I’ve been pondering the same thing the last few days.
My salary is getting cut so I’m looking for expenses to cut. That $100/month for DSL and a phone line that is only used to receive annoying telemarketing calls is a mighty tempting target.
Considering Vonage/Basic Talk. I have a few resumes floating around that still have the home phone number on them, and it would be unprofessional to have it disconnected should I get a bite. But then those telemarketing calls still come through, just at a cheaper price.
The 911 aspect was a concern at first. But then we figured that, if there was some sort of emergency where the cell towers were down, calling 911 would probably be pointless.
I’d rather just cut the cord though. In terms of value for my dollar, it’s probably the worst of all my monthly expenses.
May call AT&T first and give them a chance to lower the bill, but I don’t expect they’ll go down as low as Basic Talk, and definitely not as low as 0.
Bad idea. Keep your “copper pair” land-line.
Reduce the service to a bare minimum. “Dial-tone” service only. Supply your own phone — ONE THAT DOES NOT NEED AC POWER TO RUN. Surprise — in a Touch-Tone world, “pulse” dialing still works; even on a touch tone line. So the telephone instrument you have can be exceedingly basic.
In Serious Emergencies — and there has been no shortage of those lately — you can be out of power for a week or more, easy. Don’t dismiss widespread cyber attack as a hazard. Or even you own computer getting a virus and becoming useless.
If the marketeers bother you, turn the ringer off and ignore it. But you’ll still be able to call out for a fire truck or an ambulance.
Basic telephone instruments, such as “The Standard Mother Bell Model 500 Desk Telephone” are far more immune to lightning. What accompanies tornadoes? Big thunderstorms. Duh.
I would not bet my life on anything that runs off a wall-wart, and has a bunch of chips inside.
Redundancy is good, too, if it can be purchased cheaply enough.
Never give up your copper!