More Families Pull The Plug On Their Home Phone

npr. ^ | June 18, 2009 | Tovia Smith

[JoeProBono]

The concept of a home phone may soon be going the way of the corner pay phone.

Government research shows that more and more households are getting rid of their land line. And for the first time, cell-phone-only homes outnumber those with just land lines.

Kelly Fitzsimmons did not give up her phone without a fight. The instrument of gossip and grand plans, and the bearer of bad news and good, the land line to her was a lifeline.

"I just had in my head you gotta have a land line. You gotta have a land line," she says. "That's the phone to your home, not to me, Kelly, or my husband, John, or the kids individually, but to the family. It's home base."

But last fall, with the down economy forcing hard decisions, Fitzsimmons was finally persuaded.

The telephone and answering machine have been cleared from their perch on the kitchen counter, the phone jack above it vacant.

"It's a beautiful thing," she says

[SuziQ]

We've had VOIP at home for the last 4 years. We started off with one carrier, then went to Vonage after the first one folded. It's been great, because it travels with us!

We have cell phones, too, for when we're around town, etc.