QotD: Cell Phone
Posted August 2nd, 2004 @ 09:44pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Question: Which do you use more: your cell phone or your land phone? Do you even have both?
My Answer: I use both equally, though when I move to PA I may simply drop the land line idea or go with just a local land line. Those only run about $25/month, right? Of course, I'll also be dropping my DirecTV and TiVo. And… some other crap. Anyway, I pay about $50/month on each.
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Posted 02 Aug 2004 at 11:04pm #
I use my cell phone way more. When I moved, I went with the cheap local landline so that I could have DSL (thanks to Pacbell requiring the land line for the DSL) I pay $50 (I pay for a family plan - me and my mom) on my cell, and then about $45 on my land line + DSL.
I don't think I could drop DTV and TiVo. I like them too much.
Posted 02 Aug 2004 at 11:25pm #
No cell phone, so logically, my land phone.
Posted 03 Aug 2004 at 5:38am #
My monthly telephone bill on the landline is about EUR1 on average (not including fixed costs), I'm spending about EUR20 per year on my pre-pay cellphone, so one could argue that I'm not really using any of them. IM/email is much better and cheaper.
Posted 03 Aug 2004 at 8:01am #
I dropped my land line over a year ago. I've only missed it a couple of times (once when I wanted to send a fax, but I found ways around that).
Posted 03 Aug 2004 at 8:19am #
I find (Swiss) people who drop their land line selfish. Maybe it's not more expensive for them to have just a cell phone, but, at least in Switzerland, the fees are much, much higher for people who call them. I don't know how the prices comapre in the US, but from here it's quite cheaper to call the US than to call a cell phone in next door.
Of course, maybe it's juste because Swisscom are expensive bastards.
Posted 03 Aug 2004 at 8:46am #
Nothing to add to Olivier's comment.
Personally, I use land line much more than mobile phone. And with flat fees finally arriving here as well, I even might start using the land-line even more.
Posted 03 Aug 2004 at 9:19am #
Oliver: In Austria, it's actually cheaper to call someone on the same cellphone network (EUR0.01/minute) than a local landline/landline call (about EUR0.02/minute). That's what you get in a very tight market situation, there are five different cellphone providers for only ~8 million citizens (and even less potential customers).
Posted 03 Aug 2004 at 11:26am #
My girl and I didnt' even bother getting land line service when we moved into our apartment. We both have cell phones, so whats the point in paying another $30 a month? We don't need it for DSL or a modem or anything, so why bother at all. Its been over a year and we havn't had any problems being cell phone only.
Posted 03 Aug 2004 at 12:48pm #
If I had to choose, I'd have cell phone only. I don't really need a land line, nor do I need a cell phone... 250 minutes a month and I've used maybe 5-10... I text message a lot more...
But DTV and Tivo?! I could never do without... well, the HDD in my Tivo broke, and it's been sitting there all lonesome for a year or so...
Posted 03 Aug 2004 at 1:03pm #
I dropped my land line a couple years ago when I dropped out of college. I was looking for work and couldn't guarantee that I'd be in any one place for an extended period of time, but still needed to be contacted. Once my girlfriend moved back from NYC and we moved in together we added her phone as a second line on my account. It's a lot less expensive considering how many long-distance calls we make, and traveling is much easier as we can go pretty much anywhere without worrying about fees.
I still pay out the ass for my cable internet though, because I didn't want the TV side of it. Not to mention broadband Internet fees are much higher in Vermont as they're a bit behind in the technology. (The cell phone helps during power outages here as well)
Posted 04 Aug 2004 at 2:23pm #
I don't have a cellphone. But I only make one or two phone calls per week (aside from at work) anyway. I don't like talking on telephones. The only people I ever call on the phone (from home) are my mom or my grandmother, and those are usually five minute calls which go something like "Hi grandma, yes, I can come over this Saturday. What's for dinner? Is the pool warm?"
I don't want a cell phone, although I could deal with a two-way pager. (I used to work for a company writing software for RIM pagers .. they're pretty darn cool. A 386 and a couple of megs of RAM, so you can write some cool games and stuff for them, plus send/receive email, etc.)
Posted 05 Aug 2004 at 4:23pm #
As long as you've got broadband in the home (and as a geek, of course you will), you can get VOIP for around $25 month, which includes long distance. I've got Vonage.