We switched our landline to VoIP with ITP in 2006. It's $10 a month ($15.07 with taxes and fees) and we've been very happy with it.
We'd get rid of it altogether but then how would the telemarketers get a hold of us? They're the only people that use the number. Google voice sounds good.
Wow! Thank you, everyone, for your responses. If there are more options out there as well, do not hesitate to mention them. One of the main reasons is that we have found we normally don't even pick up a handset for our landline to call anyone. DH is self-employed and he gives his customers our landline number for contacting him (he doesn't want just everyone knowing his cellphone #), thus the reason for wanting to port it. We use our cellphones for almost everything else. I will have to do some research on the Google Voice option...it does sound intriguing. Thanks again!
we thought the same way,had 2 straight talk cell phones and a land line, dropped the land line and got vonage basic,2 years later probably will drop vonage and just use the cell phones,as we get older,trying to get more basic,plus save some money.
Jackthewonderdog wrote: Can't think of any emergency where the phone companies or governement would shut down any commnication service short of a popular revoltion against the govenment and then I doubt you having phone service is a pressing need. Wasn't shut during 911, or Katrina. THe only thing that shuts it is damage to the service itself and is more likely to hit cell towers then land lines. I think we are getting way off OP subject.
While you may get a dial tone, you may not have service. When infrastructure is damaged after a natural disaster, service is prioritized. If there is limited capacity for circuits, residential users are at the bottom of the priority list. This would explain the inability for people in a disaster zone to call out or to receive calls from loved ones outside the disaster zone. So the answer to the question whether a land line will always be there for communications is no. As for your statement that the phones worked after Katrina, with major phone switches underwater after that storm, I can tell you from personal experience that the land lines did not always work.
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Jackthewonderdog wrote: Can't think of any emergency where the phone companies or governement would shut down any commnication service short of a popular revoltion against the govenment and then I doubt you having phone service is a pressing need. Wasn't shut during 911, or Katrina. THe only thing that shuts it is damage to the service itself and is more likely to hit cell towers then land lines. I think we are getting way off OP subject.
While you may get a dial tone, you may not have service. When infrastructure is damaged after a natural disaster, service is prioritized. If there is limited capacity for circuits, residential users are at the bottom of the priority list. This would explain the inability for people in a disaster zone to call out or to receive calls from loved ones outside the disaster zone. So the answer to the question whether a land line will always be there for communications is no. As for your statement that the phones worked after Katrina, with major phone switches underwater after that storm, I can tell you from personal experience that the land lines did not always work.
Strangely enough when the phone lines were out, I was able to text an Officer in flooded MS and allow him to talk with his wife texting.
His wife and kids relocated to North Alabama for safety. The wife bought a cell phone the next day and I taught her how to text.
They are back in MS now, but I still get an occasional text from them. Nice folks.
For the record, I'm not a texter, but knew how.
I don't have a clue how texting is different from regular cellular antennas, but it worked for us during Katrina.
I now have a cell with a keyboard, just in case...
Jackthewonderdog wrote: Can't think of any emergency where the phone companies or governement would shut down any commnication service short of a popular revoltion against the govenment and then I doubt you having phone service is a pressing need. Wasn't shut during 911, or Katrina. THe only thing that shuts it is damage to the service itself and is more likely to hit cell towers then land lines. I think we are getting way off OP subject.
While you may get a dial tone, you may not have service. When infrastructure is damaged after a natural disaster, service is prioritized. If there is limited capacity for circuits, residential users are at the bottom of the priority list. This would explain the inability for people in a disaster zone to call out or to receive calls from loved ones outside the disaster zone. So the answer to the question whether a land line will always be there for communications is no. As for your statement that the phones worked after Katrina, with major phone switches underwater after that storm, I can tell you from personal experience that the land lines did not always work.
I did not say the phones worked after Katrina or 911, I said the service was not shut off by the phone companies or the government. During 911 most of the cell equipment was located on WTC tower 1. The reason that calls do not go through other than damage to service equipment is because the sheer volume of calls overwhelms the switches. The same thing happens on Mother’s Day almost every year.
There is no such thing as priority of service favoring the government. All the phone companies can do is attempt to rout certain segments of calls to lesser used lines/switches. They cannot for example pick out and prioritize calls from one police department to another or 911 calls since those calls are coming from residents in most cases, ditto federal agencies. Police and military use alternate means of communication such as radio not only in emergency but in routine calls, even that does not always work.
When you have an incredible diversity of calls to and from cell to landlines and land to cell, cell to cell and land to land, each individual in the government would have their phone number and type registered in a database as well as an ever updated location and cell tower/landline routing to be of any value. It does not exist. I have designed and tested disaster plans for about 30 years and some of the worse plans belong to phone companies and governments. Good ones belong to major banks.
Cell calls can and do use landline routes depending on the location accessed, the switches handing the calls can handle either. If the central office is damaged, big dodo.
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Google voice sounds good.
