Increasingly, US Households Going Cell Phone Only

Did you know after Obama is sworn in, he has to give up his cell phone and beloved blackberry? It's true.

I can never give up my land line phone because this stupid place my husband moved us to has lousey AT & T cell reception. I some times have ONE line to call out and often I am dropped, and I have to call back after waiting for my one line to pop up again, and that takes about 10 or 15 min. But when I drive down the road for about 5 miles I get more lines. So I am still tied to the land line. I have called AT & T to get them to fix this problem and they wouldn't, so I want to move.

Good point, as I do live out in the boon docks (I so hate it out here) the reception for cell phones suck. But even when I am in where theirs (life) my cell works fine, but I refuse to talk on it when other people are around. It is the MOST RUDE thing a person can do as to talk on that dam thing when they are in public, and don't think other people can't hear you OR even pay attention to your convercation, you don't expect people to turn off their ears just because you are rude enough to talk on that stupid thing in public. I will never give up my land phone, the cell is ONLY for emergency's, I wouldn't even give out my cell # to any one other than my daughter or husband, will not answer it if any one calls me on it, it's for my personal safty not for other people to find me. I will go to my parked car to talk to my family on it, they know enough that if it's not answered I'm in public or driving.

I have an AT&T landline. During Hurricane Ike I was the only one on my block with phone service.All of my neighbors were coming over to use my phone. I'll give up my landline when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

When you lose electricity, and your cell phone battery needs to be
recharged, then what will you do?

At least with a land line there is a small amount of electricity running thru the wires and you can still dial out as long as it isn't a cordless phone.

You should never give up a landline phone.

At least with it, you always have a way to call for emergency needs.

Cell phones are nice, especially in an emergency, but the biggest problem is people who are rude and use it wherever they are and in a restaurant or grocery store, or stores at the mall.

NO one is that important that they need to use their cell phone.

MiPrather @ Dec 25th 2008 5:38PM
Check the coverage map for any carrier. There's a lot of rural area (look at Alaska) without any coverage. That is why landlines cannot die. Unless everybody switches to satellite phones. And even those could probably get overloaded like cell towers do. It doesn't take a disaster to do that. Try to get through to someone on their cell phone at the big football game just as everyone is leaving.
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I am one of these ruarl area people. The only way I can use my cell is if i have really good luck hanging off my porch, or drive into town. I will never get rid of my land line.

Cell sites and Central Offices(land lines) both have backup batteries, but we work hard at the C.O.s to keep the generators working when the power goes out. Your land line will be working for a much longer time in a blackout situation.

Damien ~
While land lines will SOME day be obsolete, it will be a LONG time before that happens! Where I live, there is absolutely no cell service, no television and VERY few radio stations... heck, we don't even have cable, anolog, digital or otherwise! Until THAT type of situation is corrected, land lines will be hanging on.
I have noticed a LOT of people seem to think they will have cell service even during a major power failure. WRONG! While all your individual cell phones will power up because they have batteries, the cell phone TOWERS rely on continuous electric service. While there may be SOME towers with a battery backup or generator, they are few and far between.
Another problem with cell phones seems they jam up with heavy use much quicker than a land line. Since cell phones are just radio transceivers, they all operate on limited radio frequencies and you can only have just so many radios in one spot. With land lines, there can be thousands more connections since they are wired in and do not count on the limits of radio frequency.
There will still be a place for land lines for a very long time. The phone companies are investing millions in setting up fiber optics phone lines. Fiber optic service is just about THE fastest connection you can get for your computer, it is much more difficult to intercept a signal on fiber optics making it more secure and each single fiber can carry something like ten times more than any copper wire.

Calling 911 from a land line ensures an emergency response, even if you can't complete the call and give details of the problem. This is because your address pops up on the local police departments dispatchers screen. Call 911 on a cell phone and good luck getting help fast. Not only does your call go to the highway patrol centralized dispatch and then has to be routed to the local authorities, but if you can't get out your location for some reason, they will never find you. I'm a cop and see it all the time. Keep a land line if you can afford it.

Unfortunately not everybody have choice in the matter. Lose your job, lose your landline and you might find getting a (prepaid) cell phone is your only option. The Sullivan report found at www.newmillenniumresearch.org/archive/Sullivan_Report_032608.pdf details just such a scenario.

The good news is that especially low income Americans are deriving economical benefits from their cell phone use, with large percentages saying that they use cell only communications for business.

I speak from personal experience - running my new small business from home using a Tracfone with a DMFL plan. It's been my saving grace starting up again and I've found that as long as I try to keep my talktime down it actually works out cheaper.