Who needs a cell phone?

[aaronc879]

No land line for 5 years now! 

A couple months shy of six years for me. I was the first person I knew to ditch the land line and go with only a cellphone. Now I only know a couple people who have a land line.

 

[MJ]

After adding to this thread, I decided to call tracfone and got a customer supervisor to authorize re-instating upto 1 year any minutes left on my deactivated phone when I go abroad for a long trip.

 

[jclarksnakes]

....I hate telephones and talking on them. I did finally get around to getting a Tracfone last year and have actually used a couple of minutes on it. I give it to my daughter to take when she goes on trips. She uses it and says it has good service. My wife has a T-Mobile and it has lousy coverage in much of the southeat. When I have to go to the the best buy to replace an appliance or get something the young salespeople waste several minutes showing me all the features of the newer products. I finally ask them the only question that really matters to me; "which one has the smallest operators manual?". No IPOD or Blackberry or MP3 or satellite radio. Too busy living life to waste any time with that stuff. I have also never used an ATM. I know it sounds like I am computer illiterate or something but at work the young folks usually come to me when they have questions about how to do things on the computer.
jc

 

[Danny]

I'm interested in geting off the land line, but I'm on the phone co's DSL.
I don't know how else to do it.
I have DISH and am happy with it, so I don't want cable.

We have a T-mobile & Virgin pay as you go phones, like them, but coverage is kind of non-existant in the rural areas...

 

[VoyT]

.  Do you have to put on your $#%^ing reading glasses to use your cell phone?

Well, DH does. Or he hands the phone to me and says, "here, you dial." (I have bifocals)
We have a pay-as-you-go plan with Beyond Wireless and we'll hang with them until Cingular stops supporting the network. At home, it's in the car for any emergency. It gets a workout when we travel .. and has short-circuited a few martial fights over directions...

 

[FI@35]

I am now a consultant I am thinking of getting one. Would it increase my throughput/income and ease or would it just increase my stress level?
Comments?   

I've been working for a consulting company for over a year without a cell phone. People razz me saying I'm the only consultant in the world without one. It hasn't been an issue for me but I think the sales team gets a little frustrated when they can't reach me in 10 seconds. They also have a short fuse on the issue since they allow me to expense the cost. I've been holding out for as long as I can.

Maybe I should just get one, expense it, and never answer it. 

 

[Kitty]

I got the tracphone, because I thought it covered my area here in the boonies. It doesn't work here, I have since found out this is a dead area for any phone. Maybe some day the service will appear, not worried about it now that I have a land line.

I keep the phone for emergancies and finding someone at the airport. It is nice when we are shopping and can't find each other just give a call and viola'. Saves a lot of wandering around trying to find your shopping buddy. I don't use a lot of minutes as most of the time it doesn't work.

This reminds me I have to renew my minutes there goes another $20. Oh well, well worth it if you need to use it.

Kitty

 

[Outtahere]

Being the type of person I am I found having a cell phone an actual stress reliever. I hate being late for anything and being able to call and let someone know that I'm on my way or let my husband know where I am puts my mind at ease. I also can have anxiety attacks and being able to phone someone if I'm in the car helps me tremendously.

I also just bought a T-Mobile for my 72 yr old dads birthday. Both of their vehicles are older and sometimes they will have our 92yr old grand father with them, I shudder to think if they broke down somewhere. I thought he would be upset but he loves it, thinks it's great that there is no monthly bill and all us kids can buy him minutes as gifts (he's been my frugal example thru life).

I still have my land line since work pays for both my cell and dh's.

 

[Nords]

Maybe I should just get one, expense it, and never answer it. 

Author Robert Crais has been writing detective novels about his character Elvis Cole for a number of years.

Elvis finally broke down & bought a cell phone to keep up with his customers' expectations, but of course the phone never has coverage in the canyons & hills of LA and has consumed his life with its hypercomplicated incompetence. I think Crais gets an extra 20 pages out of his books just bitching about his cell phone experience.

I hope it's not autobiographical. I'd have to be the cell-phone provider for a NYT-bestselling author who can nurse a grudge.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I am surprised that folks say T-Mobile lacks coverage. I have used mine all over the USA east of the Mississippi (sp) and have had very few areas that I did not get coverage. All the way to the Canadian border. But of course if your area is not covered it is of no value. But I certainly find it the most economical cell service out there for our situation. Both myself and DW have one. DW uses hers about 10 minutes per month. I use mine a little more. As we forward our home phone (Vonage) to it.

The only thing we do not skimp on is InterNet access we fork out the whole $45 PM for decent reliable cable access with unlimited DL'ing. We DL movies so that takes up a lot of bandwidth, I found that DSL was too costly overall for our situation and also we save an extra $15 per month, as I like to frequent the USENET newsgroups and our cable company happens to have a very reliable News Server also. Most providers have poorly managed News Servers so one would need to pay extra for that.

SWR

 

[audreyh1]

Not only do I use cellphone for voice, but I use cellphone for internet. It's a dedicated data-only cell card that plugs in to my PC (a.k.a. and "aircard"). In most areas - 3x dial up speeds (144Kbps. In big cities - 3x DSL speeds (> 1.6Mbps).

I love being mobile and wireless.

Audrey

P.S. I'm using it right now - sitting in my campsite in Cle Elum, WA.

 

[HFWR]

Have a cell phone for convenience. Rarely talk on any phone!!!

Who are these "Joneses"?

 

[astromeria]

Occasionally I use it--but not to keep up with the Joneses...mostly to keep up with the hubster!

 

[Andre1969]

I put down the "occasionally use it" but I don't agree with the "keep up with the Joneses" part. IMO, if I were keeping up with the Joneses I'd have the latest camera flip phone that does everything but wipe your @$$. And I'd also have a horrendous bill.

I got a fairly basic Nokia 5145 or whatever back in 2001 or so. I got mugged in late 2002 and the cell phone was one of the things they got off me. I had an insurance policy on the phone that was like $1.95 per month or so, and it paid for me to get a new one. I could've upgraded, but I just got the cheap one again.

Eventually in 2004 I upgraded to a new phone, mainly because they were offering an incentive to switch to the new type of network. I forget what the various names were for each network, but there was an old one that they were trying to phase out.

Still, it's just a cheap Nokia 51-something or other. It does what I need it to.

 

[BunsGettingFirm]

By extending the argument against cellphone, who needs the Internet, the Early Retirement Forum, the postal service, pigeons, or smoke signals? We humans need communication. Anything that helps in exchanging information isn't going to go the way of the Pony Express unless something better at transmitting information comes along.

When I moved, I had no Internet for 3 weeks. I couldn't bank, I couldn't find the roads on which to ride my bike, and I couldn't look up, you know, pictures of attractive women. Luckily, I had my cellphone with a flat rate that covers all of North America. Otherwise, I'd be up a **** creek trying to get anything done.

 

[astromeria]

I'm with Andre (except on the insurance thing--unless you can't afford to replace an item--like a car or house or your health--or have a liability issue with it--like a car or house--why insure? I wouldn't pay 10 cents a month to insure my phone, since I'll replace it with a free or very cheap one anyhow). We have the same plan of shared (400) minutes and low-end, free Nokia phone since we moved to South Carolina a little over 4 years ago. My phone died a couple of years ago and they replaced it with an identical model for free--which fits exactly into a pocket in my purse (one of those little flip phones would get lost in the main compartment). Our biggest cell phone problmes are remembering to keep them charged, remembering to turn them on(!)--and for DH, remembering to take it with him!

 

[Andre1969]

yeah, my cell phone insurance is probably a waste of money, but I figure that the way I tend to drop things, lose them, etc, it makes me feel a bit better. However, I might have to re-check the policy, because there's probably a deductible on it nowadays. And the price of cell phones has only come down.

 

[Scrooge]

By extending the argument against cellphone, who needs the Internet, the Early Retirement Forum, the postal service, pigeons, or smoke signals? We humans need communication.

The difference is that the Internet, the postal service and these forums do not try to wake me up in the middle of the night!

There is only one person aside from my coworkers and clients who knows my cell number. The rest can use e-mail or regular mail if they need to get a hold of me.

 

[Martha]

Not only do I use cellphone for voice, but I use cellphone for internet.  It's a dedicated data-only cell card that plugs in to my PC (a.k.a. and "aircard").   In most areas - 3x dial up speeds (144Kbps.  In big cities - 3x DSL speeds (> 1.6Mbps).

I love being mobile and wireless.

Audrey

P.S. I'm using it right now - sitting in my campsite in Cle Elum, WA.

Same here, but we don't have a card and simply use the phone with a mobile office kit.

Are you with Verizon?

We have no land lines, just two cell phones. Works out well since we travel around a lot. The calls to each other are free so that is handy.

 

[justin]

DW has the $99/yr tracfone for mainly emergencies or 1 minute "I'm outside your office, come outside and let's go!" calls.

I find the trouble of paying for, owning, maintaining, charging, fixing, troubleshooting, reprogramming, dealing with customer service, etc. etc. more of a hassle than looking for a payphone when I need one (it's been years). I might change my mind the first time I break down on the side of the interstate in the middle of nowhere with the kids. Most likely DW (and her phone) will be there though if that happens. Otherwise I'm in the city near people, businesses and phones. And I'm a dude, so I can change a tire or put some water in the radiator if the need arises.

I like that work, family and friends CANNOT reach me when I don't want them too (except when I'm at home). Maybe I'm anti-social.

 

[justin]

Question for the cell data users: what it the monthly cost, and do you get unlimited data transfer, or does the cell co. cap your monthly usage at a certain number of MB's?

 

[Dawg52]

Looks like this girl needed a cell phone to be informed she no longer had a job.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060804/wl_uk_afp/britaintelecomjobs

 

[Scrooge]

I might change my mind the first time I break down on the side of the interstate in the middle of nowhere with the kids.

That's what CB radio is for

 

[Mwsinron]

That's what CB radio is for

Heh I remember that craze.

 

[Scrooge]

Heh I remember that craze.

Yep, it was rather silly at times, but as long as there is a friendly police officer monitoring the emergency channel 24x7, I don't care what's happening on the other 20ish (or was it more than that? haven't opened the gizmo in years) channels