After my customer service fiasco turned victory yesterday, my husband asked me why we keep our land line with Qwest. We both have cell phones, and neither one of us really gab on the phone very much. I talk to my mom and my brother the most, but nearly always on the weekend. And when I call my brother, I use my cell phone anyway, because we don’t have long distance on our land line.

So why do I keep the land line? It basically comes down to four things.

  1. The ability of 911 to trace the call, should my kids have to call.
  2. That my daughter is getting to be the age where she talks to her friends on the phone…a lot.
  3. That I worry I’ll forget to charge my phone and have no phone access when I need it.
  4. That the kids will be at home without a phone, should my husband and I ever need to be out of the house at different locations. (Otherwise we’d leave one of our phones home).

Forgetting to charge my phone could be overcome, if I set up a routine for charging the phone. That’s not a make or break reason.

We could use Skype as a home phone. I use Skype already for calling in to host Frugal Coast2Coast, and I like the service, so I think I could be comfortable with issue #4. Both of my kids are pretty computer savvy.

That leaves reasons one and two. So here are my questions for you all today. If you have dropped your landline, are you comfortable with the fact that 911 won’t know your exact location? Or are 911 call centers getting better about dealing with cell phones? I would think this service would improve as more and more people turn wireless.

And then there’s my daughter. She’s 11 years old, and I had always said I wouldn’t get her a cell phone until she was in high school. However, I wouldn’t want her friends constantly calling my cell phone. We could use Skype. Or I could get her a basic phone. How young is too young for a cell? Have any of you with tweens dropped the landline? What’s your solution?

And finally, as I check this out, are there things I should keep in mind? I know I’ll have to stay with AT&T Wireless, as that’s basically the only company that has good reception in our area. And we’ve been happy customers for quite a while. They’re a little more expensive than other plans, but less expensive plans aren’t worth it, if I can’t get service at my house!

Do you have any advice for me? I’m not even sure I can do this yet, or that I want to. But I’m pondering the idea.

Photo by krasi.