Replies

1. 
   bobguindon | Jul 16, 2009 06:07am | #1

   You might consider a toll-free number, pointed to your cell  or home phone.  Most of my established customers call my cell phone directly.  A few months ago, I decided to drop my last business line (at one time I had 4 lines plus a dedicated fax line), but kept the toll-free number.

   I transferred the toll-free number to Kall8 (http://www.kall8.com), a company that provides redirection services for toll-free numbers.  Their service also includes incoming fax reception and voice mail.  You can also use their web interface to change where the toll-free number points.  They have an optional feature that allows calls to your toll-free number to be announced to you when you answer the phone.  This way, you can answer the phone with your business name, even if the toll-free number is pointed at your home phone.

   The only negative aspect of a toll-free number is that it may not convey the 'local' nature of your business.  For me though, it works well.

   Bob

   
   

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   Edited 7/15/2009 11:08 pm ET by bobguindon

1. 
   gfretwell | Jul 16, 2009 06:48am | #4

   I keep a land line and also a dial up. All of this modern stuff is great when it works but broadband and cell service is still a shaky thing. I don't like having to go out on the front porch in the rain to make a call. My DSL is still down occasionally but not near as bad as Comcast that had an outage several times a week and was down at least a week after every named storm. Nextel was down for a day after Charlie.
   I have never lost my POTS phone. After Charlie I was sitting here in the dark, reading my Email on dial up, off of an inverter in my car.

2. 
   alwaysoverbudget | Jul 16, 2009 06:26am | #2

   at one time if you gave me a number,i could tell if it was a cell,theres so many now who knows.

   if you have a landline # you can transfer it to a cell now.

   i have a landline,for 2 reasons. one i use dsl for computer other is it is on call forwarding all the time to my cell phone. i haven't talked on my phone for 5 yrs or so.i am on a unlimted cell plan though.

   what i spend in phones now ,would make my first house payment for 2.5 months,it's crazy to be in touch this much.

   the older i get ,

   the more people tick me off

1. 
   skip555 | Jul 16, 2009 06:45am | #3

   we dropped the home land line about 6 months ago and rely on cell and magic jack I'm going to port my business line over to a cell when I get the chance look into Google voice , we have had a couple of lines we use for incoming and they work well http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

1. 
   seeyou | Jul 16, 2009 05:56pm | #6

   Have you actually got GV at this time or are you waiting still?http://www.quittintime.com/      View Image     

1. 
   skip555 | Jul 16, 2009 06:14pm | #7

   Ive had GV for a few years since it was Grand central we have two numbers one for me one for Wifey

2. 
   BillHartmann | Jul 16, 2009 03:13pm | #5

   SWB now offers dry DSL. Have not followed the price, but at the time it came out you did not save that much.But you can convert it to measured service. But you probably can't get call forwarding on it.And unless you have given out both the landline and cell number to a lot of people you could get a 2nd line with new number and move the DSL to that, then port the old number to the cell phone.And even if you don't get the measured calling plan you can get rid of the call forwarding feature which cost a lot.And if you have to keep both the cell & landline number. I am sure that there is a 3rd part phone company that can handle that. And since they don't have to "maintain" (acutally pay bell to) the wire it could be fairly inexpensive..
   William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe

3. 
   SamT | Aug 13, 2009 06:58am | #8

   http://www.tamingthebeast.net/blog/web-development/dialup-statistics-0308.htm

   SamT