Do you still use a land line?

Eric559 · Dec 12, 2009

baggss and Kash,

I think they are talking about UMA. Sort of like ATT's Mircocell service and T-Mobile's @Home service. Allows you to use your cellphone yet makes calls over IP and your wireless network.

baggss · Dec 12, 2009

Eric559 said:
baggss and Kash,

I think they are talking about UMA. Sort of like ATT's Mircocell service and T-Mobile's @Home service. Allows you to use your cellphone yet makes calls over IP and your wireless network.

Pretty cool actually. The only downsides:

1) No power, no network.

2) You are paying twice for service. You are paying the cell company (say T-Mobile) for cell service but then they want you to route their service over a WiFi network you are already paying for in addition. While this may seem like a no brainer, you are in essence giving the cell company a service for free instead of expecting them to improve their service that you are already paying for. Now if your cell bill is significantly reduced for this type of service, good deal. Otherwise you are simply paying them to not provide you full service on their own network, which is what you are supposedly paying them for in the first place. If you are not at home, that's another story though.

And before anyone jumps up and says connecting you phone to your wireless router to download data is the same thing, in a way it is. The difference is are you paying the cell company to provide you basic voice service plus data or just basic voice service? In my book, the voice service is more important than the data service (despite the fact that I pay extra for data) and in an emergency I don't care if I can do a Google search, but I do care if I can make that phone call.

Frankly though, if your cell service sucks so bad that you need to resort to VoIP or UMA, maybe you need to find a better cell service.

Kash · Dec 12, 2009

baggss said:
Frankly though, if your cell service sucks so bad that you need to resort to VoIP or UMA, maybe you need to find a better cell service.

Not necessarily. As I stated earlier, cell phone reception inside my apartment is pretty bad, regardless of what provider you have (AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint all suffer inside the apartment). However, the moment I step out the door, I have full service. So it's clearly a problem with the building construction, not with the service, and this is a situation I've seen with many people in older buildings.

Now if UMA or femtocells (not sure if they're one and the same) cost roughly the same as a land line, then I see it as a viable option for those who don't want the hassle of yet another bill.

mbohn · Dec 12, 2009

baggss said:
Pretty cool actually. The only downsides:

1) No power, no network.

I've got my cable modem and router on a UPS. No power? No problem! (At least not for a few hours

)

baggss · Dec 12, 2009

Kash said:
Now if UMA or femtocells (not sure if they're one and the same) cost roughly the same as a land line, then I see it as a viable option for those who don't want the hassle of yet another bill.

To each their own I suppose. I guess I just like the security of a "back-up" plan for those occasions when bad things happen.

mbohn said:
(At least not for a few hours)

Hopefully the power is back in those few hours. More importantly though, what about the power requirements downstream of you? DSL over the phone line is obviously different than Cable. Otherwise your network can be up just fine, but when the master router/hub/switch for your drop dies, your network is useless. That POV may be a bit extreme though. My brother has overcome the backup power issue by installing a generator in his home with enough fuel storage to last him about 5 - 7 days. Going without power during a winter storm for a week some years back taught him a lesson.

The sad fact is we live in a society dependent on power for our every day lives. Too many people take it for granted never realizing that it may not always be there.

mbohn · Dec 12, 2009

baggss said:
...
Hopefully the power is back in those few hours. More importantly though, what about the power requirements downstream of you? ..

The few times I've needed it, the whole network/internet was functional during a power outage. As I said earlier, my cell phone works on my wifi so it stays up also.

I suppose something downstream of my house along the cable route could go down, but I'm guessing they have a back-up Onan generator or the like. I've got a really nice, quiet, Honda 2 kW generator that I can hookup in case of a long power outage. But that is strictly for critical power needs, like my Espresso machine.

ZorroAMG · Dec 14, 2009

Free long distance plan, no dropped calls ever, doesn't overheat on the ear, have 2 handsets if one dies, comes with a fax line...

Yeah I use one for work etc.

trader22 · Dec 15, 2009

Actually we have been totally cellular for about 5 years, but my contract is coming up for renewal and we are looking to save money. My cable company offered us digital phone service at a great rate so starting January 1st we will be downgrading from a two cell house to a single cell that will be prepay and only for emergencies and travel. The new digital cable phone will be our main communication, bringing us down from $100 a month for 2 cells, to $30 a month for digital cable and $10 per month Prepay on 1 cellular. A savings of $60 a month. Gonna put that towards the credit card.... ;D