a call because you are on the fringe.
I always reccomend people with VoIP get a cellphone for this purpose. Even if you don't have service on it, it will still be able to make 911 calls. Great for the occasional time your internet sucks.
Oh, unlike a landline, your cellphone works even when your landlines are cut/melted/broken/whatever. Think: In a burning apartment building that doesn't meet modern building codes.
And omg I'm terified of someone breaking in while I sleep, so the corded line is actually in my bedroom, while a portable is in the living room, attached to the answering machine. I also have a big bag by my bed. And I know exactly how quick it would take to open my bedroom window, and that while the 2nd story fall onto ocncreet/gravel would probably hurt like hell, if I fall right I might get away with just a sprain.
So the landline phone might just be paranoia on my part ;)
@shepd:
And if your provider sucks hard enough they can't hire 911 service smart enough to use the location information, get a better one...
If all you are worried about is calling 911, in many states you only need a landline that is hooked up to the telco. 911 calls go through regardless of the status of your bill or account, so you don't have to pay anything. Wikipedia has more information on this.
These are the states with 'Do not disconnect' policies (that means you can call 911 on an unpaid line)
Arizona
Colorado
Delaware
Hawaii
Idaho
Iowa
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Montana
New York
North Dakota
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
South Dakota
Utah
Washington
Wyoming
Odds like those are why Consumers Union recommends the landline backup.
This simply calls out for more analysis. What are the odds of someone needing to call 911, what are the odds of a person not being able to provide their address, and what are the odds of the operator not being able to determine the location from the phone? After some basic math (I'm sure Consumers Union has someone on staff with some probability and statistics training), you can come up with an estimate of the odds probability that a cell phone and a land line will generate different outcomes. Throw in some risk adjustments based on the weighted severity of the call (ranging from minor injury to death), and you can estimate the probability that a call from a cell phone will result in a death or serious injury. Divide that number into $240 and you will have an estimate of the cost of avoiding that injury/death.
For all I know, that number could be $10K per indident, or could be $100M per. If the number is too high, people would be better off spending their money on other ways of adding safety to their lives. I regret that CU doesn't do this kind of analyis as part of the normal course of business. Without this information, people aren't able to make informed decisions.
We have a corded landline for emergencies. It's not just for 911. When there's a disaster that affects a lot of people, cell phones get overloaded and don't work. Our cell phones didn't work during and after the earthquake we had in Seattle in 2001 because so many people were trying to use them.
@Magspie: This!
...Not that Arizona has much in the way of natural disasters but, um ... the sun might burn us up!
@cristiana: I thought this was the case most places? I know cell phones work like this for sure. They must always be able to dial 911 paid or unpaid.
@nakedscience: Yeah, my landline always dials 911, and I've never paid for a landline. So I have some cheapo phone hooked up in the basement in case I need to dial and none of the 3 cell phones in the house are operational.
I've been without a landline for nearly 8 years (I work for a cell phone company and get my services for nearly free). I've never had a single problem. What are the odds that I would ever need to call 911? I've lived my entire life and called all of twice - and I wasn't home at the time for either event.
When I canclled my landline service, the threat of a lack of 911 was the first thing out of the retention agent's mouth. There were no sophisticated GPS fancy phones at that time, but even then, I never felt particularly worried. With the new phones coming out, they can find you if your cell phone so much as queries a couple of towers for the current date and time.
And the risk of dropped calls? Gee, I might have to call somebody back? Lordy, what a tragedy. :)
The risk is minial and the cost savings are substantial.
@shepd: Fun fact: I had a brand new, then top-of-the line BlackBerry drop a 911 call. Twice.
That was fun.
That said, I still don't have a landline.
dropped calls are a risk...?
seems like fear mongering to me
My husband and I each have a cell phone. We have no landline. The only frustration we have is if one person is home, but their cell battery is dead, there's no alternate way for the person outside the home to reach them.
Other than battery issues, we do fine. Verizon Wireless has flawless service in our area, and when we dropped the landline I checked with the local police department to verify that 911 calls from a cell would go to the correct tower and dispatch center. We've since call 911 twice (for minor things - in our town we are instructed to call 911 for everything) and have had no problem. And with two cell phones in the house, if one battery dies we still have a second one.
@shepd:
"911 on cellphones works PERFECTLY for location information if you have a modern cellphone. "
According to my local 911 board, not so much. They also say you may get routed to the wrong 911 center depending on a number of factors. I found something about this recently by accident when looking at the county government's website.
I would guess that if you live in a multi-dwelling unit you're probably really screwed. Even if the aGPS is reasonably accurate, they won't be able to figure out which apartment you're in.
From the foot of the article:
In another safety-related cell-phone development, a train accident in Boston that occurred while the train operator was texting has renewed questions about the safety of texting while driving.
You've got to be kidding me. I can't believe there are any questions about the safety of texting while driving. Doing anything that requires taking one's attention off of the road is, without question, unsafe. The longer the distraction lasts, the more potentially dangerous it becomes.
If I had a provider whose service I trusted, I'd have no problem dropping my land line. Chances are 911 will never be an issue, and I certainly don't need more than one way to be pestered at the whim of others.
@Geekybiker:
I also thought it was the case everywhere, but, I checked wikipedia first just so i didn't look like am idiot.
@Magspie: I was in Seattle for that earthquake and our cellphones worked fine after just a couple tries (ATT but at that time it was Cingular). We haven't had a landline for years, and don't miss it a bit.
I thought about dropping my cell phone but I love the way it warms up one side of my head. Also, I find it difficult to drive without one. And I can get interrupted by calls about an extended warranty for my car almost anywhere!
Yes it is worth the savings. If you call 9/11 you have a GPS locater. Tell them where you are. Dropped calls are annoying but worth it in the end especially when you can eliminate a bill in tough economic times.
I have a Pocket Communication phone here, $25 for unlimited texting and unlimited anytime minutes. Sure long distance is $5 extra and the service is only good in San Antonio and Laredo, but you can't beat the price.
@shepd: My area does not have e911. So, no, if I call 911 from my cell, the system doesn't "know" where I am.
For us, no, it's not worth the savings. Our local 911 service doesn't have e911 yet, so it doesn't know where you are when you call from a cell. When we first moved to the area, I was anxious about needing to call 911 and not being able to give directions or explain where I was, and not knowing how to get to the ER. Now that we're having a kid, I feel better with the landline for emergencies as well as the cells.
However. Our cost calculus takes into account that we get high-speed internet via DSL (cable costs a lot more here) so we're paying the line fee for the phone ANYWAY to get the DSL. We pay 50 cents a month for a land-line calling plan that lets us get unlimited incoming calls and make 30 outgoing calls. Then we pay like 10 cents a call. (I don't remember exactly, but we'd have to make something like 300 calls a month to make the $10 unlimited local calling worth it.)
So since we're ALREADY paying the $9.50 line fee and assorted taxes to get the $19.95/month DSL, it's only 50 extra cents a month for the peace of mind of a landline.
@nakedscience: I am SO with you on this one, lol. Only I haven't gotten as far as the bat under the bed.
@chris_d: GPS is kind of moot anyway; all cell phones' (no matter how old) exact location can be triangulated by the police. Sometimes they use it to find lost/stranded people, most of the time however, they use it to catch criminals.
Just they other day I read an article about how some punk carjacker stole someone's stereo and his phone accidentally dialed 911. They listened in on his conversation AND triangulated his exact location and arrested him (with stolen stereo in hand)
@Eyebrows McGee (popping ~May 29): That is one reason for the landline.
While I trust my cell to connect me to the emergency operator, I always keep the landline option for any issue, such as dead/low charge batteries or so.
Any way, here in Spain, the emergency operator is on a regional basis, they cover multiple provinces and we don't have the GPS feature on most of them yet. They always tell you to better use a landline for any reports made within your house.
@nakedscience: While I don't have a bat, the walk in closet in my room has the safe with my service weapons, so we could call it almost the same.
Of course, I am so NOT going to take the jump out of the window, that is four stories down to ground level.
Obligatory, "Get up, git, git, git down, 911 is a joke in yo town."
@Eyebrows McGee (popping ~May 29): In your case, that is the best you could have. All the hardware is already in place and in use, plus you have the bare minimum extras attached to it and present no real financial burden. For others it isn't so because of the plans they might be getting from their local telco.
In my case the apartment came with the line and the cost to keep it is included on the lease so whether I chose to use it or not it is always there.
You have to remember that economic analyses such as the one you present have the assumption of zero transactions costs as well as the existence of no risk averse types. The reason we have insurance is because some people are afraid of risk. I am not going to go into full analysis mode, but there is plenty of literature on this topic on the internets
I didn't want a landline because it's just pointless to have it here...I mean, I have a cell phone with perfect reception, and if I'm running down the hall I can still make a phone call. 100 yards outside my door and my portable phone quits.
But since it comes with a bundle I'll probably have to get locked into (damn you, Cox) I might end up with a landline, as the triple bundle is cheaper.
@rioja951>Now with 220% more chances of not blowing himself up!: Yep. We might do a different calculus if we were paying $14.95 a month or something just to retain a landline.
That's exactly why I still have a landline. My phone is cordless, but I keep a corded one around in case of power outages. Although I'm thinking about dropping long distance and just having DSL and the line like you, and doing the Net10 thing for all else.
But it's too convenient to have one phone, even though it's highway robbery.
@shepd:
But...but...if the tower was eaten by a tornado, your cell phone might not work. Then what would you do?
A tornado tried to eat us on Friday at work. We lost power but the landline still worked. Which kind of sucked, because I still had to answer it. :P
I just canceled my land line and thought briefly about keeping a basic line for this reason, but I would have to have changed the number and kept it a secret, because it would be the only way to keep the parental units and other oldsters from calling it. Some businesses won't call your cell if you give them a land line number as a backup, which is hell if they're doing your taxes or some other service for you and you're never at home.
Considering how few times I've ever called 911 - twice (both not at home) - I'd say I'm not so much worried about the risk. Plus my cell gets great reception all over my place, if the call gets dropped that would seem to work more in my favor. I'm likely calling because I want the cops to come to my place and a dropped call would likely end up at my doorstep, there's always redial too :p
I still don't have a cell phone and only use a land line (and DSL). I don't need to call anyone so urgently that I can't find a phone somewhere or wait until I get home, and I don't need to clutter my life with text messages and unwanted phone calls.
In a serious emergency, I'm not too worried about finding a phone because everyone else seems to have several. :-p
I notice the question is endlessly asked about needing land lines, but I think that the bigger question is why people need cells phones if it isn't an integral part of their work.
I do contracting at remote sites often so I'd just have the phone sitting there when no one but a burglar might use it most of the time. When my mother was alive I had a land line since I wanted the direct 911. So it depends on the situation. If you are most often out of the house, you are probably more likely to need to call 911 from your cell. (I also have a second prepaid cell - the Tmobile gold plan or whatever that I use when I'm near the minute limit on my main cell, and in case I'm in a coverage gap, but with verizon I haven't found any dead spots recently).
What should be done is a national 911 registry with the home addresses accessible to emergency personnel (if the GPS doesn't work).
We had Vonage as our "land line" for a while, and then realized that the 911 service was FAR WORSE than our cell phones. Vonage 911 consists of them routing you to one of their "emergency centers," which we saw from the fine print "may or may not be open; some centers were only open during business hours." Screw that, at least with the cell phones they can figure out where we are eventually.
Unfortunately we moved into a brand new house and the landline was never even hooked up (since we had Vonage, we never contacted Verizon to hook us up to the street) so we can't take advantage of the fact that in Massachusetts they're required to let 911 calls go through regardless of whether we're paying for service or not...
I can't live safely without a land line. I've tried, but I'm in a rural area with no cell coverage at my home. If I relied solely on VOIP I'd have to run down the road to the neighbors house to make an emergency call.
911 has has saved one of my loved ones life in the past. I fail to see any validity to the argument that you won't ever need it because you haven't needed it much before.
I suppose thats the rural perspective.
Please don't ever link to Consumer Reports' "blog" again. I hate sites that pre-moderate any comments. No comments will be shown unless the author likes them... Say no to censorship!
@ShariC: If you only have a landline, you may feel you don't need a cell phone. I only have a cell phone, therefore I ask, why do you need a landline? My cell phone goes wherever I go, whether it's on the train or to the kitchen. I don't have to worry about people leaving me messages.
And it's kind of ironic that you say you never worry about needing a phone because everyone around you has one...it seems that if everyone evaluated for themselves their need for a cell, and determined that they truly did not need one (like you) that you would suddenly find yourself without access to a cell phone. If I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere, and I need assistance, you bet I'll be grateful for my cell phone.
The simple answer is that cell phones offer the same benefits (and more) as landlines, but they add the mobility that people need nowadays.
@John McCarley IV: I have friends who get no cell coverage at home, and need a landline. It's fine for them, not so useful if you live in an urban area. I'm knee deep in concrete, glass and urban landscaping, so I'm not concerned with having a landline, but I see how not having access to cell phone coverage would make a landline useful.
Yes.