Wireless or Landline, interesting study

Oklahoma Leads in Wireless-Only Households - Wireless-Only Growing On Map

Boy, have I been waiting 10 years for this lovely headline!!! Yes, it is lovely. I tried, as have many Oklahomans, to support the local phone companies. Unfortunately, many in real states don't understand what is happening here. You see, it cost me $25 to have my landline, monthly. Then, if I wanted to use my landline I could either pay another $30 for instate calls, or I could pay by phone call for long distance charges. You wonder what the big deal is? Many people incur long distance charges and don't mind. Well, do you incur long distance charges to call your nearest neighbor? Your child's school? You spouse's workplace? The local hospital? The local WalMart, grocery store, post office, etc? Yes, I am being serious. You can call one exchange for free, and in rural Oklahoma that means absolutely nothing, since the local exchange may or may not contain your emergency services, schools or even post office. I complained. I wrote my representatives, the Corporation Commission, all those people. Their response was always, "Your local telephone company has the lowest base charges in the nation, you should be very proud of them." Oh, yes, I bowed to the phone in worship every time I passed it. I bought a calling card and dialed a zillion numbers every time I made a call, even put the numbers in speed dial, to try to save a few pennies and be able to use that cheap phone.

Finally, one day, when I was more than usually frustrated with having to pay $25 to look at the phone and another $25 a month for internet dial-up because I couldn't call any of the free or cheap internet service numbers for free (long distance charges for any but the local phone company's internet service), it struck me. How about I check into cell service and satellite internet. So, I did. Well, a bit of number crunching led me to realize I could have phones with all of us anywhere for one price, high-speed internet service, and call anyone I want any time, while limiting access to us by those bothersome telemarketers for the SAME price I was paying for slow internet and the right to only look at the phone. YEAH!

So, that is what we did. We became one of the 1 in 4 households in Oklahoma who stopped using a landline, much to the dismay of our local phone company. See, they gave me the idea really. I was just a bit dense. I'd been receiving letters from them for months telling me not to give up my landline for a cell phone and listing all the reasons I shouldn't. You know, all those reasons were from the perspective that the landline was any use at all - that I could use it for that $25 flat fee. I don't know what planet the person writing those letters was from, but they obviously had never had to try to use the local phone service to call anyone or they would have known it cost them per call, just as they said cell phone service would. They talked about not being able to access 911, but our county was one of the first in the state to have cell coverage for 911. They talked about dropped signals, but the company I chose has amazing coverage that never drops a call if you know which phone to buy. They talked about how it would cost me to call long-distance - HUH? Cell phone plans include free long distance. So, they had me convinced. I dropped the landline.

Now, I'm gratified to see all the begging and pleading in the world has not overcome common sense. In our adventure in lifestyle, rural community living, one modern convenience is still heads and shoulders above the old way. So, if I call you from the wood shed, or chicken coop, or while I'm curled up warming myself by the wood cook stove, know that this adventure includes common sense not just hard work.