Cell Phone -or- Landline 4 Your Biz ???

[Agent4Life]

Hi Everybody,

I'm curious as to how many Agents have dropped their landlines and are using a cell phone exclusively as their business line ???

I am "considering" dropping the 3 landlines I currently have in my home office to streamline my operations. We have a line in the house for the family to use for personal, non-biz related phone calls, and then I have a dedicated phone line just for my Insurance Business, and another dedicated line just for the fax machine. I've got a cell phone {that I usually have the biz landline forward to when I'm not in the office}, and then my husband and daughter also have cell phones. On top of that, we have a "wired" internet service for the household, and then I've got a seperate "wireless" PC Card that I use when I am away from the office. So...with the price of gas, food, and it seems like "every little thing" going up, I'm really trying to look for ways to cut some costs out of my personal and business expenses because it seems like we are spending an awful lot of money on just phone lines and internet service.

I've been pondering this for a while, and I'm thinking that I could drop all of the landlines and the wired internet service and:
1) Get a PALM or Blackberry Phone that I could use as my official business line in my home office as well as in the field when I'm out conducting business away from the office {assuming that I can maintain good phone call quality while conducting business from my home office}
2) Add 3 additional phone lines to the same wireless plan so that everybody in the family still has a phone to use for their personal non-biz related phone calling {I think you can get a bundled package of 4 lines and 4000 shared minutes for about $149.00}
3) Drop the wired internet service and just use the PC Cards which will only slighly increase the "bundled" price mentioned above
4) Get an eFax service for my faxing needs at $4.95/mo

So what do you'all think ??? Is anyone else out there doing business this way ??? What about VOIP ? I also gave that some consideration, but I've heard that the call quality is not that great or consistant, plus there is sometimes a delay or lag as the communication travels over the internet.

 

[somarco]

First thing I would do is ditch the fax line. Services like eFax or MaxEmail are lower cost alternatives. I dropped my dedicated fax line years ago in favor of MaxEmail.

I still have a fax machine, connected to my office land line, for times when I need to fax something out.

I have looked at the package plans (DSL + phone) but haven't bit the bullet yet. Folks I know who have Comcast phone & DSL are SOL when the DSL goes dead.

I have DSL thru Bellsouth (now AT&T) and POTS. There are times when I cannot access the internet but my phone still works.

You won't get that with the combo plans thru your cable provider.

I also have the AT&T voice mail service. Works even when the phone line (or power) goes out.

There are advantages to ditching the landline altogether but I have not made that jump yet. There are places in my home where my cell phone loses the signal or starts to break up. Also, my business model does not require me to be tethered to the phone, so having mobile only is not an option.

I also use a wired headset (with a wireless backup) for clear quality. I would not be able to have the same with a totally wireless set up, including mobile with Bluetooth.

If you do decide to go wireless, consider flat rate plans (if available in your area). Metro PCS has unlimited local & long distance for $40 per month. In some areas you can get similar deals from Virgin or Cricket.

 

[djs]

Bottom line to me is that call quality on a wired line is much better than call quality on a cell phone. I'll pay the bit extra for the better sound. In a phone business, this makes sense to me.

Now, I do P&C, I'm on the phone about 27 hours a day. I'm a bit of a stickler on sound quality, so this is somewhat a personal thing, but if you think about it, you know when someone calls you on a cell phone vs when someone calls you from a landline. It's not the difference it used to be, but it is still very real.

My internet hasn't gone down in 10 years, I'm not to worried about that. A good voip line (such as comcast or vonage) with solid internet service can save you some money over AT&T, and still deliver good quality sound (sometimes better than AT&T). If it's not setup right, this will sound like garbage though.

I talk on the phone more than you. 4000 minutes might make it for me alone for the month, never would make it for the family and me, if we lost the landline.

If I could talk my wife into it, we would drop the landline for the house. Useless. I dropped my fax line sometime ago, I still do a lot of outbound faxing, using myfax, which gives me a papertrail of the faxes as well, and is cheaper than a fax line.

I'd keep the wired line for the office.

Dan

 

[joshril]

Definitely ditch the fax line!

Most cell phone carriers offer an unlimited plan if you want to go the cell phone route. You could also use voip phone lines. I have 2 land lines that cost only $24.99/mo each with Vonage. I'm very pleased with them thus far.

 

[tryan326]

I have 2 land lines that cost only $24.99/mo each with Vonage. I'm very pleased with them thus far.

Is the voice quality the same as a standard line?

 

[Agent4Life]

I thought that Vonage was wireless VOIP - which means that the voice quality would be similar to what you would get on a cell phone... Is that correct ??? If so, why not just use a cell phone ??? {NOTE: I'm really not very familiar with Vonage or VOIP - so please clarify if I have it all wrong (and please excuse my ignorance - I'm just not very familiar with how either of those technologies work)}.

 

[Expat]

Is the voice quality the same as a standard line?[/quote

I have vonage and the quality is exactly the same as an AT&T land line.
However you need a good internet provider and must leave the modem on, otherwise you lose your phone service and all calls go the voice mail.
Also if your internet service goes down, calls are automatically routed to your cell phone (assuming you set vonage up for this)
I used to have AT&T with a business phone number and also their internet service. With voice mail etc the cost was $176 per month.
Now Time Warner cable = $39 month and vonage is $30 (including tax)...Big savings, same service.
I use "My Fax" ($10 per month) which allows me to receive faxes and to send faxes (In any format) via email.

 

[Dave020]

First thing I would do is ditch the fax line. Services like eFax or MaxEmail are lower cost alternatives. I dropped my dedicated fax line years ago in favor of MaxEmail.

I use e-fax, works great and runs about $17 a month with unlimited free incoming faxes

I still have a fax machine, connected to my office land line, for times when I need to fax something out.

So far we are exactly the same...kind of spooky Bob!

I have looked at the package plans (DSL + phone) but haven't bit the bullet yet. Folks I know who have Comcast phone & DSL are SOL when the DSL goes dead.

I have DSL thru Bellsouth (now AT&T) and POTS. There are times when I cannot access the internet but my phone still works.

I have it set up with Verizon (our local provider here) for landline and attached DSL. So far 2 years no problems at all.

There are advantages to ditching the landline altogether but I have not made that jump yet. There are places in my home where my cell phone loses the signal or starts to break up. Also, my business model does not require me to be tethered to the phone, so having mobile only is not an option.

I also use a wired headset (with a wireless backup) for clear quality. I would not be able to have the same with a totally wireless set up, including mobile with Bluetooth.

If you do decide to go wireless, consider flat rate plans (if available in your area). Metro PCS has unlimited local & long distance for $40 per month. In some areas you can get similar deals from Virgin or Cricket.

Same here, headset to landline, best quality for talking. My cell has problems in the house as well, so it makes a very bad business phone.

What a lot of people do is have the landline as the main office phone and forward to the cell phone when they are out and about.

I just feel that cell phones, while great, sound like cell phones and I can always tell when someone calls me from a cell phone. I would think anyone trying to do business with me that way, I would find someone else. Same for people who insist on talking on speakerphone.

 

[Guest]

Try ring central, an 800 # VOIP with faxing right from the laptop, will forward to about ten numbers if necessary, also plays music on hold, can add a nice big company sound to an indie agent or small agency. I've had several agents ask "what is that?"

 

[somarco]

I'm on the phone about 27 hours a day

My guess is you are one of those guys who also gives 110%.

You guys amaze me.

I like to sleep once in a while.

And fool around with the wife.

kind of spooky Bob

Who are you calling spooky Bob?

I am Krusty Bob.

Spooky was George Gobel's wife.