Rural Living- Landline or Cell or Both

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

Cell phone only. When we built our house the phone company quoted $10,000 to lay lines to the house. Right after making the switch we got a new tower in the area taking us from decent reception to great reception. The downside was moving from DSL to Hughes for internet service.

you should check into the Verizon wireless internet - $70 a month for 5GB of download, and you can take it on trips. We found it faster and cheaper than Hughes for less $$ per month.
(still not as fast as DSL, but tolerable - and faster than my landline)

 

[jcummins]

2 years ago when I retired....trying to cut pennies, and dropped the landline. Haven't missed it at all. What really frosted me, the taxes was > than 50% of the bill. That's really what pushed me into it.

 

[Gator6x4]

In a emergency situation what happens if you dial 911 on a cell phone?

 

[QRTRHRS]

My cell coverage is about one bar at home and even at that I need to sometimes move around to find even that single bar. Beyond that, my wife is hearing impaired so and uses either the computer or the fax to communicate.

She recently got an implant and is slowly getting up to speed with that (it takes about six months on average) Even so, I would still keep the land lines just in case.

We also have my elderly mother with us who could probably never get used to a cell.

I just pay the bills and shut up, lol!

 

[RichZ]

We can't get cell coverage, so we don't even have cell phones. Plus we can only get dial up, so we need the land line. We're hoping for DSL in the next year.

 

[LBrown59]

1 cell phone and 2 landlines .
The cell phone won't work here at the house.
Can't make incoming or outgoing calls with it.

 

[JKirkwood]

I still have both Cell phones and the land line.
Due to business reasons, I have to keep the land line for the fax machine. I monitor a water system pump station whose internal computer sends me a daily fax of system status and the occasional alarm fax when there is a problem. The land line is also the number used for business advertising, billing statements, business cards etc.
If it weren't for those reasons, I would switch from DSL to cable internet and ditch the land line.

Have you looked at the Internet Fax services? Of course this does not address your business needs.

 

[smfcpacfp]

The land line is more reliable and has better fidelity in my opinion. I have considered switching to cable phone service, but $40 a month from A T & T for unlimited long distance and many useful services not available with cell, make it a really good deal in my opinion. My wife and I also have cell phones.

 

[firedog]

In a emergency situation what happens if you dial 911 on a cell phone?

The geographical jusidiction of the cell tower picks up the call. so if you're traveling thru another county/city, the tower that is picking up your signal will transfer you to that local 911 dispatch.

 

[MarkV]

The geographical jusidiction of the cell tower picks up the call. so if you're traveling thru another county/city, the tower that is picking up your signal will transfer you to that local 911 dispatch.

Also most cell phone have a GPS system that lets 911 centers locate the phone.

MarkV