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Here's some advice you may not want to hear. If available, consider getting a real landline. According to Charter's website, even the "landline's" optional backup battery is only good for up to 8 hours on standby.
My father has lost his electricity for 4 or 5 days and even with a backup generator, there's still the issue that cell phone service does not accurately identify the location of the caller. If he has a medical emergency, I'm not confident that he would be able to give his location to the 911 operator.
Although our phone company does not advertise the "dial tone" plan, I was able to purchase this option for my own home. Although the monthly fees are higher than the cost of the plan itself, the total cost is about $20/month and is well worth it.
We have a land line too.
We also have an air card so we could email.
Hopefully one of us could accurately identify our location.
Our fire station/ambulance service is 3 miles away.
We have a whole house generator. According to our info it will handle the phone without the battery, which we also have. I'll look into the dial tone plan. Also our utilities are buried cable. I will ask our neighbors how often the power goes out. We are at just under 3000 ft alt. I think Ani is much higher and in a much smaller town.
We are just outside Asheville city limits by the blue ridge parkway. We were told that roads were salted and cleared rapidly here. Time will tell.
You pay for a dial tone. If you actually call someone, you pay per call. Thus, my "dial tone" is $5.92/ month and I pay 10 cents per outgoing call. Incoming calls do not cost anything extra. Most of the time, I use my cell phone for outgoing calls. After your post, I checked my last bill. Additional charges included a monthly long distance charge of $2.99 (up from 1.99 during the prior years), and other fees and taxes that add up to about $21.00/month. I'm going to call about the $2.99 long distance fee. I have no clue what's up with that. I would imagine most folks would have less fees and taxes than I have since I live in Maryland.
I almost dropped the landline a few months ago but while thinking it over, I temporarily lost my cell service during some random regional black out. Obviously I was able to use my landline to call the carrier to report the outage but I did become a bit antsy when I realized that my father had no way to reach me if there was an emergency.
But I WILL take the phone off the hook during the next election.
You pay for a dial tone. If you actually call someone, you pay per call. Thus, my "dial tone" is $5.92/ month and I pay 10 cents per outgoing call. Incoming calls do not cost anything extra. Most of the time, I use my cell phone for outgoing calls. After your post, I checked my last bill. Additional charges included a monthly long distance charge of $2.99 (up from 1.99 during the prior years), and other fees and taxes that add up to about $21.00/month. I'm going to call about the $2.99 long distance fee. I have no clue what's up with that. I would imagine most folks would have less fees and taxes than I have since I live in Maryland.
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This is why many with a landline use the LD on their cell phones and remove LD access from their landlines. The surcharges and misc. fees really add up. I think 2.99 is low - my LD bill would be 4.99 with no LD calls.
Your landline plan is a good way to go when you have a cell phone to make most of your calls.
Damn! I'd like that option.
The closest I can get to it is still a basic charge of almost $30 total and 10 cents a minute LD.
Can't do without the landline because it's required in order to get the internet.
The thrill of rural living and no competition.
The only problem with my basic (no LD) landline service is that b/c there is no restriction at all on incoming calls, I get numerous commercial calls during the day, usually recorded. So I simply keep the phone unplugged unless I've prearranged (via my cell) with a LD caller, say my West Coast relatives, to call me on the landline at which time I plug it in. We can talk as long as we want and I do not pay for that incoming call. Cell phone use has its hazards, so I try to limit it.
Here's some advice you may not want to hear. If available, consider getting a real landline. According to Charter's website, even the "landline's" optional backup battery is only good for up to 8 hours on standby.
My father has lost his electricity for 4 or 5 days and even with a backup generator, there's still the issue that cell phone service does not accurately identify the location of the caller. If he has a medical emergency, I'm not confident that he would be able to give his location to the 911 operator.
Although our phone company does not advertise the "dial tone" plan, I was able to purchase this option for my own home. Although the monthly fees are higher than the cost of the plan itself, the total cost is about $20/month and is well worth it.
We had dinner last night with 3 couples from our neighborhood. I asked them about power outages. Power does go out several times during the winter-- but in the past 3 or 4 years it has only been for a matter of hours--not days. Hopefully this will be our experience also.
Advice we don't want to hear right here on City-Data
If we have been around a while on City-Data, it is likely we've received some advice we didn't want to hear. The friendly and well-meaning kind is welcome, at least to me, but the personal attacks masquerading as advice are usually irritating. "Did you forget to take your meds?" is a crude example (clearly against the TOS) which I've never received but which I've seen given to a few others.
Here is one which I did receive: to devote more time and energy to making myself "a decent member of society". Yes, that was the attack-mode, troll type advice, as the poster who gave it to me knew nothing about any of the following:
-- Whether I am a helpful sort vis a vis my neighbors.
-- Whether I am considerate of my neighbors, such as not making noise at night.
-- Whether I engage in charitable giving, and to what extent.
-- Whether I am careful to avoid littering, and whether I pick up litter I come across.
-- Whether I seek out ways to help others directly, in addition to charitable giving.
-- Whether I take time out to call 911 if I ever see someone in distress, and stand by until EMS arrives.
--Whether I am courteous to waitresses, cashiers, clerks, and other service personnel.
I am not trying to brag; I sincerely believe that the vast majority (if not all!) of you posters in this Retirement Forum are "decent members of society" in all the ways I listed above. I am certainly not better than any of the rest of you in that regard.
But my point is that the troll advice did sting, as it was designed to.
Such as how (or where) to live? Are your family or friends too opinionated (toward you) as far as you're concerned? Do you just turn a deaf ear, or do their comments get to you?
(I will disclose why I ask later)
If they do, and they rarely do, it goes in one ear and out the other almost as soon as it's said. I'm not offended. I just don't do it.
I've pretty much established all of my life that I do what I want so they are not surprised or perturbed if I tune them out and do what I want. I'm not, however, afraid to ask for advice when I'm in unchartered waters. It's usually more of a "how do I" technical request for advice than a "what should I do?" emotional/social one. People like to share their expertise/knowledge, I think, and I appreciate that when I need it.
Just did a quick check of Verizon (which is the only landline company here) landline options:
"Sensible Minute": $2.99 per month, plus 11 cents per minute for all direct-dialed local calls. No long distance. I'm not sure how restricted the "local" is; maybe just within your very immediate area (as in, same first 3 digits of phone number)?
"Unlimited Local": $24.95 per month includes unlimited local calls within your "local region". Unfortunately this region is fairly small; for instance, Long Island is broken into 3 separate regions (Nassau County, Western Suffolk County, and Eastern Suffolk County). So if someone lives in Western Suffolk and has family in Nassau which is less than 20 miles away, those calls would not be in the "local region". No mention of what happens if you try to call outside your region, either about per minute charges or maybe it won't go through at all? No long distance.
"Message Rate Service": $15.80 per month for dial-tone service, plus 9 cents per minute for calls within your own HOme Region only. No mention of what happens if you try to call outside of it. No long distance.
Plus all the taxes and fees added to those amounts, naturally! Which I'm sure would add another $3-$4 to the service charge.
What I can't figure out is why anyone would prefer the Message Rate service over the Sensible Minute service... assuming they don't intend to ever use it for anything other than dialing 911.
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thanks
If available, consider getting a real landline. According to Charter's website, even the "landline's" optional backup battery is only good for up to 8 hours on standby.
--not days. Hopefully this will be our experience also.
