My wife and I have cell phones for our primary phones instead of land lines. Land lines are a waste of money. $50+ dollars for a dial tone + all the taxes just so a telemarketer can call and interupt my dinner. If I want to talk to my parents in Richmond, I just go online and start a webchat with them. We are self-employed so cell phone service is the way to go.
Not to mention all the hassles involved in changing your number when you move. Retaining our cell phone numbers when we moved to a different state was extremely convenient.
When I went cell only in 1998 my phone bills were cut from $120/month to $45/month and haven’t changed since. There was some spotty coverage even in large cities back then, but it wasn’t too bad. Cable providers were still working the bugs out of broadband internet access though.