Land Line

I must be an albatross.  Here it is, 2016, and I am the only one I know with a land line phone.  Everyone else just uses cell phones.  Or do they call them wireless phones now?  I don’t know. I’m not in the loop.  When I think about it, I don’t even know why I still have a home phone.  I only get calls from telemarketers on it so it has reached the point where I don’t even attempt to answer it when it rings.  The only legitimate reason for having it is for the Call Canada Plan.  It is relatively cheap and gives me unlimited calling to Canada. It came in handy when my parents were alive but now that they have both passed I just have my sister left in Canada and we usually Skype or text.  So why keep the phone?  True, distant relatives only know that number to call.  And it would be a pain to change the number for everywhere from work to my daughter’s school to my cell.  I do use the land line when my old cell phone stops working right.  But are those enough reasons to keep the phone?  It all comes down to the cable/internet/phone company.  They bundle everything to give you savings.  The problem is, if you want one thing, you have to buy another to get it.  It’s kind of like options on a car.  If you want the sunroof, you have to get the leather seats along with it. (Ouch! Hot in the summer.)  If you want the discount on the high speed internet, you need to buy the land line.  It’s one of those evil genius things.  At least I don’t have dial up internet these days.  Remember how slow that was?  That was in the days before unlimited minutes on your cell phone so having a land line made sense but it was always in use by your internet.  Now you don’t even need to be in the same room as your computer to get on line.  So I return to the question I started with.  Should I get rid of my land line?  Presented with all the information, the answer is yes.  That being said, my actions say no.  I am locked into a 1 year contract with my cable company where the discounts basically make it free.  So I can’t cancel.  In a year I will take it up again.  Like I said…evil genius.