Do what a friend did with an old Dial Phone, he converted it to being a Cell phone, you can even find plans online to do it too. The only thing it doesn’t have is a dial tone…
One of the things that did in land lines was the explosion of telemarketers, solicitors, and just plain scammers. I once got a call from a solicitor and pledged $15 to just get rid of him. BIG MISTAKE! Finally, even got a call from someone wanting me to support a donkey basket-ball team in Colorado! Moved shortly after, but made the mistake of leaving a forwarding number for friends and relatives. Another big mistake – from 9am on one call after another! Finally driven to a cell phone with caller ID. If unknown number and no voice message, I don’t respond. (Upon checking on some of these solicitors – found they were soliciting state-wide or further for benefits for only one county!)
Pay phone gouging also drove people to cell phones. I was a Lambert (St. Louis) one time and wanted to call home (120 miles) and told the toll would be about $4. So, drove to a suburban mall on the way home and made the same call for 50c. Wasn’t it frequent travelers that first started the wave to cell?
Cell service is spotty where I live, and VOIP service through the cable company is a joke. Thus, you have to keep a landline where I live. The one thing about smartphones is that there are lots of apps (including one through my carrier) that blocks most spam/robocall/PAC/Charity/Medicare Supplement/Illegal Scam calls. The landline supposedly has a “call blocking” function, but the autodialers use a new number every time they call, so that’s a waste of time. Heck, they’ve even called me using not only the numbers of friends and neighbors, but also my own! We get a lot of them supposedly from very small towns. This SHOULD be a major problem. This will create headaches for area code, “switchboard codes” (the middle three “town” numbers as I call them), and just general number allotments. For my area, the area code that’s been in use for about 20 years isn’t supposed to run out until 2050. At the rate these telemarketers are coming up with new fake numbers, lucky if it lasts 5 years.
PS: If you ever get a call from a “Keystone Law Firm” out of PA mentioning a bad debt—ignore it, it’s a scam. If they get to constantly harassing you—call the BBB and a lawyer. I did a lot of Googling, and discovered that A: legally they are not a law firm, and B: due to their often harassing (and bordering on fraudulent) behavior, they have been sued about two dozen times by individuals all over the US—at least.
Templo S.U.D. over 7 years ago
touché, Garfield
codycab over 7 years ago
How is it that Jon forgets about this old phone, yet he can remember a lot about his days on the farm???
Kaputnik over 7 years ago
Well Jon, hadn’t you noticed that you pay a bill every month to keep this phone active?
Quantum Leaper over 7 years ago
Do what a friend did with an old Dial Phone, he converted it to being a Cell phone, you can even find plans online to do it too. The only thing it doesn’t have is a dial tone…
Gent over 7 years ago
It was used to make crank calls too…
William Pursell over 7 years ago
Aye Garf,that’s true except for ,in Jon’s case,the other side of the conversation was usually a NO!,unless he was ordering pizza.
RonnieAThompson Premium Member over 7 years ago
Garfield wins again!
SheMc over 7 years ago
Bet you are still paying the connection fee!!!
tuslog1964 over 7 years ago
One of the things that did in land lines was the explosion of telemarketers, solicitors, and just plain scammers. I once got a call from a solicitor and pledged $15 to just get rid of him. BIG MISTAKE! Finally, even got a call from someone wanting me to support a donkey basket-ball team in Colorado! Moved shortly after, but made the mistake of leaving a forwarding number for friends and relatives. Another big mistake – from 9am on one call after another! Finally driven to a cell phone with caller ID. If unknown number and no voice message, I don’t respond. (Upon checking on some of these solicitors – found they were soliciting state-wide or further for benefits for only one county!)
tuslog1964 over 7 years ago
Pay phone gouging also drove people to cell phones. I was a Lambert (St. Louis) one time and wanted to call home (120 miles) and told the toll would be about $4. So, drove to a suburban mall on the way home and made the same call for 50c. Wasn’t it frequent travelers that first started the wave to cell?
Number Three over 7 years ago
Wow. Really?
xxx
CodySheets over 3 years ago
Cell service is spotty where I live, and VOIP service through the cable company is a joke. Thus, you have to keep a landline where I live. The one thing about smartphones is that there are lots of apps (including one through my carrier) that blocks most spam/robocall/PAC/Charity/Medicare Supplement/Illegal Scam calls. The landline supposedly has a “call blocking” function, but the autodialers use a new number every time they call, so that’s a waste of time. Heck, they’ve even called me using not only the numbers of friends and neighbors, but also my own! We get a lot of them supposedly from very small towns. This SHOULD be a major problem. This will create headaches for area code, “switchboard codes” (the middle three “town” numbers as I call them), and just general number allotments. For my area, the area code that’s been in use for about 20 years isn’t supposed to run out until 2050. At the rate these telemarketers are coming up with new fake numbers, lucky if it lasts 5 years.
PS: If you ever get a call from a “Keystone Law Firm” out of PA mentioning a bad debt—ignore it, it’s a scam. If they get to constantly harassing you—call the BBB and a lawyer. I did a lot of Googling, and discovered that A: legally they are not a law firm, and B: due to their often harassing (and bordering on fraudulent) behavior, they have been sued about two dozen times by individuals all over the US—at least.