Thursday, February 10, 2011

Using A Cell Phone Instead Of Land Phones




I have started using a TracFone and I am not adept at using it quite yet, but will get the hang of it before long. My husband has been using mine too, when either of us go anywhere. He is researching what type of cell phone he wants because he needs to have mobile access to the internet. Since he has been designing the mobile capabilities for our website he wants to learn all he can about the user's end. After he gets his cell phone and I master using mine, we are planning on getting rid of our land phone. What is the sense of that expense? Our telephone company, Frontier will not bring DSL to our road even though the whole world seems to have it. They don't even offer dial-up service anymore, but we are probably one of their last dial-up customers left here in Chenango county. I have begged. I have written to the CEO of their company. I even believed President Obama when he said he'd make sure all rural areas would have DSL if he got elected. None of it did any good. Of course, I should have known better about the hopeful President's promise! 

Since we have the satellite for our internet now, it is time to get rid of the dial-up and the land phone. That way I figure, no one can call me unless I have given them my phone number. I know having a business might make that a little difficult. But I prefer to work with email anyway. That will cut our bills down by over fifty dollars a month. What a savings that will! 

So today, I am trying to change my email addresses at some places. The ones I am most afraid of changing are Paypal, Google and Amazon. I am changing them little by little. No drastic change all at once. I have had this same email address for years, since 2001 or before. So off I am to set up a special one on my business site for my personal emails. Maybe this way I can separate my business from my personal business. 

Hope you have a great homesteading day and enjoy the sunshine that we are FINALLY getting here today! Hear we are headed for the coldest day of the year tonight or tomorrow.......let's hope, not both.







Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011  Kathleen G. Lupole

5 comments:

Carolyn said...

Which satellite internet provided do you have & are you happy with them? We've been trying to find a company that will provide us with cable but no one comes "all the way down here" - even though we are only 1.5 miles from the highway & others just up the road have it (1/2 mile away). We pay over $60 a month for a land line/internet. We don't use the land line so basically we're spending $60 on crappy internet access.

Any suggestions?

Paula said...

Oh Kat, I can relate so much. Even Skip is upset. We are used to have any kind of service on a reliable way available to us. The cellphones often have a bad quality in coverage. The internet service is extremely expensive and get interrupted ever so often and we dont live rural!!!! That are for sure points we both miss from Europe

katlupe said...

Carolyn Renee,

We use hughes.net and I wouldn't say we are totally thrilled with them. They provide us with what we need. But in the beginning my husband signed up for a $59. monthly service and when the bill came they had upgraded us to $81.! Just try to talk to their customer service! Not good so we have just settled in with it the way it is because we NEED it. The other issue is in order to view videos or download anything, you have to do it between 2:00 AM and 7:00 AM. If not, you will pay for it for the next 24 hours by being on VERY S L O W service!!!

katlupe said...

Paula,

As bad as the satellite service is I can honestly say our's has never been out more that a few minutes at a time. Sometimes it has to do with getting the snow off the dish. Other than that the internet is usually working. I hate though that I cannot view the videos as that is what everyone is posting now. In the summer I will have to play catch up. I wanted to watch Jamie's spots on the news!

Bev said...

We got rid of our landline a few months ago too and now only use our tracfones for making and receiving phone calls. So far it has worked pretty good. The hardest thing for me was knowing that we are no longer listed in the phone book.

You might want to try doing an internet search for "tracfone promotional codes" or something like that. Last time I did that I was able to find a code so I could get 60 bonus minutes. Every little bit helps.