Phone Company Question(s)

[Niner]

We have ATT land line service(s) for here at the house, and down at The Farm.
We also have ATT DSL Internet service at the house.
For TV we had to go with satellite service, since I could not get a cable company to run a drop up my 100+ yard driveway.
We have Verizon cell service.


I am wanting to drop the land line voice service at the house, and just use our cell phones at home. However, I want to keep the DSL service at home and also keep the land line service at The Farm. Also, I need to mention that our security alarm at the house calls out on the land line.

Will ATT let us kill just the voice service at my house?
The only time it seems to ring is for "Unknown Name" and such.

[Thumper]

That's almost persactly my situation 9'er. I also have DSL and doubt I'll change that (too lazy to deal with change). ANYONE who knows us, knows to call our cell numbers. 99.9% of the calls on the land-line are junk/sales calls. Heck, I even have long distance, call holding, caller ID, etc. etc. (don't really remember all of it) on my land-line which I don't need, but the "bundle" is cheaper than the basic service! One thing I wonder about, I have a FAX machine on my land-line. I haven't really kept up with today's technology ... do they have wireless FAX's these days? (serious question, but I suppose I could Google it). Our cell phones have an unlimited plan (local and long-distance) and they're basically all we use. One thing I am wondering about though ... I notice many companies I deal with (credit, on-line businesses, etc) want a land-line number for security purposes. I've always wondered about that. I have 2-3 friends who cancelled their land-line years ago and use strictly cell phones .. but each of them have no credit (or terrible credit) and operate on basically a cash system. Are credit card companies and internet sales companies open to the no land-line concept these days? I'm not really sure.

We have basic cable tv through Bright House (haven't changed anything there in the 25 years we've lived here) and everything else, land-line bundle, Lynn's and my cells and my mom's cell (also on our plan) is Verizon.

Edit: One thing about the land-line is with a 2-story house, I couldn't tell you how many times we'll be upstairs, Lynn's phone will be downstairs in her purse and mine will be on the charger in my office (or some similar scenario) and we don't hear the phone. We have FIVE land-line phones scattered through-out the house (one central base station). Our friends know if they get no answer on our cells, to try the land-line as (if we're home), we'll answer it (as long as we recognize the caller ID)

[Arty]

I have land line and DSL through our local company (Buggs Island telephone co)
They told me in order to keep DSL, I have to have a land line
I'm seriously considering Hughes net for internet but I can never pull the trigger

[Sunshine]

:)

[Buckrub]

DSL Voice is VoIP, not "land line" at all. No connection. "Land Line" is PSTN service (Public Switched Telephone Network), the long existing voice network owned by ATT prior to divestiture.

VoIP has come a long way and works pretty well now. You do have a 911 issue, since only the PSTN is connected directly to PSAP (Public Safety Access Points). Google "Is a land line required for DSL?" and you get info:
http://www.att.com/dsl/shop/plansDirect.jsp?showUnqualifiedIPDSLAM=&promoCode=&wtLinkName=Get_DSL_No_Local&wtLinkLocation=BDY&WT.svl[2]

Your security company contract may require you to have a real land line. My daughter has that. HOWEVER, her contract is up in March and she says she can keep the security system and drop her land line.......the system just won't call out when tripped. She says that's fine, that all she wants is to be woke up if it's tripped, and if they break in while she's gone, that's fine, that's just 'stuff', not her life. So she's going to keep the system, and it'll go off loudly, but it won't call out.....after she drops the land line.

I would give anything to lose the $62.00 a month I'm paying for land line, but the wife says she 'feels secure' with it. She should, she spends hours a day on it!! (was that outloud?)

[Chicken Dinner]

I can't remember the last time anybody at my house picked up the "landline" for anything other than to check the messages. Even that is infrequent as I checked it about a week ago and there were forty some messages. My Mrs. won't let me get rid of it either.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I think you'd be happier with regular high speed internet than you would be with dsl, but that's a matter of choice. DSL is so 2000.

BKB

[airbud7]

I think you'd be happier with regular high speed internet than you would be with dsl, but that's a matter of choice. DSL is so 2000.

BKB

Agree....My Speed http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3320034743

magicJack PLUS works great too

[Buckrub]

"regular high speed internet"???

That's so...............um................unknown!

What the heck is "regular"? :)

You can get cable modem, OR DSL, if you live in residential America. You can get Satellite (hughes, etc) anywhere. Which one is the "regular"??

With cable modems you share your Tier I connection with all other users. Can be very fast, can be not very fast. DSL is more constant, but is many times slower. Cable modems are faster in theory, but don't always deliver.

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/dslvscablemodem/a/dslcablecompare.htm

Also, DSL is not available everywhere. I can get it here, but only in the last year or so. I still can not get Uverse (though I don't want it).

and, as Airbud says, if you just want voice over IP, don't pay anyone $40 a month..........get a Magic Jack, one time. Does same thing.

[Buckrub]

P.S.
I want what Airbud has, whatever that is. He's SMOKIN'............I'm way behind what he posted. He's at 57M down, and I'm at 3.82!!! I hope he's at work!!!

[BarryBobPosthole]

Yep 45 meg is DS3. DSL is typically below t1 or 1.544 mb/s

BKB

[Buckrub]

actually 1.536mbs

:party

[Trav]

To answer your question yes, it's called naked DSL and AT&T should have to provide it to you without the traditional land line service. The used to say you had have a BTN (Billing Telephone Number) to have DSL but I know here in OK the state PUC passed regulations against that and I assume it's the same in GA.

[Thumper]

How do you get DSL without a phone line? My modem plugs right into my phone jack. I'm clueless how this stuff works, but I'm a firm believer in the ol' "if it ain't broke ... don't fix it" way of doing things. I've had DSL for ... crap, I don't know ... 15 years? Since they came out with it anyway and my computer does everything I ask it to do at a reasonable speed, so I've never screwed with it.

[Buckrub]

They bring you a demarc other than an RJ11, which is what you have, that connects to their PSTN. Then you plug your modem to that.

[BarryBobPosthole]

To answer your question yes, it's called naked DSL and AT&T should have to provide it to you without the traditional land line service. The used to say you had have a BTN (Billing Telephone Number) to have DSL but I know here in OK the state PUC passed regulations against that and I assume it's the same in GA.

Always with the nekkidness.

Perv.

BKB