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Question of the day

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Illinois

* The setup…

A new survey finds that an increasing number of Illinoisans are abandoning landline telephones in favor of cellphones only _ especially if they live near Chicago and St. Louis.

The report released Wednesday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that almost 30 percent of Cook County residents over age 18 live in wireless-only households. The estimate is even higher _ 31.5 percent _ in Madison and St. Clair counties.

In the rest of Illinois, an estimated 22 percent of adults live in households with only cellphones.

* The Question: Are you considering ditching your landline phone? Or, have you already done so? Why or why not?

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:39 am

Comments

Dicthed landline several months back. could no longer justify paying $60/month to AT&T.

Comment by Ravenswood Right Winger Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:42 am
My landline was receiving limited use. Toward the end, the only calls being received on that phone were from telemarketers and other solicitations. I kept this line for the sole purpose of faxing from my MFP. Now that almost everyone have converted to email, the fax was never used. I found that the best justification I had for this landline was my long-time fondness for the number (which shared its last four digits with my cell).

These facts led me to cancel my landline service. Smartest move I made in a long time.

Comment by Cincinnatus Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:43 am
I’m 24 and I haven’t had a land line since I stopped living with my mom at 18. I’m pretty sure my college stopped offering them in dorm rooms during my sophomore year.

Comment by Deana Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:43 am
I haven’t done it yet, but I certainly would consider ditching the land line. For now, I use the land line mostly for unimportant calls (e.g., it’s the number I give out when I have to fill out forms). I also give that number to people I’d rather not talk to

But my QOTD is: why are the CDC doing this study?

Comment by the Other Anonymous Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:44 am
I have thought about it but haven’t done it yet. We have the package through Comcast and I assume eliminating the landline would be a nominal savings. It’s nice having a 24 hr active line but it seems that the only calls I receive on it are from are from soliciters.

Comment by Stones Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:44 am
I ditched my land line about 5 years ago, it’s just easier to get all my calls to one place. Plus, I have a 224 number and it’s fun to confuse people with

Comment by Crow04 Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:48 am
Stones, I wonder about that, as well. What is the big deal? I keep a landline for $16/ from AT&T. It’s available to anyone, has no added features, just a phone line. I feel safer with one. I know ALOT of elderly people who depend on their landlines. I don’t want them pushed out of the market, and that’s where I feel this is going. Why the waste of time/energy if someone isn’t going to make a bundle off of this?

Comment by Fan of Cap Fax Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:48 am
Haven’t had landline since 2003. And as late at 2002, I resisted getting a mobile phone and relied on home and work landlines.

Comment by Carl Nyberg Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:48 am
No.
We have three landlines and six cell lines.
How could we complain about Cr*ppy service if we weren’t paying customer.
It’s not like we are lib Dem, welfare staters

Comment by CircularFiring Squad Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:49 am
Ditched landline 24-30 months ago. Only reason to have kept it is because of inability to connect via cell phone due to some catastrophic event that clogs airwaves ( 9-11-type event)

Comment by When Will Warm Weather Arrive? Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:49 am
I still have a land line for the simple fact that in an emergency will the cell towers survive a tornado? I was around New York on 911 and the cell traffic was so high that for most of the day I got a busy signal.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:51 am
Fan of Cap Fax: It’s nice having the landline esp for those of us with kids or elderly parents. I for one don’t like to leave my cell on 24/7. One of these days I am going to call my cable provider to find out what savings I can really get by eliminating the landline altogether. My thought is that it’s just a “throw in” in the package. The landline seems to be more hassle that it is really worth.

Comment by Stones Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:52 am
Still have the land line only because my wife won’t let me give it up (though we never use it). I found it odd that this study/survey came from the CDC as I am not sure exactly what their interest would be.

Comment by Fed Up Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:53 am
I got rid of land line five years ago. No one called it except telemarketers. Don’t miss it.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:53 am
keeping the landline. emergency use. in case power goes out, cell phone charge down. have had too many instances where power goes out, am not near cell phone, landline right by bedside, calling the power company in the dark. helpful.

Comment by amalia Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:56 am
I’m 30, and haven’t had a landline for years. At this point I’m socially expected to have a cell phone, and it just seemed like an unnecessary cost to pay for a phone that’s just solicitor bait.

I do worry about cell overload during a disaster, or having a dead cell in an emergency. And I feel left out during election robocall/GOTV season.

Comment by whetstone Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:57 am
I haven’t decided yet. I still feel like I could use both for various reasons. A cell phone is good when you’re out and about, but I don’t think I want to have a conversation at all times when I’m not at home.

Comment by Levois Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:58 am
We have a landline, but it’s handled through my internet provider. We have battery backup which is helpful and gives about 24 hours of service in the even of power outage.

We keep it because our alarm/home security company charges a mint for a cellular solution.

Comment by How Ironic Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:59 am
I haven’t had a landline since 2004.

Comment by Tom B. Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:59 am
Gave up lane line 10 years ago. No need for it with cable internet and wireless phone.

Comment by Louis Howe Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 10:59 am
I’m still holding on to my AT&T landline, for little apparent reason. I get my dsl via AT&T, so I think I still need the hardware if not the phone, and my Direct TV requires a phone line for certain services. But like others, I have the mimimalist, no frills package for $16 per month.

When I move, that’s probably going to be the end of it though. It’ll give the chance to make a clean break with all of my service providers (internet, phone, cell, cable, etc.) and hopefully consolidate in an easy to use package that meets my needs and doesn’t give me stuff I never use. Like a land line.

I will miss the telemarketers though.

Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:00 am
I haven’t had a home line for over a year and my parents, in their 70’s haven’t had a phone in 2 years when they switch their internet to cell.

Comment by Tom Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:00 am
Haven’t had a landline since I went off to college in 04. Everyone I know has my cell number, and there’s no reason to go through the hassle of changing it/giving out a new number.

Comment by Served Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:01 am
The landline is our only choice for non-smartphone access to internet via DSL, price point to keep the phone service with it is reasonable, so we keep it.
ATT has unlimited GB use via DSL (soon to change to 150 GB/Mo.) allows for a lot more use than the 4GB smartphone rates.

Comment by one day at a time Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:01 am
No land-line, no cable/satellite TV going on two years. Don’t miss either one and certainly LOVE not paying the bills.

Comment by Anonymouse Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:02 am
Only reason we still have a landline is for the house alarm. Well, that and because AT&T can’t seem to provide reliable service during home Cubs games, but that was already covered on a CF post a few days back.

Comment by jayhawk97 Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:03 am
It looks like they did the survey to keep their Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) program relevant.

http://www.cdc.gov/news/2007/07/SurveySystem.html

Comment by 815Ω Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:03 am
Since CapitolFax went online there’s no reason to have a landline.

Comment by piling on Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:04 am
Got rid of the landline about 3 years ago. Saved about 40 a month (with taxes and all) and don’t miss it. Tornados and such also take out landlines, so I don’t see that as a real issue.

Another issue that I had was “if” someone used the land line, the charges were so high it was easily almost another 10 USD with taxes. And that was for a “local” call!!

Comment by Pat Collins Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:04 am
landline? What’s that?

Cell phone - Yep
Skype - Yep
Google Voice - Yep

Landline…no thanks, I will keep the $20 a month in my pocket thank you very much.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:04 am
I get my dsl via AT&T, so I think I still need the hardware if not the phone

ATT will NOT let you have DSL without a landline phone. Well, they will, but will charge you enough to make keeping the landline cheaper. I looked into that when I went cell only. So I went cell, and dropped DSL for cable internet!

ATT: The wrong choice

Comment by Pat Collins Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:07 am
Thought about eliminating the land line but still have one because (a) E911 locating service is exact with a land line, it’s only within 150 feet or so with a cell, (b) land lines work during power outages since there is a battery bank and power for the phone lines is supplied from the central office (assumes you have a direct wired phone, not a portable), (c) the speaker phone on the cell phones isn’t as good as on a home line and that’s important for people with hearing aids like the Mrs and (d) the cost isn’t that much if you get the stripped down service.

Note: Something a lot of people don’t understand … when I talk about the E911 location benefits, that only applies to a land line directly from one of the telcos / RBOCs … it does NOT apply to IP based phone services like Comcast, Vonage, etc. that use your internet / cable service to provide phone service.

Comment by Retired Non-Union Guy Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:10 am
Ditched the landline 2 years ago. Couldn’t justify spending more than $700 a year on a phone that only received calls from solicitors.

Comment by A.B. Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:10 am
I’m keeping my landline. The cellphone industry wants us to believe that wireless usage has no adverse health effects, but there are simply too many legitimate studies out that suggest otherwise. I’m willing to spend a little bit of extra money to protect the health of my brain.

Comment by Watching from a distance Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:21 am
I ditched my land line around 10 to 12 years ago, it didnt/dosn’t make since to pay for 2 lines.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:23 am
We still have “landline” as part of ATT Uverse package. Since it is connected to the cable tv and internet service, the phone goes out when cable and internet are down. Seems kinda worthless. When is my Uverse contract up?

Comment by Long-time Lurker Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:30 am
We kept our landline but switched to a package through our cable provider, so it costs significantly less. I wanted to keep the landline, but it was getting hard to justify the cost.

Comment by fisher Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:31 am
Would ditch land line in a micro-second is I could get my wife to agree. She still wants landline even though she has cellphone, onstar and skype.

Comment by WRMNpolitics Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:32 am
I have only used my cell phone for the past two years. The reasons include- not wanting to change numbers if I move, wanting to decrease solicitation calls, and to not incur the added expense of a landline.

Comment by Bring Back Boone's Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:35 am
Living in an old WWI government built house with concrete walls. No one can get cell phone service in my house unless you stand at the window at an exact angle as to not be blocked by the concrete house next door.

Comment by 2true Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:45 am
Have a landline with two sets of phones on it: the cordless types that need to be recharged constantly and go out when power fails and one that says on no matter what.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 11:49 am
I have AT and T and DSL, so keeping the landline is cheaper, as a few others pointed out.
Comcast runs some nice specials on internet etc. But after their nice price period the prices go up considerably and they won’t let you pick up on any more promotional specials, only the first one they get you on.

Comment by 3rd Generation Chicago Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 12:13 pm
Ditched the land line at $50 per month, ported the phone number to a cell plan for $10 per month. Easy $40 per month savings.

Comment by Wondering... Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 12:15 pm
Going to ditch the landline when I move back downtown. Which makes me wonder - Will I need to change my capfaxblog nickname?

Comment by 10th Indy Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 12:29 pm
Still have the land line but would love to get ride of it if my spouse would agree. We rarely use it and frequently don’t even answer it.

Comment by Because I say so Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 12:38 pm
Pretty sure I’m dumping the landline soon. AT&T just eliminated my biz discount. Adios.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 12:40 pm
Still have the landline as others have said with no frills. My satellite TV updates over it, I get DSL from same company and need some hardware, sometimes I need to fax documents, and also keep it as other have said for emergency in case cell towers are down or jammed. I also keep it as I give that number out to all the people who require a phone number. Banks, credit cards, etc. because I do not want them having my cell number. I don’t want to be getting political/fund raising/charity donation calls on my cell.

Comment by Irish Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 1:10 pm
Rich, Get rid of the landline. It’s very liberating. Your “home” becomes wherever you are…your boat, your office, the capitol.

We have a second home that we occupy during part of the year. Found it very liberating to ditch landlines at both homes and just go with our cell phones. Took my extended family about 5 minutes to get used to it.

It’s wonderfully liberating to be traveling and know that anyone that needs to get ahold of me can do so directly.

I know very busy and active business executives that have ditched their home landline as well. Not for the expense, but just to reduce the hassle of having another voice mail (or answering machine) from which they have to retrieve messages.

Comment by Observer Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 1:15 pm
Have both. Intend to keep both. It would feel weird to me not to have a landline. I guess I am more of a dinosaur than I believed.

Comment by Jake From Elwood Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 1:30 pm
@Jake from Elwood - You’re not a dinosaur. I have both cell and landline with a great Uverse package from AT&T. Very reasonable. Landline never goes out in a power outage.

Comment by persnickety Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 1:43 pm
I did it over 10 years ago. All my friends called me on my Cell, and I got tired of the Landline charges that kept going up and up.

Now I have my Iphone and my bill is still going up and up.

Comment by He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 1:45 pm
For those that still have landlines, I certainly understand the attraction.

One question - Do you find that your friends increasingly call you on your cell phone rather than the landline? If so, it’s probably the fact that cell phones (attached to our hips) are viewed as a more direct way to reach someone- quickly.

Comment by Observer Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 1:47 pm
My landline auto-forwards to my cell phone. It’s really stupid. I’ve kept the landline as a backup, but I’m not sure why.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 1:50 pm
Keeping it for now. Only use it for local service and home monitoring system is connected to land line to call my cell if the power goes off or we get water in the basement.

Comment by Jimbos Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 1:52 pm
Got rid of the land line a 3-4 years ago. The line was crappy, we never used it, and the babysitters always had a cell. We got a “home cell” when the kids were old enough to be home alone. The extra cell is ten bucks a month, much cheaper than a basic land line.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 1:56 pm
Never seriously considered dropping landline, because the public needs to be able to contact me, and I am NOT going to publish my cell phone. Use it quite a bit for calls that I make-easier to hear on with/without hearing aids, and hold on your shoulder while writing. Also, landline answering machine can be used to screen calls from undesirables like “political calls” and other solicitors, esp. with caller id. Cell phones make you use your own minutes to hear a commercial for something you’re not interested in.
One problem that I recently experienced was losing my cell phone…and the sim card with all of the cell phone #s on it.

Comment by downstate commissioner Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 1:59 pm
Have kept landline with stripped down package for 9-1-1 and post-9/11 purposes. Even bought an old beige, Western Electric 12-button desk phone on EBay ($10 + shipping) a couple years ago in case of power outage. (Have twice used it when power knocked out and couldn’t charge cells.) Also, TiVo updates over landline, as does postage meter.

Comment by "Marge? Get Me CEntral 3-2254" Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 2:04 pm
I still have my landline. The main reason I haven’t got rid of it is that it seems, from checking caller id, that 90% of the incoming calls seem to originate from the banks I have credit cards with. I don’t really want to give them my cell number.

Comment by White Rabbit Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 2:11 pm
Got rid of the land line 12 years ago. Once you do (good or bad) you will no longer be in the phone book. That’s the only reason my mom keeps her land line.

Comment by Casual Observer Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 2:13 pm
I have landline with dsl for at home business (only way to get in yellow pages) and occasionally use a tracfone….

Comment by Liberty First Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 2:19 pm
I have a land line but it has no phone attached and I couldn’t tell you what the number is. I just need it for the internet connection.

I once plugged a phone into it for a few days and it rang like crazy. Telemarketers I guess. Or worse, robocalls.

Comment by The Captain Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 2:20 pm
Got rid of my landline last year and replaced it with magicjack, which works fine and has better voicemail than AT&T for 19.95 a year.

Comment by reformer Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 2:51 pm
I have a land line and a dedicated fax land line as well. Probably old-fashioned. My TV and internet broadband from COMCRAP is interrupted or messed up so often, I couldn’t imagine having their VOIP service to rely on. Everyone here has a cell phone, too. No plans to change unless someone comes up with a Hell of an offer.

Comment by Behind The Scenes Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 2:53 pm
Was going to ditch the landline, then read Stephen King’s “The Cell”…keeping landline for now and waiting on results of CDC study…(snark included)

Comment by Captain Illini Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 2:57 pm
We have U-verse at home. Dropped the land line and ported the phone number to Ooma VOIP. Works great and saves $35/month. U-verse is for internet only. No tv package of any kind. A antenna provides all local channels in HD and Netflix instant stream works for movies if you can wait a month or two after they come out.

Comment by LocalGovGuy Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 3:01 pm
Got rid of my land line 5 years ago when I Insight gave me broadband internet. I couldn’t justify that $20 a month to ATT when the only people that called me on that number were telemarketers and my doctor’s office to remind me of my appointments. I never told the Board of Elections about my cell number, so I don’t get annoying political calls on my cell. I recommend that to all my friends.

Comment by Not It Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 3:12 pm
Ditched land line last fall. Saved $50/month by converting land line # to a cell phone with same features (caller id, voice mail, etc.). Hardly use land line number–give it out to people I don’t want to talk to. LOL. Only downside: No longer will be listed in the phone book.

Comment by @ all Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 3:25 pm
Went all cellular years ago. My security system is cellular also.

Comment by Norseman Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 3:47 pm
Neighbor of mine went cellular a few years ago. She is elderly (over 90) and has mobility issues. She is able to live in her home alone now that she has a service like Life Alert. For that service she had to reinstate the landline.

Comment by Nearly Normal Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 3:57 pm
Ditched my landline eight years age, saved 70% on phone expenses.

Comment by Wensicia Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 4:00 pm
Ditched the home phone 7 years ago. There really wasn’t any reason to have it other than the emergency call and the cell phone is usually closer than any landline was anyway.

Comment by Anon Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 4:09 pm
Haven’t had a land line since I left for college 11 years ago.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Apr 21, 11 @ 4:15 pm