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I am amazed at the proliferation of cell phones and the industry that
surrounds them. If you have a cell phone, how often and where do you
use it? Has it replaced your traditional 'land-line' phone?

"JC" wrote in message
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I am amazed at the proliferation of cell phones and the industry that
surrounds them. If you have a cell phone, how often and where do you
use it? Has it replaced your traditional 'land-line' phone?

I am sick of people talking on the phone and in the pathway of everyone who
is trying to walk around them. Why don't they move to the side of wherever
they are and talk, then proceed. Driving while talking is very dangerous,
and yet here are people having long conversations while typing up traffic or
driving dangerously.

I was shopping the other day, and even when making checking out, this woman
was on the damnable phone, the rest of us wanted to get out, but here she
was not even looking or listening to the the checkout person. It is truly
sickening. I wonder how people ever made purchases without consulting
everyone they know before continuing to the checkout still conversing with
whomever.

Ownership of one has a purpose if traveling alone and maybe having car
trouble, etc. But it is getting ridiculous trying to conduct a simple trip
to the grocery store without being held up by those who can't seem to wait
to get home to call someone else.

Norma

I got cell phones for my wife and I because we walk in a remote area of
a large park for exercise, and, as we get older, I started thinking what
would we do if one of us became injured or incapacitated. In our area,
there are almost no pay phones left, so a cell phone is very handy,
almost a necessity.

We keep ours turned off most of the time, as we are together. I agree
that many people are out of control with their phones. Its common to
see drivers who pay no attention to driving because they are talking.
Once a woman ran into my cart in the grocery store because she was busy
talking on her cell phone and didn't see me. I listened to her talk and
she was putting in a special order in the meat department of the same
store, so it would be ready when she got to the end of the aisle!

I guess we are abnormal as we don't use the cell phones much. It is
handy when we return from a trip and I can call a cab to pick us up when
we have gotten our luggage, and when we visit our daughter in school we
can call her when we are 10 minutes out to make sure she is ready.

My wife often uses hers in place of our wired phone, as she likes to
wander around while she talks for hours, and no longer gets tangled in
the cord.

JC wrote:
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I am amazed at the proliferation of cell phones and the industry that
surrounds them. If you have a cell phone, how often and where do you
use it? Has it replaced your traditional 'land-line' phone?

We have two cell phones for business in the US. They are invaluable.
Ever try to find a coin or card phone empty at an airport? I don't
travel w/o mine and neither does my girlfriend. We also have an
international cell phone that, because of protocols, does not work in
the US. Again, it has proved invaluable on business trips. Our US
service is a little flakey at the house as we are low and rural so we
keep a land line. My girlfriend's sister has a landline that is only
for local calls (and incoming) and uses her cell phone for long
distance.

I agree that people are a nuisance with them. Our phones, if on, are
always in "manner mode" when we are in a restaurant (buzz, not ring).
In the rare event we get a call, we keep it very short if we take it at
all.

Nope. Don't need it, got a normal phone and my CB radio.

"JC" wrote in message
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I am amazed at the proliferation of cell phones and the industry that
surrounds them. If you have a cell phone, how often and where do you
use it? Has it replaced your traditional 'land-line' phone?

Norma wrote:

I am amazed at the proliferation of cell phones and the industry that
surrounds them. If you have a cell phone, how often and where do you
use it? Has it replaced your traditional 'land-line' phone?



I have a prepaid cell phone strictly for emergency use only.

Here in NC the legislature is working on a bill that would outlaw
driving and talking on a cell phone. Egggggggggcelent!

As for people holding up checkout lines and what not, do what I do. I
move in close and start making as much noise as I can. It's annoying and
fun.

Dwayne

If you have a cell phone, how often and where do you use it?

I keep a Tracfone in the car for emergencies - I hardly ever use it.

Has it replaced your traditional 'land-line' phone?

No, although I could save money by getting rid of the landline and
using a cell phone for everything. The problem is - how would I get
internet access? It's possible with a cell, but too slow to be
practical, or so I have heard. Having DSL for the internet would be
just as expensive. Also, DirecTV wants to be connected to a landline.

John Cowart

Rubaiyat of Omar Bradley wrote:

If you have a cell phone, how often and where do you use it?

I keep a Tracfone in the car for emergencies - I hardly ever use it.

Has it replaced your traditional 'land-line' phone?

No, although I could save money by getting rid of the landline and
using a cell phone for everything. The problem is - how would I get
internet access? It's possible with a cell, but too slow to be
practical, or so I have heard. Having DSL for the internet would be
just as expensive. Also, DirecTV wants to be connected to a landline.

John Cowart


A friend has DirecTV's DirecWay for his internet connection and does not
use a landline [not required].

A friend has DirecTV's DirecWay for his internet connection and does
not use a landline [not required].

Yes, I'm familiar with Direcway, but unfortunately it would cost more
than 2 times as much as a landline. It would be much faster than
dialup, but for that kind of money I can afford to wait for a few
seconds for each page to load. Here is a price quote from the DirecWay
website:

"DIRECWAY gives you two ways to pay. Our up-front option lets you pay
$599.98 now, and then just $59.99 for Home service or $89.99 for
Professional service per month for 15 months. Prefer to spread out your
payments? Then simply pay $99.99 up front, and $99.99 for Home service
or $129.99 for Professional service per month for the first 15 months.
After the 15th month, your monthly fee will drop to the $59.99 or
$89.99 rate per month."

John Cowart

I had DSL, which requires a land line. My research showed that
switching to cable for internet (I already had cable for TV) and getting
the cell phones would save me quite a bit. I've only had the cable a
couple of weeks and it is markedly faster than DSL (I had to run tests
to confirm this, as both cable and DSL are faster than I can see). Now
I'm waiting to see if the cable is reliable, before dumping the land
line. Of course, if cable isn't in your area its not an option.

Rubaiyat of Omar Bradley wrote:
A friend has DirecTV's DirecWay for his internet connection and does
not use a landline [not required].

Yes, I'm familiar with Direcway, but unfortunately it would cost more
than 2 times as much as a landline. It would be much faster than
dialup, but for that kind of money I can afford to wait for a few
seconds for each page to load. Here is a price quote from the DirecWay
website:

"DIRECWAY gives you two ways to pay. Our up-front option lets you pay
$599.98 now, and then just $59.99 for Home service or $89.99 for
Professional service per month for 15 months. Prefer to spread out your
payments? Then simply pay $99.99 up front, and $99.99 for Home service
or $129.99 for Professional service per month for the first 15 months.
After the 15th month, your monthly fee will drop to the $59.99 or
$89.99 rate per month."

John Cowart

William Brown wrote:
I had DSL, which requires a land line. My research showed that
switching to cable for internet (I already had cable for TV) and
getting the cell phones would save me quite a bit. I've only had
the cable a couple of weeks and it is markedly faster than DSL (I
had to run tests to confirm this, as both cable and DSL are faster
than I can see). Now I'm waiting to see if the cable is reliable,
before dumping the land line. Of course, if cable isn't in your
area its not an option.
Rubaiyat of Omar Bradley wrote:
A friend has DirecTV's DirecWay for his internet connection and
does not use a landline [not required].

Yes, I'm familiar with Direcway, but unfortunately it would cost
more than 2 times as much as a landline. It would be much faster
than dialup, but for that kind of money I can afford to wait for a
few seconds for each page to load. Here is a price quote from the
DirecWay website:

"DIRECWAY gives you two ways to pay. Our up-front option lets you
pay $599.98 now, and then just $59.99 for Home service or $89.99
for Professional service per month for 15 months. Prefer to spread
out your payments? Then simply pay $99.99 up front, and $99.99 for
Home service or $129.99 for Professional service per month for the
first 15 months. After the 15th month, your monthly fee will drop
to the $59.99 or $89.99 rate per month."

John Cowart

My DSL 3.0/768 (Verizon) has unlimited downloading as well as an
excellent news server. Cable access in my area is provided by Comcast
with a secret download cap and so I've heard lousy news service.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8
Sunset Zone 5

Travis wrote:

William Brown wrote:

I had DSL, which requires a land line. My research showed that
switching to cable for internet (I already had cable for TV) and
getting the cell phones would save me quite a bit. I've only had
the cable a couple of weeks and it is markedly faster than DSL (I
had to run tests to confirm this, as both cable and DSL are faster
than I can see). Now I'm waiting to see if the cable is reliable,
before dumping the land line. Of course, if cable isn't in your
area its not an option.
Rubaiyat of Omar Bradley wrote:

A friend has DirecTV's DirecWay for his internet connection and
does not use a landline [not required].

Yes, I'm familiar with Direcway, but unfortunately it would cost
more than 2 times as much as a landline. It would be much faster
than dialup, but for that kind of money I can afford to wait for a
few seconds for each page to load. Here is a price quote from the
DirecWay website:

"DIRECWAY gives you two ways to pay. Our up-front option lets you
pay $599.98 now, and then just $59.99 for Home service or $89.99
for Professional service per month for 15 months. Prefer to spread
out your payments? Then simply pay $99.99 up front, and $99.99 for
Home service or $129.99 for Professional service per month for the
first 15 months. After the 15th month, your monthly fee will drop
to the $59.99 or $89.99 rate per month."

John Cowart


My DSL 3.0/768 (Verizon) has unlimited downloading as well as an
excellent news server. Cable access in my area is provided by Comcast
with a secret download cap and so I've heard lousy news service.

Certainly the provider is an important issue. I started with a small
local company where the techs were good and even the owner would enter
discussions on a newsgroup they maintained. Unfortunately, they were
bought out by a larger company, and tech support declined, prices
increased, and instead of keeping their own usenet servers, they just
subscribed to one of the big services. Retention actually improved, but
you could no longer call up and ask them to add a newsgroup; they said
they just had to take what the service provided.

When I realized cable would save me so much, I called the cable company
and asked what newsgroups they carried; they didn't know, but just said
there were a lot of them. Finally I went to a users forum and posted a
list of the newsgroups I follow, and another user checked and said they
were all there. Actually, the savings were great enough that I could
have subscribed to one of the services and still come out ahead. Usenet
is used by so few customers that the ISPs are not willing to put a lot
of resources into it. When I had my small, savvy, ISP, the owner posted
that fewer than 5% of their clientele used usenet; he only kept it up
because he was an old techie himself from the days of bulletin boards.

Just to stay on topic, my cable and phone lines run in a plastic conduit
under my garden and driveway, and apparently the cable isn't as
waterproof as they thought, so I have intermittent signal loss (the
signal is constantly good enough for digital tv, but only intermittently
for internet) so we are looking at getting a more waterproof cable, or
somehow circulating air through the conduit to keep it dry.

William Brown wrote:
Travis wrote:

William Brown wrote:

I had DSL, which requires a land line. My research showed that
switching to cable for internet (I already had cable for TV) and
getting the cell phones would save me quite a bit. I've only had
the cable a couple of weeks and it is markedly faster than DSL (I
had to run tests to confirm this, as both cable and DSL are faster
than I can see). Now I'm waiting to see if the cable is reliable,
before dumping the land line. Of course, if cable isn't in your
area its not an option.
Rubaiyat of Omar Bradley wrote:

A friend has DirecTV's DirecWay for his internet connection and
does not use a landline [not required].

Yes, I'm familiar with Direcway, but unfortunately it would cost
more than 2 times as much as a landline. It would be much faster
than dialup, but for that kind of money I can afford to wait for
a few seconds for each page to load. Here is a price quote from
the DirecWay website:

"DIRECWAY gives you two ways to pay. Our up-front option lets you
pay $599.98 now, and then just $59.99 for Home service or $89.99
for Professional service per month for 15 months. Prefer to
spread out your payments? Then simply pay $99.99 up front, and
$99.99 for Home service or $129.99 for Professional service per
month for the first 15 months. After the 15th month, your
monthly fee will drop to the $59.99 or $89.99 rate per month."

John Cowart


My DSL 3.0/768 (Verizon) has unlimited downloading as well as an
excellent news server. Cable access in my area is provided by
Comcast with a secret download cap and so I've heard lousy news
service.

Certainly the provider is an important issue. I started with a
small local company where the techs were good and even the owner
would enter discussions on a newsgroup they maintained. Unfortunately,
they were bought out by a larger company, and tech
support declined, prices increased, and instead of keeping their
own usenet servers, they just subscribed to one of the big
services. Retention actually improved, but you could no longer
call up and ask them to add a newsgroup; they said they just had to
take what the service provided.
When I realized cable would save me so much, I called the cable
company and asked what newsgroups they carried; they didn't know,
but just said there were a lot of them. Finally I went to a users
forum and posted a list of the newsgroups I follow, and another
user checked and said they were all there. Actually, the savings
were great enough that I could have subscribed to one of the
services and still come out ahead. Usenet is used by so few
customers that the ISPs are not willing to put a lot of resources
into it. When I had my small, savvy, ISP, the owner posted that
fewer than 5% of their clientele used usenet; he only kept it up
because he was an old techie himself from the days of bulletin
boards.
Just to stay on topic, my cable and phone lines run in a plastic
conduit under my garden and driveway, and apparently the cable
isn't as waterproof as they thought, so I have intermittent signal
loss (the signal is constantly good enough for digital tv, but only
intermittently for internet) so we are looking at getting a more
waterproof cable, or somehow circulating air through the conduit to
keep it dry.

Whoever put it under ground would be responsible for the maintenance.
All our utilities are overhead except gas and water.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8
Sunset Zone 5