I actually *had* ditched a landline for my cell, but I found myself going over my 500 minutes a month way too often, and I can’t wait for 7pm PDT (nighttime minutes) to call the east coast.

Over in the FriendFeed discussion of this post, @nor posted a link to this age-based chart showing a breakdown of phone use by age group for single-person households. Among 25-34 year olds, looks like more than 40% are cell phone-only households.

I’ve never had this problem. Generally they can’t tell the difference, and when they ask for a home number I give the cell number. If they ask if I have a non-cell number, and say “no”, I’ve never been denied business. It’s getting common enough that most people don’t blink anymore.

Do it – do it – do it!

I’ve not had a landline since 1999. The only time I’ve missed it is when the internet has gone down, and I don’t even have a dialup alternative.

Now, I don’t have a family, so I can’t comment on some of the bigger downsides, but I have a feeling that cell phones will be so ubiquitous (more than they already are) by the time that Sammy and Sophie get old enough to ‘receive calls’ that they’ll have their own phones, it’ll just be ‘how it’s done’, not just for those who are spoiled rotten! And before they have their phones, family might have to call one parent, then the other, to get ahold of the kids.

I would highly recommend doing it, but only if you have good cellphone coverage in most areas in your house.

justin

Btw, as long as you have a phone plugged into the wall you can dial 911. Even without service. So it’s always good to have a noncordless phone around in case of power outages.

=)