Posted on 05/04/2017 7:43:53 AM PDT by posterchild
For the first time in history, federal researchers report that a majority of U.S. homes rely only on cellphones for a telephone connection, without a landline.
The number of cellphone-only households predictably has been climbing over the years, surpassing the households with both a landline and a mobile phone and now reaching almost 51 percent. And it's tracked by — of all agencies — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics records all kinds of trends about the state of Americans' health. One of its surveys traces the decline of landlines and what kinds of health habits are common to mobile-only homes. (Hint: the drinking and smoking kind.)
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
I’m old and live rural and alone, so the 911 feature is attractive to me as well as the ability to communicate during power emergencies. The land line is my main reach #. My cell is a Tracfone that stays in my vehicle for emergencies. I’ve got several hundred minutes that roll over thanks to deals for the cell for $7/mo and $54/mo for my landline..... I can live with that.
Typical NPR article. A study of the obvious, and idiot use of the term Dare Devil.
We have younger adult relatives from late 20’s to 50+, who have not had a land line # for years. Most transferred that # to a cell phone a long time ago and still have that #.
Others never had a land line in their name. They have had the same cell phone # for years.
In the past 5+ years, we have friends in their 60-70+, who kept their land line #’s when they went to cell phones and cancelled their land line. Their cell phone is their life link to help, relatives and friends.
We still have our 2 land line #’s. One is an unlisted one for close friends/family members. The other is on No More Robo Calls, which eliminates the robo calls.
I have the same cell phone # I had two decades ago. My wife’s cell # is a decade old.
Cell phones could be making pollsters even more unreliable.
We have managed to keep both of our original land line phone numbers, but haven’t had a traditional POTs land line since reliable VOIP options became available. We started with Packet8 then went to Vonage, then to NetTalk, but for the last several years we have been using two Google phone accounts that are free and work with an Obihai adapter.
I would advise all to stay away from NetTalk. We had a heck of a time porting our numbers away from them after their service went flakey. They are a fly by night operation.
The problems started for us when they sent our $80 adapter a firmware update which made it unusable. We eventually got it to work again by using advice from online forums, NetTalk’s customer service was completely worthless. And trying to port our numbers away even though we were paid up for a year in advance was almost impossible. So we lost approximately $150 worth of service and equipment. Overall, it still worked out cheaper than Vonage or the phone company if you count the time that it did work.
Heh. We don’t do TV, but we’ve had a TV for DVD’s and now internet access. The new 4k large sets are awesome for Youtube documentaries.
Oh, and before any hams out there start jumping on me to go to radio, I live in the NRQZ.
Bundled in the 75% fees are cost of doing business crap.
There are now fees for ‘cost of regulation compliance’, etc
Old school was that this was part of the overall business overhead, not billed out separatly.
They market landlines with reduced fees for 12 months and then jack up the rates and make a customer come back to beg for the discount back.
Done with that crap.
We had a landline. Price kept going up to almost $60 per month. They even wanted to charge us $5 per month for NOT having long distance on our phone. We used our cells for that. We kept the number because that’s the number some of hubby’s old coworkers have but switched to Magic Jack. $35 per year. It’s in our office and we never answer it. They can leave a message.
Until recently, we retained our land line because it’s a life-line service that is there whether or not you have power ( that is if you have a POTS only telephone instrument that doesn’t need house power to function). But AT&T wants to get rid of copper-based wireline phone service so they have continually reduced service and raised costs. So we elected to go with VOIP service which is cheaper, and if you have a battery backup on your modem, you have what is pretty close to lifeline service. The biggest problem with both services is “unwanted callers.” Now, 90% of our incoming calls are scam, telemarketer, etc calls and unlike a cellular phone, blocking is simply too difficult to use with either VOIP or wireline. As it is, my personal cell phone now has about 150 blocked caller numbers in my Contacts List.
So much for Do Not Call, another fraud brought to you by your “friends” at the FCC.
I get the impression today’s digital youfs would like to see us in a museum with those pieces.
Or in a mausoleum.. in pieces.
No clue about the historical context they exist and text regurgitatively in.
My understanding of GPS is that the Air Force limits its accuracy...for *civilian* use...to something like 12 feet.I live in a huge condo complex with many large buildings packed into a tight space.If a dispatcher were to depend on GPS to find me...if I'm having a heart attack and can't talk,for example...the ambulance would probably be dispatched to the right vicinity only to find a hundred or more units,in three or four buildings,within a 60 foot radius.Not good enough for my liking.
Yes, it is for 4 phones. At least 2 of them are the latest and greatest. The wife has to have the newest gadget. Most of it is paying for the phones, not necessarily paying for the service.
But phones these days cost $700. It is one of those things you don’t need, but once you get one it is really difficult to go back. They are a computer, phone, camera, GPS, and I’ve even used it as a stud finder.
“My understanding of GPS is that the Air Force limits its accuracy...for *civilian* use...to something like 12 feet.I live in a huge condo complex with many large buildings packed into a tight space.”
My physical address is listed in the E911 database. Interesting that T-Mobile receives address changes when you file your post office change of address. Or you can update it directly through T-Mobile.
>>No wonder liberals think my opinions are whacky.
Been interacting with some young musicians on Facebook recently.
Amazing, and sad, how quickly they are overloaded with simple historical factual information - especially when it doesn’t echo their indoctrinated “thinking”.
Remember back circa 1990 after BBS had played a role in spreading the flame of freedom through the USSR?
This generation of youfs have never experienced, and can’t articulate, the difference between the USA and the USSR. In their domain, internet forums become a tyranny of the majority - under the control of a vanguard elite.
It’s a perilous time for freedom.
But, OTOH, I’m currently watching the procedings of POTUS Trump about to sign an executive order restoring religious freedom.
So, maybe the pendulum will swing favorably.
If you want to see the difference between the US and Russia, just watch those car crash compilations.
Back when I had a landline, one of the (old) ATT repair techs told me he thought they were trying to drive people away from "copper", as he called it-too costly to maintain.
Would this work for you?
“The DPB works in Mexico, Canada and with all U.S. phone companies with standardized analog phone lines, DSL, Cable modems or VoIP (digital) phone service adapters, like FIOS, Vonage, Skype, Magic Jack, Ooma, Uverse and Cell Phone Gateways.”
http://digitone.com/Digitone%20Call%20Blocker.htm
We use it on our Verizon phone & it is a life saver - totally worth the money (& we have the model prior to this one). I’m not sure how VOIP works but you can check out the details.
Don’t feel safe with just a cellphone. Far too often my wife forgets to charge hers or mine gets misplaced. Would hate to need an ambulance in he middle of the night and not have a phone. I chose an Internet phone service. Meets my needs for an occasional phone call and there when I might need it.
I had a stud-finder once. Darn thing didn't work. I took it back to the hardware store and the guy asked how I was using it. Turns out you run them along the wall or ceiling. Boy was I way off.
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