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Residents Dumping Landlines And Going Wireless Only
August 9, 2012
North Escambia residents and people across Florida are continuing to turn off traditional home phone lines as they rely on wireless phones and voice services from Internet providers.
According to a new report by the Florida Public Service Commission traditional residential lines declined 16 percent between December 31, 2010, and December 31, 2011. During the same period, business lines increased 8 percent.
The report also says about 17.6 million wireless handsets were in service as of June 2011, or nearly one for every Floridia resident.
Overall, the report said 93 percent of Florida households had telephone service as of July 2011, slightly lower than the national rate of 96 percent.
In an informal Facebook survey, we asked NorthEscambia.com readers what they think about landlines versus cell service only.
Here are selected responses:
- “I would not rely on my cell phone. I am in Cottage Hill and Sprint is awful on my road.” — Rhonda Johnson, Cottage Hill
- “We have had our cell phone for seven years…been without a home phone for close to nine years,” — Kimberly McCullough, Walnut Hill
- “Been seven years with only a cell phone and for the last three years no computer; everything done over my cell phone. Don’t think I will ever have a land line. Bigger question might be why should anyone have a land line?” — Autry Singleton, Walnut Hill
- “I only use my cell phone. Land line is to expensive for long distance and all the other features that are standard on cell phones.” — Amber Chestnut, Pensacola
- “We have not had a house phone in over seven years. We cut it out just to cut expenses and with kids, we always gave schools/people our cell phones in case they were off and got hurt or needed anything.” — Jennifer Peebles, McDavid
- “I have a landline because about 90 percent of the time my cell through Sprint does not work out here. The texts works most of the time and sometimes it rings. But for the most part you lose the one you are talking to within a minute. Bright House in not always dependable, but at least I know I have a line out most of the time.” — Rhonda Johnson, Cottage Hill
- “I only have cell phone.” — Wendy Booker, Jay
- “If we could get internet in our location from someone other than the “Phone Co.” we would probably cut our home phone. For now, since we wish to keep the DSL internet, we have a phone that is for incoming calls and outgoing 911 calls only. I feel a little safer that we have a “landline” to make 911 calls.” — Nancy Peters, Walnut Hill
- “We have cell phones only and internet through ATT Uverse.” — Jessica Smith-Jalomo, Milton
- “Called Bright House yesterday and told them to turn off TV and Phone. We do not use enough of either to have to pay for it. I decided to keep Bright House internet and that gives us access to every thing we could possibly need.” — Donna Barnes, Cantonment
- “We ditched our landline about four years ago!” — Tammie Dortch, Bratt
- “We disconnected our landline several years ago because the bill made no sense. A basic package with voice mail and caller ID was only supposed to be $32 but after all the taxes and fees it came up to nearly $65! And my husband and I still needed cell phones so we could be reached away from home in case of an emergency with the kids. Each cell is a flat $50 a month (I did away with contract cell service because they had the same billing problems as the landline) so budgeting is much easier.” — Gwen Butler, Pensacola
- “I don’t have a landline anymore. Just my cell. Internet sevice at home and wifi hotspot from Verizon.” — Dave Murzin, Pensacola
- “No landline here. Cell phone is a necessity!” — Katie Mayo, Pensacola
- “We cut our landline off about three years ago after having one for over 20 years. Everyone in our family has Verizon cellphones and we realized that we was just paying a bill each month for solicitors to annoy us. We have not missed ours at all.” — Kimberly Burkett, Byrneville
Comments
22 Responses to “Residents Dumping Landlines And Going Wireless Only”
Jerry A. I am in EMS and have been for 10 years. My husband is a police officer here. Trust me in that time and time again, Cell phones are NOT reliable in an emergency where the location needs to be pinpointed right away. It does NOT happen. Over and over, cell calls for 911 are sent to far away places and precious time is lost trying to figure out who and where they are. A lot of places dont have enhanced 911. I cant tell you how many times we are left hanging trying to figure out where someone is that needs us. Maybe one day cell phones will work that way but it does NOT happen now I assure you. maybe wher e you are it does work, but in the atmore, brewton, bay minette, mobile area it does not, certainly not efficiently enough in an emergency. Sure wish it did because it would make mine and my husbands jobs a lot easier and more efficient. I would LOVE to be rid of my landline but my peace of mind is worth it. as far as late night or sales calls, i just keep the ringer on my phone off. Problem solved!
got a cell phone, also a landline, and dsl. that landline always works, never has poor quality and is very dependable even when the power is off. my kids text can’t carry on a conversation. keeping my landline. if anything goes it will be the cell.
I have a land line because I actually use phones for voice conversations. Yes, some people actually use phones for talking. Of course, phone conversation seems like something that is a lost art. I’ve noticed that “Cell phone only” people don’t really talk on their phones- they text, send photos, facebook messages, etc. I personally hate texting, but for many people it seems to have replaced talking. Notice that cell phone companies brag about having “fewer dropped calls.” Not one of them claims to have “zero dropped calls.” That’s because cell phones are not reliable. Period.
@William – Yes I agree there are still some glitches in the system, but I can tell you from experience that there are a heck of a lot more successes than there are failures.
We also cut our landline after noise in the lines drove us crazy and price and fee rises. We just recently went with Walmarts Straight Talk at $45/Month and Samsung Proclaim which is a verizon service straight talk android phone which recently came out. Transfered our phone number in 15 minutes. Best deal we’ve done as we traded in our old cell plan. For those that want an Android Phone on Verizon, The Samsung Proclaim is a great deal. The negative is you have to buy the phone for about $180 but for those of us in the rural communities where ATT is poor, this is a good option. There are several Samsung phones on ST that sound similiar but use ATT networks so make sure you get the Proclaim if you need verizon
landline and cell phone is just as good you can do the same thing but landline is most of the time always on cell phone you can lose connection.
>>> With the technology built into cell phone systems today and with Enhanced 911 system, the 911 operator can pinpoint your exact location using GPS that is built into cell phone.
Don’t count on it working. I’ve listened to dozens and dozens of emergency responses to 911 calls from cell phones were dispatchers only had GPS information from the cell phone. Deputies, fire trucks and ambulances respond to the wrong house, to empty fields, or on many occasions the cell tower itself because the GPS coordinates are wrong.
And what’s worse are the 911 only or prepaid phones with no minutes — emergency dispatchers can’t call the phone back to get more information.
@susan odum. With the technology built into cell phone systems today and with Enhanced 911 system, the 911 operator can pinpoint your exact location using GPS that is built into cell phone.
For those complaining about landlines and getting all those sales calls, well you have the option of answering it or not, that is pretty simple solution if you ask me. I have caller ID and if I do not recognize a number, if it is a toll free number or ID shows Out of Area, I just simply do not answer. If whomever is calling thinks it is important they will leave a message. My phone system also has the capability to block these call. SO if the caller does not leave a message, I put a block on the calling number.
As for cell phone, there is no protection from them either for sales and campaign calls. My daughter has a cell phone and she is constantly getting sales and campaign calls and her number is registered with the Do Not Call registry, but like e with my ID, she does not answer with unknown numbers.
What it boils down to is nothing more than personal preference.
I agree with Jes below. I got a new house phone and with it a pile of calls from people asking for money. I cancelled it in 1 month.
I now have Verizon because I thought it was just Nextel that sucked but I was mistaken, I can not depend on Verizon either. Yes, it is expensive having a land line and a cell phone but I have an elderly mother and I don’t want to chance missing that “middle of the night” phone call if she needs me…or any other family member as far as that goes.
Still have land line because I have Gulf Powers Good Cents Select on my home and it has to transmitt via the land line..if it wasn’t for that I would have disconnected the land line a long time ago…I see the comments about the Sprint Service dropped calls and no service. That happens a lot with Sprint in the Pensacola Cantonment areas. They told me over two years ago that they were aware of the problem and were updating towers in this area and the problem would be fixed in a month or two..well it never was..I kept dropping calls and even had no service in my home area all of the time..so when I called back to complain again they tried to say it was my phone . Well 2 new phones later still no change in service…except when I traveled to Orlando and had perfect service down there..Sprint sucks in this area.
We have to keep a landline because my spouse has a medical device that records and transmits data to the doctor on a daily basis through the landline.
Everyone calls our cell phone, and the only calls we were getting on our landline were political surveys, charities asking for money, and accidental drink dial wrong numbers at midnight. 5-6 calls a day just from various charities asking for donations and refusing to take no for an answer as they told me why their charity was more deserving than the other 5-6 that had called the same day. We cancelled it, and couldn’t be happier to be done with all those calls.
“Been seven years with only a cell phone and for the last three years no computer; everything done over my cell phone. Don’t think I will ever have a land line. Bigger question might be why should anyone have a land line?” — Autry Singleton, Walnut Hill
Autry, I think that the bigger question is why would I want a cell phone? My home phone is cheaper than most cell phone and their inflated plans and I can call the same places that you do without incurring any extra charge. I have been the route of the cell phone and I prefer the land line over it.
Everything the others said and when a storm hits, the cells usually die. I keep a plain phone on hand as wire free die without electricity. I plug in my old phone and I am in business. Sometimes peace of mind is costly.
With a cell phone only, No political phone calls that goodness!!!!!!
Nrichard you are right. Even if there is no dial tone, you are still able to reach 911.
Assuming of course that the phone jack is still connected to something. If you have cable internet phone and the cable company hooked it up through your house jacks, then they would have disconnected that outside line.
Our phone line has been disconnected for years. I ended up just removing the jacks and replacing them with just blank wall plates since they are never going to be used again.
@ the comment about Sprint in Cottage Hill, yes sometimes it takes a couple tries for a call to connect (text messages have trouble too), Sprint said they are aware of the issue because they are upgrading the towers in the area, but that was several months ago. I have never had a call or a text fail to go through.
If I remember correctly you don’t have to have service to reach 911 on a landline. Just plug the phone into the jack and dial 911.
I agree with Ms Odom’s comment. My best friend is an EMT in Atlanta and we’ve had the same discussions. The example he gave me was about a mother that had fell while cleaning and her young child picked up the cellphone and called 911, but was so scared that they couldn’t understand where the girls address was and it took upwards of 20 minutes to find the correct house. Regardless of what your average citizen says, 911 and cellphone programs will only get you within a certain area, now the EMS have to guess which house is yours because they don’t have an address like they would if the call had came from a landline. Now that address can be obtained by the 911 calling your phone provider and asking for the billing address for that number, then hopefully it would match the location being pinged within that area. What if our babysitter was at our house and we did not have a landline, someone broke in and the babysitter became injured, but she was able to call 911 from her cell, but she was unable to talk. Now the EMS have no clue where she’s at other than some guess, which could be a circle several hundred yards in diameter or even miles. That’s a large area to start searching for someone and if they call the phone provider and get a billing address it’s not going to match, because the babysitter is using her phone at my address. It’s possible she could be found in several minutes or it may take 40 minutes, but we all know each minute is crucial during an emergency. Think it could have all been avoided if they would have called from a landline. William it would be nice to know how our local 911 would receive emergency calls. Are 911 calls from mobile phones a headache to dispatchers in our area?
I use my landline for safety reasons… cell phones don’t get reception where I am during bad weather. During hurricanes I still had my landline and my internet for emergency use and to contact family members.
There is something very important that people need to remember when using a cell phone instead of a landline when dialing 911. When you dial 911 from a cell phone, there is no telling what 911 center that your call will end up going to. It is very common for the call to go to Mobile, Pensacola or other areas. Once you get that 911 operator from out of the area, they have to figure out where you are, figure out what 911 center to direct you to and then connect you to them. And that is IF you are connected to the right place. Talk about wasted time! Just one tiny example is a 911 call that was made via a cell phone and given to atmore. It turns out the person calling 911 lived in Mobile. Thankfully, we had a call back number and it acutally worked, which is not always the case. We were able to figure out where the person was calling from. Imagine if the caller was too sick, injured or upset to speak.
Now, if you call 911 from a landline, you get several advantages. First, the call shows up on a computer screen in the correct 911 center. The screen shows a map and exactly where the call is coming from, the address and the name of the residence. Should the caller be unable to speak, get confused or not know where they are, the 911 screen shows ems, fire and police right where to go. Also the call back number is clearly displayed. Should the caller hang up or get disconnected before being able to give location information, the landline call information will be right there, where a dropped cell phone call does not. This advantage saved my own life when I was choking at home alone and had to dial 911. I couldnt speak at all but with my landline 911 call, the dispatcher knew exactly where the 911 call was coming from. My own police officer husband saved my life. We are happy to pay the $15-20 a month for a landline for this peace of mind.
Being in EMS and seeing over and over the difficulties and time delays in cell phones for 911, I highly recommend that people rethink not having a land line. What if towers are down, your cell phone dies, or you cannot think or speak? There are times of course where a cell phone is the only phone available. If you are able to speak, be sure to immediately tell the dispatcher who answers, what town and state you are located in, your call back number and your address. You can also program your local police department that serves your area into your phone so you can call then from your cell direct. Just remember, a landline saved my life. It might also save yours.