I have not been the owner of what’s known as a “land line” for exactly 1.5 years. When I left Olympia for New York summer of 2001, I was armed only with my trusty cell phone, and it’s stayed that way since. There are advantages of living this way, and a few tricky lessons I’ve learned. Read on.

Bonus of cell-only living: Virtually no telemarketing!
Since my number isn’t listed anywhere, I’ve received perhaps three telemarketing calls in the last year. All of these were from my cellular providers (Sprint and AT&T).

Shortcoming: Customer service calls are a bitch.
It doesn’t matter if it’s an 800 number. If I have to call during the day, and I’m on hold for 20 minutes, there go 20 of my precious daytime minutes. And yes: those daytime minutes are precious.

Lesson: Do not be a victim to the ring.
I treat my cell like a home phone, which means I don’t always answer it — especially not when I’m visiting with friends. I’ve often talked to people who whine, “I hate having a cell! It’s always ringing and interrupting me!” To them I say, “Well then, shut the fucking thing off and your callers will figure out that you will call them back later.” Since my cell is my only phone, I’ve never let myself understand the whole victim of the ringing thing.

Advantage: Long distance is included!
This makes for tremendous value, considering that phone, voicemail, and long distance on a land line always added up to much more than the $45 I pay now.

Lesson: Talk to your friends in the evening and weekends.
Simple as that.

Advantage: With no home line, the only choice is to have a broadband connection!
Perhaps I’m fooling myself here, but dial-up simply is not an option. Cable modems are fast, furious, and relatively cheap ($35/mo). This should probably be a caveat, actually: I do much of my communicating via e-mail…so it’s relatively easy for me not to be on the phone all day long.

Advantage: I am no longer a secretary!
When Andreas and I shared a land line, I was often his secretary, answering questions about where he was, when he’d return, if I knew what audio sample he was planning on dropping into that song, etc. Now people trying to reach Andreas call his cell. If he’s hard to reach, it’s his problem.