Landline Or Cell Phone, or VoIP: Which to Keep and What to Ditch

Landline or cell phone? This discussion is crossing people’s minds more and more these days.





Cell phone usage has exploded in the last decade and a half. In the last five years, the number of people who have gone from having a cell phone as their only phone has jumped from under 1% of all telephone users to nearly 15%, and it is likely to grow.

If you like cell calling and having a landline both, it may be worth tossing the landline if the following conditions work for you.

First, do you need a central phone number for the entire family? If you do, then a landline may still be your best bet. However, if you've already got multiple landline numbers, one for each teenager, and one for the office, the cell calling phone package (especially with a family calling plan) is certainly a better value.

Second, do you live in an area with adequate cell phone coverage? Not all areas have good cell coverage, and cell phones drop calls. If the answer is 'no', stick with the landline and carry the cell for traveling, or look into getting a cell phone signal repeater or booster; they are coming down rapidly in price and in size, and have gotten a lot more reliable in the last year.

Third, if you have a broadband connection at home, you may be better off using a Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony solution, provided by your broadband provider. This usually comes in at about 2/3 of the price of a conventional landline, with unlimited long distance and local VoIP for home calls.

The first is convenience; your cell phone is always on you, you have only one number, and everyone knows what it is. Features that cost extra on landlines (like Caller ID, voice mail and three way calling) are free on cell phones for the most part.

Second, nearly every cell phone provider allows calls on their network to be free, and the number of minutes gained in a monthly contract has gone up every year for the last three years, with lots of competitors trying to find ways around them as a way to get people to switch.

These are things like "favorite five" promotions or "roll over minutes".

If you are in an area with good cell phone coverage, there is very little reason to take a landline again. So the decision of either landline or cell phone is becoming a bit easier.

There are drawbacks to a cell phone, however. The phones are smaller, and while the iPhone has revolutionized the smart phone, they are still technical devices.

They get overly warm if they are used for too long. The buttons can be very small, and the text can be hard to read…and, of course, if you forget to charge it up, or keep it on the charger, it will not work.

None of these are insurmountable hurdles, but they're one of the reasons why landline or cell phone only is an example of a generational divide.

Custom Search