If I only had $120 a month

Phones are such an antiquated technology.  We still have a landline and cell phones.  They just seem old fashioned.  If I'm driving, training, or sleeping I won't talk on the phone.  Every other minute of the day I'm either sitting with a laptop in front of me or I don't want to be disturbed (eating, using the bathroom, etc) so it would be a bad time to take a call.  In fact, it's always a bad time to take a call.  I average 17 minutes a month on the cell phone.    Kelley uses her cell more than I do, but she only averages 112 minutes a month on her phone.  Who knows how often we use the landline.

It seems silly to me to pay $40 a month for the landline, and $93 a month for the cell phones.  Verizon is offering a free iPhone4 as an upgrade, but all smartphones require a data plan and I'm not willing to pay for a data plan.  Yes I still use a flip phone that doesn't even have a querty keyboard. I still have to hit the number 2 three times to send you the letter "c" in a text message.  Taking the free upgrade to the iPhone4 would raise my bill to $120 a month before taxes.  Suddenly it doesn't seem so free.  And there are no free upgrades to any non-smart phones.  Guess I'll have to keep my little flip phone for as long as it will last.

But what if we got rid of them?  Phones are a voice only numeric medium over copper lines in the ground.  Who needs a phone number?  If I didn't have a phone number, landline or cell phone, then you could only contact me through email, facebook, twitter, skype, or any other type of synchronous or asyc technology. 

Voice only is a crappy medium.  You can't see facial expresions, but can detect tone and inflection.  Video chat is readily available from any number of devices.  Telemarketers can't call me on skype.  Wifi is everywhere now.  Limiting the number of people that can engage me in conversation has its perks.

I went without a cell phone for most of 2008 and 2009, only getting a phone when I took the job in Raleigh because I would be away from Kelley and the kids during the week for a few months, and making the 4 hour drive every friday and sunday.  Now it's $93 a month for 17 minutes of talking.  But don't you need a cell phone for emergencies?  17 minutes a month says no.  Plus I can take off at any time and run 20 miles in any direction to get to someone else's phone or landline if I need to call for emergency help. 

And I'm sure there's a Magic Jack app or something like that to turn a regular iPod touch into a talkie or textie.  What's the ROI on something like that?  I bet I could pay for an iPad and put skype on it for the cost of only a few month's worth of phone service.  And if I want to talk to someone I would like to see them too.  Face contact can be very important.  And skype also has a chat feature that could easily replace texting.  So other devices that can connect to wifi can do anything that a phone can do without having to pay a monthly fee, and wifi is everywhere now.

So really it's only inconvenient for other people.  Most people would think I'm crazy to get rid of voice/talk/text entirely, and would have to remember a better way to get in touch with me instead of just using the number saved into their cell phone.

The disclaimer is that I work in technology.  I am a software developer for a mortgage servicing company that is in a division of a very large and recognizable technology company.  I build web sites, MVC sites, console apps and databases in the Microsoft stack (C# and SQL Server).  I started building apps for windows phones back in 2004, and never got into the languages used for android or iPhone development.  I have "handled" some iPhone and Android apps in the past and will eventually learn more about the development of those apps. I haven't had to make the leap yet.

With the payroll taxes going up this month (FICA tax back to 6.2%?) we've had to scale back our monthly expenses, and that had me looking into the cell phone bill.  Our DirecTV bill was also $120 a month so we slashed it pretty good already.  Now I'm starting to look into killing directv entirely and just using a pc connected to the internet with a broadcast antennae for the local stations and hulu/netflix/whatever for what little tv we watch anyway.  Sports seems to be the only thing missing from the equation with limited access to the ESPN app or ESPN3.

Ultimately, the kids have an easy time using the landline and we can't have kids in the house without being able to call 911 somehow so we can't destroy phones entirely.  So we're not going to end up changing anything.  But it would be nice to get into something not publicly available as a phone number.

Would you ever consider dropping a primary service entirely like phone or tv service?