Pro's and con's of getting rid of the ol' land line........

[goodngrubby]

Telus in Saskatchewan runs a unlimited long distance plan with 5GB of data for $66/month. Unlimited LD anytime of the day and you don't need to run a Fav10 It's called SKMB Talk & Text - 5GB shared. Now most of you guys are from Alberta/BC but one would think Telus would offer a similar plan in other provinces? Unless of course SaskTel pissed them off again and they are under cutting them. Either way might be something to look into if you're already a Telus customer.


Sent from my Shoe Phone

I have basically the same plan with Telus....free anytime airtime and long distance to anywhere in Canada, incoming and outgoing, 5 gigs of data, $100/month. My monthly bills were between $500 - $600 a month...I haven't had a bill over $100 since I switched in January. It was an introductory package for new customers, I had to fight through 3 different "managers" to get it. Makes sense I guess, considering I've been with Telus for 25 years.

 

[STYKO]

Haven't had a land line in 5 years. Sometimes though I can't call my wife as her phone is at the bottom of her purse. There have been a few times I needed to talk to her urgent and could not, perhaps landline would have been handy.....

 

[sumx54]

Landlines are like video rental stores.... their on there way out

 

[crosroads]

I've been without a landline since we built the new place. We have broadband Internet with mcsnet and run our "landline" through that. Only about $20 more a month than just phone at the old place and now have high speed Internet. For cell phone plan I've got 4 gig and unlimited nation wide for 80 a month. If I hand better reception at home I'd use just it, all my customers call my cell anyway.

 

[lilduke]

I don't use a landline at home,, But the landline is still widely used in the business world. The landline isn't going any where for a while yet.....

 

[carguy]

Landline vs cellphones

Granted duplicate costs make having only a cellular phone enticing

BUT one thing not considered or understood by most is when you contact 911. A landline will immediately place the callers address in the hands of the 911 dispatcher. This is useful for the person who cannot talk but only open a line or for one who is at a residence they do not know the address of.

A cell phone calling 911 will not present the address of the caller's residence, the cell phones location is based on its position to the cell towers it is using. This is not very accurate. So if you are at a place you don't know the address of, your cellphone is of little use to provide the address.

For a single person maybe not worth the consideration. But if you have small kids, the ability to get proper information to a 911 dispatcher in a time of crisis is paramount and having a landlines gets the help coming to you accurately without the delay of triangulating a cell phones location. And yes your address is accurately placed with a 911 dispatcher in rural locations too, the emergency services ability to navigate to a rural location is a separate issue.

Food for thought.

 

[Braddock54]

Who's your ISP? Telus uses a dark line. So you have a phone line but you just don't have a number for it (they do). Just to provide Internet

Northwestel. They make you have a basic residential phone line to get your internet service.

Note: Customers must have a local access telephone line from Northwestel to enable DSL Internet.

Sucks. Just the line is 40 bucks.

 

[arff]

Carguy is correct
Good information.

 

[ferniesnow]

Great information................I am still mulling this over.

The 911 is interesting information (it is something that one thinks "won't happen to me" sort of thing but one never knows), the day time long distance a person can deal with, and I guess something that no one has mentioned is that there is no t-number listed in a book or information anywhere. That is a good thing for those darn tele-marketers.

Good conversation and no dumb oneyewilly comments!

 

[snopro]

Great information................I am still mulling this over.

The 911 is interesting information (it is something that one thinks "won't happen to me" sort of thing but one never knows), the day time long distance a person can deal with, and I guess something that no one has mentioned is that there is no t-number listed in a book or information anywhere. That is a good thing for those darn tele-marketers.

Good conversation and no dumb oneyewilly comments!

Also no phone number in the book for people that want to get hold of you that you may want to hear from?

 

[arff]

Great information................I am still mulling this over.

The 911 is interesting information (it is something that one thinks "won't happen to me" sort of thing but one never knows), the day time long distance a person can deal with, and I guess something that no one has mentioned is that there is no t-number listed in a book or information anywhere. That is a good thing for those darn tele-marketers.

Good conversation and no dumb oneyewilly comments!

Leduc used to be a 911 dispatch center located in the firehall. The landline number showed the address. If a person managed to dial 911 and couldn't speak the ambulance and police would get dispatched. This would be the only advantage to keeping a landline. That being said for example find I phone or find my friends pinpoints a cell phone via gps. I am not sure if the new 911 centers can pinpoint cell phones this way. I will call our 911 center this morning and ask how it works and report back.

 

[eclipse1966]

just got rid of our landline 2 months ago and so far dont miss it at all. For those who do international calling (which I do with my parents) we just use Skype with video all for free!

 

[-lenny-]

Also no phone number in the book for people that want to get hold of you that you may want to hear from?

If I want to hear from someone, they have my number.

 

[ferniesnow]

Also no phone number in the book for people that want to get hold of you that you may want to hear from?

If people want to get in touch they have to find a way...........if they aren't persistent then they didn't want to get in touch for the right reasons.

 

[snopro]

If people want to get in touch they have to find a way...........if they aren't persistent then they didn't want to get in touch for the right reasons.

Really? Do Telus operators give out cell numbers? Not in the phonebook so no address, cell not listed so no number. Call the RCMP and ask them?

 

[teamgreen]

The only downside I can see Fernie is long distance on a cell phone is almost RAPE.... its crazy.

I was at 0.45/min. Just changed the plan

I've been batting this around as well, two cell phones and most of the numbers we call are on our my10. Would like to dump the extra $50/month bill.

I pay under $100/month for cell phone, includes all long distance in Canada as well as unlimited text and upgraded voicemail. I had the my10 plan but they no longer offer it and its cheaper for me to have the unlimited plan and never have to worry about my10. I called my brother at home instead of his cell on my10 and it cost me a fortune.

 

[Mike270412]

well???

Leduc used to be a 911 dispatch center located in the firehall. The landline number showed the address. If a person managed to dial 911 and couldn't speak the ambulance and police would get dispatched. This would be the only advantage to keeping a landline. That being said for example find I phone or find my friends pinpoints a cell phone via gps. I am not sure if the new 911 centers can pinpoint cell phones this way. I will call our 911 center this morning and ask how it works and report back.

 

[Trashy]

Leduc used to be a 911 dispatch center located in the firehall. The landline number showed the address. If a person managed to dial 911 and couldn't speak the ambulance and police would get dispatched. This would be the only advantage to keeping a landline. That being said for example find I phone or find my friends pinpoints a cell phone via gps. I am not sure if the new 911 centers can pinpoint cell phones this way. I will call our 911 center this morning and ask how it works and report back.

2 years ago on the way to work, I saw a car accident happen right in front of me. It was a Semi vs a SUV, needless to say the driver of the SUV was pretty banged up. I made the 911 call from my cell, and I couldn't give an exact location because of the road I was on. I asked 911 if they can locate me on my cell, and within 30 seconds she replied back. That they have a fix on my cell and emergency vehicles are on there way.
My understanding of it all, is that you can register ANY cell phone with 911 or not.

 

[Uturn]

Dumped the landline, going to give Magicjack Plus a try. Free unlimited calling in Canada and US. Can take it with you when traveling to avoid costly Hotel phone calls. Unfortunately I could not port over my old phone number.

It also has 911 registered to your home address.(not good if you are traveling).

My work cell is a "dumb" phone, so adding a plan to it wasn't an option.

I'll let you know if I like it.

 

[Trukker]

After not having a land line in High River due to flooding realized everyone in the house has cell phones we just cancelled it. Prior to that I was contemplating getting rid of it anyways . The no phone service just validated my decision.