We did something here at the Champ Money household that I’ve been considering for a very long time – we finally cut all ties with AT&T’s landline service.
There was a failed attempt at this several years ago when we tried Vonage VOIP service for about 6 months. That plan failed due to unreliable quality and dropped calls. I tried every tweak in the book (or on the Internet as the case may be), and have always had a rock-solid cable Internet connection, but Vonage just didn’t cut it. So, back to AT&T we went.
Now, several years later, we have 5 cell phones in our home – one for each family member. The landline was rarely used – mostly for work calls to other countries and lengthy teen conversations. This, at a cost of about $55 per month.
While the reason for cutting the service was not monetary, it’s nice to know that I’m no longer wasting that $55 per month for a service that I generally despise. I hate phones to begin with (it’s a work thing) and would much prefer email or text messages. But with the generous cell phone plan that we currently have, I don’t expect that we’ll miss Ma Bell at all.
For anyone else considering such a move, remember that the local telephone company is required to provide 911 service to any connected phone, so keep at least one plugged in when you have your service connected. In the event of an emergency, the landline is still the best “first choice”.