topic No landline? in Electronics

No landline?

Zhills — Mon, 08 May 2017 14:24:03 GMT

How do you get internet without a landline?

It would cost me as much to get just internet. The phone is a nominal cost.

Re: No landline?

I am still oxox — Mon, 08 May 2017 14:33:57 GMT

Yes, its not a DSL or dial up.

Internet is not phone dependent

Re: No landline?

jaxs mom — Mon, 08 May 2017 14:39:26 GMT

There is DSL internet which is offered by telephone companies and use telephone lines, and there is cable internet which is offered by cable companies that uses cable lines and also offer a wired phone using VOIP ( voice over internet). VOIP is not a landline though.

Re: No landline?

noodleann — Mon, 08 May 2017 14:42:14 GMT

You get internet with cable or DSL. I don't know anyone who's still using dial-up; it's too slow for most sites, and was as of several years ago.

The cost for a stand-alone landline in my area, provided by old-fashioned phone companies, is about $30 or $35 for a bare-bones phone. The cost for a voice-over internet phone line, or VoIP, through the cable company, is $35 for me when added to my basic internet service.

In my world, nearly $400 a year is not "minimal." That's why I ordered an Ooma Telos device yesterday and will port my number over to it when it arrives and terminate the cable company's phone service. I'll have to pay around $5 a month in taxes and surcharges, but that beats $35 (and imminent inreases).

I just got a notice from the water company that they're requesting a rate increase that would amount to 17% more on residential bills. I doubt they'll get that much, but they'll get something. It never stops.

@Zhills wrote:
How do you get internet without a landline?

It would cost me as much to get just internet. The phone is a nominal cost.

Re: No landline?

Mominohio — Mon, 08 May 2017 14:50:34 GMT

We have no cable service in our area, so that is out for us. We do have satellite tv, but it is sketchy sometimes, so I wouldn't want my internet provided through that method.

We keep a landline for the internet service, as it is the only or most reliable available to us. I also do don't like to talk on a cell phone. Our service is sketchy in certain parts of our house (like the basement) for cell service, and until just a couple of years ago, we had to go outside and up the road just to get any kind of signal.

I prefer to talk on my landline phone as the reception is better, I don't have to hold the phone and the speaker option is much clear and louder. I still spend a lot of time on the land line phone with family and friends. I really get annoyed by some people who call me on their cells, and I can't make out half of what they are saying, due to poor service, or sometimes all the stuff (cases) the put on their phones interferes with the microphone and they sound like they are talking under water.

Re: No landline?

Zhills — Mon, 08 May 2017 14:57:07 GMT

I have DSL but it requires a phone line. Why not use the phone, it is as cheap as just internet.

Re: No landline?

CrazyDaisy — Mon, 08 May 2017 15:00:11 GMT

For $20 a month I added a hot spot accessory to my cell phone plan. I get unlimited data on both my cell phone and computer. I am not a heavy user of my computer at home so the little bit slower speed is not an issue. I can also take my computer with me and get Internet access anywhere I can get cell service.

Re: No landline?

millieshops — Mon, 08 May 2017 15:54:23 GMT

@noodleannPlease come back and tell us about your experience with ooma once you've installed it and used it for a while. My next-door neighbor has it and she's still working out kinks - the initial experience was 3rd world, but she's way more tech savvy than I am and seems to be working her way through those kinks, so I'm watching. In the meantime, my house phone comes from my cable company - it's fine as long as there's electricity.

Re: No landline?

2blonde — Mon, 08 May 2017 15:57:41 GMT

@Mominohio Yes, I still have a land line because I can hear so much better on it (don't need it for internet, as there are other options). I can really identify with your comment about hearing people when they call from their cells. I work in an office where we have to answer calls all day long, so you can just imagine. Most of them are already talking like they have marbles in the mouth anyway, but I'm here to say that practically no one under the age of 60 uses a land line to call here. The part I really love is when they ask for our email address and when I start to tell them, they say......."Well I can't write it down right now because I'm driving".........what! Get off the darned phone and drive!

Re: No landline?

noodleann — Mon, 08 May 2017 16:46:28 GMT

@millieshops, I promise I'll come back and report on it, warts and all.

Just an FYI, I wouldn't have leapt on yesterday's Ooma offer on Amazon (1-day special knocked down to $63.35) if I hadn't explored Ooma's website extensively to make sure I could hook it up. I don't have a router, and it took a while to find the alternate instructions for my setup. Based on that, it should work. I called my cable company to make sure I could port my number and keep the internet service alone, and got the okay there. I also signed up with Ooma to get their emails, which is why I got yesterday's notice about the Amazon special.

If you're considering this jump yourself, I'd recommend doing a little bit of this investigation, too, especially if you want to keep your phone number. Ooma has a utility on their site that lets you plug in your area code and prefix to see if you can port an existing number.

I'll be back, but it may take a while.

Re: No landline?

hckynut — Mon, 08 May 2017 16:49:33 GMT

@Zhills

We had just very basic phone service, no long distance, and DSL. I called a phone rep for my charges on a particular bill, which was overcharged, to find our why it was so high.

She not only reduced that bill, but told me it would be cheaper to add services like "call waiting/3 way calling" and a few other features than our basic plan and DSL. Reduced our bill oner $15 a month, and more features, which I do like.

Why would I pay more for just our DSL, when I can have the landline added, and for less? I won't.

hckyjut(john)

Re: No landline?

bmorechick — Mon, 08 May 2017 18:55:24 GMT

hckynut in our area, we d/c'd the land line. we all use apple iphones in our family. if you have an apple iphone and an apple ipad or i mac, you can activate a hot spot from your phone to interact with your devices. so technically, you don't need an internet connection for this. we only have cable tv through xfinity. we REFUSED the bundle and although it took a lot of time and phone calls, we were able to have the service ala carte. good luck!

Re: No landline?

chickenbutt — Mon, 08 May 2017 19:02:35 GMT

We have our internet with our cable co now and, while I do believe that the modem/router is plugged into a phone jack, I don't think we need to have an actual landline to have internet anymore.

With DSL I believe it needed a landline, or maybe it was just the same thing - not sure.

My curiosity is wondering if dial-up still exists. Does anybody here still have dial-up?

Re: No landline?

hckynut — Mon, 08 May 2017 19:28:25 GMT

@bmorechick wrote:
hckynut in our area, we d/c'd the land line. we all use apple iphones in our family. if you have an apple iphone and an apple ipad or i mac, you can activate a hot spot from your phone to interact with your devices. so technically, you don't need an internet connection for this. we only have cable tv through xfinity. we REFUSED the bundle and although it took a lot of time and phone calls, we were able to have the service ala carte. good luck!

@bmorechick

Appreciate your info, but we are an all Android family here.

hckynut(john)

Re: No landline?

bmorechick — Mon, 08 May 2017 20:03:21 GMT

hckynut - you can do it with an android phone, but I do not know how. I would check it out online

Re: No landline?

millieshops — Mon, 08 May 2017 20:49:40 GMT

@noodleannThanks for that answer. I'll be watching as you go.

Re: No landline?

jaxs mom — Tue, 09 May 2017 01:24:39 GMT

@bmorechick wrote:
hckynut in our area, we d/c'd the land line. we all use apple iphones in our family. if you have an apple iphone and an apple ipad or i mac, you can activate a hot spot from your phone to interact with your devices. so technically, you don't need an internet connection for this. we only have cable tv through xfinity. we REFUSED the bundle and although it took a lot of time and phone calls, we were able to have the service ala carte. good luck!

I turn on hot spot on occasion when I'm out of the house with another wifi only device but their is absolutely no way I'd want to rely on it for all my internet. It's a heck of a lot slower than my current cable internet plan. So much so that I get much better data transfer speed over wifi on my phone when I'm at home.

Re: No landline?

glb613 — Tue, 09 May 2017 10:39:52 GMT

@chickenbutt wrote:
We have our internet with our cable co now and, while I do believe that the modem/router is plugged into a phone jack, I don't think we need to have an actual landline to have internet anymore.

With DSL I believe it needed a landline, or maybe it was just the same thing - not sure.

My curiosity is wondering if dial-up still exists. Does anybody here still have dial-up?

I don't think you can properly load pages using dialup. The amount of data on each page makes it's too difficult for a slow connection to work. Most cable companies have different data plans so if you don't mind a slower connection, you can get cable for a reasonable price.

I know people who have a landline because of their security system. I have a system which uses a cellular connection.

Re: No landline?

Moonlady — Wed, 10 May 2017 11:59:23 GMT

We have basic landline phone service here. Just this past March 8, we had a windstorm that knocked out power to 80% of customers regionally. There are a lot of power outages here, but not for as long as THIS one was. We were the lucky ones, as ours was restored after 36 hours (across the street, after 48 hours). Even so, battery-powered devices eventually died. Most people here had to wait days longer, many up to a week. And wouldn't you know it?...during the worst cold snap of a very mild winter. But the landline phones worked.

Re: No landline?

Zhills — Wed, 10 May 2017 19:23:36 GMT

I have 1 plug in phone that is not cordless for when we lose power.

When I worked as a Telephone Operator the power went off and the phone system was working but the phone ringers were electric and they were not ringing. Even the Police Station had all cordless and their phones were not ringing. When people can't reach the Police, guess who they call? Operator! What a night!