For years now, even before remote work became all the rage, folks have chosen to use their mobile phones instead of landlines both at home and at work. That tendency continues as more and more workers return to the office. Coupled with other trends, such as conferencing (Zoom, Teams) and opting for texting and email over voice calls, landline use is down. Is it time to finally cancel that service and save some kala?
For years the benefit of a landline was reliability. In terms of call quality, while mobile phones have continued to improve, landlines still cannot be beaten on a day-in, day-out basis. There are still dead spots for mobile phones. So if your home or office is in a dead spot, you already know that and should stick with your landline.
The other reliability factor is power. Old-school landlines, or those that can work by simply plugging into a jack, don’t require power. But if you have a phone system in your office or get your phone service through a cable modem or other similar equipment, then your phone service is dependent on
electricity. Answering machines, cordless phones and other equipment are also electricity-dependent, reducing their ability to remain usable through a power outage.
Having considered all of that, do you still want to sever the landline? Or are you worried that businesses, government agencies or even friends and family still have your landline number as the primary method of contact? After all, most folks who have a landline have had it for a number of years. If that’s the case, consider porting the number, at least temporarily until you’ve figured out a permanent solution. Porting is the act of transferring your phone number to a different service, and the ability to port has been mandated by law for more than two decades.
VoIP (voice over internet protocol) service is a good alternative. These services depend on the internet to work, so this makes financial sense only if you already have decent internet service. On the mainland this could be as easy as porting your number over to Google Voice, which is free. Unfortunately, Google Voice does not support 808 phone numbers. But services such as Ooma, MagicJack, Vonage and others allow Hawaii-based numbers. These aren’t free; some require a one-time purchase of hardware, which costs less over time compared with traditional landline service. Others have a monthly fee that is significantly cheaper than most, if not all, landlines.
If you don’t like depending on the internet for your phone service, you might also consider porting your number over to a prepaid, or “pay as go” mobile phone service, such as Tracfone or Mint Mobile. Even the big carriers have prepaid plans, which are great if you expect to use your phone only sporadically. It is possible to use a prepaid plan on an eSIM so you don’t need to buy a new phone, but this capability varies from provider to provider and phone to phone. Inexpensive phones can be purchased from the provider; a refurbished, bare-bones device can sometimes cost less than $20.
If you run a business or government agency, porting over a landline-based phone system to a VoIP-based system can be a bit more complicated, especially if you have several numbers and lines. But you won’t necessarily need to get new phones. Most of the big VoIP systems have apps that run on Android and Apple IOS. The apps are fairly robust, allowing the caller ID to be the organization’s number (as opposed the device number) and support texting, voicemail retrieval, setting of “do not disturb,” etc. Most providers support Hawaii-based phone numbers,
including the big boys RingCentral and 8×8.
Similar to VoIP service for individuals, businesses and agencies are completely dependent on the internet for their phones. Consider whether to beef up your internet infrastructure. VoIP doesn’t use much bandwidth, but some type of backup circuit might be in order.
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John Agsalud is an information technology expert with more than 25 years of IT experience in Hawaii and around the world. He can be reached at jagsalud@live.com.
John Agsalud is an information technology expert with more than 25 years of IT experience in Hawaii and around the world. He can be reached at jagsalud@live.com.
