Ditch The Landline Or Ditch The Mobile Phone?

from the choices dept

Thu, Aug 29th 2002 2:23am — Mike Masnick

An interesting contrast between two different NY Times article. The first talks about a husband and wife who who decided to go with mobile phones instead of a landline when they moved apartments. We've had similar articles to this one in the past. The biggest difference here, might be that the number of people who "cut the chord" is growing - and it's not just recent college grads any more. At the same time, though, there's another article about someone who ditched her mobile phone in favor of a landline, after she found herself constantly on the mobile phone. She said she couldn't be sitting in a car without calling someone (often completely random people) just to have someone to talk to.

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Kyle, 29 Aug 2002 @ 4:13pm

The Drawbacks
I've been exclusively on a cell for just about one year now, and I've noticed a few rather frustrating, and unanticipated side effects from this. Since this is the phone number attached to all my credit cards, I am now getting telemarketing calls on my cell phone. In fact, it's gotten to the point where I've stopped answering calls from "Unknown Caller". Not a single "Unknown Caller" has left a message, which seems to be a pretty fair indication that it wasn't that important of a call.
Another hitch I've run into was the first time I tried ordering a pizza from a major pizza chain. When I gave them my phone number, it showed up as a cellular phone, and they were not able to process an order without a land line number.
The last problem I've experienced is the gate system at my apartment complex. Although we are supposed to be able to use any phone, it just does not work with a cell phone. However, even with all these downsides, I cannot justify paying money every month in basic telephone costs, including tariffs, fees and taxes, when I spend very little waking time at my apartment. The convenience of a single contact number has far outweighed the associated disadvantages.
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