I Don't Have a Cell Phone

[Andrew Joiner]

My grandson who's 13 thinks I'm really odd. He has no idea how well people got along before cell phones came to be. I don't feel the need to make or receive calls when I'm not home, so I'm happy.

We keep a land line for the faxing I need to do and we pay $22 a month for it. Is there a cell phone cheaper than that? I'd get one to save a few bucks.

I did have an inactive phone in my car just for a 911 emergency,but I kept forgetting to charge it. It got stolen recently so I do feel a slight need to have a phone for emergencies.

When friends find out I only have a land line many of them say "good for you, I wish I could do that".

Anyone here wish they could ditch their cell phone and why?

[Matt Meiser]

I don't. I'm planning to ditch the land line in the near future. I would have done it a while back if it wasn't required for DSL. The cable company is fixing that problem this summer.

I also don't wish I could ditch my car and get a horse and buggy.

Also don't wish I could ditch electricity and go back to using candles and oil lamps to light my house.

And so on and so on.

Related, why fax? I've had to send one fax in the last year to some backwards company. I haven't received a fax in at least a year.

[David Weaver]

Ditched the land line. FIL doesn't have a cell phone, but he pays for everyone else in the family to. In his case, I think it's reluctance to pay for an additional line that he really doesn't even want.

I could do without a cell phone no problem, but my wife wouldn't tolerate it. I really don't like to be out running errands and have the phone ringing in the middle of it with requests to add this or that to the list, or whatever. I'd rather go out the door, run the errands and not be bothered.

[Martin Jodoin]

I am with you Andrew. I never owned a cell phone, i don't want one & i don't need one. Maybe if i had a business that would be different but now i am happy with the land line.
i am not cheap, but i don't see the need to pay 60$ per month for a package.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I had a corporate cell phone since they first became available. For instant business communications, they are great.

With my wife driving alone to the Portland, OR area, I bought one of those Walmart specials several years ago where you buy time in block. She only used it IF she had an emergency.

Then nearly 3 years ago I awoke to find I had become deaf and my world changed. For reasons of personal safety, I was forced to retire. My wife retired at the same time. She travels MUCH more than I do and so we got our first "real" cell phones.....Smartphones.

I researched the phones for weeks BEFORE we went to a national carrier's office and purchased them. Why?

First, even with my cochlear implant, I struggle to hear and understand on telephones and cell phones. Thus texting became and is our main source of communication when she is out of town.

Secondly, when we are traveling even by car, it has become invaluable to be able access the internet for services like motels and car dealerships. For example, we scheduled the winter tours in Yellowstone National Park 2 years ago. Traveling on the interstate near Deerlodge, MT, the wind deflector over the back window on my Honda Pilot became loose and started flapping in the winter wind. My wife was able to look up the nearest Honda dealer which was in Butte, MT. She called them and they said bring it in when you get to town. 45 minutes later we pulled into the dealership and an hour later the problem was resolved and we were back on the road. We made our scheduled destination that evening and the day long tour scheduled for the next day.

BUT.....if we aren't traveling, I don't use mine and my wife is worse than any teen. She and her friends text each other from morning until bed time for goodness sake.

We also have the landline we have had since we bought this house 31 years ago. Why? 1 main reason is my CapTel captioning telephone requires it.

But...again....I turn my cell phone on once a month if neither of us are traveling. Then I charge it. If the either of us are traveling, I use my cell phone for texting and internet service.

[Ryan Mooney]

I think you'll have a moderately hard time beating $22/mo with a cell plan. I see a sprint prepaid for ~$30 and verizon for ~$50, there may well be some bundle deals that are cheaper but I got disgusted at trying to figure out the providers website to see what things actually cost (4 clicks to see a price and then I can't compare at all? Come on Verizon..). Verizon currently seems to have the best coverage locally though. Depending on your on-the-phone time a tracphone might be cheaper (they have a 50 minutes for $10/mo plan and some competitive yearly plans), not sure on local coverage quality. Don't bother with T-Mobile here, the coverage in The Gorge is unhappy making. The one saving is that most of them include domestic long distance in the plan so if a good chunk of your calling is long distance it might pay back some there.

I have a "smart" phone through work for oncall, but I don't really like to carry it otherwise. Mostly because the thing is HUGE and sucks battery like there is no tomorrow (I have a theory on how to make a useful holster for it but maybe should go with a backpack instead so I can carry an auxiliary battery )! I've had flip phones and a blackberry before that, out of the three I liked the flip phone the best as a phone because it was small, not in the road, had a nice belt holster, and had decent battery life. The modern smart phones are pretty much a hand computer, they need to be plugged in frequently and imho don't make very good phone (otoh the star trek tricorder looks somewhat quaint in many ways beside it - except for the med scan part we don't have that yet).

So at this point you could sort of say I don't have a cell phone because unless I'm oncall it sits on the side table plugged in and I pretty much never carry it - I tried for a couple of weeks but its kinda fragile to carry in your pocket and well.. huge. Might as well be a land line for all that goes at this point. Caveat: I have used it some for the gps navigation so I guess its also a car phone, but if I didn't have it I'd just use a cheap gps or (gasp) a map instead with no great sense of loss.

If you want to really blow his mind tell him about how we didn't used to have voice mail or answering machines either, or party lines.. Anyone else remember party lines

[Chris Padilla]

The one blow to ditching the landline forever, last I checked, is that 911 calls still cannot track cell/smart phone locations. I'm sure that will change and for 911 calls, it'll be good...for "others" wanting to track you, uh....

[Stephen Cherry]

I've got a walmart cell phone that has a bunch of different plans available. (I think that it is net10) 750 minutes for 25 spacebucks per month.

[Mac McQuinn]

I personally don't have one, need one or want one. Find them erratic in performance especially in specific regions. There's nothing more annoying than taking your wife to a nice place for dinner only to have some Knucklehead on a C/P blabbing three booths over for the whole place to hear.
Mac

[David Weaver]

There's a trend downtown here for people to walk down the street, talk on their phone like a normal person, then all of the sudden get excited and take the phone, hold it about 3 feet from their mouth out in front of them and downward and then scream whatever it is they're thinking.

This is not something done by educated individuals. Usually when someone is breaking up with someone else, trying to start a fight, or telling someone about how awesome something they just thought of was.

[Matt Day]

I'd say that I can't be without one, but it's also nice to have a weekend in the woods without one from time to time.

For instance, I'm posting to SMC right now on my iPhone. It's a quick and easy way to check CL and SMC without firing up the laptop. I also keep an eye on the weather with TWC app. And I text my wife quite a but during the day while she's at work. And I use it for GPS all the time too - so much easier especially since I've lived in two new to me cities in the past three years.

Before I was a stay at home dad (I have a 5 mo old) I texted quite a bit with the wifey at work, texted subcontractors and was constantly in the phone with them and coworkers. Phones were issued to all employees at my work, from field superintendents to project managers, and there wasn't a contractor I dealt with in 5 years that didn't have a cell. I think it's mandatory in this day and age for some types of work like mine.

I'm not saying you need an iPhone and a $100 per month plan, but there can be a lot of value in a smartphone if you know how to use it.

PS - my personal opinion is that faxes should be banned! You can get an all in one printer/scanner/copier for less than $50.

[Kevin Barnett]

Ditch the cell phone? No way. I read 99% of my emails, book flights, rental cars, and hotels, and call clients from places not near an office - all from a smart phone.

Ditch the land line? Would love to.
Ditch the gas guzzler for an electric car? Would like to.
Ditch the cell phone? I'd probably let you have my guns first.

[ray hampton]

I keep my cell turn off ,if it were up to me , all phones would be drop into water, when I get a land line call, most of the callers do not speak up so that I can understand them ,the people that stay on the phone all day seems to be the worse at talking very low

[Jim Matthews]

I'm sure that will change and for 911 calls, it'll be good...for "others" wanting to track you, uh....

Right, somebody actually wants to find us. Cell phones with GPS location features off are not easy to find.
If you pull the SIM card from the phone, they're impossible to triangulate.

Seriously, if you're going to indulge in paranoia - know the limits of your gear.
I also doubt that anyone, at any level of espionage much cares about us.

"Do not worry about avoiding temptation, as you grow older it avoids you."
Joey Adams.

[Jim Matthews]

I live in a backwater of Coastal Massachusetts, with some of the oldest power and POTS lines in the country.

Cellphones are more reliable than wires, uppa heya.
That said, I think there should be a NASCAR rule about anyone idling at an intersection - yapping on their phone.

It's a wonder there aren't more twennie-sumpins in ditches or out cold from walking into a lamp post.

It's projected narcissism of a very low order, in most cases.
(Unless it's me, sending you pictures of my kids - they're geniuses, you know.)