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The landline telephone is on the way out.  20% of homes are now wireless only.  Maybe you’re part of the 80% who still has a landline.  What can you do to ditch that landline?  Keep reading.

Grab a cell phone

First off, unless you want to cut yourself off and try something very experimental, you’re going to need some other phone.  Grab yourself a cell phone.  Which cell phone is best for you is really a personal decision.  Phones are a bit like prescription glasses.  They play a very important role in your life and most people don’t change either for a couple of years.  If you’re a person who really wants a computer in their pocket, then you’re probably looking at smartphones.  If you just want to call people, then you’ve got a lot more options.

How many handsets do you want?

Assuming you’ve chosen your cell phone, you’ll find there was a convenience in having landline phones around the house.  How many of us only had one landline phone unit in their house?  I would imagine that a lot of us grew up in places with lots of landline phones - one in the kitchen, one in the living room, etc. 

With a cell phone, you run into a problem.  If you can’t find your one phone, then you may miss a call.  What can you do?  We just reviewed the XLink Bluetooth Cellular Gateway, and this may be a good solution for that.  This device pairs with up to three cell phones and allows you to use your existing landline handsets to make and take calls.  It’s very easy to setup and works as advertised. 

If you never misplace your phone, then you may not need something like the XLink.  You could just have your phone in a holster on your person all the time if you want. 

More minutes for cheap

But what if your cell phone carrier makes you pay an arm and a leg for more minutes?  Have you considered Skype?  A while back, Skype introduced pay plans so you can use Skype to call out to regular phones.  I believe that all of their plans are cheaper than most landline plans.  Skype calls their plans “unlimited,” but there is a “fair use policy.”  If you’re like me and you usually call people within the United States, you can get 10,000 minutes for $2.95/month.  There are other plans that allow you to call a particular country or if you want to be covered all over the world, there’s a plan for that too.  There are several phones out there that allow you to use Skype without using your computer.  Pair up a phone like that with an XLink and you’d be all set to have all your calls on one handset. 

Emergencies?

The big fear a lot of people have is the fact that Skype doesn’t do emergency calls.  If you want enhanced 911 (which allows 911 to route your call to a nearby location) and VoIP, you have to go with something like Vonage.  I am unsure if cell phones allow for enhanced 911.  That doesn’t mean that you can’t dial 911 and get help on your cell.  It just means that the call may not be routed to the closest place to help you.